MADRID, Spain – The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), and the Sony Ericsson WTA Tour, the world’s leading global sport for women, announced today the selection and funding of women’s leadership programs in Cameroon, Liberia, China, Jordan and the Dominican Republic, along with a new global advertising campaign designed to raise awareness and promote the goal of gender equality.  Since the launch 12 months ago of the landmark global partnership between UNESCO and the Tour to further gender equality and promote women’s leadership in all spheres of society, a substantial amount of funds been raised or pledged, and global “Promoter of Gender Equality” Venus Williams has been joined by Tour stars Tatiana Golovin of France and Zheng Jie of China.

 

The new programs, which will be supported both through financial contributions and the partnership’s player “Promoters of Gender Equality”, are designed to create real opportunities for women and girls to assume leadership roles, as well as to raise awareness and promote the goal of gender equality.

 

• In Liberia, the project will create a women-only night school program for 1000 girls, and train female teachers to staff the program, in an effort to further equal access to quality primary and secondary education for disadvantaged women in post-conflict Liberia.
• In Cameroon, the project will work to create a group of successful female politicians, business women and athletes who will organize various events and activities in support of women’s leadership and gender equality.
• In China, the project will aim to raise the percentage of rural women involved in local affairs and promote a more balanced decision making process.
• In the Dominican Republic, the program will advocate for women’s social and political leadership through awareness raising activities and capacity building and training programs.  One of these programs will train 80 young women between the ages of 18-28 in participative leadership skills to encourage them to rise to top positions in civil society and political organizations.
• In Jordan, a legal rights awareness program, consisting of 24 legal training workshops throughout the country, will be designed to empower women to know their rights

 

The global advertising campaign, which features Venus Williams and Tatiana Golovin in television spots as well as a print ad, is expected to be run by a number of international and national broadcasters, including Eurosport, Zee Sports in India, NTV in Russia and the Tennis Channel in the USA.  The ads are designed to raise awareness and promote the goal of gender equality and women’s leadership.  They are also designed to introduce the Tour’s rising star players as global role models for women’s leadership in their role as Promoters of Gender Equality.  The television spots and print advertisements can be viewed on the Tour’s official website at http://www.sonyericssonwtatour.com/2/multimedia/

 

In addition, Venus Williams’ clothing line, “Eleven”, and her retail partner Steve & Barry’s, announced today that they have created a special Venus Williams/UNESCO tee shirt that will be sold at Steve & Barry’s retail outlets, online at the Tour’s official website and at select Tour tournaments, with the net proceeds from sales to be donated to the UNESCO-Sony Ericsson WTA Tour partnership.

 

At the announcement today held at the new City Hall of Madrid, Venus Williams, the partnerships’ global “Promoter of Gender Equality”, was flanked by Alberto Ruiz Gallardon, the Mayor of Madrid; Sony Ericsson WTA Tour CEO Larry Scott; Hans d’Orville, Assistant Director-General for Strategic Planning of UNESCO; Sony Ericsson WTA Tour President Stacey Allaster; Saniye Gülser Corat, Chief of the Section for Women and Gender Equality of the Bureau of Strategic Planning of UNESCO; and Gerard Tsobanian, the Managing Director of Madrid Trophy Promotions, the promoters of the Sony Ericsson Championships, promoter of the combined women/men equal prize money major event to be staged in Madrid beginning in 2009, and creators of the innovative “Iguales” brand marketing campaign which features women and men tennis stars and advocates for gender equality.

 

“Creating opportunities for women and girls to succeed and lead requires programs that will touch the lives of real people,” said reigning Wimbledon champion and former World No. 1 Venus Williams.  “I am thrilled that today we are instituting programs on the ground throughout the world that will help women in need, and am I looking forward to personally supporting these projects.”

 

UNESCO Director-General Koïchiro Matsuura stated: “For UNESCO, gender equality is a fundamental human right, a commonly shared value and goal that requires working together with a range of partners to deliver as one on this overarching global objective. I am delighted that the Sony Ericsson WTA Tour and its top players are joining hands with UNESCO in efforts to step up the commitment to support women’s empowerment, leadership and gender equality in all spheres. The implementation of different projects and programmes, proposed by National Commissions for UNESCO around the world and funded from resources raised by the Partnership, is one concrete measure to reach out and support practical measures to attain gender equality in different regions of the world.”

 

“It is exciting to know that through the programs announced today, the new advertising campaign and the combined efforts of our players, tournaments and UNESCO, we will be making a real impact on women and girls throughout the world,” said Larry Scott, CEO of the Sony Ericsson WTA Tour.  “The Tour was founded on the principle of equality, and it is inspiring to see the players of today fighting with the same conviction as Billie Jean King to break down glass ceilings that exist and help nurture women leaders of tomorrow.”

 

“We are very proud to be back here one year following the creation of the IGUALES concept,” said Gerard Tsobanian, General Manager of Madrid Trophy Promotions. “There has really been a snowball effect. The IGUALES concept has not only been about placing women and men tennis players at the same level, but also the root of our innovative partnership with UNESCO to improve the social and educational situations of many women around the world.  With these first five projects announced today, we will be helping real women in Liberia, Cameroon, China, Jordan and the Dominican Republic.”

 

Since the announcement of the partnership in November 2006 in Madrid, Tatiana Golovin of France and Zheng Jie of China have signed on as “Promoters of Gender Equality”, joining global Promoter Venus Williams.  In addition, Sony Ericsson tournaments in Bangalore (Bangalore Open) and Linz (Generali Ladies Linz) have each pledged to raise $100,000 for partnership programs.  Additional Promoters of Gender Equality as well as additional programs are expected to be announced in the coming months.

 

The social responsibility program, which draws upon the history of the Tour and players in fighting for equality, and the idea for which came about through the Iguales campaign at the Tour’s season-ending event in Madrid, marks a new level of commitment by the Tour and players to raise awareness of the importance of gender equality and advance opportunities for women.  The program also represents the first time that UNESCO, the only Organization of the United Nations system with a mandate for education, the sciences, culture and communication and information which are critical for laying the grounds for gender equality, is partnering with a professional sports league for this objective embraced by all world leaders (2005 World Summit Outcome). UNESCO, with a Section specifically devoted to women’s empowerment and gender equality (www.unesco.org/women), is committed to mainstreaming gender equality considerations in all its programs, globally and at the country level.

 

Key elements of the program include (i) a Sony Ericsson WTA Tour/UNESCO Fund for women and leadership, which has already raised $350,000, (ii) a “Promoter of Gender Equality” player program, which involves players as role models at both a global and national level in awareness raising activities as well as direct involvement in specific gender equality and women’s leadership programs throughout the world, (iii) mentoring, scholarship and fellowship programs designed to support women’s individual leadership and provide them with the opportunities to succeed in any and all walks of life, (iv) advertising to raise awareness of and promote the internationally recognized goal of gender equality, and (v) usage of existing UNESCO and Sony Ericsson WTA Tour tournaments, social events and conferences as awareness and fundraising platforms.  Additionally, the Sony Ericsson Championships promoters (who will host one of the four biggest Tour events beginning in 2009 – a combined women/men, equal prize money event) and the city of Madrid will support the program through marketing, awareness and fundraising activities.

 

For UNESCO, gender equality is a fundamental human right, a commonly shared value, and a necessary condition for the realization of sustainable development, human rights and peace at global, regional and local levels.  This is why UNESCO promotes gender equality and women’s empowerment as an organizational priority in its five fields of competence: Education, the Natural Sciences, Social and Human Sciences, Culture and Communication and Information. In particular, UNESCO seeks to integrate a gender equality perspective into all stages of its programme cycle from conceptualization to implementation and evaluation as well as to promote the full and equal participation of women at all levels and in all areas of UNESCO’s action. In this endeavor, UNESCO has a wide range of initiatives in all its domains as well as special partnership programmes with the private sector, such as the L’Oreal-UNESCO “For Women in Science” programme (http://www.loreal.com/_en/_ww/index.aspx), and the "Suzanne Mubarak/Japan-Egypt Friendship Research Fellowships” for the empowerment of women in peace and gender studies. With DaimlerChrysler, UNESCO has forged the highly successful Mondialogo Partnership, which promotes intercultural dialogue among schools and students through concrete projects (www.mondialogo.org).