A Swiss delegation, led by Felix Gutzwiller, President of the Swiss Advisory Commission on International Cooperation, visited the Women’s Resource Center (WRC) located in the Khazar district of Baku. The purpose of the visit was to get acquainted with the projects supported by the Government of Switzerland in Azerbaijan and meet with beneficiaries.

The delegation got acquainted with the work done within the framework of the project "Economic Empowerment of Women in the South Caucasus" implemented by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) with the financial support of the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation and in close cooperation with the State Committee for Family, Women and Children Affairs.

The delegation was told that the 2nd phase of the Project, which started in early 2022, covers the regions of Khazar/Baku, Sabirabad, Gusar and Fuzuli. Currently, four WRCs are operating in these regions. Three of these WRCs were established as part of the “Economic Empowerment of Women in the South Caucasus” project. The WRCs support the economic empowerment of women in vulnerable conditions, to establish their own businesses through vocational training, as well as involving them in decision-making processes.

Over the past year of the project, about 2,000 women were registered in these centers with more than 1,000 of them having completed different types of trainings.  Up to 70 beneficiary women created new businesses on the basis of self-proposed business plans.

One of the important components of the project is the partnership with the private sector to promote of the  Women Empowerment Principles (WEP) among them. The project has cooperated with 19 private companies to help them to adopt the WEP principles over the past year.

Alexander Hoffet, Head of Mission of the Embassy of Switzerland spoke about the Swiss international cooperation, the importance of women’s economic empowerment (WEE) and the role Switzerland plays to support WEE in Azerbaijan. 

Nuno Queirós, acting Resident Representative of UNDP in Azerbaijan, said that this project supports the achievement of several sustainable development goals and is in line with the socio-economic development plans of the Government of Azerbaijan in what concerns the economic development of the regions. "The project aims to empower women in vulnerable conditions to improve their economic standing and participate in decision-making processes. It contributes to increasing employment in the regions, creating new jobs, and raising the standard of living of the population," said Nuno Queirós.

The project is set to continue until the autumn of 2024.

Media contact:

For media inquiries, please contact Afet Yagubova, Communications Officer for UNDP in Azerbaijan at afet.yagubova@undp.org.

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