UNITED NATIONS OBSERVANCES

International Women's Day (IWD), originally called International Working Women’s Day, is marked on March 8 every year.

If every International Women's Day event held in 2012 includes girls in some way, then thousands of minds will be inspired globally.

Each year around the world, International Women's Day (IWD) is celebrated on March 8. Thousands of events occur not just on this day but throughout March to mark the economic, political and social achievements of women.

Organisations, governments, charities and women's groups around the world choose different themes each year that reflect global and local gender issues.

"Connecting Girls, Inspiring Futures" is the 2012 theme of the internationalwomensday.com website and this has been widely used by hundreds of organisations including schools, universities, governments, women’s groups and the private sector. Each year the United Nations declares an overall International Women's Day theme. Their 2012 theme is “Empower Rural Women – End Hunger and Poverty”. Many organisations develop their own themes that are

The United Nations General Assembly has declared 2012 as the International Year of Cooperatives, highlighting the contribution of cooperatives to socio-economic development, particularly their impact on poverty reduction, employment generation and social integration.

2011 Theme: “Mountains and Forests”