Resident Coordinator's Remarks on Enhancing Thailand’s Potential to Promote Women’s role in Peace Building and Sustainable Development

Dr. Vilawan Mangklatanakul, Deputy Permanent Secretary,

Helene, women Ambassadors, and

Senior leadership from the Ministry.

It is an honour to join you in a reflection of the power of women’s leadership that each of you bring to bear in your roles as Ambassadors, top civil servants, and in your communities. Each of you plays a critical role in promoting gender equity, sustainable development, and human rights, as you inspire young women to walk this path to empowerment.

Let me begin by congratulating you Helene, on the big step up as State Secretary for Economic Affairs and acknowledge your leadership in promoting the universal values that the Swiss and the United Nations share so deeply, including around women’s empowerment.

Under your leadership, we have seen the critical role Switzerland is playing regarding carbon markets with the first country-to-country carbon offsetting pact, signed last month with Thailand. This is ground-breaking and will translate into enhanced climate project in the country.

I would also like to acknowledge Switzerland’s leadership at the global level, for becoming a first-time member of the Security Council starting next year.

Dr. Vilawan, thank you for inviting me to say a few words. I am going to take this opportunity to speak from my experience while linking gender equality and the Women, Peace and Security agenda as critical to the SDGs.

Gender equality and women’s empowerment lie at the heart of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, with a central pledge to leave no one behind.

My own development experience began in Gujarat working with women and microfinance, where I saw first-hand the incredible difference that women can make in their communities even with limited resources.

As we know, Thailand is fully committed to gender equality as was highlighted by the Prime Minister at the recent Global Summit of Women in Bangkok. The Prime Minister pledged to promote equality and realise women’s full potential as leaders in driving the economy, climate change, sustaining peace and social development, including through the one million volunteers, safeguarding communities during the pandemic.

We know that Thailand is already a global leader, with among the highest proportion of women CEOs and CFOs of any country in the world.

We also know that women are more active than men on social media and are completing secondary and higher education at a higher rate. However, in tertiary STEM-related education, the narrative reverses to less than a third. In a rapidly digitising world, full inclusion, and participation of women in STEM education and occupations will become even more central to achieving the green economic transformation in line with the SDGs.

We all know a lot more work needs to be done. Political participation in Thailand remains relatively low among women, while gender-based violence is a persistent social concern that worsened during the pandemic.

Girls and women are often disproportionately affected by crisis, and at the same time essential contributors to sustainable solutions.

Put simply, women bring irreplaceable perspectives, intellect, critical thinking, networking, and community-organizing skills to understand challenges and implement policies that make a positive difference in communities and people’s lives.

Gender equality is also essential for peace and security, which can only be sustained if everyone has equal access to protection, resources, services, and decision-making. Indeed, gender equality is the number one predictor of peace.

At a Security Council open debate on Women, Peace and Security last month, Thailand reaffirmed its full backing to the empowerment of women and girls and their engagement for sustainable peace and security.

Thailand is also a member of the Peacebuilding Commission, which provides an opportunity to influence the global peacebuilding agenda.

The Secretary-General is committed to increasing the role of women in peacekeeping, where they are currently under-represented, comprising less than 10% of uniformed personnel in the field.

We have learned that women peacekeepers improve overall performance, have greater access to communities, help in building trust, and prevent and reduce conflict, while encouraging other women to become a meaningful part of peace and political processes. Thailand’s Peacekeeping Centre is enabling the scaling up of gender sensitive approaches by mainstreaming them into operations.

In the Southern Border Provinces, women are playing a critical role in promoting social cohesion and protecting human rights. The appointment of Dr. Rachada Dhnadirek as the special representative to promote women’s engagement in the peace process will further facilitate their engagement in the Peace Dialogue.

The Women, Peace and Security agenda is still a work in progress, but we can draw some key lessons going forward.

First, it is critical to take time to understand the challenge, by listening to the perspectives of women and girls to hear their experiences, and to understand impacts.

Second, strategies should seek to protect, prevent, and empower – seeing women as agents of change with voice and control, not only as victims.

Third, when women are included, peace-making strategies are more likely to generate ownership and sustain. In this context, it will be critical to further enhance women in the Southern Border Provinces to participate in the three joint working groups on violence reduction, public consultation, and political solution to contribute to securing durable peace in the region.

Fourth, including women is essential for strengthening trust and social cohesion within and between communities – the foundational concepts of Our Common Agenda.

Peacebuilding works – it’s a proven investment. We need to do far more to join up our development, humanitarian, and peacebuilding efforts.

The new Agenda for Peace that the Secretary-General is proposing has been welcomed by all Member States, emphasizing prevention and putting girls and women at the centre of peacebuilding.

It means finally balancing the scales of power and participation equally for women, including as peacebuilders.

Dr. Vilawan, Helene and Ambassadors, I am struck by the sense of responsibility that we have to Thailand and our communities, which can only be fulfilled by women having a full and equal role as partners and leaders.

When we approach peace and sustainable development from this foundation of equality, we amplify the voices of the most vulnerable, seek solutions that are grounded in everyday realities, and realize the potential of our diversity working towards a common purpose.

We are, quite simply, stronger together. It is a privilege to work with so many inspiring colleagues, both women and men, starting from this shared understanding of equality both as a human right and as a source of strength.

Thank you.