Inspired by programming for the past eight years, 17-year-old Mariam Lomtadze is the founder of Looper and tech start-ups Hero and FarmApp. Currently working on developing Android mobile apps while taking a gap year after graduating high school, Mariam participated in a hackathon to find innovative ways to visualise gender data at the UN Women-supported regional conference Gender Statistics: Challenges and Opportunities to Report on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), held 24-26 July 2019 in Tbilisi. The hackathon was carried out with the support of the UN Women Global Gender Statistics Initiative and the Governments of Austria and Switzerland.

On this International Widows' Day, UN Women Executive Director Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka calls to recognize widows in all their diversity, and acknowledge the need to integrate them fully and visibly into work on gender equality so that we break cycles of poverty and disadvantage and ensure that all widows can enjoy their full human rights.

Dilbar Turakhanova , is a regular consultant for UN Women from Tajikistan with over 10 years of active experience on promotion of gender equality in Tajikistan and Central Asia. A lawyer by training, Ms. Turakhanova conducted several studies on gender issues for UN Women in Tajikistan, including a review of the family law from the perspective of protection of rights of women and children, and mainstreaming gender into the civil registration legislation and policy framework.

To commemorate International Day of Families, which is celebrated every year on 15 May, UN Women office in Tajikistan conducted a roundtable discussion to raise awareness about the impact of social, economic and demographic processes on families, together with the Committee on Women and Family Affairs (CWFA) under the Government of Tajikistan.