Minister of Gender and Family, Ms. Zenysha Shaheed Zaki participated in the UN Secretary General’s High Level roundtable on Women’s Economic Empowerment, held at the sidelines of the 72nd Session of the United Nations General Assembly.
Discussions at the event acknowledged that gender inequalities remain persistent across the world and highlighted the benefits of women’s economic empowerment, both for economies as well as societies.
During Minister Zenysha’s intervention at the event, she stated that the Government of President Abdulla Yameen Abdul Gayoom places high priority on promoting women’s economic empowerment and women’s participation in leadership positions, and that the Government introduced a 30 percent quota for women at all managing boards in Government agencies, Commissions and State-owned enterprises.
Minister Zenysha further added that the Government has introduced special loan schemes for women entrepreneurs to establish small and medium enterprises, and that the Government is also working to provide capacity building for Women’s Development Committees established at city and island level across the country. She also informed that a Council for Economic Empowerment of Women has been established to advice the Government on this issue.
The event also focused on taking forward the recommendations made by the High-Level Panel that included removal of barriers on building women’s economic empowerment in ways that leave nobody behind, particularly the most marginalized women.
The Side-Event was chaired by the United Nations Secretary General, Mr. António Guterres and key-note speakers included President of Costa Rica Mr. Luis Guillermo Solís, Prime Minister of Bangladesh, Sheikh Haseena and Executive Director of UN Women, Ms. Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka.
23 September 2017