Starlight Foundation takes its work for gender equality to the United Nations

The 68th Annual Session of the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW68), the largest annual meeting of the United Nations on gender equality and women's empowerment, will be held this year from March 11 to 22 in New York under the priority theme "Accelerating the achievement of gender equality and the empowerment of all women and girls through the eradication of poverty and the strengthening of gender-responsive institutions and financing".

Antonia Varela, Director of the Starlight Foundation and President of BPW Canarias, will participate in the Round Table "Voices of Change; Women, Empowerment and Overcoming Poverty", one of the parallel activities of CWS68.

Transversal issues such as the gender gap, energy impoverishment, the digital divide, the lack of women in STEM professions or new models of tourism that favor the inclusion of women, especially in rural areas, will be discussed.

In this sense, the Starlight Foundation has been arguing for years that the starry sky is an opportunity for development and empowerment for many women in rural areas that are experiencing dramatic depopulation. It is precisely these areas that have the best skies, and the Starlight Foundation is working to help these skies become an engine for sustainable economies and equality through astro-tourism.

For this reason, in 2022, the Starlight Foundation, in partnership with BPW Spain, presented to the international community at CSW66 the SDG18 - SDG18 Sky Quality and Access to Starlight, a proposal to make the night sky a Sustainable Development Goal.

BPW International is an organization that brings together business and professional women's associations in Spain. United by the principles of equal opportunities in the professional, economic and social spheres. Its main objective is the development of women's leadership and the fight for equality. With Ecosoc's consultative status with the United Nations, it represents the voice of businesswomen, professionals and managers from all over the world.

Antonia Varela, who is also President of BPW Canarias since 2022, and who comes with a passport as a member of the Spanish delegation to the UN, is already at the annual BPW International Leaders Summit, held on March 8th and 9th, prior to CSW68, a meeting of BPW members from all over the world.

On March 11, the delegation of BPW leaders will have a reception with the Ambassador of Spain to the UN, SD. Hector Gomez Hernandez. And on the 12th, to a breakfast with the civil society in the framework of CSW68, invited by the Minister of Equality of the Government of Spain, Ms. Ana Redondo Garcia. This meeting will also be attended by the Secretary of State for Gender Equality and the Elimination of Violence against Women, Ms. Ana Calvo Sastre.

Among other relevant actions, the Starlight Foundation and BPW Spain have already achieved that the Senate, Spain's chamber of territorial representation, will host a forum next April on the need to protect the sky and starlight and to defend before the UN the creation of a Sustainable Development Goal to preserve this endangered resource. SDG18 will also be presented to the Congress of Deputies in the near future.