By JULIUS PHIRI –
FIRST Lady Esther Lungu is today expected in New York to attend the launch of the United Nations (UN) Secretary- General’s progress report on the global strategy for women and children’s health 2010-2015.
Ms Lungu would be a key speaker along with UN  Secretary General Ban Ki Moon and Melinda Gates.
Ms Lungu, who is championing women and girls’ empowerment, would be part of the Zambian delegation to the 59th Session of the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW59).

. Mrs Lungu

The First Lady would speak at the Every Woman Every Child-organised event on Tuesday along side Mr Ban, Mrs Gates – Co-chair of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Martin Chungong, Secretary General of the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) and  Kenneth Frazier chief executive officer of Merk, a pharmaceutical company.
According to a statement issued yesterday by First Secretary for Press and Public Relations Permanent Mission to the United Nations Chibaula Silwamba, Ms Lungu was expected to discuss progress on Zambia’s commitment to the Global Strategy for Every Women’s and Children’s health.
Ms Lungu would also highlight the unfinished agenda, and how they must be addressed to ensure women and children, especially in Africa, had the opportunities to survive and thrive.
The event aimed to galvanise high-level political support for this work to transition into the post-2015 Development framework, including for the development and launch of an updated Global Strategy for Women’s, Children’s and Adolescents’ Health later this year.
The UN Chief launched the Global Strategy for Women’s and Children’s Health and Every Woman Every Child movement in 2010 to advance progress on Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) that focus on women and children’s health.
Ms Lungu would also deliver a statement at an event co-organised by the Zambian Mission to the UN, the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) and the Global Alliance for Women’s Health (GAWH), focusing on Information and Communications Technology (ICTs) and Women’s Health.
She would speak alongside Minister of Gender and Child Development Professor Nkandu Luo, head of the ITU liaison office to the UN Gary Fowlie, Vice President of the Virginia Lee Cook Foundation Lynn Bakiares, author and health journalist Nancy Finn, among other high profile leaders.
Prof Luo would also undertake several high-level engagements and hold bilateral meetings with ministers from other countries.
The CSW59, dubbed Beijing+20, was taking place two decades after the 1995 Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing that marked a significant turning point for the global agenda on gender equality.
The main focus of the 59th session, which runs from 9 to 20 March, would be on the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, including current challenges that affect its implementation and the achievement of gender equality and the empowerment of women.
The CSW59 would discuss opportunities to achieving gender equality and empowerment of women in the post-2015 Development Agenda, currently being formulated.