President of the National Council for Women, Dr. Maya Morsi, participated in the meeting organized by the American Chamber of Commerce in Egypt, focusing on gender equality, women’s empowerment, and the climate agenda.
During her speech, Morsi stressed the existence of international and national policies and frameworks governing the issue of bridging the gender gap concerning climate change, explaining that at the global level, there is a “United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change” in which the United Nations included an agenda that deals with issues related to achieving gender equality in the file of climate change.
She further affirmed that the issue of achieving gender equality in the climate change file was a strong basic pillar during the COP 27 Climate Summit, hosted by Egypt in Sharm El-Sheikh last November, where the presidency allocated a special day for women within the summit.
The President of the Council referred to the Arab Republic of Egypt’s international proposal on women, the environment, and climate change, which Egypt presented in March 2022 before the Commission on the Status of Women at the United Nations, a vision that is based on 7 basic pillars.
These 7 pillars are working on methods that take into account women’s needs during the process of adapting and mitigating the severity of the climate change repercussions, enhancing the effectiveness of women and their effective participation during the stages of environmental governance, taking advantage of women’s employment opportunities during the process of just environmental transition to the green economy, rational consumption, and the blue economy within the framework of the sustainable development goals, addressing the health and social effects and repercussions of environmental degradation on women, promoting Raising awareness and behavioral change on women’s issues and climate change, enhancing the production of data and knowledge on women’s issues, the environment, and climate change, applying the principles of women’s empowerment and taking into account their needs during the process of financing climate change.
Dr. Morsi also highlighted the presidential initiative “African Women and Climate Change Adaptation” (AWCAP), implemented in partnership with UN-Women as a global partner on the part of the United Nations system as a whole.
It aims to establish an association that includes heads of agencies concerned with women’s affairs, relevant male and female ministers of environment, promoting knowledge production, promoting the provision of information technologies in the field of climate, data collection, research, exchanging experiences, and strengthening commitments to investing in women by supporting women at various levels, starting from education, for example, science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) to the labor market, and benefiting from existing partnerships between the public and private sectors, while also promoting social protection policies that consider women’s empowerment and gender equality and measures to keep pace with paths of a just transition.
Moreover, the NCW President underlined Egypt’s efforts to integrate women into financial inclusion through the “Tahwesha” program, implemented by the National Council for Women in partnership with the Central Bank, which is mainly concerned with reaching women in agricultural and rural areas to train them on how to preserve their savings.
Finally, Morsi mentioned that Egypt launched the “National Initiative for Smart Green Projects” in all governorates, which includes a section dedicated to women, as it is an incentive for all projects that provide innovative local solutions to climate change, stressing that recycling is not a new term for Egyptian women.
