UN Women National Committee (NC) Australia hosts Australia’s largest International Women’s Day (IWD) celebrations in March each year. IWD is a global day celebrating the economic, political and social achievements of women. It is also a day to review how far women have come in their struggle for equality, peace and development. IWD also provides an opportunity to unite, network and mobilise funds to foster meaningful change into the future. Information about other UN Women National Committee Australian IWD events around Australian can be found here.

For registration enquiries, please contact the event contractors at the Centre for Social Impact on 02 8936 0904 or email csievents@unsw.edu.au.

Buy tickets for this event here. Tickets sales close 24 February 2017

Muniba Mazari, Pakistan’s National UN Women Ambassador

Muiniba Mazari advocates for UN Women’s initiative Step It Up for Gender Equality and other campaigns promoting women’s empowerment.

Mazari, who has been in a wheelchair following a car accident seven years ago which left her with spinal cord injury, has represented the voice of people across Pakistan on important issues including gender inequalities and discrimination. Mazari was named as one of BBC’s 100 Women for 2015.

“I am a strong supporter of UN Women and the role we have in ending gender-based discrimination, working towards gender equality and making it a lived reality by 2030. This is the time to empower women and girls because when you empower one woman, you empower the whole generation”.

Aleta Miller, UN Women Representative Fiji Multi-Country Office

Aleta is UN Women Representative for 14 Pacific island countries, leading UN Women’s programmes across the Pacific focused on ending violence against women, increasing women’s economic empowerment, addressing gender and protection in disaster preparedness and response, and increasing women’s political empowerment and leadership. She was previously Executive Director at Justice Centre Hong Kong, a human rights NGO protecting the rights of asylum seekers, refugees and survivors of trafficking and forced labor. Previously Aleta was advisor on gender and human rights for 20 countries across Eastern Europe and Central Asia with UNFPA in New York. Prior to this, Aleta spent six years working in national HIV programming in Myanmar with the UN and NGOs. Aleta’s career background includes: harm reduction programmes with drug users in Australia, Myanmar and China; working with young Vietnamese refugees at Hong Kong’s last refugee camp in the 1990s; community development programming in Papua New Guinea and Nepal; and advising the Chinese Government on HIV initiatives with sex workers and drug users. Aleta is an Australian Registered Psychologist (non-practicing), and holds a Masters degree in International Public Health, Honors in Applied Psychology, a Bachelor of Behavioral Sciences in Applied Psychology and Occupational Health, and a post-graduate diploma is trans-cultural mental health. She is married with children aged 4 and 6, and lives in Suva, Fiji.

Tracey Spicer will be MC for the Canberra lunch

Tracey Spicer is the co-founder and national convenor of Women in Media, broadcaster on ABC TV’s The Drum, columnist for Fairfax newspapers, and presentation trainer at the Australian Film, Television and Radio School. For more than 20 years, the journalist and anchor presented national programs on Network Ten and Sky News. The 49-year-old is a proud Ambassador for ActionAid and World Vision. During the past 30 years she’s travelled to Bangladesh, Kenya, India and Papua New Guinea to produce and present documentaries on women and girls in the developing world. Her memoir, The Good Girl: Stripped Bare, will be published by HarperCollins in May, while her TEDx Talk, The Lady: Stripped Bare, has garnered almost 1.5 million views. Tracey is an outspoken feminist, and mother to 10-year-old Grace and 11-year-old Taj.