Promoting women's economic empowerment: Initiatives in Europe and Central Asia

Empowering women in the economic and business spheres is a substantial source of prosperity and a guarantee for sustainable societal growth. International organizations, national bodies and governments should therefore foster policies to promote it at national and global levels. Women’s empowerment is also deeply anchored in the 2030 Agenda and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and as such, has become an essential part of the United Nations Industrial Development Organization's (UNIDO) mandate and of a broad range of its projects.

On 8 February 2019, UNIDO held a promotional event titled “UNIDO as a global platform for the promotion of women's economic empowerment – Initiatives in Europe and Central Asia". The event showcased recent initiatives, projects and near-term plans of the Organization in the field of women’s economic empowerment and entrepreneurship in Europe and Central Asia, in particular within the framework of the ongoing project “UNIDO as a platform to promote women economic empowerment and entrepreneurship” funded by the Government of the Russian Federation. Selected successful joint initiatives of UNIDO and the Russian Federation for the economic empowerment of women in industry were presented.