Minister of Planning, Economic Development & International Cooperation Participates in the World Bank Workshop on the “Women, Business and the Law” Report

 

H.E. Dr. Rania A. Al-Mashat, Minister of Planning, Economic Development and International Cooperation, participated in the workshop held by the World Bank on the “Women, Business and the Law” report, via video conference. The workshop aimed to discuss between national authorities and the World Bank, regarding the mechanism for preparing the report and gathering information, to reflect the government's efforts in the field of women’s empowerment.

 

In her speech, H.E. Dr. Rania A. Al-Mashat expressed her gratitude to the World Bank Group for organizing a pivotal workshop, which aims to provide participants with a deeper understanding of the major gaps and challenges impeding women’s economic empowerment as defined by the “Women, Business and the Law” framework in Egypt.

 

The Minister continued that the workshop provided valuable insights on how to effectively integrate data and analysis on the "Women, Business and the Law" framework into ongoing projects, as well as a comprehensive understanding of the framework classification methodology. She also thanked the National Council for Women (NCW) for its efforts in collaborating with development partners to enhance women’s empowerment.

 

The Minister explained that Egypt's National Strategy for Women's Empowerment 2030 is based on four main pillars, including political and leadership empowerment, economic empowerment, social empowerment, and protection of women's rights. H.E. added that Egypt’s specific underscore the immense potential of women’s economic participation, revealing that if the rate of women's participation in the labor market corresponds to the rate of men's participation, this will be reflected in an increase in Egypt's GDP.

 

The Minister further added that research on the Egyptian financial sector indicates that women’s  participation, especially at the board level, is strongly associated with enhanced financial resilience and increased stability within banks, explaining the Egyptian government’s commitment to enhance women’s empowerment efforts and place the gender agenda at the top of national priorities. Egypt is also the first country in the Middle East and North Africa to launch the “Closing the Gender Gap Accelerator”, a pioneering public-private platform aimed at fostering gender parity. This initiative focuses on increasing women’s participation in leadership roles and decision-making positions, recognizing the critical role of women in driving sustainable development.

 

Moreover, H.E. also highlighted Egypt’s pioneering role in becoming the first country to launch its national strategy for women’s empowerment, which is fully consistent with the United Nations SDGs.

 

Regarding the strategic partnership between Egypt and the World Bank, Al-Mashat emphasized the bank’s role in collaborating with the Egyptian government to enhance the country’s national objectives and strategies, while providing strong support to promote gender equality.

 

Al-Mashat referred to the corporation between the Egyptian government and the World Bank, noting the Development Policy Financing initiative (DPF) since 2021, which represent one of the main pillars that focus on enhancing women’s economic inclusion, which also focuses on regulatory and legislative reforms aimed at enhancing women’s participation in the labor market and supporting the government’s efforts to combat gender-based violence. It also includes adopting a national code of conduct that ensures safe and decent travel for women using railways, with plans to expand this model to other public transportation in the future.

 

The Minister also addressed the projects being implemented with the World Bank, pointing to the efforts being made towards gender equality, especially in the Takaful and Karama social protection programme, in which women constitute 75% of the programme’s primary beneficiaries, stating that the programme allows these women to obtain “Meeza” cards, which enable them to better manage their families’ financial affairs.

 

Moreover, she noted the “Catalyzing Entrepreneurship for Job Creation” project, which initially aimed to finance 85,000 MSMEs and create more than 100,000 job opportunities for Egyptian citizens, has actually exceeded expectations and contribued  to creating more than 400,000 job opportunities, 43% of the beneficiaries being women.

 

The Minister pointed out that the close collaboration with the International Finance Corporation on legislative reforms aimed at providing women with equal economic opportunities, stressing that these efforts are consistent with the Egyptian government’s broader commitment to promoting wage equality and increasing women entrepreneurs’ access to financing.

H.E. Dr. Rania A. Al-Mashat speech