G20 EMPOWER Alliance discusses experience of UAE women in science sector

The UAE Gender Balance Council participated in the meetings of the G20 EMPOWER Alliance which were held in the state of Kerala, India, on April 5-6, according to a report by Emirates News Agency (WAM)

The meetings of the EMPOWER Alliance held under the chairmanship of India, which this year holds the presidency of the G20 EMPOWER Alliance, included discussion sessions over two days under the slogan “Empowering Women: A Win for Both Sides for Equity and the Economy,” during which many issues were discussed, including the challenges facing women in entrepreneurship.

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Ways to advance women’s entrepreneurship were also discussed, including through guidance, capacity building, and enhancing their access to markets and financing, and the role of science, technology, engineering, mathematics, and innovation disciplines in expanding the scope of women’s work in these sectors, empowering women’s leadership at all levels, and enhancing their quality of life.

The Council’s delegation, headed by Hanan Mansoor Ahli, Member of the UAE Gender Balance Council, Managing Director of the Federal Competitiveness & Statistics Centre, along with Ayat Al Salmi, Lead Projects Manager in the Council.

They reviewed the UAE’s experience in supporting women in the advanced sciences sector, and the mechanisms for achieving the pillars of the gender balance strategy in the country. Hanan Ahli also discussed ways to strengthen relations in the field of gender balance with the representatives of the countries participating in the meetings.

G20 EMPOWER Alliance was launched to empower and advance women’s economic representation during the G20 Summit in Osaka, Japan in 2019, and aims to accelerate women’s leadership and empowerment in the private sector by benefiting from the unique cooperation between business leaders and governments in the G20 EMPOWER Alliance.

Balance strategy

During her participation in the meetings, Hanan Ahli affirmed that the UAE government believes in the need to adapt international best practices to the general context of the country, explaining that over the past few years, legislation and policies have been passed that promote gender balance in all fields, and establish women’s rights to full and effective participation, not only in economics but also in decision-making.

She also shed light on the strategy for gender balance in the country, which was developed by the UAE Gender Balance Council, under the directives of Sheikha Manal bint Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, President of the UAE Gender Balance Council and wife of Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Vice President, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of the Presidential Court.

During the panel discussion, Hanan Mansoor Ahli, Member of the UAE Gender Balance Council, and Managing Director of the Federal Competitiveness & Statistics Centre, shed light on the strategy for gender balance in the country. (WAM)

The strategy aims to achieve the UAE’s global influence in this file and to enhance the presence of women in leadership positions and the economic sector, pointing out that this strategy includes four main pillars: economic participation, entrepreneurship & financial inclusion; wellbeing; protections, and international partnerships & leadership.

“To achieve these priorities, an empowerment system has been developed that focuses on four enablers, the first of which is proposing policies and initiatives that promote gender equality in all sectors, and the second is paying attention to statistical data to follow up the progress of women’s economic participation and motivating state institutions by honoring the winners of the gender balance index at the national level,” she said.

The federal government develops gender-responsive budgeting according to international standards, she said.

Thirdly, global competitiveness reports are used as a tool to make improvements and fill gaps through national action plans in which all state agencies participate, in order to enhance the competitiveness of the UAE in international rankings.

The fourth mechanism is to enhance societal awareness of the importance of balance and its positive impact.
Additionally, the Council’s work prioritizes cooperation and partnership with the private sector to enhance balance between its institutions.

In this context, the UAE Gender Balance Council launched two cooperation initiatives. The first is the “SDG 5 Pledge to Accelerate Gender Balance in the UAE Private Sector” and to raise the percentage of women’s participation in leadership positions in the private sector to at least 30 percent by 2025, and 56 national and international institutions from various sectors have joined since 2022.

The second initiative is the launch of the Gender Balance Guide, which was developed in partnership with the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) as a tool to be used and promoted among government and private sector institutions to ensure the development of a work environment to achieve gender balance.

Women and the scientific sectors

Hanan Ahli participated as a keynote speaker in the panel discussion held under the title “Strengthening Women’s Participation in Scientific and Non-traditional Sectors of Work,” which discussed the reasons for the increase in the gender gap in sectors that provide some of the fastest growing and highest-paying jobs, such as information technology and engineering sectors, and the extent to which this is due to the interest of girls and women in developing their skills and motivation to join science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) majors, and to obtain advanced jobs in these sectors after studying.

The session was chaired by Sudha Shivkumar, President of the FICCI Organization that works for the empowerment of women in India, and a number of women leaders from various countries that participated in the G20 EMPOWER Alliance.

Hanan Ahli said that despite the technological developments that have changed the world, including education and remote work due to the closure that accompanied the COVID-19 pandemic, the digital gender gap still exists, which hinders the participation of women and girls in the field of science, technology, engineering, mathematics and others.

She highlighted the experience of the UAE as an inspiring model in promoting women’s participation in scientific and non-traditional sectors of work as a result of the support provided by the wise leadership to women. The availability of legislative and regulatory frameworks contributes to providing a role model for women’s success in these sectors.

The UAE’s constitution guarantees equality in education and job opportunities for all individuals, and as a result, today women constitute 70 percent of university graduates in the country, and 56 percent of graduates of STEM disciplines.

She added thatour focus has shifted from skills development only nd out of interest in preserving women and assuming leadership positions in the work sectors related to these disciplines and maintaining a gender balance in them, partnerships have been concluded with famous technical institutions around the world to support women and girls in the fields of science and prepare them for the labor market.

In order to ensure readiness for growth and prosperity, educational institutions in the UAE have established multiple cooperation relationships with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and the Johnson Space Centre in areas such as energy, technology, and engineering.

She affirmed the UAE’s commitment to enhancing women’s participation in technology sectors, including space exploration, noting that women constitute more than 50 percent of the total workers in the UAE’s Space Program, and 80 percent of the scientific team of the Hope Probe project, expressing her pride in the successes of Emirati women in this sector, she said, “We will continue to build on these achievements to enhance the unique contributions of women in key areas.”

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