ShareKUWAIT: Supreme Council for Planning and Development (SCPD) Secretary General Dr Khaled Mahdi stated that Kuwait continues to develop and empower women's capacities for their positive involvement in development and advancement in the public and private sectors. This was in a speech delivered by Dr Mahdi before the start of a panel discussion hosted by the UN House on Tuesday on the occasion of International Women's Day and a celebration of the one-year anniversary of the launch of the Women's Economic Empowerment Platform (WEEP), in which the private sector in Kuwait participates with the support of the UN Development Program (UNDP), UN Women and the Department of Women's Studies at Kuwait University.
Supreme Council for Planning and Development (SCPD) Secretary GeneralDr Khaled Mahdi
In the latest studies, it mentions that women constitute 60 percent of the workforce in the government sector and that the percentage of decision-makers and those in leadership positions rose to 21 percent, after it was 13 percent in the last study several years ago, Mahdi said. He also pointed to the employment of women as judges and prosecutors as examples, believing in the ability of women to work and strive together with men as part of development in any society.
The study indicates an increase in the percentage of women in state scholarships and their participation in civil society organizations, and that the current situation specifies the growth of women's capabilities within the workforce and leadership positions, he explained. The study showed that the involvement of women on the boards of directors of private companies in Kuwait had a direct positive impact on the culture and work environment in these companies, as well as an improvement in their financial statements, while the link between the presence of women in human resources departments in companies is also positive, he added.
Despite these percentages and the observations that the study highlighted, the percentage of women's involvement in the private sector in Kuwait is relatively weaker than in the government sector for several reasons, perhaps the most important of which is the Kuwaiti economy, which has a strong social aspect, and the economic impact is governed by societal cultural change, while another reason revealed by the study is parental interference in the decisions of the workforce by directing them to the government sector, he explained.
The UNDP Resident Representative Hideko HadzialicHe concluded his speech by saying that scientific studies confirm that women are the real changers of any economy, commending the companies that joined WEEP, which numbered 45, after seven companies signed on to it at its launch last year. Meanwhile, the UNDP Resident Representative Hideko Hadzialic confirmed that despite the acceleration of world economies in employing women in their various sectors, the proportions of some sectors are still relatively small, for example, the technology and artificial intelligence sector that is sweeping the world.
Hadzialic explained that smart companies have become aware that women constitute 50 percent of the composition of societies, and by intensifying efforts to empower women in various fields, especially technological ones, the world will continue to reach fair equality between women and men in the labor market in its various sectors. The seminar included the participation of heads of human resources departments from several Kuwaiti companies and banks that joined WEEP, where they presented their companies' experiences in involving women in their various departments, especially in leadership positions and boards of directors.
DigitALL
Our lives depend on strong technological integration: attending a course, calling loved ones, making a bank transaction, or booking a medical appointment. Everything currently goes through a digital process. However, 37% of women do not use the internet (ITU Nov 2022). 259 million fewer women have access to the Internet than men, even though they account for nearly half the world's population.
Suppose women cannot access the Internet and do not feel safe online - in that case, they cannot develop the necessary digital skills to engage in digital spaces, diminishing their opportunities to pursue careers in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) related fields. By 2050, 75% of jobs will be related to STEM areas. Yet today, women hold just 22 % of positions in artificial intelligence, to name just one.
The United Nations Observance of IWD this year, under the theme "DigitALL: Innovation and technology for gender equality", recognizes and celebrates the women and girls championing the advancement of transformative technology and digital education. The observance will explore the impact of the digital gender gap on widening economic and social inequalities. It will also spotlight the importance of protecting the rights of women and girls in digital spaces and addressing online and ICT-facilitated gender-based violence.
This theme is aligned with the priority theme for the upcoming 67th Session of the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW-67), "Innovation and technological change, and education in the digital age for achieving gender equality and the empowerment of all women and girls". Bringing women and other marginalized groups into technology results in more creative solutions and has more significant potential for innovations that meet women's needs and promote gender equality.
Their lack of inclusion, by contrast, comes with massive costs: as per UN Women's Gender Snapshot 2022 report, women's exclusion from the digital world has shaved $1 trillion from the gross domestic product of low- and middle-income countries in the last decade-a loss that will grow to $1.5 trillion by 2025 without action. Reversing this trend will require tackling the problem of online violence, which a study of 51 countries revealed 38 per cent of women had personally experienced.
Kuwait has achieved a high level of connectivity and broadband penetration, with almost 100 percent of individuals with internet access and 171.6 mobile-cellular subscriptions per 100 people. At the same time, Kuwait has been exploring ways in which broader elements of the digital ecosystems for educational gains could be strengthened, notes Hideko Hadzialic, UNDP Resident Representative.
Bringing women into technology results in more creative solutions and has more significant potential for innovations that meet women's needs and promote gender equality. Their lack of inclusion, by contrast, comes with massive costs. Science, technology and innovation (STI) can be crucial in meeting internationally agreed development goals. However, they cannot effectively facilitate equitable and sustainable development unless women's and men's aims, concerns, situations and abilities are considered when formulating STI policies. - Agencies
