Promote gender equality and empower women

Targets

Equal share of women in wage employment in the non-agricultural sector.

Progress

Percentage of woman employees in paid non-agricultural employment:

1990 - 36%
2005 - 39%

At the current rate, women will constitute 41% of those employed in non-agricultural work by 2015.

Business can contribute to MDG 3 by:

• Tackling gender discrimination
  Advocate to change discriminatory social norms and disincentives towards women.
• Empowering women
  The wellbeing and survival of poor households depends on the productive contributions of female members as these households are often headed or maintained by women.

Primer questions

• Have you explored opportunities to work with micro-enterprises run by women in your company’s supply chain?
• Can you contract local women to sell and distribute your products?
• What are women entrepreneurs doing in your markets? How can you contribute to encourage their involvement?
• Can you strengthen women’s economic capacity as entrepreneurs, employees and producers?
• Can you contribute to women’s enterprise development by providing training in basic skills such as management, bookkeeping and accounting, business planning, marketing, distribution and quality control?