Integrating women into technical cooperation

Eliminating discrimination against women in industry

Description

Integrating women into technical cooperation involves actively ensuring their participation and leadership in technical projects, decision-making, and capacity-building initiatives. This strategy addresses gender disparities by promoting equal access to training, resources, and professional networks. Practical actions include targeted recruitment, gender-sensitive project design, and mentorship programs. The aim is to enhance project effectiveness, foster innovation, and remedy systemic exclusion, thereby maximizing the social and economic impact of technical cooperation efforts.

Implementation

UNIDO aims to ensure that women are more fully integrated in technical cooperation and promotion activities as well as in policy study and research programmes. UNIFEM has special measures to: train women workers in non-traditional specialized skills to prepare them for changing technology, to multiply their employment opportunities and to increase their productivity; train women in organizational development, management, financial planning and other skills needed by executives in industry; develop means of regularly updating the skills of women in industry. Regular UNDP programming includes projects in the sectors of industry in which the participation of women is encouraged. Separate projects focus on women in such sectors as rural small-scale industry and light manufacturing. INSTRAW cooperates with UNIDO in preparing training material on women's managerial and entrepreneurial role in industry.