Today Rushanara Ali MP and I held meetings at the United Nations with UN Women, the United Nations Development Programme, US Ambassador Rick Barton, UNICEF and the UN Population Fund.

We discussed the vision and priorities of UN Women, action to tackle Female Genital Mutilation and the UN's work to fight inequality. We also discussed the situtation in Afghanistan, Ivory Coast, Libya and the Middle East and North Africa.

Harriet Harman and Rushanara Ali with Lakshmi Puri UN Women Deputy Executive Director