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Maryam Al-Misnad (front centre), Minister of State for International Cooperation in Qatar, during the Women Leaders Forum in Awaza. Credit: Joyce Chimbi/IPS
AWAZA, Turkmenistan, Aug 7 2025 (IPS) – “Progress towards gender equality and equity remains uneven and far too slow. One in four women in landlocked developing countries (LLDCs) live in extreme poverty, and this is nearly 75 million women,” said Rabab Fatima, Secretary-General of the Third United Nations Conference on Landlocked Developing Countries or LLDC3 ongoing in Awaza, Turkmenistan.
Fatima, who is also Under-Secretary-General and High Representative for the Least Developed Countries, Landlocked Developing Countries and Small Island Developing States, brought into perspective the status of women in LLDCs, where “nearly half (150 million) face food insecurity.”
Speaking during the Women Leaders’ Forum organised by the UN OHRLLS, the government of Turkmenistan and the Central Asian Women Leaders’ Caucus, she told participants that female labour force participation stands at 54 percent, significantly lower than the 70 percent for men in the LLDCs and that most women (80 percent) are in vulnerable, informal employment.
“In LLDCs,” she continued, “Only 30 percent complete upper secondary education, less than half of the global average. And in a rapidly digitising world, just 36 percent of women in LLDCs use the internet. And this ratio will come down further for the women in the rural and marginalised communities.”
Fatima said this scenario stands in the way of sustainable development for “empowering women is not only a matter of rights: it is an economic imperative. Nations rise when women thrive. That is why I would like to say that women thrive when nations rise.”
Landlocked developing countries’ Women Leaders Forum at the LLDC3 in Awaza, Turkmenistan. Credit: Joyce Chimbi/IPS
Women from across the 32 landlocked developing countries, including Lesotho, South Sudan, Malawi, Mongolia, Bolivia and Uzbekistan, gathered on Thursday, August 7, to highlight that including and empowering women in LLDCs is not just a matter of choice but a strategic priority for the success of the Awaza Programme of Action, which seeks to accelerate the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development in LLDCs.
The event sought to mobilise high-level political support for women’s full, equal, and meaningful participation in the implementation of the next programme of action for the LLDCs, share best practices, and identify recommendations and actions needed to amplify voice and opportunities for women in the implementation of the Awaza Programme of Action.
Although the status and situation of women in the LLDCs is far from desirable, Dunyagozel Gulmanova, the Speaker of the Parliament (Mejlis) of Turkmenistan, and Tanzila Narbaeva, Chairperson of the Senate of the Oliy Majlis in Uzbekistan, both present at the event, symbolised what is possible.
They both spoke extensively about their countries’ demonstrated commitment to the empowerment of women and strengthening the role of women in their societies. They said that women occupy high-level positions in all spheres, including politics, the judiciary and all aspects of the economy.
Gulmanova told participants that women in Turkmenistan are entitled to 112 calendar days of maternity leave, with 56 days before and 56 days after childbirth and the benefit is paid as a lump sum at the primary place of employment. After maternity leave, women can take unpaid parental leave until the child turns three and still retain their employment.
The Uzbek government is actively working to create conditions that support women’s education from kindergarten to university. Women’s enrolment in higher education, including medical fields, has significantly increased in Uzbekistan.
Maryam Al-Misnad, Minister of State for International Cooperation in Qatar, stressed that women’s leadership “is not a dream. It’s a force for transformation. ” Stressing that Qatar “recognises the power of women.”
“Women are not weak in this new world,” she continued. “They are already leading across all sectors: government, diplomacy, education, business, and innovation. Our national strategies are designed to unlock women’s full potential through progressive policies that guarantee maternity protection, equal pay, leadership pathways, and work environments where women are respected, supported, and heard.”
Young women leaders, often under-represented and, at best, at the periphery of leadership processes and more so in patriarchal societies, have a seat at the table today, and they use it.
“Even as we talk about the implementation of the Awaza Program of Action, we should also be thinking about how young women specifically are going to be involved in this process,” said Reekelitsoe Malopo from Lesotho.
“We already know that the challenges are vast,” she said. “But there are a few key problems that remain a pain to young women and that restrict participation in such important platforms. First of all, it is the issue of limited access to education and economic resources.”
“As young women in LLDCs, we continue to face barriers to quality education and also relevant skills and training that are imperialised for the future of women, or the rapid technological transformation that’s happening before our eyes,” she observed.
In the face of these daunting challenges, Fatima reiterated that the Awaza Programme of Action calls for gender-responsive industrial and development policies. Stressing that they must be tailored to national contexts and prioritise rural industrialisation, entrepreneurship, the formalisation of informal work and stronger partnerships across societies.
“At the United Nations, we remain fully committed to gender parity. Today, women comprise 46 percent of UN international staff and 55 percent of under-secretary-general positions, that is, at the highest level,” she said.
The UN Secretary-General launched the UN System-Wide Gender Equality Acceleration Plan on March 8, 2024, as a flagship initiative to accelerate progress on gender equality within the UN system. This plan builds on the UN’s existing commitments and aims to transform internal structures to achieve gender equality more effectively.
IPS UN Bureau Report
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