UfM Regional Platform on Women Empowerment

According to the Global Gender Gap Report 2024, the MENA region has seen a slight increase in women’s economic participation, with a gender gap of 43.1% in this sector. However, labour force participation remains challenging, with some gender gap scores as low as 20.1%. In contrast, Europe has made modest improvements, achieving a score of 67.8%. Gender-based violence and discrimination continue to be pressing issues in the region, necessitating comprehensive and integrated responses.

In line with the UfM Ministerial meetings on Strengthening the Role of Women in Society (Cairo 2017 and Madrid 2022), as well as the Ministerial meetings on Employment and Labour (Marrakech 2022) and Environment and Climate Change (Cairo 2021), the UfM is committed to promoting women’s empowerment and gender equality. These efforts are seen as essential for fostering regional stability and socio-economic development.

The four priority areas established in the Cairo UfM Declaration on Strengthening the Role of Women in Society (2017) were reaffirmed in the 5th UfM Ministerial Declaration on Strengthening the Role of Women in Society (Madrid, 2022). These priorities focus on enhancing women’s economic and political empowerment and combating violence against women and girls in the Euro-Mediterranean region. Given the various crises, including health and climate change, as well as emerging needs related to food, water, and energy security, mainstreaming gender equality in policies and actions is increasingly vital. The implementation of the Women, Peace, and Security agenda emphasizes addressing the specific needs of women and girls, including migrants, refugees, those in conflict or post-conflict situations, rural women, and women with disabilities.

The UfM Regional Platform on Women Empowerment facilitates discussions among UfM Member States and regional stakeholders to exchange best practices on operationalizing the commitments from the 5th UfM Ministerial Declaration and following up on the 2024-2025 implementation Roadmap. The platform addresses two main challenges: identifying key actions to effectively implement these commitments at the regional level and updating data from the initial UfM reporting exercise on Gender Equality conducted in 2021. Key objectives include harmonizing methodologies, outlining capacity-building activities for the coming years, and setting agendas for future meetings.

The UfM further promotes regional dialogue and concrete initiatives for women’s empowerment and gender equality through complementing initiatives like the UfM Women Conferences, Women Business Forum, Med Women in Tech Festivals, and the intergovernmental Monitoring Mechanism on Gender Equality.

The UfM’s initiatives align with several Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), including:‎

• SDG 5: Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls.‎
• SDG 3: Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all.‎
• SDG 4: Promote inclusive and equitable quality education.‎
• SDG 8: Promote sustainable economic growth and decent work for all.‎
• SDG 10: Reduce inequalities and ensure no one is left behind.‎
• SDG 16: Promote peaceful and inclusive societies and reduce violence.‎

In 2023, the UfM focused on developing a Roadmap for Implementation (2024-2025) based ‎on the 2022 Ministerial Declaration. This involved two online preparatory meetings and a ‎physical Regional Platform meeting to draft the Roadmap and monitor progress since 2020. ‎The biennial high-level conference “Women for the Mediterranean” serves as a platform to ‎share experiences and best practices, shaping future initiatives.‎

To address the lack of gender-specific data, the UfM launched the first Intergovernmental ‎Monitoring Mechanism on Gender Equality in 2020. This ongoing effort measures progress ‎on women’s rights and provides policy recommendations. The initial exercise, conducted ‎during the COVID-19 pandemic, highlighted the crisis’s impact on women.‎

Member States have agreed on a follow-up mechanism with 20 indicators across four ‎priority areas to track progress, evaluate the gender gap, and inform evidence-based policies ‎for improving women’s quality of life and societal roles.‎