Soroptimist International and the International Federation
of Business and Professional Women have released a statement focusing on the
importance of social development as central to sustainable development. Combined,
these two organisations represent the views of over 100,000 women worldwide and
unite around the principle of empowering and enabling women in their
communities up to the highest level.

Based on the grassroots expertise of Soroptimist
International and the International Federation of Business and Professional
Women, the statement calls for:

• All disadvantaged groups, traditionally viewed as ‘vulnerable’,
  should be automatically involved in policy making, implementation and evaluation.
• Effective action should be fostered at the grassroots
  level and NGOs to be involved to be certain social development is
  accountable.
• Social development needs to be underpinned by economic
  development and financing for development.
• Quality data and information must be collected in order to
  understand how all people experience social development and to guide
  effective implementation strategies.

These key advocacy points are grounded in the community-led
projects that aim to achieve gender equality and the empowerment of women and
girls. If the actions above are taken, then it will be possible to achieve
social development as central to sustainable development. Click on the image below to read the statement in full.

 

Social development is relevant to all countries, and efforts
to achieve the equal world that social development will achieve should be
universal. Moving forward, governments must do more than committing to social
development: they must act. It is critical that what actions are taken to
achieve social development are redesigned to affect wide-spread transformative,
sustainable change. This will ensure that all people experience the benefits of
development. If development is to be for ‘people and planet’, then people-led,
social development must be at the centre of development approaches.

The fifty-fourth session of the Commission on Social
Development will take place at the United Nations’ Headquarters in New York
from 3 – 12 February 2016. Representatives of UN Member States, UN agencies,
NGOs and civil society from across the world will attend and advocate for the
empowerment of disadvantaged and vulnerable groups, including women and girls,
indigenous peoples, those with disabilities, and older persons.

 

For information about social development issues, please click here. To find out more about the Commission for Social Development please please click here. To find out more aboutthe International Federation of Buisness and Professional Women please click here.