Planning Minister participates in the celebration of the "Best Egypt Summit" sponsored by the "50 Most Influential Women" Forum

Dr. Hala El-Said: Egypt is the only country in the Middle East that has taken comprehensive measures in the areas of economic protection for women: says Hala El-Said

Dr. Hala El-Said, Minister of Planning and Economic Development, participated today in the celebration of the "Egypt Summit for the Best", which was held under the auspices of the "50 Most Influential Women" Forum and under the patronage of the Prime Minister, in the presence of Dr. Maya Morsi - Chairman of the National Council for Women, and the able journalist / Dina Abdel Fattah - Forum President and Editor-in-Chief of Amwal Al-Ghad magazine.
The activities of the celebration witnessed the honoring of Dr. Hala El-Said by the administration of the forum on the occasion of her obtaining the best Arab minister in the Arab Excellence Award.
Dr. Hala El-Said, Minister of Planning and Economic Development said that the "50 Most Influential Women" forum is the first of its kind in Egypt, and has become one of the most important annual gatherings to honor the pioneering women working in Egypt.El-Said explained that the forum resulted in the inauguration of the largest specialized platform that includes women's expertise and technocrats at the republic level, intending to increase women's participation in comprehensive development and decision-making and enhance their role in shaping the social and economic future of the Egyptian state.El-Said added that the forum represents an important tributary of the state's efforts to empower women, as it contributed to making a quantum leap in the classification of Egyptian women at the global level and increasing their representation in international forums as they are one of the active forces in Egyptian and African society in general.El-Said stressed that there is a firm conviction that women's economic empowerment no longer only includes a social dimension or aims only to achieve gender equality, but has become an economic necessity to maximize the use of the productive and creative energies of women to increase the added value and achieve comprehensive and sustainable growth.El-Said added that Egypt is proud to be among the first countries to set up national visions to achieve sustainable development represented in the vision of Egypt 2030, in addition to Egypt's pride in the centrality of the role of women in preparing, formulating, and implementing this vision, which is mainly based on gender considerations, with women being a partner.El-Said added that in this context, the "National Strategy for the Empowerment of Women 2030" was approved, which confirms the state's serious direction to achieve economic, social, and political empowerment of women.El-Said explained that the National Strategy for the Empowerment of Women has identified several key quantitative indicators to measure the extent of progress achieved in the field of women's economic empowerment, as the state has worked in recent years to implement it through several mechanisms that included preparing the legislative, institutional and cultural environment appropriate to empower women economically.El-Said pointed to the Egyptian state’s keenness to integrate the concepts of gender equality and women's empowerment into educational curricula at different stages to spread culture and rational thought for empowering women.El-Said drew attention to training and capacity building, especially directed at women, as one of the mechanisms taken by the state to implement the strategy, explaining that the plan to build the Egyptian human being included the rehabilitation of all government cadres, both male and female, through packages of training programs, most notably the program for the rehabilitation of executive women leaders.
El-Said also mentioned the launch of a version of the African Executive Women Leadership Program in January 2019, as part of Egypt's interest in strengthening cooperation with various countries of the world, especially African countries, in the field of developing and building women's capacities."The program included training 100 women from 45 sisterly African countries, following up that cooperation continued in 2020 with the establishment of an association for women graduates from the African Women Leaders Program, in addition to holding a series of conferences and virtual workshops in cooperation with the American University," El-Said said.El-Said went on to talk about the mechanisms taken by the state to implement the strategy of empowering women, pointing to the interest in women's economic empowerment by stimulating entrepreneurship and the development of the small and medium-sized enterprises sector, as it is one of the main sectors that accommodate decent and productive work opportunities for women in various Egyptian regions and governorates.El-Said added that despite previous efforts, the Covid-19 pandemic, which is considered an unprecedented crisis, affected all sectors' repercussions and negative effects, whether globally or locally. She emphasized that the Egyptian state's move was swift to confront this crisis through a comprehensive and thoughtful plan that includes a wide range of measures.These measures included supporting women by issuing the proposed programs and policies paper on rapid response to the special needs of women during the spread of the Coronavirus."Egypt is one of the first countries to issue such studies, which take into consideration the needs of women with disabilities, the elderly, pregnant women, and women of childbearing age, and the related health and psychological effects on them." She added.
El-Said also pointed out that the state has provided a package of educational programs for women to prepare them to enter the labor market and the field of entrepreneurship, and that the Women’s Skills Development Center at the National Council for Women contacted women from various governorates to produce masks as part of the “Al-Mashal” project, in addition to providing hosting centers for women and lines Hot to receive their complaints and provide them with legal advice and psychological support.El-Said emphasized that the efforts of the Egyptian state were praised by the report issued by UN Women and the United Nations Development Program on the measures taken by the Egyptian government to support women during the Covid-19 pandemic.
El-Said added that to complement the Egyptian efforts and try to contribute at the international level, Egypt was able, last October, to mobilize support and support within the framework of the United Nations General Assembly to adopt an unprecedented Egyptian draft resolution on "protecting the rights of women and girls from the repercussions of the Corona."On the level of cooperation between the Ministry of Planning and Economic Development and the Fifty Most Influential Women Forum, El-Said confirmed that the ministry adopts the forum’s general strategy and its implementation plan (2021-2025), which aims to invest the capabilities and energies of the forum’s members in preparing new cadres of female technocrats and enhancing their participation in all sectors.El-Said added that the general strategy of the forum also aims to direct attention to raising the competitiveness of women, and raising awareness of the material benefit that accrues to the Egyptian economy from increasing the percentage of women’s participation in the labor market, leading to an increase in the gross national product, and other sub-goals that center On societal awareness of the importance of non-discrimination between women and men and building a culture supportive of women's empowerment.El-Said noted that the ministry is cooperating with the forum in preparing and implementing training programs to help various institutions implement the charter, as the charter and the implementation of various activities within the framework of its implementation affirms the values of justice, gender equality, equal opportunities and ensuring the rights of male and female citizens in various areas of life without any discrimination.El-Said added that it was decided to launch the idea of “Egypt Talk” to promote the stories and factors of success of women leaders, in addition to designing interactive videos for success stories, developing a website for the forum, and linking it to the ministry’s website, to expand the beneficiaries of technocratic leaders within the framework of cooperation between the ministry and the forum.
El-Said stressed that the tangible role that women play in the Egyptian development experience, and the great confidence they enjoy from the political leadership, reinforce the state's serious direction to move forward towards more empowering women economically, politically, and socially, and all parties unite to implement this approach.
It is worth noting that Dr. Hala El-Said had participated in the activities of Egypt for the Best Summit in 2016, under the patronage of the Prime Minister, which witnessed the agreement between the 50 most influential women in business enterprises for the year 2015 to establish the Forum “The Fifty Most Influential Women”.