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UN Women, grounded in the vision of equality enshrined
in the Charter of the United Nations, works for the elimination of
discrimination against women and girls; the empowerment of women; and the
achievement of equality between women and men as partners and beneficiaries
of development, human rights, humanitarian action and peace and security.
In 2015, on 25 September, the United Nations General
Assembly adopted unanimously the Resolution 70/1 Transforming our World: the
2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and Sustainable Development Goals
(SDGs). Gender equality and women’s empowerment is at the heart of the
agenda, as numerous goals and targets address structural barriers to achieve
equal rights and opportunities between women and men, girls and boys.
One of the key areas of concern is the economic
empowerment of women. It is expressed in targets and indicators of SDG 5
(Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls) and SDG 8 (Promote
inclusive and sustainable development, decent work and employment for all).
Progress toward it depends not only on the adoption of a set of public
policies by governments, but also on the existence of an enabling environment
and active engagement of the corporate sector. This is also relevant to the
achievement of SDG 1 (Poverty Reduction), SDG 10 (Reduced inequalities) and
SDG 17 (Revitalize the global partnership for sustainable development).
About 90 per cent of jobs in the world are in the
private sector. This represents a huge potential to implement transformative
actions in the world of work and social responsibility in favour of women,
benefiting the whole society. There is an increasing consciousness, interest
and commitment of private and public sector companies on the value and
benefits of gender equality and the economic empowerment of women and its
role to achieve it.
UN Women - in partnership with the European Commission
is implementing a regional programme (covering 7 countries: India, Indonesia,
China, Philippines, Malaysia, Thailand, and Viet Nam) “Promoting Economic
Empowerment of Women at Work in Asia – WeEmpower Asia” to contribute to the
economic empowerment of women, recognizing them as beneficiaries and partners
of growth and development, by increasing commitment of private companies to
gender equality and women´s empowerment and strengthening companies’
capacities to implement these commitments.
The programme will achieve this through three
complementary outcome areas to be implemented in seven selected middle-income
countries in Asia:
·
Women’s networks, public institutions, and the
private sector will collaborate and share expertise and knowledge to build an
enabling business environment for women’s economic empowerment in the
workplace and in the market place,
·
The capacity of women-owned businesses and women
entrepreneurs will be developed to enable them to engage with government and
private sector corporations in policy development and dialogues for advancing
women’s economic empowerment, and
·
The private sector will be supported to implement
gender-sensitive practices and culture within their businesses through the
take-up of the Women Empowerment Principles (the WEPs – a set of guiding
principles to achieve gender equality within companies).
The guiding platform will be the Women’s Empowerment Principles
- a set of Principles for businesses offering guidance on how to empower
women in the workplace, marketplace and community. Coordinated by UN
Women and the UN Global Compact, the Principles emphasize the business case
for corporate action to promote gender equality and women's empowerment and
are informed by real-life business practices and inputs gathered from across
the globe.
The programme will targeting women led enterprises and
networks, multi-national companies, and relevant stakeholders to promote
business opportunities for women entrepreneurs and women-owned enterprises
while supporting national and inter-regional dialogue and exchange of good
practices to increase the capacity of the private sector more broadly in the
implementation of gender-sensitive business culture and practices.
The programme will liaise closely with key Indian
Government Ministries/Departments e.g. with Ministry of Corporate
Affairs in supporting its commitment for promotion of socially responsible
businesses. With the gender equality perspective, the programme will
provide technical advice and support for policy development at the national
and sectoral levels, and assistance for policy implementation through
strategic partnerships leading to women’s economic empowerment.
Under WEA, UN Women supported the Ministry of
Corporate Affairs, in developing gender responsive recommendations based on a
consultative process and review of women’s labour rights for the National
Action Plan (NAP) on Business and Human Rights and presented to the Ministry.
UN Women seeks the services of a national
consultant/technical expert to be placed at the Ministry of Corporate Affairs
who would bring in analysis, research and technical expertise to mainstream
gender through in the national policy instruments including but not limited
to: National Action Plan on Business and Human Rights (NAP), National
Guidelines on Responsible Business Conduct (NGRBC) as well as the research
support to assess the implementation of mandatory laws on promoting gender
equality in the corporate sector and demonstrating responsible business
conduct.
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