The UfM gathers young entrepreneurs who presented their projects and success stories in the tourism sector, even in rural areas. Barcelona, 4 December 2019. More than 30 participants, stakeholders, members of the academia and entrepreneurs from the tourism sector gathered at the Headquarters of the UfM to discuss the sector’s role as a catalyst for job creation on both shores of the Mediterranean, especially for youth and women. The workshop was a follow-up activity of the brainstorming meeting held on sustainable tourism in November 2018. Marisa Farrugia, UfM Deputy Secretary General for Social and Civil Affairs and responsible for the… read more
26 November 2019, Brussels. Around 70 participants hailing from the national Civil Protection Units from the UfM Member States convened in Brussels for a Technical Working Group on “Preparing for efficient mutual assistance in the Euro-Mediterranean Area” under the framework of the UfM and jointly organised by the European Commission. The discussions during the meeting focused on the following three areas: host nation support, preparedness for response, risk assessment and situational analysis to support rapid response in case of natural and man-made disasters. The purpose of this working group served to facilitate the identification of priorities for an action plan for efficient… read more
19-21 November 2019. The UfM Women Business Forum 2019 took place in Barcelona on 19-21 November within the margins of the Smart City Expo World Congress. It convened women entrepreneurs, national women business organizations, international leading organizations and business support schemes from the Euro-Mediterranean region to share knowledge and ideas on various business opportunities, good practices and innovative and successful business models. This year’s forum focused on promoting the role of women in the circular economy and in tech and innovation. During the roundtable on Women in the Circular Economy, challenges and opportunities for women in the Euro-Mediterranean region were discussed and different business models were presented. Circular economy models are complex and require the mobilization and… read more
The present article, written by the UfM Secretary General, Nasser Kamel, is based on the findings of the UfM Progress Report on gender equality endorsed by the UfM Ministers during the Ministerial meeting on Strengthening the role of women in society held in November 2017 in Cairo (Egypt). It was first published in the Bled Strategic Times, a publication of the Bled Strategic Forum. Despite numerous international agreements affirming their basic rights, and universal recognition of their key role in society, poverty and illiteracy rates remain higher among women than men. Women are also more likely to be victims of… read more
Representing more than half of the total population, young people constitute one of the greatest assets for stability and development in the Euro-Mediterranean region. Yet, more than a quarter of the region’s youth are unemployed and youth unemployment has been twice higher than adult unemployment in recent years. To face this, the UfM Mediterranean Initiative for Jobs (Med4Jobs) aims at cultivating an entrepreneurial culture and support the development of necessary skills for the youth. Framed within this regional initiative, the Mediterranean New Chance (MedNC) and the High Opportunity for Mediterranean Executive Recruitment (HOMERe) projects have improved the socio-professional integration of… read more
Barcelona, 18-19 July 2019. UfM Ministries in charge of gender equality and women issues, national statistic institutions, regional and international organisations, business women associations, cooperation agencies, donors and civil society regional networks gathered in Barcelona for the UfM Regional Dialogue on Women’s Empowerment on 18-19 July 2019. The meeting was the opportunity to present a first set of indicators that will allow to accurately assess and monitor the progress made on women’s rights and gender equality. Participants also opened a dialogue to start building a regional framework of gender data and statistics based on the selected indicators. The launch of this monitoring mechanism… read more
UfM country representatives and experts from the region are currently developing a mechanism to monitor the progress made on women’s rights, evaluate gender gaps and provide recommendations to policymakers. Women’s emporwement is a UfM priority working area. The organisation is currently promoting region-wide cooperation projects on women’s entrepreunership, health, gender equality, fight against gender violence and prevention of extremism. A regional research study on the role of women and youth in preventing violent extremism will be released next April as a complement of the UfM-labelled project “Enhancing the civic and social engagement of women and youth in preventing violence and… read more
The 3rd Meeting of the Directors-General of Civil Protection of the Union for the Mediterranean (UfM) Member States will launch a reflection to develop an action plan for strengthened Euro-Mediterranean cooperation on prevention campaigns, emergency response and crisis management. Through a common Civil Protection Mechanism, UfM Member States could play a key role in coordinating common responses to crises and cooperate on risk assessment, disaster prevention, preparedness and planning. Barcelona, 11 February 2019. The Directors-General of Civil Protection of the Union for the Mediterranean (UfM) Member States gathered today at the UfM headquarters, in Barcelona, almost a decade after their last meeting…. read more
The Union for the Mediterranean (UfM), in partnership with the Portuguese Republic, organised the fourth edition of the regional conference on women’s empowerment in the Euro-Mediterranean region. In the presence of the President of Malta, Marie-Louise Coleiro Preca, more than 300 participants including ministers, international experts and prominent actors of civil society and the private sector attended the conference, which coincided with the tenth anniversary of the UfM. Participants discussed recent achievements, the most pressing challenges ahead, and how the UfM is working to address them…. read more
The 1st Youth Forum for the Mediterranean took place in Tarragona from 7 to 9 July in the framework of the XVIII Mediterranean Games. It brought together 45 Mediterranean young leaders from 20 countries. The official opening session was held on 6 July at the UfM headquarters, in Barcelona, with the participation of the designated UfM Secretary General, Nasser Kamel, the President of the Port of Tarragona, Josep Andreu i Figueras, the Dean of the Universitat Rovira i Virgili, Mª José Figueras, the Chief commissioner for the Mediterranean Games 2018, Javier Villamayor Caamaño, and the Commissioner in charge of youth… read more
