Dr. Maya Morsi, President of the National Council for Women, played a pivotal role in the “virtual” conference that marked the launch of the annual report of the Observatory for Egyptian Women in Boards of Directors for the year 2023, titled “Paving the way towards achieving the 2030 goals”.
She was joined by key figures in the field, including Dr. Hala Al-Saeed, Minister of Planning and Economic Development; Dr. Mohamed Farid, Chairman of the General Authority for Supervision and Finance; and Dr. Samer Atallah, Associate Dean of Graduate Studies and Research at the School of Management at the American University in Cairo. Representatives from UN Women, the Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA), and the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency were also present.
Dr. Maya stressed the importance of the report of the Egyptian Women’s Observatory on Boards of Directors as a tool to stimulate the targeted sectors to increase women’s representation and effective participation, in addition to being a monitoring tool, expressing her happiness with the index reaching 23% this year compared to 19.7% in 2022, and 16. 7% in 2021.
Furthermore, the President of the Council indicated that the economic empowerment of women is a national priority, as the state-approved policies, including the “Catalyst for Closing the Gender Gap” launched by the National Council for Women in cooperation with the Ministry of International Cooperation, and the year 2021 witnessed the launch of the World Bank’s gender equality model and its localization in the Egyptian context by issuing the Egyptian Gender Equality Seal certificate to the private sector until the Egyptian Gender Equality Seal came under an institutional umbrella represented by the Department of Women’s Skills Development at the National Council for Women.
The number of Egyptian companies that have already joined and are still in the process of joining the seal has reached Al-Masry for Gender Equality to 30 companies.
Morsi stressed that Egypt’s Vision 2030 places women as a major factor in achieving its development goals, adding that during the past year, indicators of the National Strategy for Empowering Egyptian Women 2030 were reviewed to monitor the progress achieved and identify gaps in the four axes of the strategy.
She also explained that having more women on financial, non-financial, and banking boards of directors will reflect positively on achieving better financial performance, making balanced decisions, and promoting a more stable and comprehensive economic landscape, in addition to formulating policies that take into account women’s needs and expanding the base. Talents and stimulating economic empowerment through participation.
In conclusion, Dr. Maya Morsi thanked both the Ministry of Planning and Economic Development, led by Dr. Hala Al-Saeed, for mainstreaming women’s needs and placing them as a priority within the government’s strategic vision and work program and the Financial Supervisory Authority for the continuous strategic construction of policies that work to empower women within the Authority and listed companies and putting these policies into effect, she also thanked all partners for their role and continued support.
