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The participation of women in the economies of the Middle East and North Africa
November 05, 20157:00 p.m.
MADRID
Casa Árabe Auditorium (at Calle Alcalá, 62).
7:00 p.m.
Free entry until the event’s capacity is reached.
In French and Spanish, with simultaneous translation
Presentation of a study by the EBRD on the participation of women in in Egypt, Jordan, Morocco, Tunisia and Turkey.
Casa Árabe is presenting this study on Enhancing Women’s Voice, Agency and Participation in the Economy: Studies in Egypt, Jordan, Morocco, Tunisia and Turkey, 2015 at a round table discussion organized with the cooperation of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), which published the study.
Taking part in the presentation are Jacques Charmes, director of the team of specialists who completed the study, and Elena Ferreras, the study coordinator at the EBRD. The results and recommendations will be discussed in a debate along with Javier Parrondo, head of the Department of Cooperation with the Arab World and Asia of the Spanish Development Cooperation Agency (AECID); Celia de Anca, a professor of Global Diversity and the director of the Instituto de Empresa’s Diversity Center, and Laura Mijares Molina, a professor in the Department of Arab and Islamic Studies at the Universidad Complutense de Madrid.
The study published in April provides a comparative analysis of a set of economic, educational, legal and political parameters, which create a profile of the status of women’s participation in the society and economy of Middle Eastern and North African countries.
Completed by a team of international consultants and the bank’s team for gender, the goal of the study is to offer a series of recommendations to design projects which envisage and provide a response to the practical and strategic needs of women, as well as promoting political dialogue at the international level so as to move forward on gender equality in these countries.
Despite having achieved parity in the different levels of schooling for boys and girls, these countries display persistently low percentages when it comes to women’s participation in the labor force, with some recent signs of growing worse in certain cases. In some countries, like Turkey and Tunisia, the unemployment rates of women with a higher education are systematically far higher than men’s. In general, women also withstand an exceptionally higher burden of uncompensated work (taking care of the house, family or dependent individuals), which limits their professional and economic advancement. The public sector, more stable and with greater facilities offered when it comes to reconciling work and family, provides most of the jobs for women in these countries. Women also have greater difficulties gaining access to credit and starting up a business.
Although some parts of their legal codes may be considered “neutral” on the topic of gender, and all of the countries have signed the Convention to Eliminate All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), more conservative practices or readings of certain legal, civil and religious frameworks are prioritized. There is also a series of social rules and barriers, as well as masked forms of discrimination and inequality which place limitations on women’s ability to reach their own decisions, seek various opportunities in their daily lives and professions, speak up and be heard within the family and social realms, or contribute in a more active way to those projects in society which they wish to take part in.
Containing updated graphs, charts and data that make it possible to visualize the information in a clear and concise manner, the study discusses how the legal frameworks and social norms affect a series of key factors in women’s empowerment: women’s participation in the work force, education and the labor market; personal status, family codes and religious diversity in legal codes; access to and control of economic resources; freedom of movement and protection against gender violence; the ability to reach decisions on forming a family, and political participation and citizenship.
The study’s recommendations are oriented towards three areas: the need for greater direct investment in the private sector and in designing and providing municipal services and infrastructures, above all in transportation, bearing in mind gender-related criteria; promoting political dialogue in those sectors in which women face restrictions, preventing violence in public spaces and at work, and decreasing the bureaucracy to start up businesses; increasing the presence of regional gender specialists in projects and processes for political dialogue, and training employees and specialists on the subject of gender.
The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development was created in 1991 to provide assistance to the countries in Eastern Europe in their process of transition from a centralized socialist economist to a market economy. In 2012, its scope of activity was expanded to include the countries of the southern and eastern Mediterranean. Three countries in the region were classified as countries for operations or countries to be beneficiaries of funds (Morocco, Jordan and Tunisia), with Egypt classified as a potential country for operations.
Taking part in the presentation are Jacques Charmes, director of the team of specialists who completed the study, and Elena Ferreras, the study coordinator at the EBRD. The results and recommendations will be discussed in a debate along with Javier Parrondo, head of the Department of Cooperation with the Arab World and Asia of the Spanish Development Cooperation Agency (AECID); Celia de Anca, a professor of Global Diversity and the director of the Instituto de Empresa’s Diversity Center, and Laura Mijares Molina, a professor in the Department of Arab and Islamic Studies at the Universidad Complutense de Madrid.
The study published in April provides a comparative analysis of a set of economic, educational, legal and political parameters, which create a profile of the status of women’s participation in the society and economy of Middle Eastern and North African countries.
Completed by a team of international consultants and the bank’s team for gender, the goal of the study is to offer a series of recommendations to design projects which envisage and provide a response to the practical and strategic needs of women, as well as promoting political dialogue at the international level so as to move forward on gender equality in these countries.
Despite having achieved parity in the different levels of schooling for boys and girls, these countries display persistently low percentages when it comes to women’s participation in the labor force, with some recent signs of growing worse in certain cases. In some countries, like Turkey and Tunisia, the unemployment rates of women with a higher education are systematically far higher than men’s. In general, women also withstand an exceptionally higher burden of uncompensated work (taking care of the house, family or dependent individuals), which limits their professional and economic advancement. The public sector, more stable and with greater facilities offered when it comes to reconciling work and family, provides most of the jobs for women in these countries. Women also have greater difficulties gaining access to credit and starting up a business.
Although some parts of their legal codes may be considered “neutral” on the topic of gender, and all of the countries have signed the Convention to Eliminate All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), more conservative practices or readings of certain legal, civil and religious frameworks are prioritized. There is also a series of social rules and barriers, as well as masked forms of discrimination and inequality which place limitations on women’s ability to reach their own decisions, seek various opportunities in their daily lives and professions, speak up and be heard within the family and social realms, or contribute in a more active way to those projects in society which they wish to take part in.
Containing updated graphs, charts and data that make it possible to visualize the information in a clear and concise manner, the study discusses how the legal frameworks and social norms affect a series of key factors in women’s empowerment: women’s participation in the work force, education and the labor market; personal status, family codes and religious diversity in legal codes; access to and control of economic resources; freedom of movement and protection against gender violence; the ability to reach decisions on forming a family, and political participation and citizenship.
The study’s recommendations are oriented towards three areas: the need for greater direct investment in the private sector and in designing and providing municipal services and infrastructures, above all in transportation, bearing in mind gender-related criteria; promoting political dialogue in those sectors in which women face restrictions, preventing violence in public spaces and at work, and decreasing the bureaucracy to start up businesses; increasing the presence of regional gender specialists in projects and processes for political dialogue, and training employees and specialists on the subject of gender.
The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development was created in 1991 to provide assistance to the countries in Eastern Europe in their process of transition from a centralized socialist economist to a market economy. In 2012, its scope of activity was expanded to include the countries of the southern and eastern Mediterranean. Three countries in the region were classified as countries for operations or countries to be beneficiaries of funds (Morocco, Jordan and Tunisia), with Egypt classified as a potential country for operations.
Elena Ferreras Carreras
Ms. Ferreras is a Senior Adviser for Gender-related Topics at the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD). Educated as a sociologist, she is a specialist in gender-related topics with experience on subjects in political dialogue, project development, governance, diversity and gender equality, in North African countries in particular. Before working at the EBRD, she was with the African Development Bank and the Spanish International Cooperation and Development Agency (AECID). For the last 20 years, she has lived and worked in several countries, in Africa, Asia and Latin America.
Jacques Charmes
Charmes is the director emeritus of research at the Center of Population and Development (CEPED) at the Universidad Paris Descartes - Institute of Scientific Research for Development (IRD). Prior to that, he was the director of the Department of Social and Health Sciences at that institute and an economics professor at the University of Versailles and the Institute of Political Science (Sciences Po) in Paris. Charmes took part in the design and analysis of several surveys and polls on the labor force, standard of living and the informal sector in North and Sub-Saharan Africa. He has had many articles, reports and handbooks published on the dimensions of the informal sector and labor force in national accounting, with a special emphasis on women. In this arena, he has taken part in many programs and activities by the United Nations, the International Labor Organization, the World Bank and the OECD. He recently took part in two large programs of the United Nations’ Economic Commission for Africa (African Centre for Gender and Social Development): the African Gender and Development Index (AGDI) applied to more than 30 countries, and the “Guidebook for mainstreaming gender perspectives and household production into national statistics, budgets and policies in Africa.” He was one of the founding members of the international network WIEGO (Women in the Informal Economy: Globalizing and Organizing).
Javier Parrondo
Parrondo is a Spanish diplomat with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation. He has been stationed in countries such as Afghanistan, Vietnam, Switzerland (Permanent Representation before the UN in Geneva) and Palestine (Consulate General in Jerusalem). He currently directs the Department of Cooperation with the Arab World and Asia at the Spanish International Development Cooperation Agency (AECID), through which he coordinates the AECID’s activities in North Africa and the Near East, above all in priority countries for Spanish cooperation, such as Morocco, Mauritania, the Saharan camps and Palestine, and tools such as MASAR (a program for tracking democratic governance processes in North Africa and the Near East).
Celia de Anca
Ms. de Anca is a professor of Global Diversity and the director of the Instituto de Empresa’s Center of Diversity. Prior to that, she was the director of Corporate Programs at the Euro-Arab Business School of Granada (EAMS) and worked at the Fundación Cooperación Internacional y Promoción Ibero-América Europa (CIPIE), as well as the international division of Banco Santander. Amongst other publications, she is a co-author of “Managing Diversity in the Global Organization” (Macmillan, 2007). She is a member of the Scientific and Academic Board of Switzerland’s Gender Equality project, and she received the Executive Woman of the Year award of 2008, which is given by the Association of Businesswomen of Madrid. With a PhD from the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, she also has a bachelor’s degree in Arabic Philology from the same university and a Master’s degree from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy (Boston) and from the Universidad Politécnica de Madrid.
Laura Mijares Molina
With a PhD in International Mediterranean Studies from the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid (UAM), Laura Mijares is a professor with the Department of Arab and Islamic Studies at the Universidad Complutense de Madrid (UCM), where, in addition to giving classes, she is the academic coordinator of the Master’s degree for Advanced Studies on Islam in Contemporary European Society. She has been a professor in the PhD program of International Mediterranean Studies, as well as the Master’s degree program in Contemporary Arab and Islamic Studies at the UAM, as well as a visiting professor in the Department of Anthropology at the University of California, Berkeley and the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE) at the University of Toronto. She is currently a full-time member of the R&D project “Culture, Gender and Islamophobia: Islam in the diaspora,” directed by Dr. Ángeles Ramírez, of the UAM’s Social Anthropology Department.
Ms. Ferreras is a Senior Adviser for Gender-related Topics at the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD). Educated as a sociologist, she is a specialist in gender-related topics with experience on subjects in political dialogue, project development, governance, diversity and gender equality, in North African countries in particular. Before working at the EBRD, she was with the African Development Bank and the Spanish International Cooperation and Development Agency (AECID). For the last 20 years, she has lived and worked in several countries, in Africa, Asia and Latin America.
Jacques Charmes
Charmes is the director emeritus of research at the Center of Population and Development (CEPED) at the Universidad Paris Descartes - Institute of Scientific Research for Development (IRD). Prior to that, he was the director of the Department of Social and Health Sciences at that institute and an economics professor at the University of Versailles and the Institute of Political Science (Sciences Po) in Paris. Charmes took part in the design and analysis of several surveys and polls on the labor force, standard of living and the informal sector in North and Sub-Saharan Africa. He has had many articles, reports and handbooks published on the dimensions of the informal sector and labor force in national accounting, with a special emphasis on women. In this arena, he has taken part in many programs and activities by the United Nations, the International Labor Organization, the World Bank and the OECD. He recently took part in two large programs of the United Nations’ Economic Commission for Africa (African Centre for Gender and Social Development): the African Gender and Development Index (AGDI) applied to more than 30 countries, and the “Guidebook for mainstreaming gender perspectives and household production into national statistics, budgets and policies in Africa.” He was one of the founding members of the international network WIEGO (Women in the Informal Economy: Globalizing and Organizing).
Javier Parrondo
Parrondo is a Spanish diplomat with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation. He has been stationed in countries such as Afghanistan, Vietnam, Switzerland (Permanent Representation before the UN in Geneva) and Palestine (Consulate General in Jerusalem). He currently directs the Department of Cooperation with the Arab World and Asia at the Spanish International Development Cooperation Agency (AECID), through which he coordinates the AECID’s activities in North Africa and the Near East, above all in priority countries for Spanish cooperation, such as Morocco, Mauritania, the Saharan camps and Palestine, and tools such as MASAR (a program for tracking democratic governance processes in North Africa and the Near East).
Celia de Anca
Ms. de Anca is a professor of Global Diversity and the director of the Instituto de Empresa’s Center of Diversity. Prior to that, she was the director of Corporate Programs at the Euro-Arab Business School of Granada (EAMS) and worked at the Fundación Cooperación Internacional y Promoción Ibero-América Europa (CIPIE), as well as the international division of Banco Santander. Amongst other publications, she is a co-author of “Managing Diversity in the Global Organization” (Macmillan, 2007). She is a member of the Scientific and Academic Board of Switzerland’s Gender Equality project, and she received the Executive Woman of the Year award of 2008, which is given by the Association of Businesswomen of Madrid. With a PhD from the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, she also has a bachelor’s degree in Arabic Philology from the same university and a Master’s degree from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy (Boston) and from the Universidad Politécnica de Madrid.
Laura Mijares Molina
With a PhD in International Mediterranean Studies from the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid (UAM), Laura Mijares is a professor with the Department of Arab and Islamic Studies at the Universidad Complutense de Madrid (UCM), where, in addition to giving classes, she is the academic coordinator of the Master’s degree for Advanced Studies on Islam in Contemporary European Society. She has been a professor in the PhD program of International Mediterranean Studies, as well as the Master’s degree program in Contemporary Arab and Islamic Studies at the UAM, as well as a visiting professor in the Department of Anthropology at the University of California, Berkeley and the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE) at the University of Toronto. She is currently a full-time member of the R&D project “Culture, Gender and Islamophobia: Islam in the diaspora,” directed by Dr. Ángeles Ramírez, of the UAM’s Social Anthropology Department.