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Lithuania has long-time traditions of support of gender equality and shares this experience with Afghanistan and other partners successfully, Vice-Minister of Foreign Affairs of Lithuania Evaldas Ignatavičius said at the conference in Istanbul.On 11 May, at the plenary session of the United Nations Conference on the Least Developed Countries, Vice-Minister E.Ignatavičius presented priorities and practices of Lithuania’s development cooperation, aiming to ensure equal rights of men and women in Afghanistan and in other countries.

On 12 May, a high-level discussion took place at the conference, during which participants were acquainted with key projects of Lithuania’s development cooperation on gender equality.

According to E.Ignatavičius, the position of women in such countries as Afghanistan will improve only when their most important needs will be met in health care, education and other fields. Therefore, Lithuania supports women’s health care in Ghor province and helps to establish and equip schools for girls through projects of development cooperation. This year, a gynecologist from Lithuania visited Chaghcharan, consulted patients at the province’s hospital and in women’s prison and organized training courses for the Afghan medics.

Vice-Minister E.Ignatavičius acquainted participants of the conference with the activities of Lithuania’s chairmanship of the Community of Democracies that also dedicate a lot of attention to gender equality issues. Upon conclusion of the Chairmanship of the Community, which is comprised of over 100 countries, a high-level women’s leadership conference “Women Enhancing Democracy: Best Practices” will be held on 30 June in Vilnius.

At the conference, leaders from the public, private and non-governmental sectors, representatives from Afghanistan and other developing countries will discuss women’s public participation, the promotion of women in decision-making positions and other topical issues.

The First United Nations Conference on the Least Developed Countries convened in Paris in 1981. It is held every ten years. Today 48 countries have been described as a group of least developed countries. They have a combined population of more than 880 million people. Among these countries there are 33 from Africa, 14 from Asia and 1 country from the Caribbean.