UNIDO, UN Women praise Egypt’s role in supporting women’s issues

CAIRO – 22 June 2022: A joint statement by the United Nations Industrial Development Organization "UNIDO" and the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women “UN Women” praised the role of the Egyptian state in supporting women's issues.

This comes in conjunction with a conference highlighting the objectives of "Rabeha" program for economic empowerment of women, which is consistent with Egypt's Vision 2030.

Rabeha program aims to reduce the gender gap in the Egyptian entrepreneurship ecosystem, targeting 1,000 female beneficiaries age 21 and above, who often lack specific skills relevant to starting their own businesses throughout two years.

The program will pay attention to targeting women from underprivileged and rural areas in seven governorates, Cairo, Giza, Alexandria, Behira, Fayoum, Bani Sweif, and Minya.

According to the statement by both UN organizations, the conference, held on Wednesday, will review the upcoming UN plans aimed at promoting employment and self-employment in the governorates of Beni Suef, Fayoum, Minya and Giza.

Following this event, UNIDO intends to continue its support to institutions to link their activities and services for women with development partners and donors, ensuring wider reach to all women job seekers and aspiring entrepreneurs.

The statement pointed out that the program will build the capacity of the institutions participating in this event during the first quarter of 2022.

This included training a group of employees from five ministries and different government bodies, namely the Ministry of Local Development, the Ministry of International Cooperation, the Ministry of Trade and Industry and the Ministry of Youth and Sports and the Medium, Small and Micro Enterprise Development Agency. They will be trained on various topics related to women's economic empowerment.

The statement added that the training topics included methods related to how institutions can enhance their services that target job seekers and ambitious entrepreneurs at the governorate level, as well as strengthening comprehensive strategic partnerships to increase the numbers of self-employment and employment in the targeted governorates within the framework of the program.