Thank you all for being here for today’s important discussion, for continuing to demonstrate your

commitment to this issue. We have discussed at length the importance of responding to the specific
needs of women and girls in humanitarian crisis and the dire circumstances many women and girls find
themselves in within Syria and across the region.

We have stressed the importance of not only meeting these needs, but of also ensuring that we’re
grounding our support and interventions in strategies that build their resilience and empower them –
with the objective of creating just and equal societies and intuitions. And yet how to do this effectively
continues to be our common challenge.

We have spent decades talking about the importance of gender equality. And while we talk, the
situation of women and girls inside Syria, and in the countries neighbouring it is at risk of further
deterioration.

We know that refugee female headed households not sharing resources with other households are
those most vulnerable to food insecurity. We know that gender based violence and violence against
women continues to destroy the lives of women and girls across the region, and prolonged
displacement will deepen and exacerbate this. We know that women’s rates of empowerment amongst
the refugee community remains woefully low—under 10 per cent; lower then it was in Syria pre-crisis—
demonstrating the roll back effect displacement has on women’s access to opportunities and public
space; deepening their sense of isolation.

And as our interventions shift—rightly so—to those that build resilience through the provision of assets,
skills, jobs, dignity and protection, if we do not take special measures to target and include women in
resilience and stabilization efforts women are at risk of being further left behind.

While women are central to community resilience and spend 90 per cent of their income on the family,
data demonstrates that women are more reliant on humanitarian assistance then men due to barriers
they face in accessing income generating opportunities.

If we are investing in community resilience we must invest in women, this is the smart strategy and it
does not happen without vigilance and targeted strategies to ensure women are direct beneficiaries of
this approach.
This said, we worked hard together, we have seen progress and for this we must be proud.

We’ve seen commitments from Governments around the region to address these issues, for example in
the development of a national action plan on women, peace and in Jordan and its passage in Iraq.

National institutions,governmental and non-governmental, are taking the lead in providing shelter and
relief for women and girls at risk and surviving gender based violence.

And donor governments and multi-lateral organisations are ensuring that gender equality and women’s
rights are prioritized in the support they provide.

Collectively this serves as a reminder to all of us that we are doing better and must continue to do so.

In closing today’s panel, I will summarise what I’ve heard, and what is needed for us to move forward on
this agenda together.

However before doing this I must pause to remind us all of what no one in this room needs reminding
of: that fundamentally, to promote gender equality and women’s rights, we need peace. Our last
speaker spoke powerfully to the importance of finding a political solution to this conflict.

To meet the call of the thousands and millions that are looking to us for action, within Syria and outside
of it, and that are frustrated by our inaction,we must continue to strive to make good on our
commitments to global peace and security, despite the multitude of hurdles that may seem impossible
to overcome. And we must ensure that these efforts are grounded in inclusion and diversity.

So what do we need moving forward, to keep women’s and girl’s needs at the forefront of the response
to the Syria crisis:
We need a humanitarian structure that places women’s needs, rights and empowerment at its heart.
That means longer term funding cycles to enable us to take an empowerment approach to those we
serve; effectively engaging civil society the response, not only as contracted service providers, but also
as planners, leaders and advocates for their constituencies; ensuring adequate funding to the priorities
of women and girls and ensuring that our interventions, such as those to support livelihoods, do not
sideline women, even inadvertently.

We need an accountability framework that ensures that we all live up to the global commitments that
we have made—in particular some of those I just listed that were made at the World Humanitarian
Summit—as detailed in the Grand Bargain.

We need structures that breakdown the silos that exist between our different strategies, thinking and
funding structures, and brings together humanitarian, development peace and security planning and
funding for holistic responses. National Action Plans on Women, Peace and Security serve as a good
practice for this, where humanitarian needs, development needs and security priorities are brought
together under one framework with the objective of stability and peace.

We need to ensure that we are raising the tide of everyone, not only refugees, but also of those living in
the communities generously hosting them. Many of these communities are also challenged by structural
gender inequalities, and only until we also address these within the institutions and organizations that
serve refugees, can we make good on our commitments to address gender inequalities within the
refugee populations.

We must always measure our success not just in whether needs are met, but also whether through
meeting those needs we have also empowered those we are serving, and worked to ensure greater
equality between men and women.

The planning framework presented at today’s conference offers an important entry point for us to drive
this forward and as UN Women we look forward to standing side by side with Governments in the
region, partner Governments, civil society, our UN agencies and other stakeholders in living up to the
expectations of women, girls, boys and men across the region.

Gender equality, also known as sexual equality or equality of the sexes, is the state of equal ease of
access to resources and opportunities regardless of gender, including economic participation and
decision-making; and the state of valuing different behaviors, aspirations and needs equally, regardless
of gender .Gender equality implies that the interests, needs and priorities of both women and men and
girls and boys are taken into consideration, recognizing the diversity of different groups and that all
human beings are free to develop their personal abilities and make choices without the limitations set
by stereotypes and ...the main goal of gender equality is achieved when women, men, girls and boys
have equal rights, conditions and opportunities, and the power to shape their own lives and contribute
to the development of society. It is a matter of equitable distribution of power, influence and resources
in society.

Types of Equality:

Natural Equality: Despite the fact that men differ in respect of their physical features, psychological
traits, mental abilities and capacities, all humans are to be treated as equal humans. ...

Social Equality: .Social equality is a state of affairs in which all individuals within a specific society have
equal rights, liberties, and status, possibly including civil rights, freedom of expression, autonomy, and
equal access to certain public goods and social services. ... Social equality is related to equal opportunity.

Civil Equality: .Civil Equality: It is elaborated as the grant of equal rights and freedoms to all the people
and social groups. All the people are to be treated equal before Law. Civil liberty comprises of the
enjoyment of similar civil liberties and civil rights by all the citizens. ... Equal treatment is given to all by
the rule of law.

Political Equality: .Political equality is the quality of a society whose members are of equal standing in
terms of political power or influence. ... Equal citizenship constitutes the core of political egalitarianism.

Gender equality prevents violence against women and girls. It's essential for economic prosperity.
Societies that value women and men as equal are safer and healthier. Gender equality is a human right.

Gender is an important consideration in development. It is a way of looking at how social norms and
power structures impact on the lives and opportunities available to different groups of men and women.
Globally, more women than men live in poverty.