19.02.21
UN New York, CSocD59 – MMM's oral statement at the general debate closed our series of contributions to the 59th UN Commission on Social Development
Digital technology has already transformed societies and economies in many parts of the world, introducing novel ways to communicate, changing lifestyles and creating new types of employment.
However, parents, mothers especially, face specific challenges, which were made even more acute and visible due to the Covid-19 crisis and its subsequent lockdowns:
In families with children, mothers, much more than fathers, have seen the time they devote to childcare and unpaid family care work increase during the lockdowns. They have been struggling to balance telework and support for online schooling, with major impacts on their health and their ability to keep their job – a situation that also threatens to reverse years of hard-won progress on Gender Equality.
All These challenges must be recognized and addressed, by both governments and the private sector.
In particular, all forms of care and education work, whether paid or unpaid, must be recognised and properly valued. They must also be seen as an investment in human capital, not as expenses to be minimised.
The current crisis gives us the opportunity to bring about systemic changes. We are therefore calling on member states to ‘build back transformatively’ and repurpose our economic system to prioritize the wellbeing of people, and place care and education at its heart.
This statement was delivered by Jacqueline Leduc, MMM’s main representative at the United Nations in New York during the general debate which took place on 16 February on the priority theme of the 59th Session of the UN Commission on Social Development ‘Socially just transition towards sustainable development: the role of digital technologies on social development and well-being of all’. (MMM intervention starts at 3230)
This oral statement concludes our series of advocacy activities to raise awareness of the many potential benefits of digital technologies for the wellbeing of families, but also the multiple challenges that parents, especially mothers face in this new digital era brought about by the pandemic:
The resolution that was adopted at the end of the Commission on the priority theme acknowledges that digital technologies have profoundly transformed global societies. It also recognizes the digital divide within and among countries, urban/rural and between generations and genders. It fails however to recognize the multiple challenges that parents face with the use of digital technologies within families.
MMM Team (Inès de Vulpian, Jacqueline Leduc, Mélanie Nédélec, and Valerie Bichelmeier) exchanging with panelists after our 12 February webinar
05.02.23
UN New York, CSocD61 - The virtual event we are organizing as part of the 2023 UN Commission on Social Development will draw attention to the specificity of the situation
14.04.23
Make Mothers Matter, together with the city of Ypres, and its grass roots partners Mothers for Peace, Mama Kivu and the Vrouwenraad, is organizing an international peace Conference Women at
04.10.22
At MMM, we believe that sharing the invisible work of caring and educating children more equitably is a quadruple win: essential for early child development (ECD), beneficial for both men
22.09.23
ONU Genève, Conseil des droits de l'homme - MMM soutient la vision et les recommandations du HCDH sur les droits de l'enfant et la protection sociale inclusive présentées au Conseil. Notre déclaration orale
21.09.23
UN Geneva, Human Rights Council - As OHCHR seeks to reinforce its work on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, MMM highlights the centrality of Care to the realisation of these rights, in particular the unpaid
17.09.23
Redistributing care work was a central topic at a wide-ranging discussion recently hosted by Harvard Kennedy School Women’s Network and the Women 20 (W20) organization.
13.09.23
18-19 September 2023 sees the convening of the SDG Summit taking place at the UN Headquarters in New York. Here at MMM, we believe it is time to re-commit and put mothers at the centre of our efforts to realize
08.09.23
On the eve of the SDG Summit 2030, we at Make Mothers Matter draw attention to the topic of Emotional intelligence, often overlooked in educational systems, which we believe is essential for healthy relationshi
07.09.23
MMM Network Coordinator Sarah Krimi has been talking to many of our grass roots members, to get to know them better and to understand why mothers matter to their work. As Benoît Bichon, President & Founder of