UN says Women need to be given a greater role in industries in poorer nations to meet the global goal of cutting poverty by 2030.
The head of the UN Industrial Development Organisation ( UNIDO ), Li Yong said empowering women will be a priority in his second four-year stint as director general of the agency which oversees about 860 projects to boost economic growth and tackle poverty.
Data shows about half of the worldโs women are in the labour force compared with about 75 per cent of men, hold less senior roles and earn on average 60 to 75 per cent of what men make.
But studies repeatedly show that more women working accelerates economic growth, while women also invest more of their income into families to educate children and end poverty.
โWe need to look at how our projects help womenโs empowerment and job creation,โ Li, formerly of Chinaโs Ministry of Finance, told the Thomson Reuters Foundation in an interview at UNIDOโs 17th General Conference in Vienna.
โLots of projects like agro-industry are related to womenโs empowerment โฆ and one part of our evaluation is to look at womenโs empowerment, at training, at jobs, all those things that are very concrete measures.โ
Li was widely praised in his first term in office for re-establishing UNIDO as a key development organisation in the UN system with a mission to promote industry as a driver to create jobs, boost prosperity, and reduce poverty.
Some countries had questioned the purpose and effectiveness of UNIDO, one of 15 specialised UN agencies, and some nations withdrew funding in the past decade including Britain, the United States, Australia, Canada and France.
Representatives of UNIDOโs 168 member states, however, said Li had changed the focus to support developing countries and find ways to build sustainable, environmentally friendly businesses using fewer resources, less energy and generating less waste.
He had also encouraged public and private, local and international partnerships such as setting up agro-industrial parks and introducing clean tanning technology to Indiaโs leather industry.
One of the UNโs Sustainable Development Goals, an agenda to be reached by 2030, acknowledges industrialization as a key driver of sustained economic sustainability and prosperity.
Li said UNIDOโs core mission had never been more relevant.
He said poverty, employment and hunger remain major challenges, exacerbated by climate change, resource depletion, environmental degradation and the potential impact of new technology which will cut jobs, with women to be worst hit.
He said Africa remained a priority, but climate change meant thinking differently about manufacturing, particularly in low-lying small island nations with limited resources.
Li said such nations import expensive crude oil to generate power.
โI said to them โOpen your eyes. Expand your vision.
โIf they could use renewable power, like solar or maybe tidal โฆ they can manage their fishing industry, or tourism, and expand job creation,โ Li said.
He said the Pacific island nations of Kiribati and the Marshall Islands had joined UNIDO in the past two years and others were keen to follow suit.
โOur work is very relevant to their economic development,โ he said.
