Mashat: COVID-19 accelerated reforms to eliminate gender gap, empower women

CAIRO – 30 November 2020: Egyptian International Cooperation Minister Rania Mashat assured, on Monday, that women's empowerment is a key factor in the implementation of the national development plan that Egypt seeks to carry out.”

The minister’s remarks came during her participation in the virtual summit organized by the forum grouping African executive presidents of “Women Working for A Change” initiative. She explained that despite the huge challenges imposed by Coronavirus, the pandemic accelerated the pace of reforms to fill the gap between genders and empower women economically.

The initiative aims at increasing women's participation in leading posts and the business community. It groups a number of female leaderships in the continent and international community.

She said the initiative is the first platform in the Middle East and Africa that seeks to coordinate efforts of the government and private sectors and civil community as regards policies aiming at empowering women economically and achieving gender equality.

As part of the International Cooperation Ministry's efforts to empower women, she said the ministry carried out 13 projects worth 82 million dollars to achieve gender equality and was able to secure 7 million dollars from Spain and Canada in this regard.

Education is essential to empower women economically and achieve gender equality, she said, adding that the ministry's portfolio includes 36 projects worth 2.4 billion dollars to secure good education, especially in rural areas.

Among these projects were the opening of 12 schools in 2011 for excellent male and female students in science, maths and technology, she said.

The summit brought together more than 300 female leaderships.