Tashkent, Uzbekistan (UzDaily.com) -- The 68th session of the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) will be held from 11 to 22 March 2024 in New York, USA, with a focus on accelerating the achievement of gender equality, as well as the empowerment of women and girls by fighting poverty.

Considering that over the past 5 years, Uzbekistan has achieved many positive results in terms of achieving gender equality and the empowerment of women, a proposal was put forward by the UN Women’s Organization to hold consultations in Uzbekistan.

On 12 February, in Tashkent, the Senate of the Oliy Majlis of the Republic of Uzbekistan, together with the UN Women organization, held these consultations on the topic “Empowering women and girls, as well as ensuring gender equality by addressing poverty, strengthening mechanisms and gender-oriented financing.”

The event was attended by parliamentarians from Central Asian states (Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan) and Azerbaijan, representatives of civil society, youth organizations and academia, gender experts, representatives of more than ten programs, funds and agencies of the UN, the private sector supporting gender equality and women’s economic empowerment.

The Chairman of the Senate of the Oliy Majlis, the Republican Commission on Increasing the Role of Women in Society, Gender Equality and Family Tanzila Narbaeva sent a video message to the event participants:

– Today, the states of Central Asia and Azerbaijan have made great strides in protecting the rights, freedoms and interests of women, preventing violence and discrimination, and ensuring their participation in decision-making processes.

In our countries, as a result of fundamental reforms and transformations in the field of ensuring gender equality, the necessary experience and practice have been accumulated, favorable conditions are being created for the full and equal participation of women in the social, political and economic life of the country.

We are gradually moving towards achieving the goals of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, which provide for equal conditions for women and men in all spheres of national activity.

To this end, Uzbekistan is determined to continue efforts to comprehensively support women in relation to activities for their social protection, noted Tanzila Narbaeva.

Representatives of regional bodies and mechanisms - the UN Regional Center for Preventive Diplomacy for Central Asia, the Women’s Dialogue of Central Asian Countries and others - also took part in the consultations.

The consultations included discussions on topics such as: implementing cross-sectoral collaboration to address poverty, taking into account institutional strengthening and gender finance, addressing funding gaps for gender equality and women’s empowerment: increasing opportunities and space for policy influence and budgets for gender equality.

In addition, attention was focused on countering the disproportionate burden of unpaid child care and housework: moving to the service sector, as well as the provision of social services and social safety nets.

The main purpose of these consultations is to assess the potential and capabilities of the region to achieve gender equality in Central Asia, identifying priority development strategies in terms of poverty eradication, social protection and labor force performance.

At the conclusion of the consultations, a document will be adopted containing a comprehensive set of messages, best practices and specific recommendations, which will form the basis for the participation of the countries of the Central Asian region (Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan) and Azerbaijan at the 68th session of the CSW.