Gender Equality in Public Life

Since 2009 the MENA-OECD Governance Programme supports the promotion of gender mainstreaming and gender equality policies in public governance by strengthening the strategic capacity of public officials to design and implement gender-sensitive policy frameworks. Its Women in Government Platform (former Gender Focus Group) provides a forum for policy dialogue and capacity building. It assists governments in the MENA region to:

Empower women to fully participate in public life including leadership posts
Strengthen legal frameworks and public institutions for promoting gender equality
Mainstream gender in the policy, budget and service delivery process

The MENA-OECD Governance Programme also gathers data and conducts policy research for flagship reports on Addressing Gender in Public Management (2010), Gender Public Policy Reviews, and the Report on Women in Public Life: Gender, Law and Policy in the Middle East and North Africa.

The OECD secretariat was honoured to receive on behalf of the MENA-OECD Initiative the OECD’s Gender Mainstreaming Champion Award from Ms. Cherie Blair, founder of the Cherie Blair Foundation for Women in the presence of Ms. Karen Kornbluh, Ambassador of the United States to the OECD during a special ceremony on the occasion of the 2011 Ministerial Meeting.

This important body of work has received high visibility and recognition in 2011: the secretariat was honoured to receive on behalf of the MENA-OECD Initiative the OECD’s Gender Mainstreaming Champion Award from Ms. Cherie Blair, founder of the Cherie Blair Foundation for Women, in the presence of Ms. Karen Kornbluh, Ambassador of the United States to the OECD, during a special ceremony on the occasion of the 2011 Ministerial Meeting.

Celebrating International Women's Day

Women in Public Life in the Middle East and North Africa

organised by the Spanish Agency for International Development Cooperation (AECID) and the MENA-OECD Governance Programme

5 March 2015, Madrid, Spain