The Women Deliver Conference, which will be held in Copenhagen from 16–19 May 2016, will be the largest gathering on girls’ and women’s health, rights and wellbeing in more than a decade, and one of the first major global conferences following the launch of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). 

The focus of the conference will be on how to implement SDGs as they relate to girls and women, with a specific focus on health – in particular maternal and sexual and reproductive health – and the inter-connections with gender equality, education, environment and economic empowerment.

Building on the successes of Women Deliver's three previous global gatherings—in London in 2007, in Washington in 2010 and in Kuala Lumpur in 2013—the 2016 Conference will bring together world leaders, advocates, policymakers, journalists, young people, researchers and leaders of the private sector and civil society to showcase what it means and how it works when women and girls become the focus of development efforts.

“Today, more girls are going to school, more women have joined the labour force, and more women have access to sexual and reproductive health services, including family planning,” says UNFPA Executive Director, Dr. Babatunde Osotimehin. “Yet, while these trends hold great promise, overall progress has been unacceptably slow, with stagnation and even regression in some contexts. We will not stop until we cross the finish line and realize equality between girls and boys and women and men.”