Astana Economic Forum highlights women's empowerment as a key driver of economic growth
Achievement of gender equality and empowerment of women are essential for economic growth, agreed leading economic experts and representatives of governments, financial institutions and international organizations at this year’s Astana Economic Forum.Date:
Astana Economic Forum brought together more than 4,300 participants from over 130 countries this year to discuss economic development issues, changes in the global economy and Eurasia’s financial challenges. This year’s theme was "New economic reality: diversification, innovation and knowledge economy.”
Elaine M. Conkievich, Head of UN Women’s Multi-country Office in Kazakhstan presented the Women’s Empowerment Principles (WEPs) at the session on corporate social responsibility. WEPs is a joint initiative of UN Women and UN Global Compact which offer practical guidance to businesses and the private sector at large on how to empower women in the workplace, marketplace and community.
“Women’s empowerment is a critical driver of sustainable development. Empowering women to participate fully in economic life is essential to expand economic growth and build strong economies; promote social development and establish more stable and just societies; enhance business performance; and improve quality of life for women, men, families and communities,” said Ms. Conkievich.
Ms. Conkievich presented each of the seven principles, shared examples and good practices of companies that signed up to the WEPs and called upon Central Asian companies to join this initiative: “Out of more than 1,200 companies that have joined this initiative none is from Central Asia. Maybe this is time for companies to step it up and join the initiative?”
Christine Lagarde, IMF Managing Director, pointed out four key areas that need further action – stronger macroeconomic frameworks, more effective and transparent institutions, a more open and integrated economy and a more inclusive economy. Speaking about gender equality, she commended Kazakhstan for ranking 47th out of 145 in the World Economic Forum’s Gender Gap Index, with higher ratings on economic participation and opportunity. She noted, however, that most women are less active in formal employment.
This year’s Forum attracted renowned experts, politicians, heads of the largest financial institutions and international organizations, and Nobel Prize winners. Among them were: Jack Ma, founder of the AliBaba Group; Suma Chakrabarti, President of the European Bank of Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), Thomas Sargent, the Nobel Prize Laureate in Economics and Cihan Sultanoglu, United Nations Assistant Secretary-General, UNDP Assistant Administrator and Director of the Regional Bureau for Europe and CIS.
UN Women also promoted the HeForShe campaign at the Forum, which sparked interest among the business community, government officials and other forum participants who signed up to the campaign and committed to support gender equality. Elaine M. Conkievich pinned Ambassador Traian Hristea, Head of the EU Delegation to Kazakhstan, and Mr. Darkhan Igembayev, representative of the Ministry of Justice, who also signed up to the campaign.