Egypt's FRA 1st regulatory body to sign UN Declaration of Principles for Women Empowerment

CAIRO - 3 April 2022: The Egyptian Financial Regulatory Authority (FRA) has signed the Declaration of Women Empowerment Principles (WEPs-Women Empowerment Principles).

 

This declaration was launched by the United Nations in cooperation with the United Nations Global Compact to emphasize support for achieving gender equality and empowering women in the workplace.

 

The FRA became the first regulatory body to sign and implement this declaration after it was approved among more than 2,600 companies and destinations worldwide.

 

Chairman of the FRA, Mohamed Omran called on all unions and entities operating in the non-banking financial sector to adopt and sign the Declaration of Women Empowerment Principles (WEPs) of the United Nations, to implement the seven principles contained in the declaration, foremost of which is creating an institutional approach to achieve gender equality and the treatment of all women. and men with fairness at work, respecting and upholding human rights and non-discrimination.

 

In addition to ensuring the health, safety and well-being of all working women and men, promoting education, training and professional development for women, adopting practices that support women’s empowerment, promoting equality through community initiatives and encouraging enrollment, and working to measure and report progress in achieving gender equality openly.

 

Omran said that WEPs represent a journey of evolution from a social perspective that stakeholders are taking to help them invest not only in their commitment to gender equality, but also in their businesses - with the support of UN Women - where the promotion of gender equality is critical to improving corporate performance, attracting investment, enhancing innovation capacity, attracting and retaining talent, diversifying the supplier base, and meeting consumer needs and demands.

 

He added that the authority's accession to the Declaration of Principles of Women's Empowerment (WEPs) would contribute to receiving international recognition for the efforts made to promote gender equality and empowering women in the workplace in Egypt, and the authority's commitment and its leadership to implement more work and support in this field, bearing in mind that gender equality in the workplace is not a women's issue but an economic issue.

 

The step of joining the deceleration will support the results revealed in the annual report issued by the World Bank for the year 2022, indicates the continued improvement in Egypt’s ranking in the report’s indicators, which reflects the successive government actions to support issues of women’s empowerment and empowerment at the economic, social and political levels.

 

The World Bank Report is concerned with measuring the development of procedures and legislation related to empowering women, and studying laws and regulations covering the entire life cycle of working women in 190 countries.

 

 

The head of the authority indicated that women represent 33 percent of the workforce in the FRA; where she occupies 35 percent of the senior administrative positions, ranging from the rank of general manager to sector head, and 32 percent of the specialists, which represents the largest base of the work force in the authority, in addition to that the percentage of women in new contracts has reached 52 percent.

 

The Authority’s Board of Directors had previously approved a draft amendment to some provisions of the articles regulating bonds, securitization bonds and sukuk in the executive regulations of Capital Market Law No. 95 of 1992, and the inclusion of new financing tools in the capital market from the Gender Equality and Women Empowerment Bonds to keep pace with the Egyptian state’s trend towards supporting the economy with multiple financing tools in line with Egypt’s Vision 2030 in accordance with international best practices.