Closing Remarks: Increasing the Participation of Women in Public Life in Egypt

Increasing the Participation of Women in Public Life in Egypt

Closing Ceremony

 Cairo, 29 February 2024

Remarks by

Ambassador Christian Berger,

Head of the EU Delegation to Egypt

Your Excellency, Dr. Hala El-Said

Your Excellency, Dr. Maya Morsy

Dr Rasha Ragheb

Ambassador Abu Eish

Mr Eric Oechslin, Director ILO Country Office

Distinguished participants,

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Let me congratulate all women, and men, in Egypt and everywhere on the upcoming  International Women’s Day.

On this occasion, I would like also to say that in many parts of the world, it has become more challenging for women to enjoy their basic rights. The European Union stands by all women in the midst of conflicts, wars, and other crises.

It is my great pleasure to celebrate with you the closure of the EU supported project ‘Increasing the Participation of Women in Public Life in Egypt’.

The conclusion of this project is an important milestone of the EU-Egypt partnership to promote women empowerment.

In any country, achieving priorities on women empowerment, particularly women leadership and participation in all the walks of life, does not only contribute to women rights, and therefore human rights, but it also has shown a remarkable impact on economic growth and sustainable development.

The project that we celebrate today has a particular importance:

- While the EU-Egypt’s partnership in support of women empowerment had started many years ago, this was the first EU funded project that exclusively focused on women leadership, gender mainstreaming of policies and programmes, and gender statistics.  

- This project has had a significant importance as it represented a continuation of the longstanding partnership with Egypt to support women citizen rights, in the framework of the ‘National Women Citizenship Initiative’.

The Citizenship Initiative is of extreme significance. Through facilitating the issuance of National IDs to women, they are able to access their rights, including access to education, work opportunities, social services, political and civic rights, and many others.

Perhaps one of the distinctive features of this project was its reliance on a strong collaboration among different national partners, its reliance on the state of the art international expertise provided through the International Training Centre of the ILO, and the collaboration with the Egyptian Center for Public Opinion Research.

In this regard, I would like to congratulate all women who attended the ‘National Programme for Women Leaders’ and to all national entities that were part of the project. I sincerely hope that the project has been valuable to all of you.

Investing in the present and the future of women is crucial to prosperous and just societies.

The EU partners with the Government of Egypt, the civil society, the private sector, among others in successful joint efforts in the framework of Team Europe.

In this regard, I would like to extend a warm welcome to my colleagues from EU Member States who are present with us today.

Over the past years, the European Union has worked closely with national partners, in particular with the National Council for Women and the Ministry of Planning and Economic Development, to support key national flagships, such as the National Project for Family Development, Tahweesha for financial inclusion, Haya Kareema, the National ID Initiative, and several others. This approach has been of extreme importance as it ensures the sustainability of the EU funded projects.

As we close this important project, I would like to emphasise that this is the beginning of more partnerships to come with the European Union and I am pleased to announce a new  EU-Egypt flagship to promote women empowerment in a strategic partnership with the Government of Egypt, EU Member States, and the United Nations. The EU Support to Women Empowerment (EU-Egypt Tamkeen, EUR 10 million) is a new programme through which more investments in women skills and capacities will be strengthened in a broad range of areas. Through this new programme, we are pleased to continue supporting the Women’s Citizenship Initiative and the Leadership Programme.

On this occasion, I would like to extend my appreciation to the Government of Egypt, in particular the leaderships of H.E. Maya Morsy, to make this new cooperation a reality.

I would like to thank all partners who took part in the ‘Increasing the Participation of Women in Public Life in Egypt’. Special thanks and appreciation to H.E. Hala El-Said for the great partnership with the European Union in several areas, to H.E. Dr. Maya Morsy for her outstanding dedication to the women’s rights agenda, and to H.E. Dr. Hala Said for her significant support to strengthen the partnership between the European Union and Egypt.

Last but not least, a warm congratulation to each and every woman who has been part of this important milestone of the EU-Egypt’s partnership.

Thank you very much.