The valuable contributions of these people are acknowledged, and it would not have been possible to prepare this toolkit without them. This work has identified many appropriate initiatives being undertaken in different localities, as well as evidence about pitfalls to be avoided, and there is now an opportunity to pool this practical experience and promote good practice.

This multi-country study on women-led MSMEs, with a focus on microenterprises in China, Indonesia, Thailand, Rwanda and Uganda, is a key output of the Together Digital Programme. It is intended to inform the design and implementation of programmmes, initiatives, and strategies supporting women’s entrepreneurship.

The initiative aims to understand pathways for social norm change and the factors that spur transformative shifts toward gender equality. It builds on Sustainable Development Goal 5 to empower women and girls by increasing their voice, choice and security, and features three main components: research, community-based programming interventions and advocacy that uses storytelling to challenge dominant narratives.

Over the last three years, the WeEmpowerAsia programme (WEA) has worked to increase the number of women who lead and participate in business in China, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand, and Viet Nam, during which period there has been much progress on gender equality in business in Asia.

Entrepreneurship is a catalyst for women’s economic empowerment. In China, as in the rest of the world, despite a recent surge in women’s entrepreneurship, women-owned businesses tend to be small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). SMEs are more vulnerable in emergencies than larger companies are, and many women-owned SMEs are situated in the service sector, which was hit the hardest by the pandemic.

This Think Piece: Innovations in Childcare to Advance Women’s Economic Empowerment explores the question “Can inclusive Care Entrepreneurship be a pathway to address gaps in the childcare sector in Asia and the Pacific?”. It offers promising entrepreneurship models emerging in Asia and the Pacific that could be replicated and scaled to fill childcare gaps to contribute to efforts to rebuild economies and to recognize the care economy as a vehicle to create more jobs and increase women’s economic participation.

This Guidebook has been developed by the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) to serve as a user-friendly tool for institutions, project developers and practitioners to plan, design and implement renewable energy-based women entrepreneurship projects, as well as for donors interested in funding the same.

This policy brief is an analysis of the situation as it pertains to the Philippines. It also offers a practical guide to stakeholders, particularly the government, on how to maximize the WEPs as a framework to stimulate public and private sectors actions that will accelerate the progress to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), specifically SDGs 5 (Gender Equality) and 8 (Decent Work and Economic Growth).

This Thailand Country Policy Brief entitled “Building Pathways to Gender Equality and Sustainability through the Women’s Empowerment Principles” provides guidance for governments, policymakers and regulators, as well as an analysis of current policies promoting gender equality in the business sector.

The toolkit provides a grounding in risk control and business continuity, with particular reference to the COVID-19 pandemic response. With its step-by-step guidance, checklist, and various tools, the toolkit becomes a self-learning tool for SME leaders across the world, so that they can better address risks and build their own gender- responsive business continuity management system.

Gender-responsive procurement (GRP) is the selection of services, goods and civil works that considers their impact on gender equality and women’s empowerment.

The Women living under the pandemic and military rule survey looks at the way that women are affected by macro developments and trends. It is important to understand the real-time social and economic impacts of COVID-19 and the military rule, not just for measures of income poverty but also for vulnerability more generally and for how the double crisis is impacting Myanmar’s women both at the family and individual levels.

This report explores the barriers women face in the Pacific to entering the energy workforce, completing energy-related education, and accessing different forms of clean energy. It looks at the potential benefits that the use of clean and sustainable energy could bring across the region, and presents new gender data and analytical insights to assess challenges and opportunities for a Pacific shift to sustainable and clean energy use.

Check out the profiles of the 2020 gender champions and learn the impacts they have created in enabling a more gender-equal business world.

Check out the profiles of the 2020 gender champions and learn the impacts they have created in enabling a more gender-equal business world.

Check out the profiles of the 2020 gender champions and learn the impacts they have created in enabling a more gender-equal business world.

Check out the profiles of the 2020 gender champions and learn the impacts they have created in enabling a more gender-equal business world.

Check out the profiles of the 2020 gender champions and learn the impacts they have created in enabling a more gender-equal business world

In partnership with Gobi Partners, the WEA regional team virtually held the Asia Gender-Smart Investing Forum on November 2-3.

Check out the profiles of the 2020 gender champions and learn the impacts they have created in enabling a more gender-equal business world.