Creating a safe space for fathers to jointly reflect on and question the factors that frame gender inequalities affecting power dynamics within Azerbaijani families was the most important achievement of the Papa Schools project implemented in Azerbaijan. “At first, I believed I would be the only father to join, and was apprehensive that the project would simply fail”, says Orkhan Nadirov from Baku, a father of a 2 year-old boy, “as the topic is not a popular one among men in Azerbaijan, given predominant traditional notions of masculinity in our society”. Orkhan and his wife were looking forward to the arrival of their first child. However, the end of the first trimester of pregnancy was marked with devastating news that a child was having an inherited blood disorder - thalassemia and the family was recommended to terminate pregnancy. “It was a major dilemma for us; however, me and my wife decided together that we would choose a different path”. Needless to note that Orkhan and his wife were very well aware of the implications of this decision for them. “We started exploring academic literature and searching for resources that could provide any guidance for maintaining effective relationships in families that have kids with similar disorders. All of a sudden, my wife came across information on Papa Schools, and I made up my mind to join. Though my expectations were not as high since I was skeptical that other fathers would interrupt the learning process, I decided to give it a try and see if this could have given me more leverage to explore the concept of a responsible fatherhood”. Following several months of engagement with a Papa School, Orkhan believes that he managed to gain more than he had previously expected: “What’s unique about this methodology is that despite the focus on father engagement, the information shared was actually concerning both parents, and I was sharing the summary of each session with my wife back home. And so I had a chance to further explore many of these topics through insights provided by my wife and through our shared reflections on many of those topics.”   Orkhan is not the only beneficiary of the project. Papa Schools brought together fathers in three different regions of Azerbaijan - Baku, Ganja and Gazakh in the framework of the “EU 4 Gender Equality“ programme jointly implemented by UNFPA and UN Women with financial support of the European Union. A total of 126 men with almost equal shares of both fathers and fathers-to-be joined and actively participated at the sessions. One of the important aspects of the Papa School project Orkhan liked the most is the opportunity for the like-minded fathers to remain actively engaged in promoting the concept of responsible fatherhood beyond the project lifetime. Sahil Aliyev, a 28 year-old father-to-be is one of those men Orkhan met at the Papa School. Sahil joined the course with deeply entrenched stereotypes about gender equality in mind, but managed to explore different concepts of what gender equitable relations were about. Sahil believes that everyone in a society with prevailing patriarchal norms is born into a culture that shapes people’s behaviors and attitudes by forcing them to pick up dominant discriminatory social norms: “At family, at school, at work, we are being taught that men should be masculine. I remember my mother saying that men should have the final word on everything in the family, even if he is not right”. During the eight-week Papa School courses, the trained experts and facilitators delivered a range of sessions on gender-based discrimination and violence related issues in Azerbaijan. Alongside this, the participants were also given a chance to explore the concepts of family planning and reproductive health, intimate partnerships, abortions, femicides, lack of women’s participation and benefits of women’s empowerment. Sahil was one of those men who were actively participating at every session, and he believes that he gained more insights into the topic he had never discussed before. “I found myself talking about gender, sex and family relationships - topics that I have never openly discussed with strangers. To be honest, now I admit that I was violent towards my ex-girlfriend by limiting her access to some possible opportunities or imposing restrictions on the way she was dressing-up. But I really wasn’t cognizant about this until participating in the Papa School sessions on gender-based violence. I cannot say that I have managed to get rid of all these stereotypes over the course of these past eight weeks, but I can state confidently that I feel sorry for the way I behaved before. And what I'm sure of now is that having been able to reflect on many of these issues, I’ll do my best to treat my current partner with empathy and full respect.” It is worth mentioning that another distinctive attribute of the project is its focus on the diversity of experiences and expertise of those involved to lead the effort. "I liked the multidimensional approach of the project. In the course of these past eight weeks, we had a chance to closely interact with not only gender experts, but also doctors, pediatricians and psychologists who were sharing their perspectives with us", says Fuad Valiyev from Ganja, the 32-year-old father of two, who was symbolically granted the “Father of the Year” award at the project’s closing ceremony. Fuad believes in the value of shared workload within the household for promoting gender equality in the family. He says, "I think what makes me a responsible father and a supportive husband is that I try to equally share household and childcare responsibilities with my wife." Papa Schools have been launched only recently in the three regions of Azerbaijan and it will definitely take time to see the immediate effects of this intervention. However, this model has really managed to showcase a forward looking strategy of how men like Orkhan, Sahil and others in traditional patriarchal societies could join as allies in the efforts to transform unequal social norms by promoting gender equitable behaviors and attitudes and ensuring inclusive and healthy family relationships through men’s active and responsible engagement.    

Olga Babayeva, a 52-year-old farmer from Samukh region in northwestern Azerbaijan, is a well-recognized businesswoman in her community. Apart from being the biggest producer of vegetable seeds for onions, coriander, dill, radishes and parsley, among others, she is also known for her strong support of women’s engagement in farming.  She was attracted to farm life as a young child, spending her summer holidays helping her parents plant vegetables. In the 1990s, after the collapse of the Soviet Union, a nineteen-year-old Olga became the first young female farmer in Fuzuli village when she started renting a 10-hectare plot to grow beetroot. “But it was not that easy,” says Olga with a smile, who now cultivates a total of 14 hectares. For more than 30 years she has been active in agriculture beyond just growing crops. She also manages the vegetable seed cooperative Barakat (meaning “blessing” in Azeri) with 1 400 members and established the Samukh Seed and Vegetable Corporation that ensures laboratory testing for seed sorting and drying. Today, the corporation sells seeds in both national and foreign markets. “In the beginning, I faced situations where tractor drivers (who were usually men) would refuse to cultivate my land just because I was a woman, or officials in the local government body neglected my requests as they did not accept the fact that a woman can be engaged in farming professionally,” reminisces Olga. “‘Your place is in the kitchen, not on the land’ this is what women hear very often.” Empowering rural women through agriculture has great potential in the country. According to the State Statistics Committee of Azerbaijan, 77 percent of women reside in rural areas, and the percentage of female entrepreneurs engaged in agriculture, forestry and fishing is higher than men (32 versus 24 percent). However, women face a number of challenges, such as a gender pay gap, informality of jobs and a triple work burden (housework, production for the household and wage work). In total, women do an average of six hours of unpaid work, while men spend only two hours on the same. Additionally, poor access to social services hinders many women from leveraging their full potential.   “As I was divorced with a little son and daughter on my hands, I had no other option than to earn a living to survive. I had to work much harder than any other fellow male farmer as I bore triple responsibilities: working on the farm and at home, as well as engaging in village initiatives,” notes Olga. “Today, my children are adults, but the perceptions and challenges are still there.” As a result of her experiences, she knows very well the difficulties women face in agriculture as she had to go through many of them. This is why FAO believed her the perfect person to mentor other women farmers. To this end, Olga received several FAO trainings on farming and business management and participated in a training for trainers’ workshop. Since 2020, FAO, in cooperation with the Government of Azerbaijan, has been providing support to rural women to improve their knowledge and farming practices through innovative technologies in cultivating fruit trees and vegetables, cattle breeding and poultry raising, among other areas. “Women are engaged in agricultural production; however, they tend to have less training in sales and marketing and have little information about micro-credits and non-financial services,” points out Flora Poladova, leading FAO project expert in Azerbaijan. “With the improved farming techniques, they will be able to do commercial farming. Increasing their income through essential business, marketing and leadership skills will, in fact, raise women's self-confidence and make their voices heard.” “FAO plays an intermediary role between female farmers and state and private service providers. We are working now to bridge this, so that will help women to learn about free advisory services, soft loans and other services,” adds Poladova. To keep up the momentum, the FAO project mobilizes rural women’s groups and has already succeeded in connecting over 100 female farmers from 20 regions in Azerbaijan. As part of this network, Olga communicates with other members and shares farming knowledge via a mobile messaging app. “I am so happy to be part of the big changes ahead!” beams Olga. “I am grateful women are not alone, and support is there. Women and girls deserve fair opportunities and treatment and, once financially stable, they will have a stronger voice to be equally recognized.” Through this project, FAO is working with the Government of Azerbaijan to better respond to current and future challenges in the agriculture sector, engaging women as key to making the sector more productive and inclusive.

Today, on 2 March, we celebrate the 30th anniversary of Azerbaijan’s membership of the United Nations (UN). On this day in 1992, the UN General Assembly adopted resolution 46/230 at the 82nd plenary meeting of its 46th session in New York, during which Azerbaijan and eight other former Soviet republics became new members of the UN. In fact, the year 1992 saw the biggest single increase in UN membership since the wave of decolonization of 1960. Azerbaijan, as newly independent state, faced extreme difficulties brought by the conflict in the early 1990s. Thus, in the  first years of the UN-Azerbaijan partnership, UN assistance was primarily focused on the immediate needs of refugees and internally displaced persons. UN Agencies provided food, health services, shelter and other non-food items to more than 600,000 IDPs and 200,000 refugees. The combined efforts of the Government, local communities and the international partners were crucial in preventing the most tragic consequences of large-scale displacement,  such as mass starvation, and epidemics. Later, the UN continued its support to Azerbaijan with post-conflict rehabilitation and longer-term development needs. In a relatively short timeframe, Azerbaijan has transformed itself from a transition economy into an upper middle-income country with a high human development index. Between 1995 and 2019, the country’s Human Development Index value increased from 0.604 to 0.756, an increase of 25.2%. During this period, poverty rate in Azerbaijan decreased from 49.0% to 5%  and the country’s  Gross National Income per capita increased by about 79.4%. Over the last 30 years, Azerbaijan has made remarkable progress in terms of economic growth and human development, and the UN-Azerbaijan relations have transitioned from assistance-based to partnership-based cooperation. Since joining the UN, Azerbaijan has contributed to our collective commitment to sustainable development and continues to engage in a comprehensive and wide-reaching agenda under the principles and objectives set forth in the UN Charter. This was recognised at the global level when Azerbaijan was elected as a non-permanent member of the UN Security Council for a two-year term (2012-2013) by 155 member states.  After the outbreak of COVID-19, Azerbaijan has again demonstrated its commitment to multilateralism and shared responsibility contributing to the regional and global efforts to combat the pandemic. As the Chair of the Non-Aligned Movement, Azerbaijan initiated a Special Session of the UN General Assembly in response to COVID 19 and financially supported the global COVID-19 efforts. Furthermore, with a rich tradition of multiculturalism and religious tolerance, Azerbaijan has assumed a role of encouraging intercultural dialogue and improved understanding between different nations and peoples through the hosting of a number of high-level events in recent years. I am confident that with the launch of Azerbaijan 2030: National Priorities for socio-economic development Strategy, Azerbaijan will renew its aspirations to turn the country into an advanced economy with a high welfare society. United Nations will continue supporting Azerbaijan’s efforts to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals, as well as build forward better and recover from the COVID-19 pandemic and the recent conflict. In 2021, the UN Country Team and the Azerbaijani government signed the UN-Azerbaijan Sustainable Development Cooperation Framework for 2021-2025. This framework identified four main priorities for our partnership: promotion of inclusive growth that reduces vulnerability and builds resilience; stronger institutions for better public and social services; protection of the environment and addressing climate change; and empowerment of women and girls in every life sphere. These are very ambitious targets, and to reach them we need accelerated actions and mobilization of all levels of society.  As Resident Coordinator, I will continue to lead the UN Family and work closely with the Government and people of Azerbaijan  on the design and implementation of a combination of integrated solutions that will translate these targets into measurable progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals. We will continue to pursue a strategy that invests in people, in peace, in durable solutions, and in institutions that are responsive to the needs of the most vulnerable, which will help Azerbaijan build forward  stronger, more equitable and more prosperous society.

The exhibition organised at the Seaside Boulevard features 100 photos illustrating the history of the UN-Azerbaijan partnership, as well as UN activities in the country. Azerbaijan became a member of the United Nations on 2 March 1992 following the UN General Assembly’s resolution 46/230. Two months later, on 6 May, Azerbaijan opened its Permanent Mission to the UN in New York. The United Nations’ first office in Azerbaijan opened in November 1992. Today’s event has kicked off a year-long campaign dedicated to the 30th anniversary of the UN-Azerbaijan partnership. Throughout the year, a series of events will be organised in partnership  with the Government, civil society, academia and others. Among others, we will organise several events on the Sustainable Development Goals and Azerbaijan’s efforts to achieve them, Model UN conference, tree-planting campaigns and various contests for university and high-school students.