The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) is committed to women’s economic empowerment across the country.
UNDP Resident Representative, Nicholas Booth said in recent years, UNDP’s various initiatives have provided trainings and other forms of support to more than 300 women-led businesses and 2000 businesswomen.
“Our new Blue Economy Accelerator, which we will be launching in Kimbe in the coming months with support from the United Kingdom, will provide financial and technical support to women-led businesses who will play a key role in strengthening Papua New Guinea’s sustainable blue and green economies.
“Through our peacebuilding efforts in the Highlands and in the Autonomous Region of Bougainville, we are also partnering with women entrepreneurs and women peacebuilders to lead the transformation towards peaceful and prosperous communities.
“In partnership with Japan, we will shortly open three Innovation Hubs in Bougainville, which will support start-up businesses to grow, putting women and youth-led businesses first.”
Mr Booth said women’s political leadership is just as important as economic leadership.
“In partnership with Australia, we will not only continue to support the Parliamentary Committee on Gender Equality, but also work with the Joint Parliamentary Women’s Caucus to help them in implementing their new strategy of empowering a new generation of women leaders, including by ensuring that more women are elected to the national and Bougainville parliaments.”
“We will also continue to do our part to eradicate gender-based violence. We will continue to advocate for increased national funding (just 7.93 million Kina allocated in 2022) and to partner with the Department for Community Development and Religion to train thousands of frontline workers (such as police and safe-house staff) serving survivors.”
UNDP also helped establish a national committee to address GBV, and through it worked with every province to design strategies that will bring the fight against GBV to the community-level.
Through the EU-funded work on anti-corruption UNDP will shine a light on the different ways in which corruption harms women and girls, including through gendered forms of corruption such as sextortion.
“Building on research that shows that women are less likely to report corruption than men, we will work with women’s associations to raise awareness and provide safe channels for women to speak out, thus empowering them to be at the front lines in the fight against corruption.
“These are just some of the ways in which we are putting women at the front and centre of our work. We understand that for as long as gender inequality persists, Papua New Guinea’s development will continue to be hindered and women’s empowerment must remain a key part of everything we do.
“On International Women’s Day, we invite everyone in Papua New Guinea to join us in making 2024 the year in which we step up our investment in women.
“It is the only way real progress in the country can be achieved.”