19 September 2022 – The first short film in the women’s voices series featuring Agurash from Ethiopia will be screened at the Devex UNGA@77 event on 21 September 2022 from 1:50 – 1:55 pm ET in partnership with the Micronutrient Forum as a part of the Forum’s women’s advocacy agenda.
This year’s United Nations General Assembly will take place in New York City where heads of state, policymakers, business and civil society leaders, activists, and philanthropists will all converge to collectively examine how we can get back on track to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals, halfway between their 2015 adoption and 2030 deadline. Over two days, Devex will convene those at the center of these conversations for a series of interviews and workshops. Day One will focus on Universal Health Coverage in the backdrop of the Global Fund replenishment, aimed to set the agenda for the United Nations High-Level Meeting on UHC in 2023. Day Two will include a read-out from the Transforming Education Summit with conversations on the growing hunger crisis, youth employment, inclusion, and how displacement is threatening progress for them all. This series of events on the sidelines of UNGA 77 will be broadcast online along with the Women’s Voices short film from Ethiopia.
Highlighting the inextricable link between women’s nutrition and equity—this film takes us to Habru, Ethiopia where we meet Agurash, a mother in her third trimester of pregnancy, sharing her journey through pregnancy in her own voice. She shares her struggles in accessing the food and nutrition she needs for herself and her unborn baby while juggling multiple roles as a farm worker, homemaker, and mother, and the social norms that compel her to put her family’s needs before her own. While there are no silver bullet solutions for Agurash’s challenges, the film makes a case for introducing multiple micronutrient supplementation to help improve her nutrition during pregnancy to help her and her unborn baby thrive. “A woman is like a lioness”, her husband speaks of her, but does she get the lion’s share of the food, nutrition, and care she needs? Watch this film to find out.
