Resumen de An overview of the united nations millennium development goal on gender equality and empower of women (in the maritime sector)

Maria Carolina Romero Lares, Momoko Kitada

• Policies to develop female human resources and to strengthen the role of women in society are not new in the United Nations (UN) agenda. In the last years the UN has taken meaningful steps towards the acceleration of the achievement of its organizational goals on "gender equality and the empowerment of women" through the creation of UN WOMEN in 2010, the preparation of new proposals and plans to be included in the UN post 2015 agenda are underway. The promotion of gender equality and the empowering of women has also been a goal of most UN specialized agencies, within each one’s particular scope of competencies. For example, the International Maritime Organization (IMO) created the Strategy on the Integration of Women in the Maritime Sector as a comprehensive policy to expand women’s capabilities in the maritime sector. It is aimed at fostering the presence of women in developing countries’ workforces through education, training and knowledge transfer. On the same token, the World Maritime University (WMU) has developed policies towards increasing the number women enrolled in its Masters and PhD programs, hoping to improve their chances of reaching decision-making positions in governments and the private sector throughout their careers. WMU is gradually raising the number of female faculty employees, trying to upgrade its hiring policies towards a more gender-balanced standard thus offering positive role models to its students and its faculty personnel. The main idea of this paper is to assess the policies that have been developed and implemented on gender equality and the empowerment of women through the UN System Specialized Agencies in the maritime sector; evaluating their impact, and highlighting their achievements and challenges.