“The Women’s Leadership Programme is driven by the fact that women’s equality and empowerment is good politics, good economics, good for social inclusion and an important way of ensuring peaceful and just societies.”

- Nikhil Seth, UN Assistant Secretary-General and UNITAR Executive Director

Training and capacity building are essential to converting ambition and commitments into measurable and impactful change. Since 2015, UNITAR has been working with partners across the UN System, to support the achievement of gender parity targets and ensure women’s full and effective participation in decision-making processes.

With the adoption of UN Sustainable Development Goal 5 .5 on inclusive decision making, the Women’s Leadership Programme seeks to address the gender imbalance that exists at the highest levels, including in multilateral negotiations and decision-making, in public and private sectors.

Recognizing the 25th anniversary of the Beijing Declaration (1995) and the 20th anniversary of the UN Security Council Resolution 1325 (2000), UNITAR will launch a new customized and comprehensive global programme for Women in Peace, including in negotiation, mediation, and conflict resolution contexts, supported by donors to UNITAR’s Strategic Framework Fund.

In 2022, the Women’s Leadership Programme aims to deliver training and awareness-raising activities to many more women worldwide, to building skills, providing coaching and mentorship opportunities, and organizing high-level events to achieve transformational change in the empowerment of women in contexts critical to sustainable development processes.

The Programme’s Activities

women’s equality and empowerment is good politics, good economics, good for social inclusion
UN Photo

Since its launch in May 2015, the Programme has held Geneva workshops for female delegates to the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) Congress, the Radiocommunication Assembly/World Radiocommunication Conference, as well as an open workshop to women from Geneva’s International community and one in New York for the female delegates to the High Level Political Forum on Sustainable Development.

As a response to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, the UNITAR Women’s Leadership Programme is mainly taking place online since summer 2020. The development of innovative e-learning trainings allowed UNITAR’s Division for Multilateral Diplomacy to remain highly active in the field of Gender Equality and Women Empowerment and to create a positive impact for female leaders all over the world.

In 2020, around 120 women enhanced their professional skills relating to leadership, public speaking, and mentoring by participating in UNITAR’s online workshops. In groups of around 25, participants learned how to own their personal and cultural leadership style and maximize their unique strengths.

Last year, UNITAR’s Division for Multilateral Diplomacy could increase the number of female beneficiaries thanks to a generous contribution of the Government of India. In total, more than 150 women from 36 different countries were trained online on Gender, Women’s Leadership and Mentoring.

This year, UNITAR is further strengthening its efforts to provide support for women all over the world and offers a wide range of online training opportunities.

If you are interested in UNITAR’s ongoing activities or customized online trainings, please reach out to Mhairi Mackenzie (mhairi.mackenzie@unitar.org) for detailed information.

Ongoing Activities

Dates for upcoming activities will be published soon.

 

UNITAR Women's Leadership Online Training Programme 2021

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