The National Council for Women (NCW) held a meeting of task force concerned with supporting the implementation of gender mainstreaming and women's empowerment activities, which gathers NCW, the Ministry of Planning and Economic Development (MoPED) and the National Institute for Governance and Sustainable Development (NIGSD), within the "Increasing the Participation of Women in Public Life in Egypt" project implemented by NCW in partnership with the European Union (EU), chaired by Dr Naglaa El Adly, General Director of External Relations and International Cooperation Department at NCW, and attended by Ms. Shaima Naeem, the Director General of the General Department of Strategic Management at NCW, Dr. Shaima Siraj, Director of the Equal Opportunities Unit at the Ministry of Planning and Economic Development, Dr. Heba Moghaieb, Head of Regional Planning Sector at the Ministry of Planning and Economic Development, Dr. Rehab Farag, Director General of the Human Resources Development Department at the NIGSD.
      Dr. Al-Adly presented an overview of the project and its objective, and noted that the meeting aimed at reviewing the progress made regarding activities related to gender mainstreaming and women's empowerment and defining the role and mission of the aforementioned task force, which focuses on designing action plans that promote policies and programs responsive to gender equality and women's empowerment, in line with the current national efforts, in addition to selecting the appropriate approach to design and implement the second phase of activities and insights and lessons learned, and showcasing the achievements.
        Ms. Shaimaa Naim presented the state's efforts to integrate the perspective of gender equality and women's empowerment in Egypt, stemming from the witnessed political will that support and promote women's leadership, the 2014 Constitution of Egypt, national strategies and the status of women in national statistics, referring to H.E. President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi directaives to empower and protect women in all sectors. In addition to creating supportive mechanisms for adopting programmes, projects, budgets and statistics that take into account suppourting women within the national strategies and adopting programs and projects within the state's direction to support and empower women.
    Dr. Heba Moghaieb affirmed that the Ministry of Planning commends the importance of this project, and one of the most important features of this project is that it aims to provide guidelines and training programs aligned with the Egyptian efforts, which will be measured through an analysis process in public administrations using specialized tools.
     Dr. Rehab Farrag emphasized that this project is impotant as it is coherent with the programs and initiatives implemented by NIGSD to support Egyptian women in order to promote equal opportunities, mainstream gender equality in government structures, and enhance women's managerial and leadership skills, which in turn enhances the principles of sound governance for sustainable development.
      Dr. Shaima Siraj pointed to the role of MoPED's Equal Opportunities Unit in developing the necessary tools and frameworks to apply participatpry analysis for enhancing gender equality and spreading the culture of equal opportunities, leading to proposing concepts and recommendations that are in line with the international approaches to promote equal opportunities in all activities of the Ministry and its affiliated entities.
     It is worth noting that the "Increasing the Participation of Women in Public Life in Egypt" project has implemented a number of activities in cooperation with the International Training Center of the International Labor Organization (ITCILO) that aimed at mainstreaming the perspective of gender equality and women's empowerment, which included training 14 trainees leaders from different ministries on "Participatory Assessments for Enhancing Gender Equality and Women's Empowerment" and Training of Trainers for Gender Sensitive Approach & Gender Mainstreaming in National Planning Process in the Egyptian Governoment was held and targeted 22 women from various government ministries, academies and the National Council for Women.
In addition to developing of a model tool-kit to support the implementation perspective of gender equality and women's empowerment in national planning processes.