Monday is International Corporate Philanthropy Day and the United Nations is marking it by getting a few hundred people from various sectors together to talk about how philanthropy can be engaged to advance gender equality and women’s empowerment. See U.N. press release.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon will kick off the special event organized by the U.N. Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) which will bring together representatives from foundations, private sector companies and civil society. Her Grace Sarah Ferguson, the Duchess of York, and actress Geena Davis will lend their celebrity appeal. An ECOSOC media advisory promises that announcements will be made in support of gender equality and women’s empowerment.

The Global Health Council is also involved with this event to ensure that the all-important issue of women’s health is kept front and center in this discussion, as our press release points out . We recognize the interdependence between women’s health and non-health issues like access to education and income and the need to make links between interventions to improve women’s health and efforts to increase women’s empowerment and discourage gender-based violence.

At a luncheon we are hosting on Monday just before the special event, the permanent representative of Norway to the United Nations and two of our member organizations – the International Women’s Health Coalition (a non-profit) and Becton, Dickinson and Company (a for-profit) – will share their perspectives on how they are forging linkages in their work between health and broader development issues.

We will be blogging on what we learn so watch this space and follow us on Twitter at GlobalHealthorg