Geneva (14 December 2015) - CARE International CEO and Secretary General, Dr. Wolfgang Jamann, has been named an International Geneva Gender Champion; committing to the promotion of gender equality in the city’s international community.
Co-founded by the United Nations Office at Geneva and the United States’ Permanent Mission, the Gender Champion Initiative is a leadership network that brings female and male decision-makers together to break down gender barriers.
Gender Champions sign a pledge, promising to push for gender equality in all meetings and panels, as well as making more personal commitments that will advance gender equality in the organisations that they lead.
“Empowering women and fighting gender inequality is key to CARE International’s ambitions to make poverty history” says Jamann. “Injustice and the violation of human rights, most gravely manifested in the discrimination of women, are our biggest global challenges today. By tackling those we need to lead by example, in international hubs like Geneva as well as in all our operations worldwide”.
The majority of the world’s poorest one billion people are women and girls. CARE International’s experience, gained from a rich 70 year history in fighting poverty, has revealed that empowering women and girls leads them to become catalysts for positive change in their communities, to the benefit of all. In 2014, CARE’s programs reached almost three million people in 59 countries with information and tools to facilitate women’s empowerment.
As a Gender Champion, Dr. Jamann commits to building a positive global culture that fosters gender equality at all levels of CARE International, ensuring regular reporting of gender equality in the CARE International strategic framework, as well as visiting, and communicating about, a women’s empowerment project during each field visit to CARE country programs that he makes.
“Being a Geneva Gender Champion is more than a title and these aren’t just symbolic commitments” says Ambassador of the United States to the United Nations, Pamela Hamamoto who has been leading the initiative. “As Gender Champions, we have a responsibility to leverage Geneva’s unique multilateral platform, to push ourselves toward innovative solutions, to seek creative partnership opportunities, to hold each other accountable, and to serve as catalysts for change.”
About Wolfgang Jamann:
Dr. Wolfgang Jamann joined CARE in March 2015 as the Secretary General and CEO of CARE International. Dr. Jamann has more than 20 years of experience in development assistance and humanitarian response, and has lived and worked in Africa and Southeast Asia. Prior to his current position at CARE, he was the CEO and Chairman of Welthungerhilfe (German Agro Action; 2009 – 2015). Dr. Jamann previously worked with CARE as CEO of CARE Deutschland-Luxembourg (2004 – 2009). Prior to that, he worked in different roles and countries for World Vision as well as the United Nations Development Programme and the German Foundation for International Development.
Please find a bio for Wolfgang Jamann here.
Media Contact:
Dr Jamann is available for interviews in English and German. To arrange these, or for more information, please contact:
Clare Spurrell, Head of Global Communications, CARE International
Tel.: +41 22 795 1024 Mobile: +41 793 798952
E-mail: [email protected]