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Description / Overview:
By mainstreaming gender through all levels of trade and economy, this project aims to assist in the development of an enabling environment and a mechanism for the economic empowerment of women in Syria, where women’s participation in the formal economic sector is considerably low.
Objectives:
- Develop an environment conducive to integrating women into the areas of trade and economy, increasing their participation in economic activities and boosting their socio-economic status
- Address the requirements for the collection, analysis and sharing of gender-disaggregated data /statistics and studies, through action research
- Raise awareness about “gender and economy” issues in Syria through the advocacy and capacity building of selected organizations in this field
- Capacity building through workshops and training courses for stakeholders and project partners
- Target Beneficiaries:
- Organizations engaged in gender mainstreaming, and/ or trade and economy,
- Women business committees
- Women’s unions and labor union,
- Women’s NGOs working on development issues,
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Implementation Strategy:
- Establish a knowledge platform through re-searches conducted by experts, involvement of local and regional NGOs and the publication of study reports
- Create a national “business support” network for women, developing capacity through workshops and training courses and conducting advocacy activities to raise general awareness. Create a website to share information
- Develop linkages between the Syrian networks and regional and international networks
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Achievements / Current Status:
Knowledge base of Gender, Trade and the Economy
The preparing of a "Gender Mainstreaming in Trade and Economy" toolkit for the case of Syria. CRTD-A Lebanon has developed the toolkit, in both English and Arabic and a draft copy was printed.
The Information Map on Trade and Economy in Syria. The Report has been completed in cooperation between the national expert and MAWRED team, and translated into English. During the above mentioned workshop, the report was discussed and it was agreed that each stakeholder will revise the part of the institution they belong to. Most stakeholders have already provided their feedback, and once all the feedback is received, a final copy will be published and distributed to all concerned Governmental and non-governmental institutions.
Report on the Economic Status in Syria, with focus on the economic activities of Women. The report has been completed by the National Consultant and is being published in English and Arabic.
A booklet on project achievement through photos has been prepared by NPD, and revised by an international expert. The booklet will be published in the coming few weeks.
National Network of “Business Support” for women
A Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) was signed between UNDP, MAWRED, and MLSA, on 3rd December 2006 at the Ministry premises. Based on the MoU, UNDP assisted in the restructuring MAWRED Institutional framework for a fresh coming year plan.
UNDP officially launched the project on 30 August 2006. The seminar was attended by relevant ministries and NGOs working in the fields of gender and economy. The seminar helped to implement the first objective, and to pave the way for the rest of them. Project partners in the seminar contributed to the building of a framework of cooperation together, network and exchange experiences, which has lead to the establishment of a knowledge base for gender and economic issues.
Participated in a seminar organized by the UNDP "Strengthening the Institutional Capacity of the People's Assembly" project, 15th November 2006. The seminar addressed the MPs on 'Syria Women's Political Participation'. NPD addressed the MPs on project's objectives and ways in which they can participate, as decision makers, to implement these objectives through policies and regulations approved in parliament.
The building of local network of Institutions. According to the above mentioned MoU with MAWRED, a number of seminar were conducted in the major Syrian Muhafazats; Damascus, Aleppo, Homos and Dierezzor (during May – June). The seminars introduced MAWRED members, and others concerned, with the Gender and Development concepts in general, and the Gender Mainstreaming in Trade and Economy.
A pilot training was held (8- 10 May 2007) for all the stakeholders and feedback is being provided. Jocelyne Talbot, SURF AS Policy Advisor Gender, provided feedback for the toolkit. NPD revised the toolkit accordingly and sent back. More feedback was provided by Ms. Talbot, and once again NPD revised accordingly. Currently the toolkit is being reread by Ms. Talbot.
Conduct a 5 days workshop with the Ministry of Agriculture to conduct an advanced course on "Gender, economy and development" for rural women department extension", 9-13 March
'Assessment of the Economic Status of women in Syria' workshop In cooperation with the Public Commission for Employment and Projects Development (PCEPD), Department for Women's Empowerment, (in process)
Bought the businesswomen committees in Syria for the first time when we organized the 'Towards Enhancing the Business Environment for Businesswomen in Syria' workshop, 26th – 27th December 2007. The Businesswomen committees were identified as one of the main partners of the project, "catalysts" who are able to assist in empowering women economically via sharing their experiences and success stories.
Cooperate with the Ministry of Economy for the establishment of a "Gender and Economy" Unit within the department of planning, A letter has been drafted to the Minister of Economy requesting project NPD as a consultant to the formulation of the unit,
Linkage with International and Regional Networks
Participated in CAWTAR 5th Annual Meeting of @nged "Advocacy Methodologies and Tools: Knowledge and Lessons learned as a Base-11th – 13th December 2006". This helped to build a regional network with the different institutions working on women's economic from 19 Arab Countries.
Requested by IFAD to cooperate for the assessment of the IFAD Dairy Progress Program for economically empowering rural women in Syria (8 – 27 February 2007). Around 15 women were visited. The case studies collected were important to include in the knowledge base established throughout project implementation.
In cooperation with the International Development Law Organization (IDLO), Cairo, the NPD was a resource person for three days, 23-25 October 2007, in the "Economic Empowerment of Women in the Arab World" workshop. The NPD provided seven different lectures on the economic status of women in Syria and the Arab World, presented the 'Gender Mainstreaming in Trade and Economy' project, and established a link with regional concerned institutions.
The Economic Status in Syria Report is published
Partnerships:
- NGOs: “MAWRED” (Motivating and Activating Women’s Role in Economic Development), and the Lebanese NGO ‘‘CRTD-A“ (Collective for Research and Training on Development—Action)
- Chambers of Commerce and Industry
- Ministry of Economy and Trade
- Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs
- Ministry of Industry
- State Planning Commission
- Syrian Family Affairs Association
- Syrian Women Union
Project Documents Link:
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