UNESCO-UNEVOC participates in Conference on Women’s Economic Empowerment

From 9 to 10 November 2015, 250 experts from over 50 countries met in Berlin, Germany, for a high-level conference on women’s empowerment. The conference, organised by the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation (BMZ) of Germany with support from Women’s World Banking in the context of Germany’s presidency of the G7, focused on the ways the economic empowerment of women can contribute to poverty and inequality alleviation, and contribute to sustainable economic growth. The conference delved into a number of salient issues including legal and social rights for empowerment, private sector engagement, the role of skills and TVET, and financial inclusion for empowerment.

Katerina Ananiadou, Programme Specialist at UNESCO-UNEVOC, took part in one of the panel discussions held during the two-day conference. The panel discussion, titled ‘skills for empowerment’, addressed a number of key topics including: the role government, development agencies, the private sector and civil society can play to increase access to TVET for women and girls; successful approaches to improving professional qualifications of women and girls; and the potential of Information and Communications Technology (ICT) in improving TVET opportunities and outcomes.