As prepared for delivery

Empowering Women for Sustainable Development

Supporting women’s economic empowerment in Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic and Ismayilli region

Tuesday, 16 April 2019, 15:00

Nakhchivan Business Centre

Nakhchivan city, Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic of Azerbaijan
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Ladies and Gentlemen,

(Text in Azerbaijani –to Sabuhi Mammadov, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance of Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic of the Republic of Azerbaijan,) Eziz ve hormetli Sabuhi muellim!

Eziz ve hormetli Nazirler! (to Ministers sitting on the first row of seats)

H.E. Ambassador Kestutis Jankauskas, Head of the EU Delegation

Dear Mr. Suleyman KALASHOV, Chairman of the Azerbaijan Micro-finance Association

Dear Mr. Mammad MUSAYEV, President of the National Confederation of Entrepreneurs and Chair of the Agrarkredit JSC

Dear Mr. Vugar Abasov, President of the Nakhchivan National Confederation of Entrepreneurs

Dear Ms. Simona Gatti  - EU Delegation, Head of Cooperation

Honourable guests and delegates!

Haminizi urekden salamlayiram! (English translation: My warmest greetings to all of you!)

It is a pleasure and great honour to be here today, in Nakhchivan, which can boast with its wonderful nature, climate and natural resources, and feel proud of its history, cultural and religious monuments, literature and arts.  It is a region abounding in good spirit and genuine hospitality.

With the project kick-off conference today we – the European Union, the Government of Nakhchivan AR of Azerbaijan and UNDP mark the launch of our joint action, supporting the Empowerment of Women for Sustainable Development. This project is part of a broader project we implement in Azerbaijan, with financial support from the European Union on Promoting the Role of Civil Society in Gender-sensitive Implementation. This project that we are launching today is one of the 9 other projects implemented within the broader action throughout the various parts of Azerbaijan.  

The project “Empowering Women for Sustainable Development” within the next 12 months will seek to support the improvement of women’s access to microfinance services for rural communities in 6 locations in Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic (Shahbuz,  Ordubad,  Julfa,  Sharur,  Kengerli regions and Nakhichevan city)  and in Ismayilli region of Azerbaijan. The project will particularly aim to increase women’s impact on socio-economic development of the target regions by equipping them with necessary entrepreneurial knowledge and skills in financial management, budget planning, and business plan preparation. We anticipate that at least 400 women, also including women with disabilities will receive training, at least 50 women will gain access to consultations by professionals on how to develop successful business plans, and finally at least 50 women, as well as women with disabilities will be provided with seed funding enabling them to either start or further expand their businesses.

At UNDP, we believe that by boosting women’s access to new opportunities that will enable them to learn, grow and develop entrepreneurial businesses, countries can escape poverty and improve their economic conditions. It is important to acknowledge that the opportunities offered by women entrepreneurs help grow domestic markets and increase employment prospects. As Achim Steiner, Administrator of the UNDP, has emphasized in his speeches with regard to the economic empowerment of women, “ We know gender equality is central to achieving the 2030 agenda, that it is an accelerator for inclusive growth and a catalyst for a safer and more prosperous world. Financial inclusion is a key component for achieving this.”

In pursuit of this belief, UNDP as part of inclusive development actions in Azerbaijan, focuses on implementing projects supporting women’s economic empowerment, which will benefit the country economically and socially. This project that we are launching today is also in line with the development goals of the the 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda, which envisions a coherent and highly integrated approach to the social, economic and environmental dimensions of global, national and local development. Building upon Azerbaijan’s commitment to accelerating the achievement of the 20130 Agenda and the Sustainable Development Goals (the SDGs), the project will directly contribute to the implementation of SDG 4: Quality Education, SDG 5: Gender Equality and SDG 8: Decent Work and Economic Growth.

The “Empowering Women for Sustainable Development” project also endorses the visions of both Azerbaijan’s Roadmap for Strategic Development for 2016 – 2020 and “Azerbaijan 2020: Outlook for the Future Development Concept”, which stress the importance of creating equal opportunities for women and men in the labour market, promoting women in the workplace and further engaging women in decision-making.

Gender equality is a fundamental human right and women’s economic empowerment is vital in increasing economic growth, strengthening social inclusivity and enhancing business performance. Women’s participation in labour forces will significantly raise national growth rates, help countries achieve their development goals and empower families and communities.

In this regard, I would like to specifically mention our long-lasting cooperation with the European Union particularly on promoting socio-economic rights of vulnerable groups of population and our work with civil society. For the past 2 years (in 2016-2018), we have rendered tremendous support to 12 NGOs to help transform the lives of ordinary people through a broad range of human-centric projects in 17 locations, including Baku, Sumgayit, Shirvan, Salyan, Lankaran, Khachmaz, Guba, Balakan, Zaqatala, Gakh, Sheki, Mingachevir, Oguz, Gabala, Goychay, Samukh and Ganja. Here are some of the result of this programme at a glance:

v Close to half a million people improved their knowledge of social, economic and political rights, existing national policies (specifically those pertaining to the wellbeing of vulnerable population, such as people with disabilities, women, prisoners, etc), employment strategies for the most deprived, business development techniques and practices, organisational management, campaigning and advocacy tools, communications, monitoring and evaluations, social work and fundamentals of social services to population, data visualisation and data journalism

• 32 community-based initiatives received small grants from the European Union, through UNDP’s facilitation
• 220 people, including their family members, were able to improve their livelihoods as a result of joint EU-UNDP support
• Living conditions/ household support was improved for around 6000 individuals
• Around 3000 individuals benefitted from free legal aid and psychological counselling. This included people with disabilities and development challenges, women and girl, prison inmates and their extended family members
• Over 2000 people passed the EU and UNDP-provided trainings of trainers
• Together with our partner civil society organisations, we developed 84 knowledge products, including manuals; toolkits; training resources; monitoring and evaluation standards; and additionally
• A collection of 35 policy papers and analytical resources pertaining to various aspects of socio-economic and legal provisions for vulnerable groups of population
• In one of the prisons where we worked through our local partners, we taught more than a hundred prisoners bankable skills to build a more sustainable living for their families. Nine business ideas generated by prisoners received financial support from the EU and UNDP, including a sewing workshop, a carwash, 3 workshops for woodwork handicrafts, a woodcutting workshop for vegetable containers, 2 woodcutting workshops for furniture and a bee-keeping business.

Going further, I would like to also say a few words about our other project with the EU, which specifically focused on empowering women in rural Azerbaijan for a dignified life, financial maturity and economic autonomy. In Bilasuvar, Sabirabad and Neftchala within only 2 years, we have helped over 900 women improve their business competence and organisational proficiency while also helping around 30 women establish businesses of their own.

In all of our programmes and projects we work closely with the government of Azerbaijan. Specifically, within the project on Promoting the Role of Civil Society in Gender-sensitive Implementation we work hand in hand with 2 key government institutions –the State Committee on Family, Women and Children Affairs (our strategic partner on all things gender equality related) and the National Coordination Council for Sustainable Development (NCCSD), which is our main stakeholder for all the SDGs-related initiatives.

Going further, I would like to also acknowledge with deep gratitude our past experience with the people of Nakhchivan and support of the government of Nakhchivan. More than 2 decades ago, in 1997, UNDP and Nakhchivan authorities established a joint initiative –Regional Development Plan of Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic. The Plan envisaged, among other things, the reconstruction of NAR airport, development of agriculture through establishing private farms, the reconstruction of the processing industry, the creation of jobs, the implementation of concrete income-generation project, the establishment of a computer training centre and linking NAR to the internet.

Around same year, the UNDP, ILO and the Ministry of Labour and Social Protection of the Population jointly implemented the Program on Professional training and Self-employment in Nakhchivan. In the framework of another joint project UNDP and the Ministry of Youth and Sports and with support from NAR Authorities conducted the Model United Nations Conference, which was organised at the Nakhchivan State University on 12-15 May 2016.

Building from this past experience, I now hope that we will have a lot more joint programmes to run in Nakhchivan, in close partnership with Nakhchivan authorities. With that I will conclude by thanking our government partners in Nakhchivan AR for supporting our efforts in this field, and particularly Mr Sabuhi Mammadov, Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister of Nakhchivan AR for your generous support to this project.

Most importantly, I would like to express my gratitude for the financial support provided by the European Union and particularly thank Ambassador Kestutis Jankauskas and his team for their continued support to such activities implemented by the UNDP in Azerbaijan. Finally, I would like to thank Azerbaijan Microfinance Association and its chairman Mr Kalashov for coming with such a very useful project and wish them success in their work within the next 12 months.

Thank you! Chokh sag olun! Minnetdaram!