Manal bint Mohammed: The Council is working on new initiatives that enhance the country's competitiveness

Emirates Gender Balance participates in the Growth Summit in Geneva

The wife of H.H. Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Vice President and Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of the Presidential Court, and H.H. Sheikha Manal bint Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Chairperson of the UAE Gender Balance Council, affirmed that the Council is currently working, in cooperation with a number of international strategic partners, on a number of new projects and initiatives that will enhance the UAE's global competitiveness in gender balance, and achieve further progress in this file at the regional and global levels. Appropriate solutions to overcome the challenges facing it, within the UAE's consistent approach in supporting international efforts to achieve the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals."

Her Highness said that the UAE Gender Balance Strategy 2026, in implementation of the vision and directives of the wise leadership, focuses on mainstreaming a gender perspective at the level of government, the private sector, the economy and society as a whole, including taking into account aspects and needs of gender balance in the processes of developing policies, legislation, planning and preparing programs, and ensuring the allocation of resources in a gender-sensitive manner, which ultimately creates a more equal society. Especially during major events and forums to ensure the application of best practices."

Her Highness praised the strategic partnership between the UAE Balance Council and international organizations and institutions concerned with gender balance. Her Highness added that the Council, in cooperation with various ministries and all state entities, and through fruitful partnership with the private sector, continues its efforts to bridge any gaps in gender balance in all sectors, thus contributing to achieving the vision of our leadership to make the UAE the best country in the world by 2071.

The UAE Gender Balance Council participated in the "Growth Summit" organized by the World Economic Forum on the second and third of this month in Geneva, under the slogan "Jobs and Opportunities for All", with the aim of enhancing future opportunities and facing current challenges through cooperation and innovation.

Impactful partnerships

For her part, Mona Ghanem Al Marri, Vice Chairperson of the UAE Gender Balance Council and member of the Global Future Councils, said: "The Council's participation in this important global summit comes within the framework of the directives of Her Highness Sheikha Manal bint Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, to build and strengthen influential global partnerships with countries and international organizations with distinguished expertise in gender policies, in a way that contributes to the exchange of knowledge, experiences and best practices, in light of the UAE's success in achieving an inspiring experience that has become a role model. In gender balance, thanks to the unlimited support provided by the wise leadership to women, and its keenness to provide the means to make them successful at all job levels, and to enhance their representation in leadership positions in various sectors and fields."

Al-Marri participated in several main sessions within the summit, which was held in the presence and participation of about 450 members and partners of the forum, government officials, representatives of civil society, trade unions, innovators, thought leaders and academics. She also held meetings with government officials and representatives of international organizations to discuss areas of joint cooperation and how to promote gender balance at the regional and global levels, and during her meeting, the founder and president of the World Economic Forum, Professor Klaus Schwab, discussed areas of future cooperation and projects to enhance the role of women and promote gender balance at the regional level.

The Vice Chairperson of the UAE Gender Balance Council participated in the session "Towards Gender Parity: 50-50 by 2050", and the "Gender Parity" meeting within the "Growth Summit", which addressed the foundations of flexible and equitable growth that guarantees women better economic participation, and what needs to be done to ensure gender parity and raise more women to the highest levels of leadership in the economy, politics and civil society.

Al-Marri also participated in the strategy session titled "Care Economy", which addressed the concept of the care economy, the huge opportunities for growth, jobs and inclusion it provides, and the prospects for partnerships, incentives and investments necessary to build an effective care economy globally, which can provide $11 trillion worth of opportunities by strengthening partnerships between the public and private sectors, and activating the necessary tools and policies to appreciate and support unpaid care work.

Perfect opportunity

Al Marri's participation in the Growth Summit was an ideal opportunity to highlight the elements of success of the Emirati experience in gender balance, which was based on the continuous support of the leadership since the establishment of the state in 1971, a constitution that provides for equal opportunities between men and women and equality in rights and duties, advanced legislation that consolidates gender balance in various fields, and qualitative initiatives and policies that support gender in the workplace.

She said that "these efforts and legislation led to raising the UAE's position in global competitiveness indicators, as it ranked first in the Arab world, and 11th globally in the Gender Balance Index 2022, issued by the United Nations Development Program, and topped the countries of the Middle East and North Africa region in the Women, Business and the Law Report 2023, issued by the World Bank, and the Arab countries topped the Gender Gap Report 2022, issued by the World Economic Forum."

Al Marri focused on the unique partnership between the government and the private sector in the UAE to achieve national goals, pointing out that this partnership is based on transparency and honest dialogue on the challenges of the present and the future, and is one of the success factors pursued by the UAE in formulating effective and successful policies, noting that these common visions contribute to reducing the economic gap between the sexes, and open wide horizons for women's access to economic opportunities.

She added: "The UAE private sector launched a qualitative initiative globally in 2022, in cooperation with the UAE Gender Balance Council and the National Committee for Sustainable Development Goals, on pledging to accelerate the fifth goal of the sustainable development goals, commit to sustainable career growth for women, and increase their participation in leadership positions, and the pioneering initiative was met with a great response from national and international institutions working in various fields in the private sector in the country and around the world."

Manal bint Mohammed:

"The Council, in cooperation with ministries and entities, continues its efforts to bridge any gaps in gender balance in all sectors."

"The UAE Gender Balance Strategy 2026 focuses on strengthening global partnerships and exchanging experiences and expertise."

Mona Al Marri:

"The UAE has achieved an inspiring experience, becoming a role model in gender balance."

«Care Economy»

During her participation in the "Care Economy" session at the Growth Summit, the Vice President of the UAE Gender Balance Council and member of the Global Future Councils, Mona Ghanem Al Marri, touched on public and private policies and initiatives that have shown success in promoting investment in care infrastructure and redistributing care responsibilities among actors, in order to improve the quality of care functions, thus contributing to the consolidation of gender balance.

She explained that the UAE has been keen to build an infrastructure and legislation that lays sustainable foundations for building a coherent care economy that consolidates gender balance, through many legislations, policies and initiatives, through which resources are provided to those who carry out various care work, male and female, referring to some of these legislations and initiatives, including the "Parental Leave" law issued in 2022, and the UAE had the regional lead in issuing it, as it includes the broad concept of care, as this law grants workers in the private sector paid parental leave. The UAE Gender Balance Council, in cooperation with the Ministry of Finance, is in the process of implementing a gender-responsive budget framework that has been developed and designed over the past years, and applied experimentally to the Ministry of Community Development.