Egyptian Ministry Establishes ‘Equal Opportunity Unit’ to Promote Gender Equality and Counter Discrimination

Minister of Planning and Economic Development, Dr. Hala El-Said, announced on Sunday that the Ministry is establishing an ‘Equal Opportunities Unit’ to promote gender equality, counter discrimination and inclusiveness at the Ministry.

The Equal Opportunities Unit will aim to prepare and collect data-driven information on the employees of the Ministry and its affiliated agencies; adopting a gender-oriented lens to analyze the challenges employees face and the abuse and discrimination they were exposed to.

The unit will also propose solutions, prepare reports on tackling the challenges and document information and research that reflect the realities for women working at the Ministry and all entities that work with the Ministry to ensure that they achieve their rights in the field of training, education, and reconciliation between family and work schedules.

To launch the unit, a meeting was held at the Ministry’s headquarters, which was headed by Dr. Shaimaa Serag, Director of the Equal Opportunities Unit, in the presence of representatives of the Ministry’s departments and affiliated agencies to present the unit’s objectives, vision, and specified tasks.

Serag added that a main objective of the unit is also to foster positive diversity mindsets that promote equal opportunity across all of their activities, in addition to encouraging innovation in achieving the fifth goal of sustainable development (Goal 5: Gender Equality).

Female labor force participation in Egypt is particularly low, and has declined during the COVID-19 crisis reaching 13.4 percent in September 2020. According to CAPMAS, the size of the labour force for males in Q4 of 2020 reached 24.577 million, whilst for females it stood at 5.388 million.