Page 325 - Ministry of Economy - December 2017

12/26/2017 Concrete steps to promote women's leadership in economic growth taken at WEEGS | MENAFN.COM
Gender-responsive procurement of goods and services by
increasing the number of products procured from women

owned and run enterprises, and making it a mainstream trade
practice instead of an exception, was one of the summits key

focus areas, as per the UN Report's recommendations.
Currently, only 1 percent of goods procured globally fall in this
category.

"I want to thank the UAE government and the Emirati
leadership who have played a pivotal role in different ways,"

said Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, the Under Secretary General
and Executive Director of UN Women.

"We are left with only 13 years before 2030 by which time we

should have reached substantive equality. We are making a
case and argument that gender equality is not an open ended

journey; it has an expiry date. What would the world look like
in 2030 if it lived up to the expectations of the Agenda 2030?

Violence against women will not be a norm; society will not
tolerate child marriage or traf cking. Everywhere, we will have

mechanisms to ensure these practices do not thrive. In 2030,
we will want to ensure that equal pay is a norm, and women
enjoy greater representation in a diverse set of economic and

leadership roles. Is this too much to ask, or is this rocket
science," she added.

The importance role of technology speci cally in addressing
women's entrepreneurship issues were highlighted, in context
of its role in creation and marketing of products, accessing

nance, increasing the reach of companies and enhancing
pro tability.

WEEGS raised the bar on the Women's Empowerment
Principles (WEPs) by being a platform where 20 organisations,
public and private, demonstrated leadership on gender

equality by adopting of two WEPs each under the 'WEEGS
Pledge'. The summit emphasised that this initiative was a step

towards ensuring that by 2030, businesses around the world

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