Engendering development
At a gathering hosted by the British chapter of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, Mrs Suzanne Mubarak spoke of the role of women in a rapidly changing world and how Egypt has managed to integrate a gender perspective in its development policy
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Mrs Suzanne Mubarak delivering her keynote address at the event hosted by the British Red Cross; Anthony Giddens, president of the London School of Economics, congratulating her on her speech
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Mrs Suzanne Mubarak was guest of honour and keynote speaker at a lavish event hosted last Tuesday by Baroness Symons of Vernham, dean of the British chapter of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, at London's historic Lancaster House, reports Dahlia Hammouda . Speaking to an audience of close to 500 people, including members of the British chapter, prominent public figures and representatives of British and Arab non-governmental organisations, Mrs Mubarak said the only sure path to successful development would be to improve the status, capabilities and life choices of all individuals and to promote participatory decision-making at family, community and national levels. A society striving for development should ensure dignity and opportunity for both men and women alike, she said.
She said members of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, civil society representatives and governments worldwide were "partners for human prosperity", who were instrumental in furthering humanitarian causes across the globe. "Today, more than ever, we are all in desperate need of upholding the guiding principle that the Red Cross and Red Crescent movements were created for -- which is protecting and ensuring the dignity of humanity."
This topic comes at an opportune time, she said, as the role of women in development is gaining new momentum and unprecedented recognition. "However, the reality of women's situation is harsh," Mrs Mubarak said. "Today, we face one of the most perplexing contradictions of our time. Whereas human rights, equality, education and democratisation have gained international prominence, simultaneously, social and economic polarisation have become more pervasive. Stark differences exist between the status of women in developed and developing countries. Within the developing world, there is a gap between the status of rural and urban women and the status of women vis-à-vis men in their own countries."
The world's developing countries are now facing a dilemma as they endeavour to strike a balance between the benefits of globalised economies, while seeking to maintain a social safety network for vulnerable groups. Mrs Mubarak spoke of the "feminisation of poverty" in statistical terms: "Women constitute half of the world's population, execute two-thirds of the world's work and market about three-fifths of the world's food. However, they receive only one-tenth of the world's income and own less than one over a hundred of the world's property. Over the past 20 years, the number of women living in poverty has almost doubled. In many regions of the world, women are victims of discrimination and neglect, receiving less food, education and health care than males. Women also constitute about three-fifths of the world's illiterate."
In Egypt, there have traditionally been a number of barriers and challenges to the realisation of women's full potential and, hence, their maximum contribution to growth and development. "But our vision of the Egyptian woman has been changing," Mrs Mubarak said. "Today, when we talk of gender issues, it is not just about a few basket-weaving projects for needy women; it is about integrating a gender outlook in our very thinking about development. It requires a commitment to fairness and equity, and a vigorous rejection of cultural-related arguments that would accept policies depriving women of their basic human rights in the name of tradition."
The aim to integrate gender into mainstream development required deliberate intervention and planning, she said, which was the raison d'être of Egypt's National Council for Women (NCW). Established in 2000, the council works through targeted objectives and programmes to bring women's concerns to the forefront of the country's development agenda. "But as you are well aware, policy directives alone cannot alter the attitudes of society," Mrs Mubarak said. "Therefore, a serious advocacy campaign including gender sensitisation of policy makers, legislators, executives, the media and civil society is an essential component of our gender-mainstreaming goal."
Knowing that education "is an extremely powerful tool and the greatest investment a nation can make, the education of women has been at the forefront of our national agenda," Mrs Mubarak said. "We have succeeded in reducing the gender gap in education over the past 15 years from 30 to less than five per cent. In fact, between 1986 and 2001, the percentage of female to male literacy improved from 34 to 48 per cent in rural Egypt." The creation of a network of girl-friendly, one-classroom schools in rural areas helped in encouraging parents to send their girls to get a basic education. Considerable efforts have been expended to eradicate women's illiteracy and raise public awareness of the importance of girls' education.
Meanwhile, although women's participation in the labour force has reached 30 per cent in the past two decades, Mrs Mubarak said, the largest number of working women is still in the informal sector -- in unorganised transit jobs, seasonal work and subsistence farming. To improve the status of women economically, Egypt has encouraged micro and small enterprises through the provision of credit and training and reaching out to poor female-headed households. As a result, many micro-finance programmes have been formed to help women start businesses in the informal sector. "Micro- enterprises run by women have enhanced women's empowerment and self-confidence, contributing to women's independent income and helping women to become more conscious of their rights and more in control over decision- making in households and communities," she said.
Egyptian women's dependency status is on a sharp decline. "Today's younger generation of women have boundless aspirations," Mrs Mubarak said. "They compete with their male peers in education, as well as employment. Fifty one per cent of university graduates from art and social science faculties are women and 39 per cent from science faculties are women as well. Younger Egyptian women have become part of modern society and they show keen desire to excel and to improve themselves."
As women apply increased education and entrepreneurial skills to long-standing areas of concern, their community activism is transforming civil society, Mrs Mubarak said. New partnerships across governmental, non- governmental and corporate lines are making positive contributions to the problems plaguing Egyptian society. "We have tried to create an enabling environment for civil society to function unimpeded and we have created the necessary legal framework to give them the tools that they need to be effective. We now have more than 17,000 registered NGOs working in the country," she said.
The world is now converging, Mrs Mubarak said, becoming more connected -- technologically and economically -- than ever before. But the persistent inequality between the rich and poor necessitates the establishment of a more humane and equitable globalisation, one that operates under a set of global values that emphasise peace, generosity, tolerance and justice. "Equity has eluded even the more successful of development experiences, perhaps because equity was never at the core of our strategies," Mrs Mubarak said. "Compassion, justice, equity -- these are wise and time-tested values that stand us in good stead in a world where globalisation appears to have introduced uncertainty and dislocation. Of these, equity brings to mind the most important questions of our time, those that affect half or more of humanity: the role of women in this rapidly changing world and the need to bring a gender- based perspective to the formulation of development policy."
We have a new era in our hands, Mrs Mubarak said. "Women have now learned to break down barriers, to persevere in the face of prejudice, to find in work abilities they never knew they had and to build the future. Bringing women into the mainstream of development efforts is both morally right and economically efficient. If the 20th century was the century of women's emancipation, we are looking forward to the 21st century as being the century of their fulfilment."
