On 29 June, the UNDP “Women in Politics, Public Administration and Civil Society” project, funded by the UK Good Governance Fund, and implemented in partnership with the RA Ministry of Territorial Administration and Infrastructure and OxYGen Foundation, organized the ThinkEQUAL: Women in Diplomacy, Security & Peace conversation to celebrate women’s role in diplomacy, acknowledge continuous work of women as career diplomats, specifically marking their contribution to security and peace at all levels. 

The event is organized to mark the “International Day of Women in Diplomacy”, which was officially declared at the 76th Session of UN General Assembly on June 20, 2022, by the resolution (A/RES/76/269) Republic of Armenia has co-sponsored the resolution. 

Natia Natsvlishvili, UNDP Resident Representative in Armenia, Paul Morris, Deputy Head of Mission of the UK Embassy in Armenia, Marta Ayvazyan, Advisor to RA Minister of Foreign Affairs, welcomed the event participants.

In her speech, Natia Natsvlishvili noted that increasing peace responsiveness and resilience in the communities with extensive engagement of women and youth is one of the UNDP priorities. “We stand ready to continue our support to the Government of Armenia in building resilient and sustainable communities where residents feel safe, secure, heard and engaged, as well as having a more gender-balanced public administration system, as one of the priorities outlined in the recently adopted Public Administration Reform Strategy,” said UNDP Resident Representative.

The speakers of panel discussion were Ambassador Andrea Wiktorin, Head of the EU Delegation to Armenia, Anna Aghadjanian, Ambassador of Armenia to the Kingdom of Belgium, Head of the Mission of Armenia to the EU, Niels Scott, UN Resident Coordinator in Armenia a.i., Nilakshi Saha Sinha, Ambassador of the Republic of India to Armenia, and Anahit Manasyan, Human Rights Defender of the Republic of Armenia. 

They spoke on the specifics of women engagement in the diplomatic relations, negotiations, peace building, challenges they face and cultural shifts in their area of occupation.

Importance of equal representation of women and men across all sectors and all levels of decision-making, including appointed positions was highlighted.

ThinkEQUAL Conversations is a format for inspirational thematic conversations on important present-day aspects of equality. The ThinkEQUAL focuses on key aspects of gender equality and women empowerment, enabling factors and structural mechanisms for ensuring equal opportunities, learning paths, visible trends on equality and inclusivity at national as well as local level and in all spheres of societal life.