Ms. Steliana Nedera, Resident Representative of UNDP in Bosnia and Herezegovina, participated in launch of the Women Mentoring Network Initiative hosted by Deloitte and Addiko bank. A women-to-women mentoring program aims to empower young women in the early stages of their careers by bringing together more than 100 business women and women in the leading managerial positions in BiH to share their knowledge and experience with them.
‘Invest time and efforts in continuous learning, communicating effectively and strengthening networks, are three personal strategies for women leaders.’ said Ms. Nedera to young women participants from Sarajevo, Banja Luka, Tuzla, Mostar, East Sarajevo, Bijeljina, Prijedor, Srebrenik, Visoko, Ilijaš, Travnik, Kakanj, Tešanj, Lukavac, Doboj, Usora, Živinice and Srebrenica. ‘The strategic investment into gender equality pays off! UNDP has gender equality at the heart of its work and through dedicated effort, growing scale and speed, established gender parity across the organization and significant impacts for beneficiaries through its programs’, added Ms. Nedera.
Gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls is one of six cross-cutting signature solutions identified in the UNDP’s Strategic Plan. Besides centrality of gender equality and women’s empowerment in UNDP’s programming, UNDP has been working with the increasing speed towards a full parity with great success. Support to the Women Mentoring Network initiative comes within a broader context of UNDP’s empowerment of women initiatives geared towards elimination of structural obstacles, building of capacities of women leaders and changing social norms that still stand in the way to realizing full leadership potential of women in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Strengthening partnerships, collaborating to leverage each other’s resources, stimulating innovation are all instrumental in maximising impact and achieving a multiplier effect in the area of gender equality.
Women Mentoring Network is implemented with support of EBRD, IFC, UNDP and RCC, and includes companies across the country and in different sectors, allowing mentees to benefit through both individual mentoring and joint training, acquire knowledge in management, career development, negotiation, networking, and public speaking.
