Gender Equality in the MENA Region
Women's ability to participate in parliaments, local councils and policy-making and to influence the decisions that affect their lives is both a basic human right and a prerequisite for responsive and equitable public governance.
Through its regional and country projects, the OECD supports the efforts of MENA countries to maximise women’s integration in public and political life, prevent and tackle violence against women, and boost whole-of-government institutional capacities to address key challenges to gender equality by:
- Making legislatures, public administrations and judiciaries more transparent, equitable and gender-sensitive.
- Empowering and strengthening capacity and skills of women parliamentarians, local councillors, senior civil servants, judges and other actors
- Improving public consultation capacity on gender issues of parliaments and civil society organisations in the law-making process
- Organising regular regional policy dialogues
- Strengthening institutions, regulatory frameworks and coordination capacities to prevent and tackle violence against women
Events
- Meeting of the MENA-OECD Platform on Gender Mainstreaming, Governance and Leadership, 28 September 2022, MENA-OECD Governance Programme Training Centre of Caserta
- Women's leadership & political participation 11-12 July 2018, Rabat
- Breaking barriers: Towards equality between men and women in politics 19-20 November 2017, Cairo
- Gender Balance Guide: Actions for UAE 19 September 2017, UAE
- Capacity-building training for women 19-20 May 2017, Amman
- Capacity-building training for women candidates in national elections 2-4 September 2016, Marrakech
- Women in Parliaments Global Forum 4-6 May 2016, Amman
Regional Dialogue
Since 2009, a high-level regional conference is organised each year in one of the project countries to promote exchanges of experiences and good practices between participants. Discussion themes range from women’s political participation, the role of the media and civil society, combating discrimination and violence against women, promoting women’s economic empowerment and strengthening institutions for gender equality.
Learn more about
- The 2018 Toolkit on Mainstreaming & Implementing Gender Equality
- The 2015 OECD Recommendation of the Council on Gender Equality in Public Life
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