UN conference on empowering women through entrepreneurship

Ambassador Anwarul K. Chowdhury, former Under-Secretary General and High Representative of the UN (OHRLLS), speaking at the Conference.

NEW YORK: The Spirituality, Values and Business Working Group of the NGO Committee on Spirituality, Values and Global Concerns,

NEW YORK: The Spirituality, Values and Business Working Group of the NGO Committee on Spirituality, Values and Global Concerns, New York, presented a two-day Spring Conference entitled 'Empowering Women in the Light of Education and Self Reliance through Entrepreneurship' on March 17-18 at the United Nations Church Center, New York.

The first day was devoted to discussions on models of success where two NGOs working in Asia presented their success models of implementing projects that have changed the lives of women and helped empower them.

Ambassador Anwarul K. Chowdhury, former Under-Secretary General and High Representative of the UN (OHRLLS), who has been a tireless advocate for the empowerment of women, spoke on various problems faced by women and how much more was necessary to be done in implementing the legislation already put into place to empower and honor the rights of women worldwide.

Kit Kitatani, a former UN official who had worked with the UNDP and UNFPA for nearly 30 years and has founded an NGO called 'Women In Need (WIN) International', based in Japan, described the efforts made by WIN to initiate projects for women to make them self-reliant. The projects range from Tree-planting in Loess Plateau in China and giving scholarships to girl students in Nepal, to training women to raise Eri-silk worms, to spin, weave or knit silk items for generating income.

Shomik Chaudhuri, United Nations Representative and co-founder of Institute of International Social Development, an international NGO based in Kolkata, India, in Special Consultative Status with ECOSOC of the United Nations, described the projects in specific focus areas that the NGO conducted, although all of them had a 'holistic' approach - Project Sushiksha (functional literacy project); Project Shramdaan (employment generation project); Project Suswasthya (healthcare for women and children primarily); Project Hope (HIV/AIDS awareness, prevention and rehabilitation); and Project Self-Help Groups.

Project Self-Help Group, Chaudhuri described, is a grass-root level women empowerment and self-reliance project that identified the Nanoor Block of 24 villages near Shantiniketan in Birbhum district, West Bengal, India, for development. The Institute selected 500 women artisans trained in 'kantha' work to create items of relevance and usage in the modern world, then created self-help groups with the artisans, approached the banks for micro-credit and then helped the artisans market their products locally, nationally and even internationally.

he products were exhibited at the United Nations in New York and Geneva and various other locations in India and abroad. The artisans are doing brisk business and have started earning 300% more than their initial earnings in the space of a year. Their lives have changed for the better. The Institute has also introduced for the first time, life and health insurance for the rural population in Nanoor and Nandigram in Midnapore district of West Bengal.

Krista Claudene Retto, a business strategist of Jamm Rek, Inc., presented an analysis and perspective on the models of success of the two NGOs and all NGOs working to benefit women.

The second day of the Conference had an analysis of the greatest concerns NGOs face in achieving their goals of empowering women entrepreneurs, supporting their participation at peace-tables, and their important role in building a Culture of Peace. It was presented among others by Monica Ressler of the International Center for Good Business.