The UN Women Egypt Country Office’s Country Portfolio Brief gives a comprehensive overview on the main programmes implemented by UN Women during the period from 2023 to 2027 in support of the Arab Republic of Egypt’s Vision 2030 and the National Strategy for the Empowerment of Egyptian Women (NSEEW).

The main goal of the JP is to support the economic empowerment of more than 6,300 women through increased access to employment and/or self-employment opportunities through extending a tailored package of demand-driven services to different actors in the Egyptian labour market by providing pathways for capacity-development and growth to women jobseekers, women entrepreneurs, private sector companies and investors, in collaboration with government institutions and prominent partners.

The UN Women programme was launched in 2013 in partnership with the National Council for Women (NCW) as the main coordinating government counterpart. In 2015, the programme expanded to five governorates: Cairo, Giza, Alexandria, Minya and Beni Suef.

The “Stimulating Equal Opportunities for Women Entrepreneurs” brochure summarizes the results of the strong partnership between UN Women and Procter and Gamble (P&G) that started in 2017 in support of women’s economic empowerment in Egypt and promote greater diversity and inclusion through equipping women entrepreneurs with the skills and support they need to access opportunities as potential suppliers and distributors. Women received trainings on business development, marketing, sales techniques, financial management and soft skills. Afterwards, selected women obtained funding to establish their own private business in the retail industry with many being integrated in the distribution channel of many large corporates including P&G, Juhayna, and Mars.

On the Gender Day at the Twenty-seventh session of the Conference of Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP 27), the Government of Egypt, as COP27 Presidency, launched the African Women’s Climate Adaptive Priorities (AWCAP) initiative. This initiative aims at driving change by increasing decent work and leadership for women in green sectors, increasing women’s representation in STEM fields, and leveraging increased national investments for women-led green businesses.

This project falls under the 2021-2024 Multilateral Cooperation Programme for Gender Equality in Egypt supported by KOICA and is managed and implemented by UN Women Egypt in partnership with the National Council for Women (NCW), the Ministry of International Cooperation, the Ministry of Education and Technical Education, the Ministry of Manpower, and in collaboration with educational institutions, private sector and civil society. The “Women’s Economic Empowerment” project aims to economically empower women through access to capacity development, decent employment opportunities and enhanced community and labor market support for gender equality.

The “Gender-Transformative Parenting Manual” aims at enhancing the adoption of gender transformative practices to create more gender equitable spaces at home through challenging stereotypical gender norms and encouraging men and boys to participate in the unpaid care and domestic work; in addition to emphasizing the importance of couples’ communication and promoting full access to women’s economic and educational rights. It also promotes positive behavioral change through empowerment, highlighting individuals as change agents and focusing on increasing their abilities and knowledge of gender-equitable parenting. It targets national and local stakeholders in efforts to advance gender equality and the empowerment of women.

The 2021 Women on Boards Observatory annual monitoring report contains analyzed data of the Egyptian Exchange (EGX) listed companies, the banking sector, public enterprise companies, and the Financial Regulatory Authority (FRA) companies. The women on boards indicator have significantly improved from 13 percent in 2020 to 16.7 percent in 2021 – a growth of 28.5 percent in one year, reflecting an improvement towards achieving 30 percent representation of women on corporate boards by 2030. The report shows a total number of 1,043 women on boards of companies and banks in 2021, a growth rate of 46 percent.

The National Council for Women released the first national study on “Violence against Women with Disabilities” in February 2022, which is one of the first studies globally on such topic. The results of the study are based on surveying 6000 recipients of “Takaful and Karama” program, implemented by the Ministry of Social Solidarity. The study presents knowledge on the different forms of violence, its underlying causes, and the ability to access services as well as the experiences of women with disabilities in Egypt, focusing on the intersectionality between gender, disability and poverty.

This training manual aims to build the capacity of service providers on case management and psychosocial support to women and girls’ survivors of violence or exposed to its risk. This manual offers a detailed guideline for the quality principles and necessary skills that service providers can refer to and adopt to effectively respond to women’s and girl’s needs, develop safety intervention plans and refer them to essential services providers (legal, medical, psychosocial support) given the crucial role of case managers and service providers.

The 2020 annual monitoring report contains the analyzed data of the Egyptian Exchange (EGX) listed companies, the banking sector, public enterprise companies, and the Financial Regulatory Authority (FRA) companies. The women on boards indicator have significantly improved from 10 percent in 2019 to 13 percent in 2020, reflecting an improvement towards achieving Egypt’s vision 2030 and SDG goals. The overall performance of female representation on boards indicated a positive and...

Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, shrinking working hours, increased care burdens, and heightened violence have exacerbated the challenges that women and girls face. Unless action is taken, by 2021 around 435 million women and girls will be living in extreme poverty, including 47 million pushed into poverty as a result of COVID-19. This publication presents the latest evidence on the multiple impacts of the pandemic on women and girls.

This brief highlights emerging trends and impacts of COVID-19 on online and ICT-facilitated violence against women and girls (VAWG). It provides examples of strategies put in place to prevent and respond to online/ICT-facilitated VAWG and makes recommendations on how different actors can best address this issue. It is a living document that draws upon the knowledge and experience of a wide range of experts.

This brief paper jointly developed by UN Women and WHO summarizes principles and recommendations to those planning to embark on data collection on the impact of COVID-19 on violence against women and girls. It responds to the needs and challenges to adhere to methodological, ethical and safety principles in the context of the physical distancing and staying at home measures imposed in many countries.  

Across every sphere, from health to the economy, security to social protection, the impacts of COVID-19 are exacerbated for women and girls simply by virtue of their sex. This policy brief explores how women and girls’ lives are changing in the face of COVID-19, and outlines suggested priority measures to accompany both the immediate response and longer-term recovery efforts.

This brief highlights emerging evidence of the impact of the recent global pandemic of COVID-19 on violence against women and girls. It makes recommendations to be considered by all sectors of society, from governments to international organizations and to civil society organizations, in order to prevent and respond to violence against women and girls, at the onset, during, and after the public health crisis, with examples of actions already taken.

With many businesses struggling to survive as a consequence of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak, loss of jobs and income and rising working poverty are a reality for many workers. This document offers (interim) recommendations for employers to mitigate the negative consequences stemming from COVID-19.

This training manual aims to build the capacity of service providers on case management and psychosocial support to women and girls’ survivors of violence or exposed to its risk. This manual offers a detailed guideline for the quality principles and necessary skills that service providers can refer to and adopt to effectively respond to women’s and girl’s needs, develop safety intervention plans and refer them to essential services providers (legal, medical, psychosocial support) given the crucial role of case managers and service providers.

UN Women Achievements Report gives a comprehensive overview on the main programmes implemented by UN Women Egypt during 2018 in collaboration with its various partners across the four impact areas: Women’s Political Empowerment (WPE), Women’s Economic Empowerment, Ending Violence against Women (EVAW) and Engaging Men and Boys in Gender Equality. It also features the main achievements of the programmes while highlighting the progress made under communications and partnerships.

Egypt launched the Sustainable Development Strategy (SDS) in 2015. The SDS serves as an umbrella for all development strategies in Egypt and is strongly guided by the universal SDGs. TheSDS was developed through an inclusive and integrated process involving various stakeholders from government, civil society, and the private sector.