Egypt Award for Gov't Excellence organizes a training program entitled “Standards for the Equal Opportunities and Women’s Empowerment Award”

The Egypt Award for Gov't Excellence, in cooperation with the Economic Governance Project funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and the National Council for Women (NCW), held the training program “Standards for the Equal Opportunity and Women’s Empowerment Award,” which lasted over two days, with the participation of 147 trainees at the level of 26 ministries, 27 governorates, and 28 universities.

  

During his speech at the opening session via video conference, Ambassador Hisham Badr, Assistant Minister of Planning and Economic Development for Strategic Partnerships and Initiatives and General Supervisor of the Egypt Award for Government Excellence, indicated that the training comes within the framework of the award administration’s keenness to spread awareness and build capabilities related to the institutional excellence standards of the Equal Opportunity Award. 

Ambassador Badr also stressed that the main goal is not just for entities to obtain the award, but rather to change the work culture in government institutions through a mechanism different from traditional mechanisms by focusing on training, awareness, and positive motivation, which contributes to achieving the goal of launching the Equal Opportunities and Women’s Empowerment Award.

Soha Saeed, Executive Director of the Egypt Award for Government Excellence, announced that the activities of the fourth session of the annual National Award will be launched in 2024 and will begin addressing government agencies nationwide to receive nominations for the institutional and individual award categories during January 2024, followed by opening the door for nominations in April 2024.

  The training continues for a month, with the evaluation, field visits, and arbitration phases taking place during July and August 2024, leading to the announcement of the results and honoring the winners.

For her part, Dr. Salwa Tabala, Senior Governance Consultant at the United States Agency for International Development, said that the launch of the Equal Opportunities and Women’s Empowerment Award is a continuation of the fruitful cooperation between the Ministry of Planning and the United States Agency for International Development.

  Salwa stressed the US agency’s keenness to support the Egyptian state’s efforts to empower women within the national strategy for women’s empowerment.

 Shaima Naeem, Director General of Strategic Management at the National Council for Women reviewed the Council’s role in developing and following up on national plans for women's advancement, proposing policies in the field of women’s development, enabling them to perform their basic role in society, and integrating their efforts into comprehensive development programs.

Naeem pointed out the launch of the national strategy for women’s empowerment in 2017 in line with regional and international development goals, stressing the National Council for Women’s keenness to provide all possible means of support to the regions.

The training covered a review of the structure of the Equal Opportunity and Women’s Empowerment Award, the main and secondary axes and criteria, achievements and results, the most important indicators related to each standard, and evaluation mechanisms, in addition to identifying best practices and linking them to the axes of the award, while discussing the road map and the tasks of the Excellence Ambassadors to prepare for participation in the next session.

The training witnessed the presence of Dr. Mandy Al-Sheikh, Quality, and Institutional Excellence Training Consultant, Dr. Mohamed Mostafa, Excellence and Institutional Development Consultant, Ms. Israa Hosni, Specialized Awards Officer, Egypt Award for Government Excellence.