Maya Morsi sheds light on Egypt’s International Proposal on Women, Environment, Climate Change at CSW66

CAIRO – 16 March 2022: In the opening of the 66th session of the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW66), President of the National Council for Women (NCW) Maya Morsi shed light on the seven pillars Egypt advocates for in its International Proposal on Women, Environment, and Climate Change March 2022.  

One is devising climate change coexistence and mitigation methods that take into consideration women needs. Second is strengthening the role of women in environmental governance. Third is creating jobs for women during the transition into green economy, and wise consumption.

Fourth is the extenuation of climate change impact on women. Fifth is raising awareness in climate change and challenges facing women. Sixth is generating more data on women matters, and climate change. Seventh is empowering women in the process of climate funding.

According to Egypt's proposal, the most vulnerable categories of women to climate change are elderly women, childbearing aged women, and young women; disabled Women; poor women and female breadwinners; rural women; illiterate women; female irregular workers, females in small agricultural businesses, and the fishing field; and females living in slums, and areas vulnerable to climate change such as coasts.

In her speech, NCW president showcased that the environmental dimension and women empowerment are included in Egypt’s 2030 Sustainable Development Vision, and that the National Strategy for Coexistence with Climate Change 2050 has been recently launched.

Morsi added that Egypt already has a National Strategy for Women Empowerment, and that the NCW also launched a methodology to integrate women’s needs pertaining to the environment with the regulation of environmental sustainability.

As for initiatives integrating women in climate work, Egypt is training rural women on environment-friendly agricultural practices, ways of emission reduction, and sustainable management of heavy rains.

What's more, half of the 58 million beneficiaries of LE800-billion-worth Decent Life initiative are women. Similarly, the presidential Women Health Initiative reached 23 million female citizens.

Moreover, a large number of female beneficiaries will enroll to the recently-launched the National Family Development Program aimed at economically empowering married women and improving their access to birth control.

The NCW president underscored that Egypt’s contribution in emissions globally is just 0.6 percent, which is the outcome of environment protection policies, and sustainable development programs.

As CSW66’s theme is relevant to the empowerment of women in the field of climate work, Morsi pointed out that there is a women unit at the Environment Affairs Agency and an Equal Opportunity Unit at the Ministry of Environment.