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This year, International Women's Day focuses on women in the labour force and calls for a move towards gender equality and "Planet 50-50 by 2030".

The new world of work offers many opportunities, but is also marked by persistent gender inequalities.

Empowering women economically requires removing structural barriers holding them back. These include the gender wage gap and other discriminatory employment regulations as well as women’s disproportionate burden of unpaid work. Ensuring women’s access and rights to property, land, finance, formal employment and agricultural resources are also key to empowering women economically.

Women’s economic empowerment is essential to sustainable development.

Not only does it improve the lives of individual women, but it also accelerates development progress for society as a whole. Evidence shows that women tend to invest a higher share of their income on their families and communities. Empowering women economically helps to reduce poverty and hunger, improve child health and education, and build resilience to disaster and climate change.

TheÌýÌýfor Sustainable Development, calls for us to "leave no one behind". This vision cannot be realized without the full participation and empowerment of half the world's population.

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Betty Ndugga's Story (via FAO):Ìý

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And the stories of women like her:Ìý