Friends of Vision Side Event for The Commission on the Status of Women (CSW)

How can eye health contribute to achieving gender equity and the empowerment of all women and girls in the context of climate change?

Date: Wednesday, 16^th March 2022

Time: 08:00 AM EST

The United Nations (UN) Friends of Vision and UN Women will host a virtual expert panel discussion in the margins of the 66th Commission for the Status of Women (CSW). The theme of this year’s CSW is Achieving gender equality and the empowerment of all women and girls in the context of climate change, environmental and disaster risk reduction policies and programmes.

Climate change and eye health are linked in a cause-and-effect cycle that threatens to undo decades of progress in global health and leave vulnerable populations of women and girls at risk of being left behind. The economic, social, and cultural norms that make women and girls in low and middle-income countries more susceptible to poverty, are the same factors that put them at greater risk of vision impairment and climate change related events. Conversely, the impacts of climate change and vision impairment, perpetuate the cycle of socioeconomic marginalization of women and girls and impede progress towards gender equality.

Aim: This event will focus on the intersection between vision, gender and climate change and call for the urgent need to dismantle structural and sociocultural barriers that contribute to keeping women and girls trapped in poverty and disproportionately vulnerable to vision impairment and climate change.

Format: Moderator-led discussion with panel followed by Q & A with the audience

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