The National Women’s Council released a detailed report on its efforts and activities that were implemented during 2023, according to the axes of the National Strategy for the empowerment of Egyptian Women 2030, where the total beneficiaries of these programs and activities reached more than 25 million beneficiaries, in light of the support received from the political administration.
The report reviews all the programs and initiatives launched by the Council over the past year in all fields, in cooperation with state bodies and institutions and partners, and within the framework of the national project for the development of the Egyptian family.
The number of beneficiaries of the Council’s activities in the area of political empowerment reached more than 20 million beneficiaries, in the files of extracting and renewing the national number cards for those who are unable, in addition to the role of the Council in raising awareness on the importance of women voters through the “Balady Amana” campaign, which was implemented in two phases. The first phase aimed to raise awareness of the role of women in public participation in nation-building, while the second phase aimed at raising awareness of women’s political rights and the importance of their participation in elections to achieve democracy and fair representation for all.
Moreover, the number of beneficiaries of the activities and efforts of the Council within the area of economic empowerment reached 686,391 beneficiaries. The Council completed the activities of the savings and digital lending mobilization program,”Tahweesha”, trained women in the management of savings groups through training courses, and formed a qualified team of 1,340 financial facilitators, field supervisors and supervisors in governorates.
The women were also provided with the opportunity to work in the project as change agents and financial facilitators, and they are trained periodically in the field of digital education and other development topics, including (smart green projects – cybersecurity – banking cycle). The savings groups reached 12,000 group, comprising of 263,878 with 6,592 new groups of 145,174 women in 2023, most of whom were sensitized to the field of financial and social education through 4095 awareness sessions.
The number of women who became registered on the application of “Tahweesha” reached 166,388 women, and 38 bank accounts were opened for 872 women from savings groups in cooperation with Banque Misr, with a total savings value of EGP 56,870.5 (through 103 sessions on the e-Tahweesha application), and a loan rate of 14% of savings.
In addition, 23 bank simulation models were set up, “Tahweesha Bank” in 20 governorates, to spread the culture of savings and digital lending in the targeted communities, and to provide 345,677 awareness services and financial products, and to introduce the Council’s interventions to empower women socially and economically.
In the area of social empowerment, the number of beneficiaries of the activities and efforts of the Council in this area reached 1,357,016 beneficiaries. Among the Council’s efforts in this area, the Council was keen to raise awareness and educate on the basic concepts of the population issue and the socio-economic effects of population growth through the “roundtables”, where 12,395 round-table sessions were implemented, benefiting a total of 827,133.
91,937 beneficiaries also benefited from interactive activities (talk circles for girls and boys in schools and parents, watch clubs), which aimed to encourage girls to express their opinions, hopes and fears and share stories and experiences to empower them within their communities. Social media campaigns generated nearly 103 million hits in 2023.
In light of the fourth axis of the National Strategy for the empowerment of Women 2030, the protection axis, the efforts and activities of the Council within this axis have benefited 3,740,719 beneficiaries, and the extended campaign to knock on doors “protect her from circumcision” has been implemented, reaching 3,374,956 beneficiaries.
As a complement to the efforts of the National Committee for the Elimination of Female Genital mutilation, for the fourth consecutive year, the Committee continued its activities in the framework of the implementation of its National Plan 2022-2023, through the implementation of successive awareness campaigns under the slogan “protect her from circumcision”, which included direct and indirect awareness campaigns, to achieve from its launch in 2019 to 2023 more than 108.6 million duplicate contacts for women and men through various activities such as training field task forces of religious figures and community leaders, media awareness campaigns, door-knocking campaigns, receiving complaints on the National Council for Women hotline and the Child Helpline.
An initiative entitled “Ambassadors against circumcision “was launched and a facilitating committee was formed for the initiative, which includes a group of religious leaders from Al-Azhar, Awqaf, the Egyptian Church with its three sects, and social and health specialists concerned with the issue of female circumcision.
