Jordan Partakes In 4Th International Conference On Financing For Development In Spain

(MENAFN- Jordan News Agency)

Amman, June 30 (Petra) – Secretary-General of the Jordanian National Commission for Women, Maha Ali, participated Monday in a virtual side session titled "A Quantum Leap in the Arab Region: Increasing Women's Employment through Innovation and Finance," held on the sidelines of the 4th International Conference on Financing for Development (FfD4) in Seville, Spain.
Organized by UN Women, the session aimed to explore regional trends and strategic plans to enhance women's participation in the workforce through innovative financing an approach credited with driving progress in several countries in boosting female employment.
Participants, members of the UN Women-led initiative "Promoting Women's Employment in the Arab States," discussed the region's potential to improve women's economic inclusion and examined the challenges and opportunities of adopting innovative finance and regional cooperation.
Moez Doraid, Acting Regional Director of UN Women for the Arab States, noted the initiative's goal to raise women's employment in the region by 5% before 2030. The effort targets three key sectors: the care economy, the green economy, and STEM fields (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics), which together are projected to create around 400,000 jobs in the Arab world by the end of the decade.
Representing Jordan one of the countries participating in the initiative Ali outlined national efforts taken to empower women economically, including legislative reforms, policy frameworks, and development programs. She noted that women's economic participation in Jordan remains between 14-15%, lower than the Arab regional average of around 20%.
She stressed that raising women's labor force participation is a national priority, especially given that women account for approximately 60% of university graduates in Jordan. Jordan's Economic Modernization Vision, launched as part of a broader reform agenda under His Majesty King Abdullah II, places strong emphasis on empowering women and eliminating structural barriers to their inclusion in the workforce.
Ali highlighted the 2022 Strategy for Women's Empowerment, developed as part of the modernization vision, which focuses on promoting female entrepreneurship, improving work-life balance, and advancing the care economy as a pathway to both employment and economic empowerment.
Additionally, she cited the 2020–2025 National Strategy for Women, which includes six pillars covering various dimensions of women's empowerment, including the economic sphere.
Ali also pointed to key constitutional and legal reforms aimed at creating safer and more supportive work environments for women most notably the 2022 amendment to the Jordanian Constitution guaranteeing the empowerment and protection of women from discrimination and violence, along with recent changes to labor and social security laws.
She praised Jordan's partnership with UN Women, especially through the "Promoting Women's Employment in the Arab States" initiative, which aligns with national priorities for enhancing women's economic participation.
Other participants included Guillaume Fine, Head of the Middle East Cooperation and Strategic Foresight Unit at the European Commission's Directorate-General for Neighborhood and Enlargement Negotiations-European Union; Irene Tansi, Director of Sustainable Inclusive Economy; Wessam El Beih, Regional Director for the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region at the International Development Research Centre (IDRC) in Canada; Syed Husain Quadri, Director of the Resilience and Climate Action Department at the Islamic Development Bank (IsDB); and CNN Arabic's Vice President and Editor-in-Chief, Caroline Faraj. The session was moderated by Susan Mikhael, Director of the UN Women employment initiative.
The FfD4 is being held from June 30 to July 3 in Seville, Spain, and brings together heads of state and government, senior UN officials, financial institutions, private sector leaders, and civil society organizations.
The conference aims to reform global finance architecture and mobilize investments needed to advance the Sustainable Development Goals.

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