[Video message]

Today we mark International Women’s Day.

And this year’s theme “Rights. Justice. Action. For ALL Women and Girls” is more than a slogan. It is a call to accelerate our collective mission for a fairer and more equal world.
Because rights must be guaranteed.
Justice must be upheld.
And without bold, sustained, and collective action, equality will remain an elusive goal.

At UN Trade and Development, we are fully committed to challenging the social norms and structural barriers that continue to limit the opportunities of women and girls everywhere.

Let me highlight two areas where this work is especially urgent.

First, empowering women digital entrepreneurs.
Across many developing regions, women entering the digital economy face a daunting set of obstacles: gender biases, gaps in digital skills, a lack of visible role models, unequal access to finance, and unequal expectations around family responsibilities.

These barriers suppress enormous potential. 

And the cost of inaction is high. According to the UN Women Gender Snapshot, closing the gender digital divide could boost global GDP by $1.5 trillion and lift 30 million women out of poverty – that is the scale of the opportunity we are talking about.

Our response is the eTrade for Women Initiative, which works to close gender gaps and build a more inclusive digital economy. 

Through this programme, we connect women entrepreneurs to mentors and a thriving ecosystem. We advocate for better financing and bringing these issues to the highest levels of policy dialogue, while generating solid evidence through sex-disaggregated data.

Second, ensuring women and girls can participate in a just and inclusive transition in the mineral sector.
Today, many women remain concentrated in the lowest-paid and most insecure parts of the mining value chain – from informal processing and sorting to small-scale trading. They often work under unsafe conditions and exposure to toxins. 

Moreover, cultural restrictions can limit women’s physical access to certain mining sites.

But the sector is changing. 

As mining becomes increasingly technology-driven, the bottlenecks are shifting from physical strength to technical expertise. This opens powerful opportunities to expand women’s employment in the sector. But only if we create open pathways for women and girls into Science and Technology fields and vocational training and boost their confidence to succeed in this field. 

Women’s economic empowerment is at the heart of UN Trade and Development’s mandate – and firmly embedded in the Geneva Consensus adopted last October. 

Our member States have asked us to strengthen national capacities to design and implement policies, institutions, and mechanisms that support women’s economic empowerment, enhance their economic security and rights, and expand their digital and economic skills and opportunities.

On this International Women’s Day, let us recommit to this work with conviction.

Because when women and girls thrive, our economies and our societies thrive. 

This is the world we owe to the next generation. And it is the world we can build together. 

Source link