Achieving gender equality and empowering all women and girls
The United Nations Member States set the Sustainable Development Goals in 2015 and set 17 goals to be reached by the end of 2030. The 5th of these goals was the achievement of gender equality and the empowerment of all women and girls. We have less than 10 years to reach this target, but unfortunately we are still far behind the targets. Amid the global crises that come with COVID-19, the climate emergency, and growing economic and political insecurity, progress on this goal has not only failed, it has begun to reverse. A growing backlash against women's rights around the world has threatened even deep-rooted liberties and protections.
The time for the global community to take action and invest in women and girls is now! According to the latest report published by UNWomen; at the current rate of progress, it will take another 286 years to reform legal frameworks to promote, implement and monitor gender equality in public life.
The latest data on progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals, compiled in the 2022 edition of UN Women's annual Gender Snapshot, reveal the inadequacy of current efforts. If change continues at its current rate, our analysis shows that it will remain unrealized in this area for centuries to come.
With the COVID 19 global crisis, it was once again understood that women's empowerment in the business world and ensuring that they have equal opportunities are essential for the development of countries and global economies.
In particular, supporting women's entrepreneurship stands out as the fastest solution in the supply chain network of companies with more women entrepreneur targets.
The Women's Entrepreneurship Accelerator (WEA) was established through a multi-stakeholder partnership bringing together six United Nations agencies: International Labor Organization (ILO), International Trade Center (ITC), International Telecommunication Union (ITU), UN Development Program (UNDP), UN Global Compact Convention (UNGC), UN Women and Mary Kay aim to maximize the development impact of women entrepreneurship in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by creating a conducive ecosystem for women entrepreneurs around the world.
UN Women in Europe and Central Asia (ECA) designed the Pilot program to increase the capacities of both women entrepreneurs and the private sector in order to increase women's entrepreneurship: (1) Public and private sector cooperation for tender opportunities of women entrepreneurs; (2) Strengthening the capacity of private sector organizations from all sectors to formulate policies and practices and devise initiatives on gender-sensitive purchasing and investment.
Yıldız Holding, which has already adopted pioneering practices in equality of opportunity and inclusion through the Women's Platform, is now taking these initiatives to a global dimension by collaborating with the United Nations Organization for Gender Equality and Women's Empowerment (UN Women). Yıldız Holding signed a strategic cooperation agreement with UN Women Europe and Central Asia Regional Office to encourage women's entrepreneurship and support women to take a more active role in supply chains. Nurtaç Ziyal Afridi, Member of the Board of GODIVA Global CEO, represented the Holding at the signing ceremony.
Yıldız Holding continues to take many important steps, especially in ensuring equality of opportunity, in line with its values of inclusivity and diversity;
Launched in 2021, the Women's Entrepreneurship EXPO is a unique partnership platform to promote the building of a women's entrepreneurship ecosystem in the Europe and Central Asia region. EXPO aims to provide an interactive space for networking and collaboration, peer learning, idea generation, capacity building and business development for women entrepreneurs, investors and private sector representatives.
EXPO 2022, which took place on 16-17 November, brought together women entrepreneurs, investors and business partners from Europe and Central Asia for the largest networking event for women-led businesses in the region, under the main sponsorship of Yıldız Holding.
We support contracted women farmers within the scope of the “Women Stars of Agriculture” project, which we have implemented in cooperation with the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, in order to empower women in business life and in all areas of society.
With the I Am in ŞOK project, we have been supporting housewives to earn from their labor since 2019.
Based on the finding that only 2.2% of venture capital investments in the global venture ecosystem are given to women founders, Yıldız Ventures commits to realize 10% of its portfolio investments to women entrepreneurs within 24 months. In this context, Yıldız Ventures became one of the first supporters of the 100 Million USD campaign for Women Entrepreneurs in Turkey and Neighboring Countries in October 2021, in cooperation with the social enterprise platform Arya Women's Investment Platform BEYOND THE BILLION™ (created).
Sources;
https://www.unwomen.org/en/news-stories/in-focus/2022/08/in-focus-sustainable-development-goal-5?gclid=Cj0KCQiAw8OeBhCeARIsAGxWtUy-8Y-uHTCP60DoSHK5TD5W6Uzd6Fk8WUWLajo7H08Ivcx0OUgs0IAaAtREEALw_wcB
https://www.we-accelerate.com/pathways-to-empowerment/
https://eca.unwomen.org/en/what-we-do/economic-empowerment/womens-entrepreneurship-expo-2022