Message from President Båge on the Occasion of International Women's Day

This year, the UN celebration of International Women's Day focuses on ''Gender Equality and the Millennium Development Goals''. Gender equality is not only one of the eight Millennium Goals but is also critical to our ability to reach all the other goals. As the UN Secretary General says in his message for March 8th: ''... all our work for development - from agriculture to health, from environmental protection to water resource management - must focus on the needs and priorities of women.....There is no time to loose if we are to achieve the Millennium Development Goals by the target date of 2015. Only by investing in women can we expect to get there''.

Guided by the Millennium Goals, IFAD is increasingly committed to gender equality and the empowerment of women as both objectives and means for poverty reduction. IFAD's recently approved Plan of Action for ''Mainstreaming a Gender Perspective into IFAD's Operations'' is guided by the principle that women and men should have equal opportunities to benefit from development initiatives. The Plan of Action will allow us to do more and better by systematizing and upscaling on-going work to mainstream gender concerns in our development work.

In IFAD, with the recent recruitment of a female Assistant President, we now have - for the first time - a woman on our Senior Management Team. The proportion of women professionals in IFAD has risen to 37% although there are considerable disparities between Departments. Further - and more even - progress is needed. After having piloted flexitime and teleworking, this year IFAD approved a new policy for breast-feeding. These and other policies will need to be institutionalised to enable better work-life-family balance.

I am committed to making IFAD a place where both women and men are able to undertake and pursue a fruitful career, and feel equally respected and valued. Our staff should be able to combine their multiple - and often arduous - duties as workers, parents, care-givers and individuals engaged in civil society with less stress and pain, while maintaining high working standards. To achieve all this we need policies and procedures, but above all we need further change in personal attitudes towards gender equality, to be reflected in our management culture and working relations. We as managers must lead this change and show sensitivity and understanding, while testing new and innovative ways of managing our humans resources in a way that is both flexible and effective.

This day celebrates women, but I wish to take the opportunity to stress that in order to be a more innovative and effective organisation IFAD needs all of you alike: women and men; staff of diverse cultures; younger as well as the not so young any more; general and professional; regular as well as temporary staff and consultants. Senior management is committed to ensuring a working environment that enables each and every one of you to make her or his unique contribution - and to see that contribution valued and recognised.