Union for the Mediterranean labelled project Developing Women Empowerment ready for implementation

Barcelona, 6 September, 2013. The new Euro-Mediterranean Women’s Foundation was launched on 6 September 2013 in Barcelona, Spain, with the aim of supporting women of the Euro-Mediterranean in their quest for empowerment and gender equality. More concretely, the Foundation will implement the Union for the Mediterranean labelled project Developing Women Empowerment, approved by the 43 Members of the Union for the Mediterranean. The newly launched Foundation, whose headquarters are in Barcelona, is composed and governed by representatives from the North and the South of the Mediterranean, including non-governmental organizations, academic and research community, and local and national public authorities.

The Foundation’s 6 founding members are the European Institute of the Mediterranean (IEMed) from Spain, Forum Femmes Méditerranée from France, Réseau Universitaire et Scientifique Euro-Méditerranéen sur le Genre et les Femmes (RUSEMEG) from Morocco, Fédération de la Ligue Démocratique des Droits des Femmes from Morocco, Center for Arab Women Training and Research (CAWTAR) from Tunisia and the Delegation interministérielle pour la Méditerranée from the French government. The Directorate of the Foundation will be soon set up and will include other members.

The project Developing Women Empowerment is composed of three major pillars, all interconnected and supported with a trilingual internet platform in French, Arabic and English. The pillar of knowledge aims at sharing and disseminating gender related information, such as national legislation, research documentation and academic studies on women issues and gender equality. One key element of this pillar is the constitution of a Euro-Mediterranean Academic and Scientific Network on women and gender equality. The pillar of networking aims at creating a network of associations and organizations involved in women and gender equality. Each network of ministries, local authorities, non-governmental organisations and researchers will have a space on the internet platform for sharing experiences and enhancing their visibility. The pillar of field projects aims at developing a series of on–the-ground- grassroots projects, supported by the promoter and focusing on women’s socio-economic empowerment in the Southern Mediterranean. Several local projects related to health, education, small business and handicraft development, have already been identified.