Unifem

Mother's Day 2012: Donate to UN Women Australia's Fiji Flood Appeal

UN Women Australia is extending our Fiji Flood Appeal until the end of May. This Mother's Day, give the gift of hope to mothers in Fiji who have been affected by recent flooding.

The devastation from the floods has affected thousands of market vendors – 75 per cent of which are women and the sole providers in their families - who have lost their livelihoods, their place of work and their future earnings.

Widespread damage to the markets in Nadi, Ba, Lautoka and Rakiraki has already been reported.  For the second time in three months, the water is reaching the roofs of these marketplaces.

The flooding experienced in January this year resulted in more than $10 million (AUD) in damage to infrastructure and more than $9 million (AUD) in impact to agriculture, including daily trade through the markets. The total damage bill is expected to grow following the most recent flooding.

UN Women Australia is calling on all supporters to assist by donating to the UN Women Fiji Markets Recovery Project.  Your donation will help women in Fiji support their families in the immediate aftermath of the cyclone and help rebuild their livelihoods.

UN Women, working with UNDP and the ILO will provide emergency ‘cash for work’ support to women who have lost their source of income.  UN Women will provide 20 days of paid work for urban women traders in and around the marketplaces and will support rural women in agricultural recovery, facilitating the purchase of quick growing crops and seeds.

Your generous donation will help women in Fiji rebuild their livelihoods and boost agricultural recovery:

- $10,000 will support 50 women for 20 days to begin the clean-up and reconstruction of the marketplaces;
-  $6,500 enables UN Women to ensure that the needs of women market vendors are considered in post-disaster recovery planning;
- $500 will provide ‘fast growing crop’ seeds for rural market vendors to begin replanting their crops;
- $140 will provide ‘cash for work’ for one woman in Nadi to support the reconstruction and clean-up efforts; and
- $50 will provide immediate emergency assistance to women who have lost their produce and market stalls.

UN Women Australia - Special General Meeting - Friday 15th June 2012

UN Women Australia has notified its members by email on 25 May 2012 of the need to change the constitution.  As members will be aware, UN Women Australia has been applying for tax-deductibility for many years.  We have had significant progress recently and this is a necessary step towards obtaining deductibility.

Notice of a Special General Meeting of UN Women Australia

Date: Friday 15th June 2012
Time: 8:15am
Venue: UN Women Australia Office
Level 3, 2 Mort Street, Civic
RSVP: events@unwomen.org.au
11th June 2012

Please see Letter to Members , Proxy Form and Proposed Consitution Changes.

AIM and UN Women Australia - Gender Diversity in Management

UN Women Australia and the Australian Institute of Management NSW & ACT recently partnered to produce a White paper on women in management.

In spite of some key advances for women in the workforce over the past few decades and a growing body of evidence demonstrating a strong business case for gender diversity, women remain underrepresented in management and leadership statistics.

The project took as its starting point the seemingly intractable nature of gender inequity in our leadership ranks. We asked: what is stopping us from moving forward? And how could we most successfully intervene to accelerate the change process?

You can read the complete White Paper here.

2010 - 2011 Annual Report

Our 2010 - 2011 Annual Report was released on Friday, November 11th at our Annual General Meeting. We encourage you to have a read and see what an incredible year our organisation has had.

Following our Annual General Meeting, we are also pleased to announce that Geraldine Chin-Moody from NSW was re-elected to the National Board. In addition, Anne Bank-McAllister from Western Australia, Jeanette Pastor from the Northern Territory and Sherill Whittington from New South Wales were elected.

As well as our Annual Report, we also launched 'UNIFEM Australia: Our History' documenting the first twenty years of UNIFEM Australia. It has information from how our logo has evolved, to the various International Women's Day guest speakers we have had the privilege of having speak at our International Women's Day events around the country.