Promoting gender equality and women’s economic empowerment (WEE) is central to the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and is key to foster decent work and sustainable, inclusive and equitable economic growth. Women are key drivers of innovation growth and jobs, and the private sector plays a crucial role in enabling the full, productive and equitable participation of women in the world of work.
Progress and gains in gender equality and WEE realized over the last decades encountered a serious set-back because of the COVID-19 pandemic as women have been disproportionally affected in terms of job and income losses during the pandemic.
Against this backdrop, today, more than ever, realizing transformational change to advance gender equality and WEE will require a catalyst role for the private sector and effective partnerships between government, employers and workers.
Responsible Business Conduct (RBC) and human rights due diligence (HRDD), as part of the wider Business and Human Rights agenda, provide a strong reference framework to address various gender equality gaps in the world of work and advance decent work opportunities for women and their economic empowerment.
This training course supports practitioners responsible for or with a demonstrated strong interest in policies and programmes related to responsible business conduct, human rights due diligence, gender equality and women's economic empowerment. Through a series of lectures, participatory exercises, and self-guided eLearning modules, participants will explore international guidance and frameworks in support of gender equality, learn from good practices, and explore practical tools and approaches to advance gender equality and WEE through responsible business conduct and human rights due diligence. Participants will have the opportunity to interact with experts from the International Labour Organization (ILO) and other international organizations, employers' organizations, trade unions, companies and others on programmes and initiatives to advance gender equality and WEE. Opportunities to network among participants will also be facilitated. The course combines this expert input with applied learning methodologies. Participants will learn from expert presentations and real case studies and practices of responsible business practices that contribute to advancing gender equality and women's economic empowerment. Individual learning will be combined with group work and allow for extensive peer-learning.
This course is designed for: - Representatives of government, employers' and workers' organizations responsible for or with a demonstrated strong interest in policies related to responsible business conduct and gender equality. - Enterprises, both SMEs and large MNEs. - CSR, RBC, business and human rights and/or sustainability professionals. - Gender, diversity and inclusion specialists.
Participants will get a deeper understanding and a chance to interact with peers and specialists from ILO and other international organizations on:
By the end of the training, participants will be able to: