AWO strives for gender equality in workplace

AMMAN — With the aim of unifying voices of working women  to obtain equal rights in the work environment, a conference was held in Amman on Sunday.

  Titled “Building Partnerships to Develop Gender Platforms: Mosawa Network as a Case Study”, the conference was organised by the Arab Women Organisation (AWO) in collaboration with the German International Cooperation Agency (GIZ).

 The conference aims at enhancing the cooperation and networking between women’s associations in Mosawa Network, which includes some 100 associations, according to a statement from the organisers.

The goal of Mosawa is to unify women associations’ efforts to obtain equal rights in the work environment, the statement said.

At the opening of the conference, AWO President Randa Qsous said that the organisation managed to enhance the capabilities of women candidates for municipal and provincial councils held over the summer, and that “the results turned out very well, which boosted us to move into improving partnerships”.

For her part, Yasmine Saadoun, representative of the GIZ, said:”The agency considers that gender support is an important factor in achieving sustainable development in societies. And the German government is keen on supporting gender equality by supporting women in 160 countries around the world.”

She added that, through partnerships with civil society organisations, they managed to empower women in local communities with various training programmes and implementation of micro-funded projects to support women, which also helped in ensuring a gender-sensitive environment.

“Two-hundred-and-fifty municipal council members were trained on leadership skills and 1,000 women participated in activities to raise awareness through debates about gender and decentralisation,” she added.

One of the conference’s recommendations focuses on the capacity of female leaders in women’s associations in the governorates, stating that it should be further strengthened by intensifying training on various productive and cognitive skills.

The recommendation also stressed the need to work with community leaders and officials to promote women’s rights by building cooperative relationships with the press and the media.