MINISTER CHIKUNGA PRESENTS SOUTH AFRICAN REPORT ON THE BEIJING PLATFORM FOR ACTION AT UNGA

The Minister in the Presidency responsible for Women, Youth, and Persons with Disabilities arrives in New York as a presidential delegate to present South Africa’s Beijing Platform for Action at the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA 80).

The Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action was adopted by World Leaders. It is a landmark global agenda adopted by 189 governments in 1995 at the Fourth World Conference on Women. It is considered the most comprehensive blueprint for women’s rights and gender equality.

Minister Chikunga is expected to deliver a unifying message of urgency, hope, and possibility in advancing the Beijing+30 Action Agenda, placing gender equality at the heart of the SDGs’ final push. Despite considerable strides towards achieving equality, South Africa emerges as a beacon of hope towards achieving gender equality, according to the Global Gender Gap Report released by the World Economic Forum.

MINISTER CHIKUNGA ITINERARY AT UNITED NATIONS GENERAL ASSEMBLY:

• Sunday, 21 September: The impact of global funding cuts on women’s rights
• organisations working to end violence against women and girls
• Monday, 22 September: Statement at High-Level Meeting of the Fourth World
  Conference on Women.
• Tuesday 23 September: G20 Social Engagement Summit.
• Tuesday 23 September: The 10th Anniversary of iamtheCODE Mouvement.
  Building a Social Currency: A New Approach to Girls’ Education in Crisis Settings.
• Wednesday 24 September: Ministerial- Event on Women, Peace, and Security
  (WPS) Focal Points..
• Wednesday 24 September: Securing Health of Every Woman, Child and
  Adolescent to Achieve the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals (SDG).
• Thursday, 25 September 2025: General Assembly to commemorate the thirtieth
  anniversary of the World Programme of Action for Youth through intergenerational
  collaboration.

The 80th session of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA80) comes at a historic crossroads: 80 years after the UN’s founding, 30 years since the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, 15 years of UN Women and 5 years to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals. Opened on 9 September 2025 under the theme “Better Together.”