Fifty influential female and male leaders have formed a Middle East Gender Parity Group to tackle discrimination and close the gap between the sexes.

“This is the Middle East’s first high-level group of both female and male decision-makers working together to achieve gender equality in the workplace, education, politics and health, and to better engage the talent of the region’s female population,” said Saadia Zahidi, head of the World Economic Forum’s Women Leaders and Gender Parity Programme.

Launched at the World Economic Forum on the Middle East in Sharm El Sheikh, the Forum’s Middle East Gender Parity Group is a multistakeholder community of 50 leaders – 25 women and 25 men – from business, politics, academic, media and civil society.

The membership reflects various personal and industry criteria, including the presence of relevant diversity efforts, corporate social responsibility programmes and personal commitment from leaders and issue expertise, said a statement.

At their founding meeting, members envisaged a scenario of the Middle East in 2020 that is free of gender gaps. To reach that goal in 12 years’ time, they made the following recommendations and committed to review progress at the next World Economic Forum on the Middle East:

* Place more women in key public decision-making positions (ministers, parliamentarians, local government leaders);

* Develop more effective legislation for empowering women and ensure that this legislation is implemented

* Promote girls’ education in high-tech fields since future growth and jobs will be driven by this sector

* Develop a more enabling environment for working women, including services such as childcare and transport between homes and offices

* Recognise publicly businesses that provide supportive environments for female employees to create positive incentives for companies, and also so that women searching for jobs are aware of the best employers

* Create media campaigns aimed at changing mindsets about women’s economic participation and leadership

* Increase positive, productive images of working women in school textbooks to change perceptions among girls and boys at an early age

Middle East Gender Parity Group members include Hosna Rachid, chairperson, Rachid Mashreq Group, Egypt; Ibrahim Dabdoub, chief executive officer, National Bank of Kuwait; Randa Ayoubi, chief executive officer, Rubicon, Jordan; Amre Moussa, secretary-general, League of Arab States; Youssuf Boutros-Ghali, Minister of Finance of Egypt; Saeb Erekat, head of Negotiations Department, PLO, Palestinian National Authority, Palestinian Territories; Suhair Al Ali, Minister of Planning and International Cooperation of Jordan.

“The concrete steps we should take today are to develop our legislations to protect women’s rights, create awareness among our people, and, yes, political will is very important to empower women, but we need social support also,” said Lubna Qassim, executive director, Legal and Regulatory Affairs, Dubai Council for Economic Affairs, UAE.

Countries from the Middle East region hold some of the lowest positions on the World Economic Forum’s Global Gender Gap Report that ranks over 120 countries according to the size of their gender gaps on educational attainment, health and survival, political empowerment, and economic participation and opportunity, the statement said.

The report reveals that while great progress has been made in the areas of health and education in the Middle East, female talent is not well integrated into the economy or into political decision-making. -TradeArabia News Service