Within the activities of the introductory day of the World Government Summit in Dubai 2022: Egypt's Minister of Planning and Economic Development participates in a session entitled "Philosophy of Governmental Leadership...A Dialogue with Arab Women Ministers"

Egypt’s Dr. Hala El-Said, Minister of Planning and Economic Development, participated in a session entitled  "The Philosophy of Governmental Leadership...A Dialogue with Arab Women Ministers" during the Women in Government Forum. The session came as part of the activities of the preliminary day of the World Government Summit 2022 held in the United Arab Emirates.
The session witnessed the presence of  Dr. Salam Safaf, Minister of Administrative Development, Syrian Arab Republic, Dr. Haifa Al-Najjar, Minister of Culture, Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, Dr. Maitha Al Shamsi, Minister of State The United Arab Emirates.During her speech at the session, El-Said referred to the rapid economic and social conditions and changes taking place in the world and the region, which impose more challenges and burdens, and negatively affect the efforts made by governments to empower women and promote gender equality.El-Said commended the tireless efforts of the Arab countries made during the pandemic to bridge the gender gap.She further praised the performance of the United Arab Emirates, which succeeded in 2021, according to the report issued by the World Economic Forum 2021, progress in the gender gap index by 6 percentage points.








At the national level, El-Said said that achieving gender equality and empowering women is a priority for the Egyptian state, as evidenced by many legislative and institutional measures that support women's empowerment.The state is obligated to protect women against all forms of violence and to ensure that women are empowered to reconcile family duties with work requirements. It is also committed to providing care and protection for motherhood and childhood, the breadwinner, the elderly, and the neediest women.El-Said highlighted that Egypt’s "Sustainable Development Strategy and “Vision 2030" in 2016 includes goals related to strengthening the principles of equality and equal opportunities between the sexes; Chief among them is empowering women, youth, and the neediest groups.“Egyptian women have achieved successive and unprecedented gains during the era of President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi, when he declared 2017 the year of Egyptian women, in a precedent that did not occur in the history of the Egyptian state,” she added.El-Said shed light on a set of indicators that testify to the significant improvement in the situation of Egyptian women at the state level, as women have become more than 50.7% of the total employees of the units of the state’s administrative apparatus (according to the latest statistics of the Central Agency for Organization and Administration) (CAOA).
 In terms of political empowerment, the percentage of women's representation in the Cabinet reached 24.2%, about 28% in the Egyptian Parliament, and 14% in the Senate. “For the first time in the history of Egypt, a woman was appointed as deputy governor, with three women holding the position of governor, seven women as deputy governor, and about 50% of the members of the Administrative Prosecution Authority,” El-Said explained.As for capacity-building and training, El-Said spoke about the program to qualify women executive leaders in the governorates since 2019, which is organized by the National Institute for Governance and Sustainable Development (NIGSD), the training arm of the Ministry of Planning and Economic Development, in cooperation with the National Anti-Corruption Academy of the Administrative Control Authority, the National Council for Women (NCW), the University of Missouri, USA.El-Said added that in appreciation of the role of Egyptian women and to increase the chances of their participation in government jobs and empower them, the Ministry of Planning and Economic Development launched Egyptian Women’s Day in March 2022.





El-Said stressed that the Egyptian state attaches great importance to building women’s capabilities with the efforts and initiatives of digital transformation.
Therefore, about 1,000 women were trained in the first phase targeting ministries from the “She is for a digital future” initiative, to train them on the principles of using the computer, and the program targets the Training of 8,000 women by the end of 2022.
Moreover, El-Said pointed to the state's rapid response to confront the repercussions of the Corona pandemic on women, especially in the government sector, through some measures.
 The most prominent of these was the reduction of the number of female workers in government departments as a precautionary measure, and the granting of an employee who is pregnant or who takes care of one or more children under the age of twelve Gregorian years, an exceptional leave with pay.
El-Said explained that all these efforts on the part of the Egyptian state have resulted in the adoption by the United Nations General Assembly, for the first time in its history and by consensus, of an Egyptian resolution for women’s rights to enhance the rapid national and international response to the impact of the pandemic on women and girls.El-Said indicated that Egypt’s ranking improved in the Gender Gap Index to rank 129 out of 153 countries included in the World Economic Forum’s report for the year 2021, compared to rank 134 in 2020. Egypt's rank also improved in the sub-index of women's political empowerment in the gender gap index, as it ranked 79th in 2021, compared to ranking 103 in 2020.