Excellencies, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen,

Thank you for the invitation to participate in the closing of the ’European Development Days 2018’. The theme “Women and Girls at the Forefront of Sustainable Development” is one that should be a given or at least an irreplaceable piece of the larger puzzle to ensure our planets sustainable future. 

I have been asked to speak to one of the five “P’s” of the 2030 Agenda:   namely “Planet” – what next? And I will do this primarily through the perspective of women and girls.

Allow me to say up front that equal opportunities for all and gender equality is, according to my conviction, one of the most important things we can strive for to improve our world. It is essential that men and women can contribute equally at home, at work, and in the public life to the benefit of our societies, our economies and ultimately ….. to the benefit of our Planet. 

”We are determined to protect the Planet from degradation.”

This statement is part of the common vision in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. The world has made this promise.

In 2015, the world also agreed on another visionary global framework of immense importance to current and future generations; “The Paris agreement on climate change”. Together, they set ambitious, inter-dependent and mutually supportive goals and targets for sustainable development and for the transformation of the way we live, produce and consume.

We sometimes say about dreamers that they are “on another planet” – and often they are – but, we do need dreams, vision and action to ensure this planet is prosperous, peaceful and sustainable.

We have for too long lived with overconsumption, uncontrolled growth and exhaustion of the planets resources. So the world – we the people of the world - need to make the strongest possible effort to meet the promises made; to protect the planet, remedy our wrong-doings and secure the future of our Planet, that gives us life.

And girls and women are also key in this human endeavour.

Climate change is now affecting every country on every continent. People all over the world are experiencing the significant impacts of climate change. People are losing their homes, their land, and their livelihoods.   

Climate Change is a multiplier for the global challenges we face – the success of the 2030 Agenda is obviously dependent on how we combat climate change.

While impacts of climate change are global, the hardest hit are most often the poor and the most vulnerable – and among them there is an overrepresentation of women and girls. They have fewer opportunities to adapt and, to build their resilience or to move from affected areas.

In developing countries, women are often responsible for the provision of firewood and water for the household, and they often spend the majority of their time in the fields and at market for their families. Such activities are highly affected by climate change.

The World Economic Forum´s Global Risks Reports have consistently ranked water crisis amongst the greatest risks to economies, the environment and people.

When there is too little water, it affects consumption, food production and with it nutrition and health conditions are weakened. When flooding appears, it brings about many problems – the spreading of disease increases, crops are destroyed and everyday tasks such as going to market are made almost impossible, as roads become in-passable. 

Every time the activities, that women and girls are in charge of, become harder and more time-consuming, it increases the unpaid workload for them. Unfortunately, this can eliminate the last bleak possibility, for those affected, of gaining access to education or for entering the world of paid work.

When women have opportunities to become part of the formal labour market they are better able to support their families and they invest in their children’s’ health and education and postpone the marriage of their own children. 

We all recognize the power of education. Let me give you an example: According to Women Deliver every additional year of schooling for a girl, increases her future income by 10 to 20%.

Education lays the foundation for girls and women to achieve their full potential. Women with more years of education have fewer and healthier children, and actively manage their reproductive health. Few things have greater impact on a woman’s life than the number and spacing of her children.

It is a basic human right to make decisions about our own body, to decide freely how many children we want to have, when to have them and with whom to have them. Yet many women still lack access to the quality services and supplies needed to manage their fertility.

Statistics point to a large unmet need for access to contraception and that unmet need leads to a larger number of unwanted pregnancies and unsafe abortions. Ensuring greater access to and getting more women to use modern contraceptives save lives and allows people to fulfil their potential and ultimately that benefits the planet.

Educated girls realize higher wages and greater upward mobility.  Education also builds up resilience and equips girls and women to face the impacts of climate change.  They can more effectively manage food, soil, trees and water, even as nature cycles change.  And they are better able to cope with the devastation from natural disasters and extreme weather.

According to Project ‘Draw-down’, education is considered the 6th most important solution for reversing global warming.  Education is not a privilege. It is a human right.  We must ensure that the 62 million girls around the world that meet barriers preventing them from going to school; gain access and thereby claim their right to education.

Education is also an accelerator for enabling women to fully participate in public life and thereby be part of the leadership and decision-making bodies within their communities and beyond. 

Women and men have different needs, interests, perspectives and priorities. By women claiming their rightful place in leadership we can expect to see a stronger representation of women’s’ needs and concerns which ultimately results in better and more nuanced decisions that more adequately reflect the needs and interests of children and families which of course includes men.   

Or you could say; that diversity in leadership and decision-making positions is a necessary precondition for the proper functioning of democracy.

It is beyond doubt that women’s economic empowerment and equal and full participation in society at all levels; is essential for the sustainable development of our Planet.

Sustainable development is everyone’s responsibility; governments, the private sector, organizations, civil society and you and me.

We have a responsibility to pave the way for greater gender equality. This responsibility must be reflected in political dedication, public commitment and legislation. But, it also takes sharing of knowledge and experience, best practices and inspiration if we are to fulfil the potential of every girl and boy, woman and man. And in this regard the European Development Days have taken us a step further.

There is no easy solution; lack of equal opportunities is characterized by many different and complex factors. In order to achieve the real change we desire, I would like to mention an aspect, which I find extremely important: We need greater focus on the role of social norms and unconscious biases and the barriers they present. For example, our social norms in many ways influence women’s economic opportunities; they frame a woman’s choice of education - or no education. And among the women, who do enter the world of paid work, they influence choice of career.

We need to become conscious of our unconscious biases and knowledgeable about the effect they have on our decision-making. We need to eliminate the structural and legal obstacles that hinder women’s full participation.  If we do, we can transform the power held by women and girls into social and economic gains.

We must ensure that no recommendation, no policy guidance and no solution is developed without considering the outcomes for women and girls and the gains that can be derived from their empowerment.

Sustainable Development for people, planet and prosperity provides new opportunities for growth, but to truly capitalize on those opportunities it will require partnerships across continents, regions and countries and between the public and private sectors. It will require new business models and new ways of thinking.  It will require designing new solutions that are both commercially viable, as well as delivering value to society. 

Governments alone cannot reach the level of investment required to realize the SDG’s; therefore, the private sector is vital to driving success.

And this takes us back to what I mentioned before; the responsibility that we all have to ACT.

The Planet cannot wait for legislation, policies and imposed regulations. We need to ask ourselves; where can we and where do we have a responsibility to reduce our social and environmental footprint and where lies our opportunities for positive impact?

I’d like to share with you an example of an industry’s growing recognition of its own responsibility and need to transform; namely the Fashion Industry – one of the world’s largest consumer industries. 

The Fashion Industry is huge and continues to grow rapidly. It’s not just big in terms of revenue; it also employs 60 million people worldwide with the majority being women; and where worker safety and the human costs of cheap, fast fashion continue to be worrying issues.

It is also one of the most resource intensive industries in the world and leaves large environmental, social and ethical footprints. 

The industry is also faced with the realities of; planetary resources like water and land being increasingly limited, consumers increasingly insisting on sustainable practices, employees rightfully demanding safer working conditions and owners and shareholders seeking to protect the long-term viability of their investments.

So, the industry has been asking itself how do we design a fashion industry for the future that respects and protects the environment, reduces existing in-equalities and is profitable.

Since 2009 I have been involved in the Copenhagen Fashion Summit, which is now held annually in Copenhagen. It is the platform for discussing; the complex challenges facing the industry, how to collaborate in a competitive environment and the development of solutions to transform the industry – transform the way we produce, market and consume fashion.

Copenhagen Fashion Summit is an important global event and a platform for accelerating the industry’s commitment to change. 

I attended the most recent Summit just last month and it was clear that industry leaders and a large portion of the industry is at point where it has taken ownership of its clear responsibility and that although transformation is happening, it also recognizes that it is happening too slowly. 

With such a complex global production network, it will take time. Luckily we are witnessing a sense of momentum building.

The industry’s existing sustainable solutions and business models, even under optimistic assumptions, will not deliver the impact needed to fully future-proof the industry. A deeper change is needed to secure long-term sustainable growth and profitability – it will require new technologies and models that are only just beginning to emerge.

Innovation is about creating new social and economic value.  The industry recognises the need to innovate and invest jointly to target the unsolved challenges in the value chain with new solutions.  And that all players within the industry have to join forces in order to create an ecosystem that supports transformational innovation and disruptive business models.

It is important that we see the enormous challenges facing our Planet as an exciting moment in our development to transform the way we live, consume, produce and grow for the future. 

We all have a responsibility for our common future, it is not a responsibility we can choose to take, it is simply one we have.

Because remember – there is no “Planet B”!

Thank you.