EQUALS is a global partnership with membership across different stakeholders including governments, private sector leaders, NGOs, communities, and individuals to promote gender equality in ICT access, skills, and leadership. The EQUALS Research Group ensures an evidence-based approach towards achieving the Partnership goals.
The Women ICT Frontier Initiative (WIFI) flagship programme aims to promote women’s entrepreneurship in Asia and the Pacific through enhancing capabilities of women entrepreneurs in ICT and entrepreneurship so that they and their enterprises can become more productive, and hopefully grow and be sustainable so that they can actively contribute to community development as well as to the local and national economy.
The Asia-Pacific Portal for Gender Equality has been established to support governments and other stakeholders in the Asia-Pacific region in their efforts to realize gender equality and women’s empowerment, particularly with respect to the implementation of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, and the Asian and Pacific Ministerial Declaration on Advancing Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment.
In 2017/18 the United Nations Capital Development Fund (UNCDF) undertook the first comprehensive review of micro-merchants in Bangladesh engaged in the retail sector, particularly in Fast Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG) operating mostly in rural areas.
Women and girls face barriers in the enabling environment, in the supply of and in their demand for financial products and services, as well as in their socio-cultural context. To address this challenge, UNCDF has developed a global strategy on women’s economic participation and empowerment for Financial Inclusion Practice Area (FIPA) called Participation of Women in the Economy Realized (PoWER).
UNCDF, in collaboration with UNESCAP, is launching an Innovation Fund on digital solutions for micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises in Asia-Pacific.
Accelerating progress: An empowered, inclusive and equal Asia and the Pacific responds to the theme of the 6th Asia Pacific Forum on Sustainable Development and the 2019 session of the high-level political forum on sustainable development.
The World Youth Report on “Youth and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development”, prepared by the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UN DESA), examines the mutually supportive roles of the new agenda and current youth development efforts.
The Gender Equality in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development training course aims to develop and strengthen awareness of gender equality and women’s empowerment issues within the context of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. The principles of gender equality are integral to the goals, targets and indicators embedded across the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and its 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).