President Bidya Devi Bhandari received 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. President.

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

President dedicated the award to the Nepali women whose struggle for gender empowerment and inclusion contributed to the achievements that Nepal has made in those agendas thus far.

While accepting the award, President emphasized Nepal’s progress and commitment to gender empowerment and Nepal’s commitment to making further progress in this area.

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

During the keynote speech, President Bhandari also 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 in the afternoon on the sidelines of the Forum, the Prime Minister of Iceland. Katrίn 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.

Also on the sidelines,. SimaBahous, Executive Director of the UN Women called on the President and appreciated the progress made by Nepal in women’s political empowerment and SDG indicators.

Separately, Silvana-Koch Mehrin, President and Founder of Women Political Leaders and Laura Liswood, Secretary General of the Council of Women World Leaders also called on the Rt. Hon. President and discussed various experiences and issues related to gender, development and climate change. Two famous Icelandic mountaineers who summited Sagarmatha and Lhotse also met with the. President and shared their experience. President also interacted with Icelandic and international media.

In the evening, President attended an event hosted by the Nepali diaspora in Iceland and briefly addressed the community.