• High-level participants stressed the necessity of a common vision and a regional framework to find concrete solutions to better mobilise the full potential of women. • All the 250 participants demonstrated the essential contribution of women to greater sustainable development, creating job opportunities, effective fight against extremism and radicalisation, and promotion of stability in the region. • Best practices and concrete initiatives were proposed. The UfM Secretariat and the United Nations Industrial Development Organization, UNIDO, launched the 2nd phase of a €4.5M project to support women-led investments and businesses in the Southern Mediterranean region…. read more
“Violence against women and girls is a grave violation of human rights and human dignity. Further to preventing women from a full participation in the society, violence has an impact and a cost which extend to the family, to children and to the whole society”, said Senior Deputy Secretary General Ambassador Delphine Borione during the meeting. Rabat, 21 September 2016. Under the framework of the Union for the Mediterranean (UfM) Regional Dialogue on women empowerment, and as a continuation to the previous meetings held in 2016 in Barcelona, Paris and Amman, two working group meetings were held the 20 and 21st… read more
More than a 100 participants of the Skill for Success program celebrated the end of their training and their improved employability skills…. read more
Twenty-two young women from around ten Southern Mediterranean countries, selected on the basis of their background and ambition to develop a culture of gender equality, took part in a two-week training course on equality and leadership, in Paris and Strasbourg from 9 to 20 May…. read more
Today, at the Dead Sea in Jordan, Ministers of International Cooperation and Planning from the 43 member countries of the Union for the Mediterranean (UfM) defined key steps to enhance the impact of regional cooperation…. read more
The UfM-labelled project Young Women as Job Creators is currently benefitting more than 2,000 young Mediterranean women eager to set up their own enterprises. The project was presented as a best regional cooperation practice at the Cairo International Women Empowerment, Entrepreneurs and SMEs Summit. Barcelona, 5 May 2016. In the framework of the VIII Mediterranean Women Entrepreneurs Forum, held in Cairo on 28 April, UfM Deputy Secretary General, Ambassador Delphine Borione, presented the results of the UfM-labelled project Young Women as Job Creators…. read more
50 international experts on gender equality from UfM governments, international organisations and civil society organisations met on 25-26 April at the UfM headquarters in Barcelona to prepare the ground for the Ministerial Meeting on Strengthening the Role of Women in Society, planned to take place in the first half of 2017…. read more
UfM Deputy Secretary General for Social and Civil Affairs, Delphine Borione, at the 60th edition of the Commission on the Status of Women: “Fostering regional cooperation initiatives in the fields of youth employability and women’s empowerment is paramount to effectively advance regional integration, stability and human development in our region”. The fight against violence was a key issue discussed at the event jointly organised by the UfM Secretariat, UN Women, and the Ministry of Solidarity, Women, Family and Social Development of Morocco and on 14 March, 2016, in New York. New York, 14 March 2016. The UfM Secretariat participated at… read more
• Women largely contribute to human development and stability in the region. In some countries, they make up as much as 63 percent of university students. However, in the Mediterranean region, they represent only 28% of the labor force, 12% of entrepreneurs and 16% of politics. • The region could increase its GDP per capita by 25%, by enhancing women’s equal participation in public life. • The UfM Secretariat’s actions on women’s empowerment and gender equality target more than 50,000 women in the region…. read more
The Second Regional Steering Committee Meeting of the project was held on Tuesday 9 February 2016 in Casablanca, Morocco. The Regional Steering Committee Meeting consists of the six Ministries of Industry of the related MENA countries (Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, Palestine and Tunisia), the representatives of six Women Business Associations in the six beneficiary countries, the Italian Government (as a donor), the UfMS and UNIDO. Its role is to advise on the overall implementation of the project’s activities to ensure its alignment with the priorities of the counterparts, MENA national women’s business associations in particular. The main goal was to… read more
