Introduction
Through its international policy on women’s rights and gender equality, the Netherlands contributes to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), in particular SDG 5 (gender equality and empowerment of women and girls). We focus on four sub-goals:
Increasing women’s leadership and participation in political decision-making
Giving women a greater say in the economy and improving the economic environment for women
Preventing and stopping violence against women and girls
Strengthening women’s role in conflict resolution and peacebuilding.
The Netherlands works worldwide to achieve these goals through gender diplomacy and gender-specific programmes. We support civil society organisations and individual women’s rights defenders who are committed to achieving the same goals. They play a major role in urging attention for and strengthening the position of women. The Netherlands also encourages cooperation with businesses to improve working conditions for women employees and generate more opportunities for women entrepreneurs.
The Netherlands is also committed to strengthening women’s rights and gender equality in international conventions, resolutions and agreements. An example is the biennial UN resolution initiated by the Netherlands and France calling for greater international focus on and efforts towards tackling violence against women and inappropriate behaviour.