Kazakhstan has a long-standing policy of legislative support to women. The first Central Asian country to set up a national entity to promote gender equality, Kazakhstan approved in 2016 the Concept of Family and Gender Policy up to 2030, to prevent gender-based discrimination and imbalances. 

Kazakhstan has ratified major international treaties, including the UN Convention on Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, six International Labour Organisation (ILO) conventions and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

Investing in women’s economic empowerment leads to greater equality, poverty reduction and economic growth for all. Women make enormous economic contributions to businesses, on farms, as entrepreneurs or employees, or by doing unpaid work at home.

UN Women Kazakhstan supports:

• Government efforts to develop and implement national and sectoral programmes to engage socially vulnerable women in entrepreneurial activities;
• Initiatives to improve the public and business environment for socially vulnerable women.

UN Women in Action in Kazakhstan

• Built civil servants’ capacity to achieve gender equality and women’s empowerment by implementing programmes, training, and running information and advocacy campaigns;
• Provided expert technical support for gender analysis of state programmes;
• Promoted gender equality and women's empowerment in UN agencies in Kazakhstan;
• Worked with Kazakh businesses to promote the Women’s Empowerment Principles (WEPs). Today, Kazakhstan is the leader in Central Asia in terms of the number of WEPs signatories. As of May 2024, 50 companies have joined WEPs;
• Over 85 women entrepreneurs participated in the Women's Entrepreneurship Satellite EXPO 2023 in Astana organized by UN Women. Participants built their capacities on key aspects of business planning, effective pricing, branding, product packaging, and digital marketing. 10 startups in such areas as healthcare, quality management, finance and investment, education, information technology, social entrepreneurship, and ecology, with the most promising potential for development and scaling were chosen from a pool of 85 contestants for pitching competition, which provided participants with network opportunities, exchange experiences and knowledge, and propel their businesses to the next level;
• Supported activists and civil society organizations to raise public awareness about gender equality and women’s empowerment and ending violence against women;
• Worked in remote and rural areas with women from socially vulnerable groups. In 2023, around 60 rural women significantly increased their economic potential and self-reliance through participating in a practical training organized by UN Women in Kostanay, West-Kazakhstan, Mangystau, and Zhambyl oblasts. This project was focused on enhancing rural women skills in cheese-making, hop cultivation, and felt needlework in since these regions has big potential and rich with raw materials for the development of entrepreneurship in these areas. The project involved practical training sessions that focused on product development, market analysis, and cost calculation, tailored to the local context. Through this initiative UN Women tackled structural barriers such as unpaid household work and limited entrepreneurial opportunities for women. Practical workshops and training, contributed women to balance unpaid housework with entrepreneurship, fostering economic independence and challenging gender stereotypes;
• Raised awareness of women employed in the sphere of arts and culture. More than 50 women and men were trained through series of online seminars on commercialization of art and creative industry products;
• UN Women, UNDP, ADB, the National Commission on Women Affairs and Family and Demographic Policy under the President of the Republic of Kazakhstan, the Ministry of Labor and Social Protection of the Republic of Kazakhstan and the National Chamber of Entrepreneurs “Atameken” launched 17 Women’s Entrepreneurship Development Centers (WEDCs) in all provinces and major cities of the country within the framework of Kazakhstan's global commitments of the Generation of Equality Forum. More than 9,000 women have been provided with a total of 26,386 services to open or expand startups, obtain the necessary tools to digitalize the business and place it on e-commerce platforms.

[1] Ministry of National Economy of Kazakhstan. Committee on Statistics. Women and Men of Kazakhstan 2012-2016, Astana, 2017