Young Arab Women Leaders: The Voice of the Future

Transcription

1 ARAB INTERNATIONAL WOMEN S FORUM Young Arab Women Leaders: The Voice of the Future 7 th CONFERENCE CHAIRMAN OPENING REMARKS Wednesday 28 October 2015 Qatar Business Incubation Center Doha, Qatar

2 Opening Remarks & Acknowledgements Distinguished Guests, Ladies and Gentlemen, It gives me great pleasure, both personally and as Chairman of the Arab International Women s Forum (AIWF), to welcome you this morning to the Young Arab Women Leaders: The Voice of the Future Conference at The Qatar Business Incubation Centre in Doha. The Arab International Women s Forum is proud to be in Qatar for this important one-day event, our first ever in Doha and our seventh conference as part of our Young Arab Women Leaders initiative, which aims to assist young women entrepreneurs to realise and optimise their personal and business potential. We are indeed delighted to be at the Qatar Business Incubation Centre, our Host Venue and Partner which has contributed and helped entrepreneurs both Qatari men and women, turn innovative ideas into startup businesses and existing young businesses into scalable companies. I wish at the outset to welcome and extend our deep thanks and appreciation to all our distinguished Conference Partners, starting 2

3 with Ms Ibtehaj Al Ahmadani, Executive Board Member of the Qatar Chamber of Commerce, Chairman of Qatar Businesswomen Forum, and our longstanding and valued AIWF Board Member with whom we are very proud to have worked on planning today s conference from the beginning. We greatly appreciate dear Ibtihaj all your valued support and that of the Qatar Chamber of Commerce and your valued colleagues at the Qatar Business Women Forum in ensuring the realisation of our conference today. I am also delighted to welcome Mr Abdulaziz Bin Nasser Al Khalifa, who alongside his important work at the Qatar Development Bank as The CEO of the Bank, is the Chairman of QBIC, this important institution hosting us today, which lies at the heart of supporting women s entrepreneurship in Qatar. We greatly appreciate your endorsement of our conference and look forward to your valued address this morning. I wish to acknowledge Ms Aysha Al Mudahka as the CEO of QBIC and to thank her and her team for the generous and much appreciated support of Qatar Business Incubation Centre. 3

4 Very importantly I would like to take this opportunity to acknowledge the great support of PwC, our Global Annual Partner, in all of AIWF s work but especially for PwC s partnership on the Young Arab Women Leaders journey from the very beginning, together with all our AIWF Global Partners. I wish to welcome and thank Wadih AbouNasr, Qatar Country Senior Partner PwC, and his colleagues at PwC for all your support in the preparations of the Doha Young Arab Women Leaders Conference. The phenomenal success of this initiative is truly a positive demonstration of the strong bond between PwC and AIWF, built over a number of years collaborating closely on issues of diversity, inclusiveness and investment in women and youth through education, training and leadership development. The Young Arab Women Leaders: The Voice of the Future initiative, launched in London in 2011 in partnership with PwC, has thus far featured an outstanding series of conferences held in Amman, Beirut, Palestine, Dubai and London, bringing together speakers from government, business, NGOs and some of the region s most prominent women in business with young women who aspire to community, business and political leadership. 4

5 Today s event is truly a milestone in AIWF s mission to promote education, leadership training, capacity building, self-development and networking for women and youth. We acknowledge with much appreciation the prominent and accomplished women leaders who have taken time from very busy schedules to address today s conference as our distinguished Guest Speakers and we thank Ms Suzanne Afanah, Former Minister of Tourism in the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan for lending her support as our Conference Moderator today. Our special thanks goes to AIWF Global Benefactor Partner Pepsico and all AIWF Global Partners present today that include Shell, The Sharjah Business Women Council, PwC, and Memac Ogilvy, AIWF Communications Partner. We are indeed proud to welcome all our guests, delegates and participants who have travelled from across the Arab world and internationally to be with us today 5

6 AIWF and its focus on women and youth in the Arab region Distinguished guests, This important initiative of the Young Arab Women Leaders is a key part of the AIWF Programme, which has been an agent for change for women in the Arab region for over 15 years and has received recognition in the Arab world and internationally as a powerful advocate for women in business and their empowerment. We work across the board with civil society, the private sector, academia and governments, to move the agenda for women s empowerment forward, interacting closely with the global and pan- Arab media to promote positive messaging and fair coverage for women in the MENA countries. Our key priorities are education, job creation, entrepreneurship and public life always working at the heart of the Arab world and internationally, with partners at the highest levels. In fact, this initiative follows from an earlier programme that produced two landmark Reports and Recommendations in partnership with the League of Arab States, The European Parliament and the FCO in 6

7 the UK, on Women as Engines of Economic Growth in the Arab World. Young Arab Women Leaders initiative is run concurrently with another programme to which we are deeply committed, the Initiative for Women Business Lawyers in the Middle East, a partnership between the International Bar Association, AIWF and the Arab Women s Legal Network, launched in Jordan in September this year, the focus of which is to empower Arab women lawyers, build skills and awareness of global standards and encourage women to aspire to positions of leadership in the legal profession. For AIWF, our dedicated work and programmes in the region has always been real, lasting and sustainable empowerment for women and youth. We believe that without more women in politics, business and civil society, playing concrete roles in shaping the new Arab future, there will never be real, lasting and sustainable empowerment for women and youth in the MENA region. 7

8 Roles and opportunities for women in the Arab world Distinguished Guests, Youth inclusion is a major social and political challenge that represents real urgency and at the same time, immense opportunity for the MENA region. Youth unemployment in the Arab world still stands at 25% and regional analysts predict that the Middle East will require around 100 million new jobs by 2020, a doubling of the current level of employment in the first two decades of the 21st century - a significant challenge even for those regional markets with healthy growth forecasts. Arab women no doubt have achieved a great deal thanks to significant investment in education in the Arab states and the narrowed gender gap in the last two decades. The OECD has noted a number of positive trends over the last two decades in women s economic participation, with literacy rates for women increasing from 61% in 2000 to 72% in 2011 and the participation 8

9 of women in public life, politics and positions of leadership increasing from 3.8% in 2000 to 12.8% in There are now more Arab women graduating from university than men; in the GCC in particular, more than 60% of university students are women, and they are graduating with degrees in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) disciplines that have in the MENA region and elsewhere been traditionally dominated by men. Unemployment rates in the Arab countries are still far above regional averages and rates of participation of women in the Arab labour force among the lowest in the world. As the OECD notes, 18% of MENA women are unemployed, However, economic participation among women varies from country to country in the Arab region according to the World Bank, the female labour force participation rate stands at around 47% in the UAE, 39% in Bahrain, 43% in Kuwait, and 51% in Qatar the highest engagement in the workplace for women in the Arab world. Enhancing the role of the private sector and fostering competitiveness through innovation, partnership and women s leadership is key to the achievement of Qatar s National Vision 9

10 2030, a roadmap for Qatar s future that aims to guide economic development and growth and engender an environment of opportunity and prosperity for the next generation of Qatari women leaders. Women in Qatar are among the most educated in the MENA region, with more than 70% of females holding an undergraduate degree, and bachelor degree. Qatar is ranked number one in the world on the gender ratio of enrolments at tertiary level, according to data compiled by the World Economic Forum. Women are also gaining considerable pace in the business sector in Qatar and indeed throughout the GCC, with over 36% of Qatari women now working outside their home. In 2014, Qatari women held 21% of all jobs in education, social and natural sciences and the media. At this time, around 25% of Qatari women work in construction, 27% in information and technology and 45% in the sciences and related fields, according to the Cultural Statistics in Qatar report by Qatar s Ministry of Development, Planning and Statistics. To put this into perspective, women comprised around 1.9% of employees in those disciplines in 2001 and 8% in 2010, representing astonishing progress in a relatively short period of time. 10

11 Increasingly, women entrepreneurs are becoming very well integrated into the national economy. Qatar leads the way in the region in offering women entrepreneurs access to business associations, networking organisations, online web communities and publications, mentorship initiatives and funding competitions specifically targeted at women entrepreneurs. All institutions in Qatar are dedicated to supporting and promoting Qatari women s entrepreneurship, and fostering inspirational women leaders and role models. We are very proud to be partnering with some of Qatar s leading organisations in this regard for this event, including the Qatar Business Incubation Centre, the Qatar Chamber of Commerce and the Qatari Businesswomen Forum. 11

12 Concluding remarks Dear Guests, to conclude, Today, we aim to recognise and celebrate the contribution of business women in Qatar and throughout the MENA region, and to inspire the next generation of young Arab women leaders to contribute to the development of their national economies and to the region s economic growth overall. We look forward to hearing from leading Arab and international women in business and all spheres on why it is critical to encourage more young women into the SME economy; to explore what can be done to provide young women with the expertise, sound advice and practical support they need; and ultimately, to educate and empower the next generation of young women leaders and ensure that they are fully supported in their journey to reach leadership positions in the Arab world. The outcomes of the Young Arab Women Leaders conferences to date reinforce AIWF s long-held belief that empowering women and securing their full participation in economic and social reform will jumpstart prosperity, growth and unprecedented opportunities 12

13 for the Arab world s young, talented and highly educated population. As a region, we have the wealth and talent from within to develop and empower Arab citizens to sustain the region and its economy, to create prosperity, generate the jobs that are so desperately needed by the MENA s predominantly youthful population, and to stem the social issues that arise from poverty and unemployment. The work of AIWF and organisations like it is to support the work of regional and international development agencies by working directly with governments, change agents, academics, the private sector and most importantly, with women themselves. We continue to stress that involving and investing in women will be essential if we are to bring 50% of the Arab population who have been under-represented for too long, to the forefront of a new Arab era of peace, prosperity and unprecedented potential. The challenges for women are immense, but so is women s potential. By removing the barriers that constrain and inhibit Arab women, governments and other stakeholders will ultimately create wider opportunities for all citizens that will foster the region s greater prosperity and progress and with it we hope greater stability. 13

14 We welcome you all and trust that today s conference, with your valued participation and contribution will be informative, invaluable and productive. Thank you for your kind attention. 14