Dubai: The UAE Gender Balance Council (UAE GBC) has held discussions with the Women’s Forum of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Mediterranean to explore ways to expand cooperation.
The move to strengthen cooperation was part of the UAE Gender Balance Council’s efforts to expand its partnerships with influential international gender balance institutions.
The efforts to enhance cooperation further reflect the support from a country’s leadership for the council’s objectives to improve the role of women, preserve their gains in various fields, and promote gender balance regionally as well as globally.
The meeting explored new opportunities for cooperation between the Council and the Forum to strengthen the role of women in political and parliamentary spheres.
Ms. Mona Ghanem Al Marri, Vice President of the UAE Gender Balance Council, remarked that “the UAE Federal National Council and the Parliament of the Mediterranean have established strong cooperation, which reflect the robust economic, cultural, political, and commercial relations between the UAE and Mediterranean countries.”
“The UAE GBC and the Women’s Forum of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Mediterranean have an opportunity to build on these ties to promote gender balance regionally and globally,” Ms. Al Marri added.
According to the Vice President, the UAE GBC and the Forum have the common objective of promoting women’s participation and gender balance in political life as part of their efforts to achieve the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals.
Furthermore, the meeting stressed the achievements of UAE women in various sectors, including their contributions in the political field. The discussions highlighted the UAE’s emergence as one of the world’s leading countries in terms of the percentage of women’s parliamentary representation, which was recognized by the Global Gender Gap Report issued by the World Economic Forum for 2021 and 2022 and the Global Competitiveness Report, which ranked the UAE No. 1 globally for female representation in parliament in 2020 and 2021.
The meeting was also attended by Ms. Joanna Lima, President of the Women’s Forum of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Mediterranean, Ms. Fatima Zahraa Abdi, Vice-President of the Forum, Ms. Celine Cervi from the Secretariat of the Mediterranean Parliament, and Ms. Maryam Majid bin Thaniya, Member of the UAE Federal National Council and Vice President of the Parliamentary Women’s Forum of the Mediterranean Parliament.