Overview
International Women’s Day 2025
Most Influential Women 2025 Sustainability Awards
Saturday 8th March 2025 (ONLINE 10:30-13:30)
"Whether running a country, a business or a popular movement, women are making contributions that are delivering for all and driving progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals." António Guterres, UN Secretary-General
In celebration of the United Nations International Women’s Day, WASD and its partners across the world are working together to meaningful and self-led women learnership across the world. The International Women’s Day is celebrated across the world to show the remarkable achievements of women to society and world sustainable development.
The conference theme for 2025 will follow the theme selected by the UN for this year’s celebration "For ALL women and girls: Rights. Equality. Empowerment" recognising the contribution of women and girls around the world to build a more sustainable future for all. Clearly, women have an untapped potential as a primary mover of greater development across the world and their role is very crucial for increased development, but challenges remain. And so, reforms in economic, social, and political institutions must be made to create an enabling environment for women participation and empowerment.
The conference brings together senior and high level intellectual and practice-based contributors who will help develop a framework for the analysis of the role of women and girls in achieving sustainable inclusive development across the world. You can browse here keynote speakers from our previous international conferences.
Diaspora
The collaboration between the Diaspora and those working within the country of origin offers several opportunities and contributes to increase productivity towards sustainable and inclusive knowledge-based growth. Building constructive relationships between the Diasporas and countries of origin require that Diasporas be treated not as a mere resource, but as partners and investors with mutual benefits.
It has long been argued that Diasporas will be most interested in contributing to SD efforts when they have a sense of belonging in relation to their country of origin. Therefore, it is very important to establish trust between Diasporas and governments in the country of origin. In doing so, governments need to invest in identifying their Diasporas abroad and in understanding their skills and interests.
Many sustainability problems can only be tackled by connecting the diaspora with those working within the country of origin, for example combating the results of climate change, diseases such as malaria, reservation of natural resources, fighting land degradation or limiting the loss of biodiversity and many other problems. Moreover, knowledge or evidence-based policymaking is indispensable if gaps in living standards are to be narrowed. Therefore, building capacity in country of origin is necessary for competing in the global arena and there it is critical to turn the diaspora into a positive tool for SD as well as serving as role models for the youth in the country of origin.
Location
Queen Mary University of London, London, United Kingdom
Team
The conference is organised by several committees from WASD and their international partners under close supervision of WASD Advisory Board.
WASD Team
- Prof. Allam Ahmed: Chair and President WASD
- Janet Snow: International Coordinator and Editor
