Empowering Women for Sustainable Development

Sustainable development cannot be achieved without a more equitable distribution of resources today and tomorrow. This paper highlights that prevailing inequalities are deeply gendered. Understanding this and making policy decisions towards reducing these inequalities is a key condition in meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. The paper focuses on women’s empowerment as a key process to reach gender equality and, through that, sustainable development. It looks first at the concept of women’s empowerment and sustainable development and reveals how both are inter-linked through the lens of intra and inter-generational justice. Second, evidence-based analysis is done to show what needs to be done and is being done for women’s empowerment, both through building an enabling environment and through enhancing women’s capacity as active agents of change for sustainable development in the ECE region.