IOM Regional Director, Renate Held, has joined 26 Heads of international organizations, permanent missions, and civil society entities in Vienna as an International Gender Champion (IGC), on the day the SEEECA region achieves a perfect gender balance among its 1,800 staff.

The IGC hub will be an opportunity to highlight Ms Held’s support on gender issues, and commitment to its Parity Pledge. As a Gender Champion Ms Held further commits that all 1,800 IOM staff in the region complete the I Know Gender training devised by IOM and UN Women; and supporting work-life balance by allowing flexibility in working hours, particularly in COVID-19 times.

An analysis of IOM projects today shows that 86 per cent of active projects in the region include specific gender considerations, as the organization strives to reach 100 per cent ensuring the specific needs and concerns of different gender groups, and of different ages, are duly considered. To this end, IOM’s Regional Office is finalising a tool that will facilitate gender mainstreaming in migration-related initiatives by IOM staff and partners.

RO Vienna is also an active member of the Issue-Based Coalition (IBC) on Gender Equality for UN Europe and central Asia region, as well as the Vienna Based Organization network on Gender and Women’s Empowerment.

With almost half of the world’s 165 million international migrants being women, the reginal director recognises IOM´s objective of safe, orderly, and regular migration can only be met if gender equality is considered at all times of mobility.

“I am honoured to be chosen as an International Gender Champion”, said Ms Held “Gender-responsiveness is a guiding principle of the Global Compact on Migration, calling for the rights of all migrants, regardless of their gender to be respected at all stages of migration. Migrants, particularly women and girls,  must be empowered as agents of change and not be portrayed or addressed through a lens of victimhood.”

City of Dispatch: Vienna