Al-Mashat Calls for Gender-Sensitive Approaches to Climate Action

Minister of International Cooperation Rania Al-Mashat called on the international financial institutions to mainstream gender-sensitive approaches to climate action.

Al-Mashat participated, on Monday, in the panel session called ‘Women in Public Leadership: Why Multilateralism Matters’, as part of the World Government Summit held in Dubai alongside Mahmoud Mohieldin, Executive Director of the International Monetary Fund, and Preeti Sinha, Executive Director of the United Nations Capital Development Fund (UNCDF).

The session discussed how multilateral organizations and governments can work together to garner multi-stakeholder commitments and partnerships to remove the barriers that women face, such as lack of resources, information, influence and reach.

In her remarks, Al-Mashat called for international financial institutions to mainstream gender-sensitive approaches to climate action on the ground.

She added that climate financing mechanisms are beginning to adopt gender-sensitive approaches, but more needs to be done to improve the effectiveness of climate finance and actions on the ground.

The minister added that when more women work, economies grow and incomes also increase, as increasing the female employment rates could boost GDP by over USD 6 trillion.

To accelerate and scale up gender-responsive policies, the Ministry of International Cooperation engages through its country-led multi-stakeholder framework with a variety of actors to unlock gender-sensitive funding. This framework incorporates gender as a crosscutting theme in policies related to climate change, food security and science and technology as an essential condition for sustainable development.

Egypt’s gender agenda prioritizes women’s participation and influence in decision-making processes at all levels and in all fields.

The World Economic Forum’s ‘Global Gender Gap Report 2021’ highlighted that Egypt is listed among the 96 countries that have reduced the gender gaps in parliament; increasing female representation from 14.9% to 27.4%, and 24.2% among ministers.

To increase women’s participation, the ‘Closing the Gender Gap Accelerator’ was launched with the World Economic Forum, which is the first of its kind public-private collaboration model in Africa and the Middle East and North Africa.

The accelerator brings together 100 companies pledging to push the gender agenda forward, and take proactive action to advance women’s economic empowerment across different scales - not just institutional structures but also norms, attitudes and inpidual business commitments.

The Minister added that the fourth industrial revolution (Industry 4.0) could be a revolution for women, as it unlocks new career opportunities and new skills, and fosters a culture of science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) education for girls. Industries like psychology, medicine and nursing will also become more competitive.