Bangladesh has been selected for the Women in Parliaments Global Forum award, known as WIP award, for being a “pioneering country in reducing gender discrimination”.State Minister for Foreign Affairs Md Shahriar Alam MP will receive the award on behalf of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Monday at Ethiopia’s capital Addis Ababa during the annual WIP summit.‘New Leadership for Global Challenges’ is the theme of the summit being co-hosted by the African Union and co-financed by the European Commission.The summit ahead of finalising post-2015 development agenda will also celebrate the 20th anniversary of the blueprint for advancing women’s rights, the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, and mobilise political will for the next steps.The foreign ministry says the awards-giving ceremony would be one of the main features of the summit.The WIP awards recognises countries for politically empowering women and leading regional efforts in closing the gender gap in politics.Those are given based on the rankings of the World Economic Forum’s “Global Gender Gap Report”, compiled in collaboration with Harvard University and the University of California, Berkeley.
The forum, WIP, did not officially announce the name of the other recipient countries as yet.Parliamentarians, mostly female, from around the world are attending this summit.“It presents a unique opportunity for participants to discuss the pressing global challenges, and to take part in political dialogues that reflect the influence and importance of female decision-makers in today‘s world.”Alam, leading a three-member Bangladesh delegation, left Dhaka last night and will return on Mar 26, the foreign ministry said.
