Malaysia contributes US$50,000 to UN-Women

Malaysia has contributed RM152,000 (US$50,000) to the work of the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN-Women) this year.

Malaysia's permanent representative to the United Nations Datuk Hussein Haniff said the modest contribution illustrated the dedication to continuously support the work of the entity in improving the overall goal of gender equality and the advancement of women.

"Malaysia recognises women's pivotal role in contributing towards economic development and, at the same time, raising stable and happy families.

"Thus, for the 2013 (national) budget, the Malaysian government has allocated RM50 million (US$16.5 million) to support women's dual roles. One of the measures that will be implemented includes the training of 500 women as board members under the Women Director's Programme (WDP)," he said.

Hussein was speaking at a meeting of the Executive Board of UN-Women in New York yesterday which discussed operational activities. The text of his speech was made available to Bernama here today.

He said Malaysia's Ministry of Women, Family and Community Development, through its agency - the NAM Institute for the Empowerment of Women (NIEW), introduced the WDP to prepare potential and qualified women for directorship roles in Malaysian public-listed companies.

He said this was in line with the Malaysian government’s policy which aimed to achieve 30 per cent women representation at senior decision-making and corporate boards by 2016.

He suggested that to increase consistencies and coherence with other UN agencies in programme execution, it was equally important to continue to tailor the activities to the unique mandate and role of UN-Women, which was responsive to gender equality and women's empowerment.