News and Events

Programme

15 March 2023

15:00- 18:00, ECOSOC Chamber, United Nations Headquarters

Empowering women to participate fully in economic life is essential to build stronger economies and improve the quality of life for women, men, families and communities. The private sector has a central and active role to play in achieving gender equality and women’s empowerment under the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Development is about how we all choose to do business and how we reflect principles of equality on an everyday level, so they permeate our cultures, values, performance and business practices.

Companies drive gains in productivity, competitiveness and innovation by developing policies and practices to improve gender equality at the workplace, and developing gender responsive procurement and source from women-owned businesses.

We cannot reach the goals of the 2030 Agenda unless women and girls are on an equal footing with men and boys and unless we have the private sector on board.

In the spirit of advancing the crucial role of the private sector to achieve Goal 5, UN Women and UNGC join to organize the Annual Women’s Empowerment Principles Event. The event will take place in New York in March 2018 and will provide a platform for presenting ongoing, successful business initiatives that aim at women’s empowerment, economic inclusion and entrepreneurship globally.

Register to attend the event. 

Please note that your RSVP does not confirm your participation. Each request indicating interest will be reviewed and priority will be given to companies that have signed the CEO Statement of Support for the WEPs. You will received a confirmation email once we have reviewed your request.

 

Objectives of this half-day conference are to:

  • Build awareness of business innovations that accelerate women’s empowerment and have a real impact on the quality of life for women, men, families and communities,
  • Identify key actions to address the financing gap for women’s empowerment,
  • Drive change and commit to scaled-up partnerships between the UN, and the private sector for achieving the 2030 Agenda through women’s economic empowerment.

The ambition of the conference is to showcase private sector initiatives aiming at the acceleration of gender equality and to examine how these activities can be scaled up. To this end, UN Women and UNGC will invite private sector partners to how they are working to fast-track women’s equal participation in the workforce and as entrepreneurs as well as to ensure women’s empowerment in value chains and their access to finance, inter alia. The event will touch upon private sector engagement for gender equality as envisaged by UN Women:

  1. Doing business differently: Gender diversity helps business to better. Yet, despite wide recognition of this fact, women continue to confront discrimination, marginalization and exclusion at work. They are excluded from value chains and have difficulty finding formal job which is seriously hindering their independence. Changing corporate policies in a way that fully empowers female staff and empowers women as entrepreneurs unlocks unprecedented benefits – for companies and societies.
  2. Investing in gender equality and women’s empowerment: Women’s access to information, finance and markets a precondition for their full participation in the economy. Investors that make investments in gender-responsive companies, and corporations that invest in and source from women’s enterprises and offer them access to global supply chains are at the forefront of changing the current economic landscape.
  3. Driving innovation: Harnessing the potential of innovation and technology provides unprecedented opportunities to break isolation, create economies of scale, and change social norms. Tapping on these potentials together with the private sector, this can become a source of long-lasting changes for a more gender-equal world.