UfM conference in Nicosia renews push for gender equality in Euro-Mediterranean region
- 120 people have gathered for a two-day Union for the Mediterranean and Office of the Commissioner for Gender Equality of Cyprus event to assess the economic empowerment of women, gender-just responses to the climate crisis, violence against women and girls, and gender inequality in the media across the Euro-Mediterranean region.
- The conference facilitated debates surrounding the central themes of the 2022 UfM Ministerial Declaration on Strengthening the Role of Women in Society and help operationalise its 2024-2025 Roadmap for Implementation.
- Despite great strides towards gender equality, another 150 years are needed to attain full parity in the Middle East and North Africa, more than anywhere else in the world as it is home to a Gender Gap of 62.6% compared to Europe’s 76.3% and a global average of 68.4%. Only 5% of businesses in the region are women-led, translating into annual losses of $575 billion. Women are also four times more likely to be displaced by climate change than men.
30-31 May 2024, Nicosia, Cyprus. The Union for the Mediterranean’s biennial High-Level Conference on Women for the Mediterranean, co-organised in 2024 with the Office of the Commissioner for Gender Equality of Cyprus, took place over two days in the Cypriot capital. Some 120 public officials and private sector, institutional, and civil society representatives as well as journalists convened to deliberate on concrete measures to effectively combat gender inequality in the Euro-Mediterranean region.
Attendees took part in discussions on the 2022 UfM Ministerial Declaration on Strengthening the Role of Women in Society’s central themes: women’s economic empowerment, gender and climate change, and violence against women and girls. These sessions helped guide actions to safeguard women’s rights, thereby operationalising the declaration’s 2024-2025 Roadmap for Implementation.
The event kicked off with a dozen journalists from across the region participating in a debate on gender narratives in the media. This was followed by presentations by officials from Egypt, Italy, Lebanon, Morocco, Palestine, Spain and Tunisia as well as representatives from the Women Entrepreneurs Finance Initiative, PRIMA, the European Commission, and the United Nations on best practices for gender equality. These include initiatives such as the Egyptian Gender Equity Seal to boost female participation in the labour market or the WeFinanceCode, a global framework designed to close gender financing gaps that will be launched in 26 countries in the coming months.
The second day of the event was devoted to roundtables showcasing media, disability, migration and social norm perspectives on the 2022 UfM Ministerial Declaration’s main axes and also featured a session on the joint IEMED-UfM “Towards More Inclusive Economies: Advancing Women’s Economic Empowerment in the Mediterranean Region” policy study. The conference came to an end with a takeaway discussion highlighting key messages and recommendations from each session.
“Advancing women’s empowerment in the region is one of our greatest priorities,” said UfM Secretary General Nasser Kamel. “By embracing a gender-just climate transition, investing in women’s economic empowerment, supporting policies ending violence against women, enhancing policy accountability, and challenging deeply entrenched social norms against gender equality, we can build resilient societies that benefit all individuals regardless of their gender.”
“Gender equality and women’s rights is not a national issue. It is a global issue with national interest. Securing women’s rights and promoting equality between women and men is a one-way road. Addressing and meeting the needs of both women and men is the goal that will help societies and economies flourish. Gender equality is the solution,” said Josie Christodoulou, Commissioner for Gender Equality of Cyprus.
Background
Empowering women is central to the UfM’s goals, enshrined in the 5th UfM Ministerial Declaration on Strengthening the Role of Women in Society adopted in Madrid in 2022. In addition to organising High-Level Conferences on Women for the Mediterranean every two years, the organisation hosts annual Women Business Fora for female entrepreneurs. The UfM launched the MENA Women Business Club, a network that facilitates members’ access to an extensive ecosystem of entrepreneurs, lawyers, consultants, executives, and investors, alongside UNIDO in 2021, and is behind the first-ever Intergovernmental Monitoring Mechanism on Gender Equality, created in 2020 to evaluate inequality and supply decision-makers with data to inform policy recommendations.
Documents
5th UfM Ministerial Declaration on Strengthening the Role of Women in Society
