Partnership agreement between the Financial Regulatory Authority and UN Women to promote gender equality
Date:
Cairo, 28 March 2022- The Financial Regulatory Authority (FRA) and UN Women Egypt signed a letter of agreement at the headquarters of the FRA last Thursday to outline the terms of an extended partnership between the two parties to promote women’s empowerment, advance the new financing mechanisms related to social aspects, and encourage companies operating in non-banking financial activities to achieve gender equality and unleash the financing opportunities offered by sustainable financing tools within the national economy.
The letter of agreement was signed by Dr. Mohamed Omran, Chairman of the Financial Regulatory Authority and Ms. Christine Arab, UN Women Egypt Country Representative, in the presence of their teams, and the leaders of the Financial Regulatory.
During the meeting, Dr. Mohamed Omran and Ms. Christine Arab agreed that UN Women Egypt would provide technical support to enhance the capacities within the non-banking financial sector, and cooperate in setting necessary standards to implement investment principles related to social aspects, in addition to pushing companies operating in non-banking financial activities to sign the “Women’s Empowerment Principles” (WEPs) launched globally by UN Women in cooperation with the United Nations Global Compact to emphasize support for achieving gender equality and empowering women in the workplace.
Dr. Mohamed Omran, Executive Chairman of FRA, highlighted that the letter of agreement included the development of an action for the areas of collaboration with UN Women Egypt, provided that the first annual work plan includes conducting a series of extensive meetings and dialogues on investment strategies in new financing tools related to gender equality and women’s empowerment, and cooperation in implementing the WEPs in the authority and encouraging WEPs application in the non-banking financial sector in line with the National Strategy for the Empowerment of Egyptian Women and Egypt’s vision 2030.
On behalf of UN Women, Christine Arab commended the FRA, under Dr. Omran’s leadership, for its continued, high-level commitment to advancing gender lens investing principles among its stakeholders and within the FRA itself. Through this partnership, UN Women is pleased to work with the FRA in their commitment to strengthen women’s job opportunities and advancement in the non-banking financial sector, as well as the FRA’s on-going work in standard setting around innovative financing in support of realizing the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) including Goal 5 on gender equality.
It is worth noting that the FRA had proposed, last year, a legislative amendment to the provisions of bonds, securitization bonds and instruments in the executive regulations of the capital market law and the inclusion of four new financing tools in the capital market, including social bonds, sustainability bonds, bonds related to environmental, social and governance aspects, and bonds related to gender equality and women's empowerment.
The authority decided earlier in 2021 that companies and non-banking financial bodies, whose engagement rate with women-whether as a individual or legal person- reaches 25% or more, are granted a reduction in the development fees or for services by 50% and as per their engagement rate with women, which encourages these bodies to have expand their activities with women.
For more information, please contact:
- Sobhy Shehata; Shehata@fra.gov.eg
- Maha Rateb; Communication and Advocacy Analyst, UN Women Egypt at rateb@unwomen.org
Read in Arabic.