[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]UN Women in partnership with the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ), a federal enterprise supporting the German Government on international cooperation for sustainable development, organised a ‘Gender Meet’ on 4 March in New Delhi. The theme for this half-day meeting was ‘’Gender equality at the heart of development.’’ The seminar served as a platform to discuss critical areas of women’s empowerment and also sought to understand how gender is being made central to national development.
The GIZ India Gender Meet reflected on the founding principles of “Equal rights, equal duties, equal opportunities and equal power for women and men” as one of the basic principles of German Development Policy. It also acknowledged and built on the commitment of UN member states to accelerate universally acceptable goals on gender equality and women’s empowerment. Discussing about the path ahead, participants emphasised the need for renewed commitment, strengthened action and increasing the knowledge base to realise gender equality, women’s empowerment and the human rights of women and girls.
The Meet included discussions centred on critical areas of women’s empowerment related to skill development, women’s leadership and participation, livelihoods, and also topics addressing safety, violence against women and engaging with men and boys in the struggle for gender equality. The discussion on these critical areas added a valuable perspective to the overall discussion on ‘gender equality at the heart of development’. UN Women’s Subhalakshmi Nandi, head of the Women’s
Economic Empowerment unit, addressed poverty, women’s access to public schemes and land/property rights in her discussion at the Meet.
The issue of violence against women was taken up by Anju Pandey, Programme Manager, Evaluation of Violence Against Women (EVAW) unit.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]