Locations
Closing the gender equality gap
Closing the gender equality gap
July 29, 2015
Gender equality, women’s empowerment and the realization of women’s rights are critical to sustainable human development. UNDP recognizes the importance of gender equality and women’s empowerment across the three pillars of sustainable development – economic, social and environmental. UNDP’s integrated approach tackles the connected issues of multidimensional poverty, inequality and exclusion of both women and men, while enhancing knowledge to reduce vulnerability and sustain development gains.
This report, Closing the Gap: An Overview of UNDP Results in Gender Equality in Europe and the CIS, presents some of the key results achieved by UNDP Country Offices over the last year in response to some of these challenges. It highlights successful initiatives that have had measurable impact in a range of areas: economic empowerment, access to resources and essential services, combating discriminatory social norms, promoting participation in decision-making, and building resilience.
Highlights
Approximately 76 percent of women in Montenegro suffer from sexual or/and intimate partner violence. UNDP worked with partners to provide survivors of domestic violence with an effective protection system which, once implemented, resulted in reported cases tripling in one year (2013- 2014), as more women came forward and sought protection.
In Montenegro, women’s participation in the paid labour market was just 37 percent, which was lower than the world average of 50.6 percent. 60 out of 138 women who underwent a tailored educational training within the Gender IPA 2010 Programme, developed plans for business start-ups. In addition, the programme introduced a credit line for women’s entrepreneurship by the state development fund.
UNDP trained 18 women in how to increase women’s participation in parliamentary parties. These trainers conducted grass-roots training courses for 324 female political candidates throughout Montenegro, increasing their knowledge on democratic governance and inclusive government.
In June 2015, four Country Offices from the ECIS region were awarded the UNDP Gender Equality Seal 2013-2014. UNDP in Moldova and UNDP in Montenegro earned silver seals, and UNDP in Belarus and UNDP in Kosovo won bronze seals.