Republic of Cyprus Second Voluntary National Report - Sustainable development goals

30 Focus areas WOMEN, YOUTH, IMMIGRANTS— LEAVING NO ONE BEHIND SOCIAL INCLUSION Cyprus continues to make progress in reducing poverty in all its forms by decreasing unemployment and income inequality, increasing employment and incomes, and implementing targeted welfare schemes. Cyprus ensures high standards of healthy living and well-being, having recently rolled out its national healthcare system providing equal access to quality healthcare for all. Regarding gender equality, Cyprus ranks among the 10 countries with the smallest gender pay gap but falls behind in the representation of women in politics and women who hold leadership positions in the public and private sector. Focusing on the protection of vulnerable groups, increased efforts have been made to prevent and combat domestic violence and sexual abuse against women and children, and human trafficking. A major challenge that Cyprus faces is the integration of immigrants, due to the high volume of first-time asylum seekers. I. WOMEN Making progress for women and girls is crucial for achieving the 2030 Agenda and its 17 SDGs. The 2030 Agenda has Gender Equality as one of its main ambitions, with a dedicated goal (SDG 5) which includes a broad plea to end discrimination between women and men, as well as references to gender-specific concerns in numerous SDG targets. In recent years, progress has been achieved in many areas in Cyprus. However, entrenched social and cultural norms continue to maintain discrimination against women. Persistence of stereotypical attitudes towards the gender roles of women and men is a concern and a critical challenge to the implementation of gender equality. The adoption of the new National Action Plan for Equality between Men and Women (NAPD) (2019-2023) approved by the Council of Ministers in September 2019, the most significant achievement in terms of the national policy on gender equality calls upon all jointly responsible Ministries, public bodies, academic and research centres, non-governmental organisations, women’s organisations, equality organisations, and local authorities to implement the actions and measures pertaining to their spheres of influence. The implementation of the UN Security Council Resolution 1325 “Women, Peace and Security” is an integral part and an important tool of Cyprus’ Foreign Policy. In this sense, the adoption of the first National Action Plan sets the framework for a coherent, were approached in an integrated and comprehensive manner under the competencies of the Deputy Minister for Research, Innovation and Digital Policy, and the operation of the Research and Innovation Foundation as the executive arm of the system. A national Research and Innovation Strategy is under preparation, aiming at the technological, social and economic development of Cyprus, including measures for capacity-building for the research sector, the optimum utilisation and networking of national research infrastructures, the improvement of the framework regarding the recruitment and employment policies and the creation of a favourable simplified framework for the attraction of investments both from local and international stakeholders in R&I. Cyprus has scored a big success in competing for the “Teaming” Action of the EU. Since 2017, six proposals for the development of Centres of Excellence (Coe) in R&I, have secured a total of €90 million under the “Teaming” Action of the European Framework Programme for Research and Innovation “Horizon 2020” and another €15 million to each one from the state budget for a period of 15 years. The Six Centres of Excellence are gradually being developed and will enable Cyprus to upgrade its prospects for innovative research and entrepreneurship.