Egyptian gender equality model receives US$150,000 grant from World Bank

CAIRO – 18 April 2017: An Egyptian initiative promoting gender equality was awarded funding of almost US$150,000 Tuesday, a joint grant offered by the World Bank Group and Sexual Violence Research Initiative (SVRI) to respond to gender based violence globally.

The funds, totaling US$1.14 million, were offered to ten teams, out of 200 proposals submitted to the panel. The competing teams were asked to come up with innovations to prevent gender based violence in low-and middle-income countries.

The winning projects included several initiatives, ranging from preventing sexual harassment in Jordan, to combating culturally-endorsed sexual violence in Kyrgyzstan, Central Asia and preventing gender-based cyber violence in Uganda, Africa, according to a press release by the World Bank.

“Gender-based violence thrives on secrecy and indifference with devastating consequences,” World Bank Group President Jim Yong Kim said. “Through this competition we hope to shine a spotlight on gender-based violence and inspire innovative solutions.”

The Egyptian initiative “Gender Equity Model -Promoting Women’s Economic Empowerment and Fighting Gender-Based Violence” was presented by a team from the American University in Cairo (AUC).

The Development Marketplace Awards were first launched by the World Bank in 2016 to honor victims and survivors of gender based violence around the world; and the SVRI Grant award started in 2014.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), 35 percent of women worldwide, about 938 million, have experienced some sort of “physical or sexual partner violence or non-partner sexual violence.”