UfM Regional Dialogue Meeting on Women Empowerment
Follow the event live (15 November, 9h30):
15 December 2021. The UfM Regional Dialogue Meeting on Women Empowerment will take place online on 15 December 2021, with participation of around 70 focal points from Ministries in charge of gender equality and women issues, national statistic institutions, regional and international organizations, civil society regional networks, cooperation agencies and donors.
It will endorse the 2nd regional Progress report on Women Empowerment in the Euro-Mediterranean region, open a dialogue with the Gender Focal Points of 42 UfM Member States on the policy recommendations in view of the next UfM Ministerial Declaration expected to take place in the second semester of 2022 and will agree on the follow-up of the reporting exercise for the 16 indicators not covered in 2021 exercise
The meeting will foresee an institutional opening session in the morning, followed by the more technical exchanges among the focal points and the other participants on the policy recommendations and possible priorities for actions. The final session will focus on the next reporting exercise for 2022.
Background
Following the UfM Cairo Declaration of 2017 on strengthening the role of women in society, a follow-up mechanism was established to monitor the progress, to evaluate the gender gap and to provide recommendations to policymakers and stakeholders, in order to improve the impact in the Mediterranean region. A full set of 20 indicators covering the four priorities areas of the Cairo Declaration was endorsed in 2020
On national level, across 2021 the UfM has been coordinating with Member States as they cooperate with National Statistic Offices and regional and national stakeholders to build country progress reports that provides both qualitative and quantitative data on the 6 out of 20 indicators and the almost 30 associated sub-indicators.
The UfM is fully committed in investing to promote gender equality, especially in this time when it has become evident that the Covid-19 pandemic has affected women in a disproportioned ways, in the economic, social and health spheres. It is therefore urgent to work harder on women empowerment in order to support the most vulnerable groups to overcome this historic years and grow stronger than before.
