Permanent Representative of Bangladesh to the United Nations ambassador Rabab Fatima has been unanimously elected as the president of the UN Women Executive Board for the year 2022.
The virtual election of the 5-member bureau was held on Tuesday (11 January) in New York, which also elected the Permanent Representatives of Argentina, Ukraine, Iceland and Sierra Leone as the vice presidents.
Bangladesh has for the first time taken over the chairmanship of the UN Women Executive Board through this election. The Executive Board provides strategic guidance to UN Women. This UN body is dedicated to gender equality and women's empowerment.
Ambassador Fatima earlier served as President of the Executive Board of UNICEF in 2020 and Vice President of the Executive Board of UNDP / UNFPA / UNOPS in 2021.
In 2022, she will co-chair the Executive Board with Ambassadors Kyslytsya of Ukraine and Valtsson of Iceland.
Ambassador Rabab Fatima expressed her thanks and willingness to continue the wonderful job in line with UN Women’s mandate on her Instagram account.
"We do not have time to delay one moment. We must ensure that gender equality is ensured in the Covid-19 damage recovery plan and that all stakeholders, including the public, private sector and NGOs, work together to implement it. We also need to provide UN Women with the necessary direction and resources so that it can continue to be at the forefront of all such efforts,”
Fatima also assured that the new Executive Board is committed to working hard to further the work of UN Women at this challenging time.
