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Project to prepare women ‘as the agents of change’

ABU DHABI — The United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM) has launched a three-year regional project to enhance the role of Arab women parliamentarians in nine Arab countries, including the UAE.

The announcement was made yesterday at a symposium in the capital on 'Enhancing the Role of Arab Women Parliamentarians in Public Life,' jointly organised by the UAE General Women's Union (GWU), the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM) and the Regional Office and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in Abu Dhabi.

A large number of women parliamentarians from Arab countries including Bahrain, Kuwait and Oman were among those who participated in the symposium.

The day-long symposium shed light on issues related to reinforcement of the role of Arab women parliamentarians and the difficulties faced by women in some Arab countries, especially the AGCC states, in joining or having tangible participation in parliaments.

The new project will empower Arab women parliamentarians to act as agents of change through their participation in the political processes. It would also foster an appropriate political climate needed to achieve gender equality in national development through the establishment of an Arab Women's Parliamentarians' Forum (AWPF), gender sensitisation of Arab parliamentarians and establishment and functioning of national incubators for prospective Arab women leaders.

Addressing the symposium, Nora Al Suwaidi, Director of GWU, said the achievements of emirati women in various fields and their contribution to the development process in the UAE, should serve as a source of inspiration for national women to enter politics, particularly since Shaikha Fatima bint Mubarak, GWU's Chairperson, has also been assuring that the political future of emirati women was promising.

She said GWU had been conducting informative workshops and symposia for national women with leadership qualities to educate them on parliamentarian work and the importance of political participation of women for the development of nations.

"The national strategy for development of UAE women launched by Shaikha Fatima in 2002 to increase the participation of women in different walks of life including politics has greatly contributed to devising mechanisms to ensure the presence of emirati women in various fields," Suwaidi said.

In her keynote address, Jacky Perkins, Regional Expert, Engaging with the Arab World Foreign and Commonwealth Office, UK, said the symposium comes in the context of UNIFEM's excellent 'Arab Women Parliamentarians' Project which seeks to address empowerment of women, one of the three deficits identified in the 2002 Arab Human Development Report.

She said using UNIFEM's well-known expertise in empowering women, this project will be delivered by a regional organisation in partnership with national counterparts in each of the nine countries covered by the project.