UN Women and the Gender Working Group have today 4 March 2016 organized a 5km run as one of the series of buildup events to commemorate International Women’s Day 2016. The event was flagged off by Ms Sahle – Work Zewde the Director General of the United Nations Office in Nairobi. 

United Nation Office in Nairobi Director General Ms. Sahle-Work Zewde and the UN Women Country Director flag off the pre – run. (Photo by Kennedy Okoth/ UN Women)

In her remarks, Ms Zewde noted that everybody, women, men, children – stand to benefit from greater gender equality and the meaningful participation of women in all facets of society. “Like today’s pre-run, our work on gender equality is something of a race. A race against the clock. With the adoption of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and its 17 SDGs, we only have 15 years to achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls, as reflected in Goal 5 of the SDGs.” She emphasized.

In her opening remarks, Ms Zebib Kavuma the UN Women Country Director thanked all those who had come to run because it was a show of support to the First Lady’s Half Marathon in aid of the Beyond Zero Campaign that works to end maternal and child deaths in Kenya.

“Working for gender equality is team effort. ‘It needs us to be fit for purpose. It calls for solidarity across and within all our agencies.’ Ms Kavuma noted.

Race participants in during the run (Photo by Kennedy Okoth/ UN Women

UN Women, United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), UN Habitat, United Nations Development Programme, UNAIDS, UNFPA, FAO, ILO, IMO UNON, UNSOA, UNICEF, UNOCHA, UNSOS, ICAO, WFP, OHCHR, UNODC, GEF and the Embassy of Venezuela registered teams to participate in the race which started promptly at 09.00am. Some of the participants came from far away duty stations such as Nyandarua, Kisii and Murang’a counties.

The huge turnout for the pre run was a show of solidarity and commitment by all UN agencies in advancing the gender agenda.