Throughout the last decade, significant milestones were achieved in advancing gender equality and empowering women and girls in socioeconomic areas. Despite a considerable number of targeted initiatives, achieving gender parity remains a distant objective with many barriers holding back progress.

“We welcome UNIDO’s role as a global platform for the promotion of women’s economic empowerment and leadership, and call for continued efforts, strengthening of international cooperation and partnerships with public, private sector and academia in this field,” – reemphasized UNIDO Member States in the Abu Dhabi Declaration adopted at the 18th session of the UNIDO General Conference in November 2019.

Gender equality is a cross-cutting priority in all UNIDO activities. The Organization strives to support women in acquiring essential skills and gaining fair access to productive and financial resources, which would allow them to thrive economically and contribute to inclusive and sustainable industrialization on an equal footing with men.

Since 2018, with the financial support of the Russian Federation, UNIDO has been working to advance the women’s economic empowerment agenda in the region of Europe and Central Asia and beyond. Within its multi-stakeholder and cross-sectoral approach, UNIDO has been undertaking activities in the following key service dimensions: sharing knowledge and expertise; forging partnerships and networking; developing competencies and capacity-building.

The project outcome document of May 2022 is available here.

UNIDO collected best practices, smart solutions and policy recommendations, which were generated during the Organization’s knowledge-sharing events undertaken in-person and virtually on the sidelines of such global platforms for dialogue as the Saint Petersburg International Economic Forum, the Global Manufacturing and Industrialisation Summit and the Eurasian Women’s Forum from 2018 through 2022.