During her speech at the celebration of honoring the Egyptian woman and the ideal mother 2021:- 165 preventive measures have been followed to support Egyptian women during the Corona pandemic: Planning Minister

165 preventive measures have been followed to support Egyptian women during the Corona pandemic: Planning Minister
Dr. Hala El-Said: Egypt is the first country in the world to launch a strategy for empowering women in line with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals and Egypt's Vision 2030

Dr. Hala El-Said, Minister of Planning and Economic Development said that as we celebrate the Day of the Egyptian Woman today, a year or more has passed since an exceptional period in our world with the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic, in which women have proven their success in this crisis.
She added that women performed well about the participation in the electoral process of the Shura Council and the Parliament, and was strongly present in the field of civil work, calling for Egyptians to social solidarity.This came during her speech today at the celebration of the Egyptian woman and honoring the ideal mother 2021.El-Said added that in light of the Corona pandemic, we find that women were the most affected group of society, according to international reports.“Women make up about 70% of those working in the health and social sector, which puts a burden on them in caring for the sick; this makes them more susceptible to infection with this pandemic,” El-Said said.El-Said pointed out that Egypt is proud that women represent about 43% of human doctors and 92% of the nursing staff who work in the Ministry of Health and university hospitals.The woman also came among the nation’s martyrs in this difficult confrontation with this epidemic, representing about 30% of the martyrs of the medical teams during the pandemic, in a new confirmation of the permanent readiness of the Egyptian woman with her strength and toughness.On the Egyptian procedures and measures to deal with the Corona pandemic, especially for women, El-Said explained that the most prominent of these measures is to reduce the number of workers and in government departments as a precaution and to grant a pregnant employee or who takes care of one or more children under the age of 12 years old, and providing exceptional paid leave.The precautionary measures included providing economic support for informal workers, including women, through the Presidential Irregular Employment Grant, as women accounted for 47% of the beneficiaries of this grant.El-Said pointed to the preparation of the first guide for a gender-responsive sustainable development plan, as its importance lies in directing government agencies towards implementing development programs and projects in the field of social care for women and children, and giving priority in funding for these programs, in addition to creating a work environment that encourages women's work to mitigate the effects of Corona pandemic.Planning Minister added that women were also - in their active role - in all state institutions in the first ranks to lead these efforts, especially concerning the state’s formation of an operations room to register all those stranded abroad and to support them in the countries of the world that are temporarily present.Returning workers from abroad have been registered in the initiative "Nourtak" to provide decent job opportunities for them in national projects, or through the Medium, Small, and Micro Enterprises Development Authority with the expansion of the agency in the establishment of specialized exhibitions for various products of projects, especially for women in a large number of governorates.El-Said continued that interest in women emerged at the time of the pandemic in the growth of microfinance directed at women, as funds from microfinance associations jumped from about EGP 8 billion in 2019 to EGP 9 billion in 2020.“Women accounted for 62% of the total number of beneficiaries. The percentage of women's participation in the exhibitions that were organized was 67% of the total participants,” El-Said explained.El-Said pointed out the launch of the electronic initiative, “Stay at Home ... Culture is in Your Hands”, which came in line with the general trend of the state in the path of digital transformation, and aimed to broadcast the anecdotes of the National Creativity, Heritage and Contemporary Knowledge Archive through the YouTube channel to encourage citizens to adhere to the precautionary and preventive measures.El-Said indicated that the National Council for Women prepared a policy paper on responding to the needs of women and girls during the Corona pandemic, and launched a mechanism to monitor and follow up the implementation of those policies, monitoring more than 165 measures, decisions, and preventive measures in support of Egyptian women so far, stressing that Egypt is the first country in the world has a policy paper issued on the status of women during the Corona pandemic, and mechanisms for monitoring and following up the effects of the epidemic.El-Said emphasized that Egypt came in first place in the report issued by UN Women and the United Nations Development Program on the measures taken by countries around the world to support women during the pandemic period.El-Said noted that for the first time in its history, the United Nations General Assembly adopted by consensus an Egyptian resolution on women's rights to reinforce the rapid national and international response to the impact of the pandemic on women and girls, and thus Egypt led an international movement to protect women's rights in light of the pandemic as an integral part of human rights.On the economic empowerment of women; El-Said said that talking about it no longer has a social dimension or aims only to achieve gender equality, but rather has become an economic necessity to maximize the use of the productive energies of women.El-Said pointed out that the percentage of females represents 50.7% of the total employees in the state's administrative apparatus, according to the latest update of the job file carried out by the Central Agency for Organization and Administration. Egypt scored its highest point in the pensions and equal income index in state institutions by 100%, and the entrepreneurship and work environment index for women by 75%, in the “Women, Business and Law” index issued by the World Bank.El-Said added that the percentage of female representation on the boards of directors of companies registered on the Egyptian Stock Exchange increased from 10.1% in 2019 to 11.6% in 2020, and in public sector companies the percentage improved to 8.7% in 2020 compared to 6.1% in 2019.This was reinforced by the decision of the Board of Directors of the Financial Supervision Authority in 2020, which stipulates that “the formation of the boards of directors of companies operating in the field of non-banking financial activities shall include at least one female element,”El-Said asserted that companies listed on the stock exchange have been urged to adopt adherence to the provisions of the ethical charter to prevent harassment for women in the work environment.El-Said explained that within the framework of the government's and Central Bank's efforts to achieve financial inclusion; the number of women benefiting from mobile phone payment services increased to about 2 million women.“Women accounted for 40% of the increase in the number of bank accounts during the last year, from February 2020 to February 2021,” El-Said addedAt the end of her speech, El-Said emphasized that women have made successive leaps and unprecedented gains during the era of President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi, as he announced 2017 as the year for Egyptian women in a precedent that did not occur in the history of the Egyptian state, with the launch of the National Strategy for the Empowerment of Egyptian Women 2030.Egypt is the first country in the world to launch this strategy in line with the UN Sustainable Development Goals and Egypt's Vision 2030, which confirms the country's belief in the pioneering role of Egyptian women in the advancement of society.