● The Minister of International Cooperation reviewed Egypt’s efforts through international cooperation with development partners to enhance women’s empowerment.
During the activities of the 78th session of the United Nations General Assembly, Dr. Rania A. Al-Mashat, Minister of International Cooperation, participated in the 10th anniversary of the Women Political Leaders.
The WPL is an independent international non-profit organization based in Brussels, working to enhance women empowerment efforts through a network of women leaders, including ministers, heads of government, members of parliament, and officials from the government and private sectors, to advance global growth based on inclusion and empowering women in leadership positions.
Many representatives of women leaders, international financial institutions, and the private sector participated in the ceremony.
In her speech, Al-Mashat explained that empowering women and increasing their representation in leadership positions requires not only creating a balance in holding leadership positions, but also benefiting from the real potential and talents that women have and utilizing their efforts to help governments and confront development challenges.
The Minister stressed the importance of successful models that are the best example of women around the world and whose influence extends to all parts of the globe by changing sociocultural norms. H.E. pointed out that in Egypt play a major role with the support of the political leadership, which made Egypt the first country to launch a national strategy to empower women in line with the 2030 agenda, as 25% of parliamentary seats are reserved for women. This is in addition to increasing the presence of women in executive positions in the government and leadership positions, enabling them to play a pivotal role and confront social barriers.
Al-Mashat reviewed the efforts of the Ministry of International Cooperation in line with Egypt's 2030 Vision for empowering women, by including SDG 5: Gender Equality within the various strategies with multilateral and bilateral development partners. In addition, the Ministry of International Cooperation, in cooperation with the National Council for Women (NCW) and the World Economic Forum (WEF), launched the Closing the Gender Gap Accelerator, the first of its kind in Africa and the Middle East and North Africa region, enhancing cooperation between the governmental, private sectors and civil society, to motivate private sector companies to take effective measures towards closing the gender gap in the labor market, noting that the ongoing portfolio of the Ministry of International Cooperation includes about 20 projects related to women’s empowerment; worth $1.3 billion.