The Annual Meeting of the SPECA Working Group on Gender and SDGs is held in advance of the SPECA Economic Forum. The meeting serves as a forum for policy dialogue, capacity building and networking for government stakeholders from relevant key ministries and agencies in SPECA countries, in partnership with UN agencies to discuss critical and key emerging issues for gender-transformative economic policies to support women’s economic empowerment. The meeting will contribute to efforts toward women’s economic empowerment and gender equality, poverty reduction and economic growth in support of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the Sustainable Development Goals.
Participants will share experiences in the promotion of gender equality and how these measures have affected women’s empowerment in their countries. Strategies and actions will be further discussed to identify the way forward towards advancing gender equality, including women’s full economic and political empowerment in support of the 2030 Agenda.
Specific objectives of the Working Group for this Annual Meeting include:
- Explore the potential of gender equality as a catalyst for global connectivity and transformative growth in the SPECA Region.
- Share experiences and lessons learned in the promotion of women’s full, equal and meaningful participation and decision-making in the context of economic empowerment and discuss challenges and national priorities for advancing gender equality and the empowerment of all women and girls.
- Bring increasing prominence to the importance of gender equality and women’s empowerment for the SPECA Region in advancing towards the targets of all Sustainable Development Goals.
- Identify actions and best practices to improve the enabling environment for women and girls in SPECA countries, including cross-sectoral measures and institutional coordination, public-private partnerships and active engagement of women’s associations and women beneficiary groups into consultative and decision-making processes.
- Discuss how the SPECA Working Group on Gender and the SDGs can best be utilised to advance cooperation on the implementation of the SDG 5 on Gender Equality and the Empowerment of All Women and Girls.