President Bidya Devi Bhandari on Wednesday received the WPL Trailblazer Award 2022 at the Reykjavik Global Forum–Women Leaders.

Silvana-Koch Mehrin, President and Founder of Women Political Leaders and former Vice-President of the European Parliament, presented the award to Bhandari amid a ceremony in Reykjavik, Iceland.

Prime Minister of Iceland Katrίn Jacobsdόttir and Former President of Iceland Vigdís Finnbogadóttir were also present at the award ceremony.

President Bhandari dedicated the award to the Nepali women whose struggle for gender empowerment and inclusion contributed for the achievements that Nepal has made in those agendas this far, read a statement issued following the award ceremony.

According to the statement, Bhandari, during the ceremony, emphasized on Nepal’s progress and commitment on gender empowerment and Nepal’s commitment to make further progress in this area.

President Bhandari also delivered a keynote speech to the Forum and highlighted Nepal’s journey to institutionalise an inclusive democracy that has well-embodied principles of human rights, equality, non-discrimination, inclusion and social transformation, reads the statement.

During the keynote speech, Bhandari underlined the challenges Nepal is facing due to climate change and called upon the international community for a transparent mechanism and fast-track provisions for resources, transfer of technology, and capacity-building support to deal with these challenges.

Later, on the sidelines of the Forum, Prime Minister Jacobsdόttir called on President Bhandari.

“Matters of further strengthening bilateral relations and exchanging potential cooperation in areas such as geothermal energy technology, climate change, tourism and sharing of experience in the areas of women and gender empowerment were discussed during the meeting,” reads the statement.

Likewise, Sima Bahous, Executive Director of the UN Women also called on Bhandari and appreciated the progress made by Nepal in women’s political empowerment and SDG indicators.

Similarly, President and Founder of Women Political Leaders Mehrin, and Secretary General of Council of Women World Leaders Laura Liswood also called on Bhandari and discussed various experiences and issues related to gender, development and climate change, according to the statement.