Final day of WGS 2023: UAE Gender Balance Council boosts partnership with World Economic Forum

On the concluding day of the 10th edition of the World Government Summit, the UAE Gender Balance Council (UAE GBC) explored potential areas of future cooperation with the World Economic Forum (WEF) to strengthen their already robust partnership. This partnership culminated in a cooperation agreement at the annual meetings of the Forum in Davos last January.

Today’s discussions were held during a meeting between Mona Ghanem Al Marri, Vice President of the UAE GBC, and Saadia Zahidi, Director General of the WEF, marking the culmination of the Council’s involvement in the activities of WGS 2023.

The UAE GBC mirrors the UAE’s unwavering commitment to gender balance, which highlights the nation’s pioneering role and influential position in this field both regionally and globally. The Council’s inspiring achievements are a testament to the dedicated support, encouragement, and care provided by the wise leadership of the UAE.

Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, President of the UAE Gender Balance Council, President of the Dubai Women Establishment, and the wife of Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of the Presidential Court.

During the meeting, both parties agreed to continue efforts to improve collaboration in several areas, including jointly organising forums and events to discuss and learn from global best practices, and their applicability in countries that continue to encounter challenges in achieving gender balance. This approach will help accelerate progress toward Sustainable Development Goal 5, to achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls.

Al Marri reiterated the Council’s commitment to collaborate with the WEF in discovering efficient and advanced models that ensure women’s access to equitable opportunities for development across all areas. The ultimate goal is to achieve global objectives for gender balance while sharing the UAE’s pioneering experience in this domain.

Zahidi commended the UAE for attaining an advanced level of gender balance, which reflects the leadership’s commitment to leveraging the role of women as a central pillar in achieving development and prosperity. She emphasised that the UAE’s accomplishments, coupled with a legislative framework that promotes gender balance, contributed to the country’s ranking as the top Arab nation in the WEF’s Gender Gap Report 2022.

The UAE also ranked first globally on four sub-indicators of the report, including parliamentary representation of women, literacy rate, the gender ratio at birth, and girls’ enrolment rate in primary education. Given its ongoing efforts to promote gender balance across all sectors, the UAE has considerable potential to make further strides in the rankings.

Zahidi expressed the WEF’s pride in its partnership with the UAE through the UAE GBC, stating: “This partnership will help us in achieving further progress in global gender balance through the Council’s effective contribution to the work of the WEF’s Centre for New Economy and Society. This will help reinforce global initiatives aimed at giving the gender parity agenda a crucial place at the centre of international economic recovery efforts and on equal footing.”

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