The International Labor Organization (ILO) in collaboration with the United Nations (UN) Women in November 2015 held a two-week training at the Gender Academy 2015 Exchange Event on Gender, work and development in Italy. The training ran from November 16 – 27, 2015 on the theme “Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment for Sustainable Development. The World Conference held September 2015 in New York was under a similar theme: “Sustainable Development Agenda 2030”.
The training exposed participants to advanced international knowledge and best practices in areas related to gender mainstreaming and development. It brought together 158 gender specialists and practitioners representing 71 countries, including those working in public and private institutions, Labor Ministries and other government institutions, Equal Opportunity Commissions and organizations, development agencies, non-governmental organizations, universities and research centers, private consultants, community mobilizers, UN staff, policy advisors and project managers.
The ILO/UN Women training provideda space to facilitate free discussions on a number of gender related concerns including equal opportunity, dignity, and decent jobs to bridge gender gaps and ensure transformative thinking and mindset of both men and women, as well as provide knowledge, techniques and tools that support changes in attitudes and behaviors. The Gender Academy training placed more emphasis on Gender Equality and empowerment of women through awareness raising, networking, skill development and impacting knowledge.
Although empowering females (women and girls)was a priority of the globalMillennium Development Goals (MDGs), and the current Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs),much more still needs to be done to bridge the gaps between the genders on empowerment related concerns.Many Countries have signedinternational protocols and treaties committing to efforts that assure of respecting, perfecting and protecting women’s rights, and wider prosperity issues, but are yet to give same the priority it deserves.Governance Commission staff, Mrs. Youngor Johnson-Nah participated in the training and tells us that the training program also highlighted “economic and social dimensions of gender equality” including the right of all women to work and decent wage, safe working conditions, adequate pension scheme, health care, safe drinking water, rights to socio-economic status, geographic location, race or ethnicity. On the issue ofpreventing and responding to Gender-based Violence at the Workplace, it was discussed thatGender-based violence both reflects and reinforces inequalities between women and men. At least one in three women around the world is estimated to have been coerced into sex, physically beaten and/or abused in her lifetime.
For women aged 15 to 44 years, such violence is a major cause of disability and death. Gender-based violence not only causes pain and suffering but also devastates families, undermines workplace productivity, diminishes national competitiveness and stalls development. Although the majority of victims of sexual harassment are women, some groups of men are also vulnerable to such harassment. Violence against women was defined in 1993 by the United Nations Declaration on the Elimination of Violence against Women as “any act of gender-based violence that results in, or is likely to result in, physical, sexual or psychological harm or suffering to women, including dowry-related violence, marital rape, female genital mutilation and other harmful traditional practices.Other abuses to women are non-spousal violence and violence related to exploitation, sexual harassment and intimidation at work, in educational institutions and elsewhere; trafficking of women and forced prostitution; forced sterilization and forced abortion; Coercive or forced contraceptive use; Female infanticide and prenatal sex selection; women’s human rights violations in situations of armed conflict-particularly murder, systematic rape, sexual slavery and forced pregnancy.
Gender Statistics and the Empowerment of Women
In the wake of Liberia’s Middle Income goal come 2030, Gender Statistics should feature highly in order the gage level of empowerment, identify challenges/gaps, and/or needs to ensure gender parity. Lack of accurate statistics has the propensity to result to weak, under-resourced statistical systems, particularly in developing counties. However, gaps in gender statistics also arise from failure to prioritize the collection of data.
In 2013, a global review of gender statistics programs in 126 countries found that only 37 percent of them had a coordinating body for gender statistics at the national level whilst only 13 percent had a regular dedicated budget for the production for these data. Review of the Beijing Platform for Action found that besides technical and financial constraints, lack of political will and limited awareness of the importance of data collection on gender equality are critical barriers to progress.
