Economic Empowerment Of Women For Sustainable Development

In the global pursuit of equitable progress, the empowerment of women emerges as not merely an ethical imperative but a pragmatic necessity. The imperative of women's economic empowerment finds resonance throughout history, woven into the fabric of social movements, policy reforms, and economic progress. From the suffragette movements of the late 19th and early 20th centuries to the landmark conventions on women's rights and development in the latter half of the 20th century, the trajectory of gender equality has been marked by both triumphs and trials. The 1995 Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing stands as a watershed moment, galvanizing global commitments to women's empowerment and setting forth an ambitious agenda for action. Subsequent milestones, including the adoption of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in 2015, further underscore the intertwined nature of gender equality and sustainable development. Over the years though the researchers, academicians and government have tried to find ways and means for economic empowerment of women many aspects of women economic empowerment-entrepreneurship and innovation, work place equality, global partnership etc are yet to be completely resolved. Little attention has been paid to the above aspects by the researchers, policy makers and development planners. The present volume titled “"Economic Empowerment of Women for Sustainable Development" containing 32 papers covers different aspects and issues related to economic empowerment of women and sustainable development. It is an initiative for shedding light on the pivotal role women play in fostering sustainable economic development. The main themes with the volume covers are: financial inclusion, education skill development, technology and digital inclusion, leadership, decision making, policy and advocacy. The volume will provide women’s input and health for the academicians, researchers, policy makers and government officials.

This book investigates the barriers to women’s economic empowerment in the Global South. Drawing on evidence from a wide range of countries, the book outlines important lessons and practical solutions for promoting gender equality. Despite global progress in closing gender gaps in education and health, women’s economic empowerment has lagged behind, with little evidence that economic growth promotes gender equality. International Development Research Centre’s (IDRC) Growth and Economic Opportunities for Women (GrOW) programme was set up to provide policy lessons, insights, and concrete solutions that could lead to advances in gender equality, particularly on the role of institutions and macroeconomic growth, barriers to labour market access for women, and the impact of women’s care responsibilities. This book showcases rigorous and multi-disciplinary research emerging from this ground-breaking programme, covering topics such as the school-to-work transition, child marriage, unpaid domestic work and childcare, labour market segregation, and the power of social and cultural norms that prevent women from fully participating in better paid sectors of the economy. With a range of rich case studies from Burkina Faso, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia, Ghana, India, Kenya, Nepal, Rwanda, Sri Lanka, Tanzania, and Uganda, this book is perfect for students, researchers, practitioners, and policymakers working on women’s economic empowerment and gender equality in the Global South.

Study conducted in Shimla District of Himachal Pradesh, India.

Taking a comprehensive global approach, this book identifies the trends, drivers and impact of gender equality. Providing best practice recommendations and posing key challenges for achieving SDG5, this is the only book which comprehensively deals with all the key aspects of the goal based on the latest credible research.

This book adds significantly to the discourse surrounding the progress made in empowering women in Africa over the last decade, providing strong research evidence on diverse and timely gender issues in varied African countries. Topics covered include climate change and environmental degradation, agriculture and land rights, access to – and quality of – education, maternal and reproductive health, unpaid care and women’s labor market participation, financial inclusion and women’s political participation. Cross cutting issues such as migration, masculinities and social norms are also addressed in this volume, which is aimed at policy makers, academics, and indeed anyone else interested in the UN Sustainable Development Goal of the empowerment of women and girls.

This open access book analyses the interplay of sustainable development and human rights from different perspectives including fight against poverty, health, gender equality, working conditions, climate change and the role of private actors. Each aspect is addressed from a more human rights-focused angle and a development-policy angle. This allows comparisons between the different approaches but also seeks to close gaps which would remain if only one perspective would be at the center of the discussions. Specifically, the book shows the strong connections between human rights and the objectives of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the Sustainable Development Goals adopted by the United Nations in 2015. Already the preamble of this document explicitly states that "the 17 Sustainable Development Goals ... seek to realise the human rights of all". Moreover, several goals and targets of the 2030 Agenda correspond to already existing individual human rights obligations. The contributions of this volume therefore also address how the implementation of human rights and SDGs can reinforce each other, but also point to critical shortcomings of the different approaches.

This edited volume assesses the progress that sub-Saharan African countries have made towards gender equality and offers strategies that can be used to empower African women to contribute to the fulfilment of the United Nations’ (UN) 2030 sustainable development goals (SDGs). The contributing authors consider the goals identified during the 1995 United Nations World Conference on Women and the 2015 UN World Conference on Sustainable Development in New York—including no poverty, healthy life, quality education, gender equality, peace and justice, reduced inequalities, and decent work and economic growth—and document the advances made on these goals, with a special emphasis on African women’s experiences. They provide innovative ideas for accelerating achievement of the SDGs and address challenges and opportunities in tourism, business, politics, entrepreneurship, academia, financial inclusion, and the digital gender divide. This book will be of value to policymakers, non-profit organisations focused on gender equality and sustainable development, and academics and scholars who teach and study gender-related issues in the African continent.

"The economic and social imperative for women’s economic empowerment is clear. Greater gender equality boosts economic growth and leads to better development outcomes. It contributes to reducing income inequality and boosting economic diversification and, in turn, supports economic resilience. Gender equality is one of the 17 global UN Sustainable Development Goals, which provide a roadmap for ending poverty, protecting the planet, and ensuring that all people enjoy peace and prosperity. The G7 has emphasized the need for closing the gender gap. The Taormina Leaders’ Summit in 2017 renewed the emphasis on promoting women’s empowerment, which the leaders see as a crucial contribution to promoting sustainable development. In this regard, leaders committed to mainstreaming gender equality into all their policies. This is carried forward by Canada’s G7 Presidency. With growing recognition that gender equality promotes economic stability and growth, the IMF has scaled up its work in this area and is committed to continue these efforts. Work by the IMF will focus on (i) deepening its understanding of the economic benefits of women’s empowerment, both in the labor market and through more equal opportunities for boys and girls, also against the background of persistent megatrends, including in an environment of rapid technological change; (ii) integrating the analysis into Fund policy dialogue with member countries; (iii) providing customized assistance, workshops, and peer-learning courses in areas such as gender budgeting; and (iv) expanding collaboration with other international institutions on the subject to benefit from complementary areas of expertise."

This book uses an open, explorative approach to deal with the different aspects of gender discrimination and gender empowerment policies, as well as their impact on economic development and capacity-building in several African countries. It uses primary and secondary data to present the argument that, without the full input of women, sustainable development will not be achieved in many African countries. This book is the first text written by knowledgeable gender issue experts that understand the culture of, and lived and conducted research in, Africa. It provides many examples of the relationships between gender and economic development around the African continent, highlighting different processes and practices. As such, the contributors here illustrate the impact of weak gender policies, and the ability to adequately develop female capacity building that could lead to wide-spread sustainable economic growth in Africa. They also explore a wide range of new dimensions and variables that are commonly ignored by other text books on gender equality. The book will help graduate, undergraduate students and other readers to understand women’s policies in the past, present, and future by analysing and illustrating cultural, political and socio-historical contexts which have shaped women’s role in the economic and sustainable development of Africa.

India is facing a number of challenges in consolidating, saturating and sustaining SHG movement, especially in SBLP. Towards this, the impediments need to be identified and appropriate strategies have to be developed to overcome the identified impediments. The Government promotional efforts need to be supplemented with learning from different states' experiences and independent assessments and observations of present status of SHG institutions in the country. Self-help groups (SHGs) and women's self-help groups (WSHGs) in particular, represent a form of intervention that is a radical departure from most current programmes. Self-help groups are small informal association of the poor created at the grass root level for the purpose of enabling members to reap economic benefits out of mutual help solidarity and joint responsibility. Self-help groups are formed voluntarily by the rural and urban poor to save and contribute to a common fund to be lent to be lent to its members as per group decision and for working together for social and economic uplift of their families and community. As these self-help groups are effective for eradication of poverty and social empowerment and sustainable empowerment. The paper will discuss the working of grassroots participatory implementation of self-help groups that is demand driven by 'beneficiaries' that, in other projects, often find themselves receiving goods or services in a manner that is opaque and impersonal. Further the paper will evaluate the self-help groups disburse microcredit to the rural women for the purpose of making them enterprising women and encouraging them to inter into entrepreneurial activities. Credit needs of the rural and urban poor women are fulfilled totally thought the SHGs. SHGs enhance equality of status of women as participation, decision-makers and beneficiaries in the democratic, economic, social and cultural spheres of life. The paper will conclude with the review of literature and how the women are empowered by the micro finance institutions socially and economically protecting their rights with valuable information for implementing agency as well as policy makers to enhance the performance of SHGs and sustainable development of women empowerment.