Outcome RAS_O_5

UN Women in the Arab States effectively leverages and expands its partnerships, communications and advocacy capabilities to increase support for and financing of the gender equality agenda, while securing sustainable resourcing for the delivery of its own mandate

By 2030, women’s employment in the Arab States should increase by 5% following an unprecedented, regional programme which aims for a transformational shift in women’s paid work. Strategic partnerships represent a core enabler for this increase in women’s employment, and key actors in banking, media (traditional and social media), and telecommunications have agreed to pursue this goal of surging women’s employment alongside ROAS. Five international financial institutions (IFIs) agreed to a set of unprecedented joint commitments with the RO to pursue this goal of 5%. These IFIs generally don’t work together to pursue common goals, nor do they collaborate closely with the UN towards common commitments. This is where UN-Women's convening and substantive evidence-based engagement has been successful and will deepen in 2024, with agreed operational arrangements. The IFI’s include the International Monetary Fund (IMF), European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) , Islamic Development Bank (ISDB), African Development Bank (ADB), and International Finance Corporation (IFC). 1 Forbes Middle East and UN Women signed an MoU in 2023. As our first collaboration activity, UN Women was given a runway at the Forbes Middle East Women’s Summit, 21-23 May to increase visibility of the goal of surging women’s employment in the Arab region by 5% by 203. The regional director Susanne Mikahil was a solo speaker for the subject of how the paradox hits economic progress and human development. She brought to the audiences, higher levels of graduations from urgently needed faculties – such as the proportion of female graduates within the academic field of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM), which interestingly is higher in the Arab States than in any other region – uniquely positions women throughout the region. Nokia signed a first of its kind partnership with ROAS to advance joint commitments to women’s economic empowerment in ten countries across five regions (see partnership announcements: X | IG | FB ). Vulnerable women will access knowledge and skills for employment and entrepreneurship (Tunisia, Jordan, South Africa, India, Philippines, Argentina, Turkey) and Nokia’s workspaces will strengthen their capacity to increase the number of women employees in tech, as a model for the private sector in the HIC context (Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Kuwait). To achieve this, Nokia will leverage human and technical resources to implement a global programme to scale-up impact based on the successful model developed during the first partnership (2021-2023). The Arab States region is unique as the global lead for this partnership. Nokia and leading telcos in the Arab States region, such as Zain and e&, also collaborated on the Nokia Action for Leadership initiative to foster women’s leadership in the telco sector with UN Women’s coordination support. As a result, UN Women was invited to address the Nokia-led ESG Council of eight Arab States and Africa telcos on the role of the private sector in advancing gender-responsive implementation of the SDGs. CNN Arabic and UN-Women's collaboration on advancing women’s economic empowerment and employment continued to deepen in 2023, particularly in Saudi Arabia, where UN-Women operates as a key agency in the UN Communications Group UN Women led two training sessions for journalists, Journalism students and media institutions in Saudi Arabia at the UN Resident Coordinator Office-convened Media Capacity Development Workshop on 13 November 2023 in Riyadh, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia . UN Women match-made the UN Country Team and their media partners with CNN which double the impact of the positioning of UN Women to the Saudi Media industry and to UN entities and the UNRCO. Other key partnerships have been established and advocacy platforms leveraged to advance women’s economic empowerment which will be deepened in 2024 (TikTok, through the WEPs and the “Ring the Bell Initiatives”, Shehrazad Awards, Arab Film Industry – Umm Kulthoom).

UN Women in the Arab States effectively leverages and expands its partnerships, communications and advocacy capabilities to increase support for and financing of the gender equality agenda, while securing sustainable resourcing for the delivery of its own mandate

In 2024, ROAS successfully mobilized around six million USD for Women’s Economic Empowerment (WEE) and Women, Peace, Security, and Humanitarian Action (WPSHA) through strategic partnerships with key donors, including GIZ, Japan, Spain, BMZ, Norway, the EU, Austria, and Netherlands. 2024 too marked a significant year in securing financing for GEWEEW , with commitments of a potential 150 million USD from international financial institutions (IFIs) under the Surging Women’s Employment Initiative (SWEI). This commitment is largely driven by a historic partnership between UN Women and the Islamic Development Bank (ISDB), the first of its kind for both organizations, and the African Development Bank (AfDB). In Tunisia the Bank Tunisienne de Solidarite is also engaged to provide 50 million USD. T he first of its kind, the UN Women - IsDB MOU outlines not only distinct countries for collaboration, but also initial thinking on how the Arab States can surge women employment by 5 percent before 2030. The MoU provides an ambitious, yet feasible initiative of accelerating women employment in the region, which the region urgently needs. In less than a year, three main milestones were achieved: A solid roadmap for joint collaboration, with crystallized roles and responsibilities. A joint scoping mission to Tunisia, which resulted in a tripartite partnership between IsDB-UN Women-AfDB on an extensive support architecture for women enterprises to be established and grow. Based on the positive developments in Tunisa, plans for similar joint missions to Jordan, Morocco and Egypt, as these four countries together constitute the first group to roll out this ambitious Flagship Initiative. UN Women will contribute to the grant element of the joint financing framework. Meaning that while IsDB-ISFD contributes to the concessional loan component (100 million dollars each) through its flagship HOPE (Harvesting Opportunities for Poverty Eradication) Finance Program, UN Women (through new contributions from amongst others the European Union), will be able to support the Governments through a smaller grant component that provides technical assistance and training to the Bank and women entrepreneurs (in existing and new jobs) in the Green sector. In this reporting period, the UN Women continued capitalizing on its partnership with CNN Arabic by renewing the MOU for another year and agreeing on a workplan for 2025. CNN Arabic supported the office with the wide dissemination of the Gaza Gender Alert collaterals and the 16 days of activism flaghsip launch of the flagship Femicide report . With ITP the unit realigned it plan to fit the communication startegy of the Women Employment in the Green, STEM and Care Economy Flagship Initiative by securing new titles where regular articles, interviews and op-ed will be published in 2025.

UN Women in the Arab States effectively leverages and expands its partnerships, communications and advocacy capabilities to increase support for and financing of the gender equality agenda, while securing sustainable resourcing for the delivery of its own mandate

During 2022, the Arab States region increased its support for gender equality and women's empowerment due to ROAS ’s expanded its partnership network and leveraged its communications and advocacy capacities. Bahrain now has access to technical policy advisory services are now available to support gender-inclusive national strategies for Agenda 2030 implementation, following conclusion of the agreement to open the new UN Women Bahrain office. The conclusion of this strategic partnership was achieved through leveraging the IB-funded coordination function in the RO, in parallel with strengthening UN Women’s role as (then) NRA member of the UNCT (drawing on the Gender Equality Scorecard and GEM as tools for coordination). The landmark agreement also built on the successful administration and communications coverage by UN Women of two editions of the Princess Sabeeka bint Ibrahim Al-Khalifa Global Award for Women's Empowerment. The initial 12 months funding envelope for UN Women Bahrain is USD 563,000, with additional RM opportunities for presence sustainability to be explored in 2023. UN Women increased its influence as a source of information and analysis on GEWE in the Arab States region through its strategic partnership with ITP Media Group. An audience of 2.74 million (up 10 per cent on 2021) was reached through c ollaboration on a campaign for International Women's Day, with editorial value worth USD 1.2 million (up 20 per cent from 2021), provided pro bono by ITP Media Group. The Regional Director continued to speak to a monthly regional audience through her regular column in Harper's Bazaar Arabia, published by ITP Media Group, and UN Women advanced knowledge amongst the private sector in particular of the Women's Empowerment Principles through ad hoc engagement in industry events organised by ITP Media Group with UN Women's support. UN Women ROAS and CNN Arabic engaged through a multiyear strategic partnership, are implementing a communication strategy on 1) the current financial and developmental loss (on family, company, and national level) of not absorbing highly educated women into the job-market, 2) policy and programme solutions for governments and private companies to surge women employment at scale, 3) human stories of success to shift social norms/public opinions. This partnership is a component of the new regional programme on surging women's labour force participation. Standard-setting members of the private sector in Saudi Arabia increased their understanding of the importance of women’s participation and leadership, particularly with regards to innovation in the tech sector. More than 20 women employees from STC and Nokia increased their leadership skills through training provided through UN Women’s partnership with Nokia Saudi Arabia, expanded in scope to include collaboration with STC (and international companies Deutsche Telekom and e&). The training focused on developing a business model by women to respond to the needs and interests of female consumers. Further, UN Women ROAS and Nokia are beginning to create a model to increase the number of women employed in the STEM sector in Saudi Arabia (capable of scaling-up / replication in other contexts). ROAS and Nokia are gathering data through staff and graduate surveys, which will continue in 2023.