IOM’s Vienna Regional Office has marked International Women’s Day (IWD) by highlighting one of the main issues that mitigates against equality. In cooperation with UNODC, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, IOM set up an information booth in the heart of the Vienna International Centre (VIC) distributing information material and raising awareness on the topic of Sexual Abuse and Exploitation to United Nations staff and guests.

The event was inspired by the "Together We Say No to Sexual Exploitation and Abuse " campaign launched last year by IOM, which targets humanitarian workers who play a key role within assistance programmes and interact with beneficiaries and community populations.

“We are talking about an extreme form of abuse of power causing untold harm to the most vulnerable and undermining the work of the entire international community”, noted Arjeta Rudi, head of IOM’s Vienna Regional Resources Management Unit. “Although not confined to women, women suffer disproportionately from sexual abuse and exploitation and it is thus appropriate to be raising awareness about it on International Women’s Day.

On Monday 6 March in the lead up to  International Women’s Day IOM RO Vienna held an online event, led by the Regional Labour Mobility and Social Inclusion Coordinator, Maria Basserman. The well-attended event examined the barriers women migrants and remittances recipients face accessing financial digital services and highlighted initiatives that aim to reduce such barriers.

Building on DigitALL, the theme for IWD 2023, Ms Basserman examined how digital services can enhance financial inclusion of woman migrants and remittance recipients, and presented practices, examples, and lessons learned from Central Asia and Eastern Europe.

Linking to this event, the IOM regional office commemorates International Women’s Day, by recognizing the digital gender gap through an informative presentation by IOMs Maria Basserman shedding light on the barriers migrant women face in accessing digital financial services.