Gender parity has been an important pillar in the government’s eyes towards ensuring a stronger and more resilient society
To celebrate the upcoming International’s Women Day on March 8th, the Ministry of International Cooperation, alongside the National Council for Women, World Economic Forum and the Private Sector, have launched the “Closing the Gender Gap Accelerator” action plan, in a hybrid event that took place today.
The first country in the Middle East and Africa to launch such a public-private collaboration model with the World Economic Forum, Egypt’s accelerator will tackle current gender gaps, and reshape gender parity.
Gender parity, or when genders are treated equally, has been an important pillar in the government’s eyes towards ensuring a stronger, cohesive and resilient society with stakeholder capitalism as the guiding principle.
“2021 is the year to build back a better, more inclusive world. Women are at the forefront of the sustainable development framework nationally and globally. The accelerator has helped mitigate the impacts of COVID-19 in 2020, and its laid-out action plan will help counterbalance the widened gender gap in 2021,” said Minister of International Cooperation Dr. Rania Al-Mashat.
The accelerator is meant to drive changes in the system, showcasing the importance of collaborative action across different verticals, from governmental institutions to everyday life such as attitudes towards stereotypes and etc.
The accelerator’s action plan is the result of multiple working sessions between the public and private co-chairs, supported by the World Economic Forum. The plan quantifies the commitments, outlining the mandates and roles across 10-points with desired outputs and key performance indicators, said an official statement.
The Ministry of International Cooperation launched the first multi-stakeholder platform in August 2020 bringing together all stakeholders including more than 80 representatives from multilateral and bilateral development partners to ensure streamlined efforts and sustained commitment towards achieving SDG 5: Gender Equality are coordinated and upscaled, it added.
The accelerator’s action plan is within the framework of Egypt’s continued commitment towards creating and implementing policies and reforms to push the gender agenda and help support women economic empowerment.
Collaboration between relevant public and private sector stakeholders will create opportunities to increase female participation in the workforce and in leadership positions, and helping close wage gaps.
“We are aiming to achieve gender equality by providing women equal opportunities in the work and social spheres, in order to ensure women’s economic empowerment and inclusion,” Dr. Maya Morsy, President of the National Council for Women, stated.
The economic empowerment of women is a key focus in the NCW’s framework towards the National Strategy for the Empowerment of Egyptian Women 2030, she added, emphasizing that gender equality and growing women’s economic inclusion will increase the country’s GDP.
The accelerator will focus on 10 commandments or pillars tackling various fields to boost women’s inclusion.
These include leadership mentorship and protocols, educational re-skilling and preparation, digitalization of businesses, work regulations that empower women, as well policies and measures to ensure social inclusion.
The commandments cover a variety of issues, including work-life balance, financial and leadership inclusion, sexual harassment in the workplace, and gender equality models.
“Egypt has made tremendous investments in its human capital foundation by expanding women’s higher education in recent years. The accelerator will support local efforts to unleash the full potential of women in the Egyptian economy” said Saadia Zahidi, Managing Director and Head of the Centre for the New Economy and Society at the World Economic Forum.
Commandment one focuses on female representation on board of directors, this was supported by a directive given by the Financial Regulatory Authority (FRA) last year.
This will include conducting meetings by both the government and the private sector with relevant stakeholders to develop concrete recommendations in advancing the representation of women on boards.
A main challenge that women face is balance work and taking care of children, in which the public and private sector will create and issue new policies childcare and elderly care services, which is tackled in the second commandment.
The policies will encourage private sector investment and raise awareness on women’s important role in both the workplace and in childcare.
The creation of safe work spaces for women is the focus of the third commandment, in which the government and private sector will issue a code of conduct and policy notes for businesses across different sectors and industries.
These will include regulations against sexual harassment in the workplace, policy papers that show the how women’s employment was affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, possible gender gaps in certain jobs, and income and economic opportunities.
Having policy notes and recommendations shared with the private sector will enhance working conditions for women, said the official statement.
“The private sector has the opportunity and flexibility to play an integral role in bridging the gender gap. Together with all stakeholders we are committed to implementing the action points in the accelerators action plan to advance the economic empowerment of women” said Karim El Chiaty, Vice Chairman of Travco Group.
Karim El Chiaty, Vice Chairman of Travco Group, stated that the private sector is able to play a vital role in closing the gender gap, adding that “Together with all stakeholders we are committed to implementing the action points in the accelerators action plan to advance the economic empowerment of women”.
When it comes to the fourth commandment, the government and private sector will work on equipping women in the digital sphere as it has been proven crucial during the pandemic.
The “Closing the Gender Gap Accelerator” also looks into designing programs in technology-based fields to provide women with skills, experience, and scholarship opportunities in areas such as information technology; Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM); and artificial intelligence (AI).
“Women should be granted access to digital. We are here to support and help make this plan accessible and achievable in order to close the gender gap,” said Gitanjali Chaturvedi, World Economic Forum.
The creation and promotion of women’s leadership and mentorship programs is part of the fifteen commandment, which focuses on organizing several annual events for female business owners and directors to connect with experts building on existing governmental leadership programs, and customizing training programs for women to be represented on boards of specific companies.
The implementation of gender equality models and women empowerment principles is the heart of the accelerator’s sixth commandment.
This commandment aims to expand gender responsive policies and services to eliminate gender-based pay gaps, promote women’s inclusion in leadership positions, eradicate sexual harassment, and enhance work-life balance across both the government and private sector’s workplaces.
Financial inclusion and literacy will be tackled by the seventh commandment of the action plan, which will encourage women to open personal bank accounts and understand their financial opporunties through training and awareness programs.
It will also establish a database of those in the informal sector in order to provide them with ID cards, which will grant them access to various economic opportunities.
The eighth commandment will lean towards highlighting the role of women in leadership, raising awareness and putting a spotlight on the work of influential women as positive examples to encourage others.
The action plan encourages stakeholders to work on improving cooperation with the National Wages Council in its ninth commandment.
This will play a role in closing the pay gap and achieve pay equity, as part of the Equal Pay International Coalition (EPIC), led by the International Labour Organization (ILO), UN Women, and Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).
The last commandment emphasized digital marketing and networking tools to boost female-led startups and female entrepreneurs access to markets and increase their exposure, both locally and internationally.
CIB’s Chief Sustainability Officer Dalia Abdel Kader noted that “Empowering women means empowering GDP”.
The Ministry of International Cooperation’s 2020 Annual Report “International Partnerships for Sustainable Development: Writing the Future in a Changing Global Dynamic” has been an important milestone report to showcase how far Egypt has come in terms of combating the gender gap.
The report states that there are 34 projects in Egypt worth $3.3 billion being executed today, all to achieve the targets of gender equality
These were distributed to sectors such as Health (20 percent), Micro, Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (MSMEs) (15 percent), and Education (14 percent).
Egypt scored an average 45 out of 100 for its WBL index, measuring the economic empowerment of women, in the recent World Bank report, “Women, Business, and The Law 2021.”
The index consisted of mobility, workplace, pay, parenthood, entrepreneurship, assets, and pension. Egypt scored highest in pension with 100 points, followed by 75 in both entrepreneurship and workplace.
Egypt continues to make gender parity a priority.
The Ministry of International Cooperation launched a special micro-website dedicated to gender equality called “Empowering Women, Empowering Societies,” which provides access to information, insights and updates on the accelerator and other projects and policies being implemented.
It also includes an interactive map of Egypt’s development projects mapped out according to SDG and location - where users can access in real time any project in accordance to its goal.
