Planning Ministry reviews international reports on the economic situation in Egypt

 The World Bank commends Egypt's positive steps in the field of women's health care

The Ministry of Planning and Economic Development continued to review the opinions of the most prominent international institutions and reports on the performance of the economic situation in Egypt.
In its economic bulletin, the Ministry reviewed the World Bank’s praise for Egypt's positive steps in the field of women's health care and safety, during the recent period, in the Women, Business Activities and Law Report issued by the World Bank Group 2020.The bank mentioned in its report that Egypt scored 54 points out of 222 in the WBL Index, which monitors laws and regulations in 8 areas that affect women's economic opportunities in 292 countries during the period from September 2019 to October 2020.The report also highlighted that Egypt recorded the highest point in the pension’s index by 100 points, followed by the entrepreneurship and work environment index by 75 points.According to the Ministry of Planning and Economic Development, the World Bank stated in its report that countries of the world seek to achieve greater gender equality, but women around the world still face laws and regulations that restrict economic opportunities that can arise for them, as the Coronavirus pandemic creates challenges threatening her health, safety, and economic security.The World Bank report pointed out that Egypt, in cooperation with UN Women, launched, last May, the initiative "Our Mental Health is a Priority", in the context of facing the challenges caused by the Corona pandemic and the psychological pressures that millions of families have suffered from around the world.This initiative includes a group of psychologists and psychological support institutions, to support women during the Corona pandemic.In its report, the bank also indicated that Egypt, in partnership with the World Economic Forum, launched the implementation plan for a catalyst for bridging the gender gap, becoming the first country in Africa, the Middle East, and North Africa region to launch this platform that aims to enhance joint efforts between the government and private sectors, civil society, and international partners.Among the most important features of the implementation measures targeted to be applied within the "Gender Gap Catalyst", according to the World Bank report, is to support the representation of women in boards of directors and to assume leadership positions, and to work on adopting policies that would alleviate the challenges that women face in balancing their work with the responsibility of caring for children.It also includes the features of the implementation procedures targeted to be applied within the "Gender Gap Catalyst", stimulating investment in the public and private sectors in the field of child and elderly care, and launching initiatives to raise awareness of the importance of the responsibilities that women assume. In addition to working to provide women with skills and experiences and designing programs that represent a catalyst for developing women's skills in the fields of information and communication technology, science, engineering, mathematics, and artificial intelligence. The implementation plan also includes strengthening and stimulating mentorship and women leadership programs for companies, to improve corporate policies in the field of gender equality and promote women’s leadership in boards of directors and implement gender equality models by building the capacities of relevant government agencies to expand services and gender-responsive policies.Moreover, the implementation plan includes developing motivational tools for the private sector, as well as using digital marketing to help women entrepreneurs and startups better access local and global markets.