Following on from our three previous meetings on promoting women’s economic empowerment, this next event in the series focused on concrete actions for empowering women as economic actors. The United Nation’s Secretary General’s High-Level Panel on Women’s Economic Empowerment completed its work in March 2017 and has delivered two transformational reports focused on action and results. This meeting drew on the work of the Panel. The starting point for our discussions was that whilst there is no silver bullet for removing the systemic constraints to women’s full and equal economic participation, there is an important role for government, business, civil society and academia to take concrete actions to effect change.
This year’s event focused on how best to create an enabling environment through strategically tailored initiatives and partnerships between business, government, and civil society. For example, this enabling environment might be characterised by the implementation of policies and legal reforms that remove structural barriers, the challenging of discriminatory norms, ensuring adequate social protection, expansion of access to crucial infrastructure, and/or facilitation of the organisation and collective voice of women to set the terms of their economic engagement.
Useful reading
UN Secretary General’s High Level Panel on Women’s Economic Empowerment – First Report (UN Women)
UN Secretary General’s High Level Panel on Women’s Economic Empowerment – Second Report (UN Women)
Women’s Entrepreneurship 2016/2017 Report Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM)
Women, Business and the Law 2016: Getting to Equal (The World Bank)
