Barcelona, 28/03/2014 (Agence Europe) - The Euro-Mediterranean conference on the socio-economic role of women and their inclusion in the world of business, which took place in Barcelona on 26 and 27 March under the aegis of the UfM (Union for the Mediterranean), ended with the adoption of a raft of recommendations mainly aiming to “professionalise” representative associations further and to reinforce channels for the exchange of information and experience.
The many associations which were represented, which came both from the EU and the countries of the southern shore of the Mediterranean, spent the two days identifying priority initiatives, programmes and funds for the socio-economic self-determination of women in the Euro-Mediterranean region. They started by taking stock of the situation which, without being negative, shows the scale of the challenges at hand. These must be tackled by education and changing mindsets, in individual lives and in the workplace. The situation is not specific to the southern shore. To the north as well, women's relative marginality in the working world persists, despite the progress noted.
The discussions focused on ways of helping associations on the ground to develop stronger synergies and to reinforce the coherence between the various Euro-Mediterranean players and to facilitate financial and institutional support to projects and initiatives to promote the socio-economic self-determination of women. A common opinion was reached in favour of more sustained action to encourage the submission of proposed regional projects to the EU via the UfM. 25 ideas for projects were announced. The idea of creating “mentoring” platforms was put forward, as was the idea of reinforcing the partnership with donors and promoters of projects present on the ground.
The conference saw the official launch of a project entitled “Skills to success: employability skills for women”, which is promoted by the association “America Mid-East Educational and Training Services” (AMIDEAST) and which aims to provide young women aged between 15 and 20 with the knowledge they need to get into the employment market. 450 young women from Jordan, Tunisia and Morocco will be assisted in an initial phase of the programme. Egypt and Lebanon will be included in the second phase, which will be implemented in late 2014 or early 2015. “The programme will be extended to other countries and will increase the number of annual training cycles, with a view to 1,800 young women a year”, the promoters state.
The first support came from the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Flemish Foreign Affairs Department, which announced their decisions to co-fund the first phase of the project with a contribution of €1 million (€750,000 and €250,000 respectively). (FB).