UfM Regional Dialogue on Women’s Empowerment: building a regional framework of gender data and statistics

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 is expected for 2020 after its validation by the UfM member states.

In the 2017 Cairo UfM Ministerial Declaration, the 43 UfM member states committed to promote women’s equal participation in four priority areas, namely Raising Women’s Participation in Public Life and Decision-Making, Raising Women’s Economic Participation, Combating all Forms of Violence Against Women and Girls and Challenging cultural and social norms and eliminate gender stereotypes, particularly in and through education and media. The member states agreed to establish a follow-up mechanism backed-up with indicators to monitor progress, evaluate the gender gap and provide recommendations to policy makers and stakeholders, in order to improve the role of women in society. At the Women4Mediterranean conference, which took place in Lisbon in October of 2018, the UfM received the mandate to propose, for validation by member states, the set of indicators under the four priority areas, taking into consideration the work already done/or under development by other regional and international stakeholders, in addition to a proposal of tools that will be used for monitoring and reporting.