The Fourth World Conference in Beijing in 1995 called for elimination of violence against women. However, violence against women and girls has continued to increase and reach pandemic proportions. Based on the data available, over 70% of women experience physical, psychological or sexual violence in their lifetime.

 

The topic is of grave importance for both developed and developing countries, as various forms of violence against women are prevalent worldwide. It has been defined as one of the UN specialized agencies' priority areas and efforts have been undertaken to understand the political, economic and social causes and use the resulting knowledge to promote better polices and educational programs to eliminate violence. Entrepreneurship is an important avenue towards women’s economic empowerment; one that can provide the means to financial independence. But it also is a powerful factor that boosts women’s self-confidence, brings them together in networks in their communities, and hence makes their voices heard more strongly and at all levels.

 

The issue will be examined –at State, UN and NGO levels - and the interaction between them. Israel includes in its annual international training programs the topics of women’s economic empowerment and independence and combating and eliminating violence against women and girls, and the link between the two issues.

 

The issue of women’s self-employment and entrepreneurship needs to be considered in the overall context of creating a favorable environment for small and micro-enterprises, through the provision of organizational, legal, economic and social incentives.

 

Since 2006, Israel has been cooperating with the UNECE and have, to date, cooperatively organized 16 workshops in Israel for women from Eastern Europe and Central Asia, and one in-house training activity for women from south-east Europe. These workshops emphasize ways to help women entrepreneurs achieve financial independence.

 

In UNECE, establishing an enabling economic and business environment for women entrepreneurs has been at the core of its work on gender and has been supported by various sectorial activities, such as transport, trade and energy in the region. Monitoring the development of women’s entrepreneurship in the UNECE region is part of the implementation of the Beijing Platform for Action, and as such is reported and discussed every five years at the UNECE intergovernmental regional meetings. The forthcoming meeting is planned for 6 and 7 November, 2014 in Geneva.

 

In addition, UNECE provides a platform for exchanging best practices, strategies and initiatives to promote women to set up and expand their businesses. Particular attention is paid to the countries from the UN Special Program of the Economies in Central Asia (SPECA). An important need has been addressed through the development of innovation-based enterprises, assisting women to become active players and materialize their ambitions. In parallel, through the work of its Statistical Division, UNECE has contributed to monitoring violence against women as a basis for understanding the roots of this process, its spread and variations across regions.

 

In this way, Israel and UNECE contributed to the priority theme of last year’s CSW Session, Violence against Women, a crosscutting issue that plagues all countries, societies and religions. The trainings for women entrepreneurs aim to update the participants' knowledge on the topic, to provide them with new intervention models and techniques, and to enable exchange of experiences.

 

Ms. Cosima Schenk, President of the International Council of Women and Mr. Todd Minerson, Executive Director of the White Ribbon Campaign will highlight two different NGO's approaches. Ms. Schenk will focus on the way inequality leads to violence and on the level of action for Economic Empowerment: Education and professional skills development, networking with affiliates, development projects, training courses and seminars. Cooperation with other NGOs and UN system

 

Participation will also be discussed.