Vancouver’s Women Deliver conference focusing on health and equity

VANCOUVER (NEWS 1130) – The health and equity of women is the focus at a 7,000 person global conference at the Vancouver Convention Centre this week.

Genesa Greening is president and CEO of the BC Women’s Health Foundation and says over Women Deliver‘s four days a range of topics will be covered, from pay equity to female genital mutilation.

“What we hope is that it really isn’t a penultimate moment but it’s an opportunity for us to springboard into a greater discussion around… work to be done in ensuring women actually have equitable access to quality healthcare to eliminate gender-based violence,” she says. “It’s really about creating a sense of urgency, putting wind in folks’ sails, helping folks find other like-minded people that they can learn from, share from, amplify and leverage with.”

Representatives from the United Nations and World Health Organization are among the attendees.

“This conference really provides us an opportunity to bring light to the fact that even though here in Canada we’ve come a long way over the last few decades, we still even have a long way to go,” Greening says.

The conference runs until Thursday, and speakers include Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Sophie Gregoire-Trudeau, Michelle Obama’s former Chief of Staff Tina Tchen, and Malala Yousafzai’s father, Ziauddin Yousafzai.