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Claudine Aoun calls for new legislations to achieve gender equality in Lebanon

30-10-2017

The president of the National Commission of Lebanese Women (NCLW), Claudine Aoun Rukoz, said that while women make one half of the society and the nation, they represent life itself. Rukoz who was participating at a talk organized by the Municipality of Hammana and Youth Movement Lebanon made clear that sustainable development, civil peace and social welfare require the largest possible engagement of women from all walks of life. The goal of NCLW, Rukoz maintained, is to improve Lebanese laws in order to achieve gender equality and integration of the social perceptions, the principles of equality and the public structures and polices. Rukoz pointed out that the minister of state for women’s affairs is working hard to submit draft bills proposed by the NCLW, which by virtue of the law is a continuous performing commission. She drew attention to the challenges facing the NCLW, including the poor coordination between public departments and non-governmental organizations which disrupts an efficient management of the files pertaining to women’s demands and rights. Breaking gender stereotypes inherited by society also constitute a serious challenge that requires regulation and adjustment, in addition to hiding behind religion to evade reform or change of the prejudicial personal status laws. (Al Mustaqbal, Al Diyar, October 28, 2017)

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Dina el-Mawla president of regional Francophone University Association

30-10-2017

The president of the Islamic University of Lebanon, Dr. Dina el-Mawla was elected as president for two years of the Francophone University Association (AUF) during the 10th general assembly of the Conference of Rectors in the Middle East Region (CONFREMO) held last week at the University of Arts, Science and Technology in Lebanon. El- Mawla thanked the trust bestowed upon her and voiced her determination to continue the achieved successes as well as develop projects that promote culture and higher education. El- Mawla also presented her work program which focuses on establishing a permanent forum between AUF members and strengthening cooperative procedures to monitor cultural and scientific undertakings, which “together we shall develop,” as she said. “Diversity is a source of wealth for universities to fulfill their mission in building the future of students, something everyone in the Middle East communities aspires to,” Dr. el- Mawla stated. She pointed out that her duty centers around the principles of fraternity, equality and diversity that are synonymous with the term Francophonie, as she put it. To recall, the confederation comprises 48 francophone universities and higher education institutions based in some 13 Middle Eastern countries. (Al Diyar, October 28, 2017)

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Women in Zimbabwe lead large manufacturing corporations

30-10-2017

The number of female headed companies in Zimbabwe’s manufacturing sector has risen by 8 points, according to a survey by the Confederation of Zimbabwe Industries (CZI), that showed that women now lead about 13 percent of companies in the manufacturing sector from about 5 percent in previous years. The survey also revealed that more than 45 percent of large companies which employ 100 or more workers are now led by female chief executives. On average, the manufacturing sector employs 22 percent females compared to 78 percent males, while in 2015, 34 percent of female employees were employed as full time but this has improved to 39 percent in 2017.The survey showed that women are most likely to employed in the textile industry and food stuffs sector. The survey also showed that female ownership of businesses in the manufacturing sector however still remains low with women having more stakes in medium sized firms compared to larger firms. In this context, United Nations Women (UNW) country representative, Delphine Serumaga said that “many social economic and legal hindrances for women, still exist preventing them from entering the workplace in growing their careers as well as their businesses. (Source.co.zw, October 26, 2017)

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Upgrading the quality of olive oil, table olives and wine of Lebanon

27-10-2017

The Agriculture and Tourism Committee endorsed unanimously on October 24th a bill that allows access to the International Agreement on Olive Oil and Table Olives, 2015. The Committee hoped the Speaker of the House will present the draft for ratification at the first upcoming meeting of the General Assembly. On the other hand, the ministry of agriculture, in cooperation with the French Embassy, the Lebanese universities (USJ, Holy Spirit- Kaslik, Beirut Arab University, Balamand) and the Mediterranean Agronomic Institute organized yesterday a scientific awareness conference on ‘olive oil and wine’. The conference aims at enhancing the quality of the products destined for local consumption and export. The chair of the Lebanese Agricultural Research Institute, LARI, Dr. Michel Efram, said the Institute has developed its scientific research in the two sectors, in coordination with pertinent French institutes, and lauded the continuous French support for LARI. For her part, the representative of the French Ambassador to Beirut, explained the nature of the Lebanese-French collaboration in improving the quality of the olive oil and wine industries which constitute a national heritage of the two Mediterranean states. (Al Diyar, An Nahar, October 25, 27, 2017)

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S.A grants citizenship to a non-human!

27-10-2017

In an unprecedented move globally, Saudi Arabia bestowed last Wednesday the Saudi nationality to a non-human during the Future Investment Initiative summit held in Riyadh. The robot known as Sophia stood out during her address and argument with one of the present officials when she demonstrated a full-blown ability to express human emotions, such as happiness, sadness and anger as the core for building future trust among people. In a tweet on his official twitter account, the Saudi Royal Court advisor, Saud Qahtani, said Sophia is the first robot in the world to be granted the Saudi nationality and passport as a symbolic gesture to present the forthcoming megacity investment project, Neom. The latter is a USD 500 billion joint undertaking between Egypt, Jordan and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. In turn, Sophia said “this is a historic moment for me to be the first robot in the world to be recognized with citizenship.” To recall, Robot Sophia was the first non-human to attend the United Nations session last month: ‘The future of everything- sustainable development in the age of rapid technological change’. (Al Diyar, October 27, 2017)

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Lebanon ranks at the bottom in Nation Brands Index 2017

26-10-2017

Lebanon ranked 94th among 100 countries in terms of its nation brand value, and in the second to last place among 16 countries of the MENA region, according to the Nation Brands Index 2017 published by the global consultancy firm Brand Finance. The index measures the value of the brand of 100 countries based on 5-year forecasts of the sales revenues of all brands in each country, using the country’s GDP as a proxy for total revenues. The country’s post-tax brand revenues are discounted to a net present value to calculate the current brand value. The Brand Finance report published in Byblos Group weekly monitor estimated Lebanon’s brand value at USD 21 billion in 2017 at a 3.2% decline from the past year. The Index, in parallel, promoted Lebanon’s brand strength from A to A+ on the Brand Strength Index 2017. Each country is rated by the performance of the investment, goods, services and society pillars, that are based on 4 sub-pillars, and they are: tourism, market, governance, people and skills. (L’Orient Le Jour, October 26, 2017)

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Factors curbing Gazan women’s awareness of their rights

26-10-2017

Al Hayat newspaper published an article on the development of community awareness of women’s rights in the Gaza Strip as viewed by a number of experts. On the subject, the Palestinian researcher, Hassan Salameh, from the Palestinian Planning Center, said the maturity of community awareness of the rights of the Gazan women is not as anticipated compared with the efforts exerted to this effect. The reason for this, he explained, is that Gazan women still lack the courage to stand up for their rights, in addition to the prevailing male culture that largely determines their lives and fates. For her part, Hedaya Chamoun, specialist in women’s affairs, referred to what she called the “cultural apostasy”, and the baggage of religious intolerance associated with it and which tends to distract Gazans from their fight against poverty, unemployment, violence and against the fragmentation of the Palestinian identity. Chamoun, while stressing the hindering effect of such attitude in the struggle of women, and the adoption by mothers of the male prejudice in upbringing their own children, she expressed hope of a new generation of women who are fully aware of their rights. This was supported as well by the advisor for women’s rights, Hanin Sammak. On the same subject, researcher Talal Abu Rakbeh, from Ramallah Center for Human Rights Studies, considered that women are not the only ones to blame, and it is unfair to lay the burden of change on them alone for they are only part of the dilemma. Other causes are rooted in the environment, culture, education and upbringing. (Al Hayat, October 26, 2017)

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Marginalisation of women through economic empowerment programs

26-10-2017

The Washington Post yesterday published a feature spotlighting ‘women empowerment’ and criticizing the international humanitarian institutions for misapplication of the concept. The newspaper spoke to the Croatian researcher in human rights and mass atrocities, Kate Cronin-Furman, who said the notion has been reduced to the mere increase in income or so-termed economic empowerment of women. Aid agencies tend to achieve this through encouraging women to take sewing or makeup classes, while completely disregarding the core part of their mission, which is to free them from the limitations of a male-dominant mindset, subordination and from oppression through collective political mobilization and give them power to reach decision-making levels. Cronin-Furman gave example of the Tamil women of Sri Lanka who, because of their political principles, had been on the front lines fighting among the Liberation Tigers of Tamil during the civil war which ended in 2009. Those women were sent by one international aid organizations to learn cake-making as a source of livelihood and rehabilitation. Furman said these women not only did not benefit economically from the training workshops, but the latter made them worse off and they discontinued participating in political life. Such empowerment programs, Furman mentioned, are in fact impeding the empowerment or women because they contribute to cutting them off from the vital opportunities at hand. Furman went on to say that a large number of women rights organizations believe that empowering a woman is by giving her a chicken or a sewing machine, ignoring an important fact which is, that women suffer not just because they don’t have an independent source of income, but because they are part of a political system that hampers their advancement and access to power. Furman concluded by saying that in order to change this reality, women need a political push and support through altering the current legislations and policies. She said only few of the development non-profit organizations make political change a priority on their agenda. The Washington Post, October 25, 2017

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Lebanon ranks 56th globally and third regionally in e-commerce

25-10-2017

Lebanon ranked, 56th among of 144 countries, globally, 12th among 38 middle to high income countries and third among Arab countries, according to the 2017 edition of the UNCTAD Business-to-Consumer (B2C) E-commerce Index. Lebanon’s global ranking fell by 7 points when calculating the same number of countries enlisted in the 2016 and 2017 survey. UNCTAD has developed the indicator to measure the preparedness of countries to engage in e-commerce, in line with 7 indices which are: internet penetration rate, number of secure internet servers per one million people, frequency rate of electronic payments and the reliability of postal services. The B2C E-commerce Index has shown that the rate of internet usage in Lebanon was 76%, the 35 highest rate in the world and the fourth highest among the middle to high income countries and the Arab countries covered by the survey, and higher than the global rate which is 52%. The index further revealed that there are some 58 secure internet providers per one million people in Lebanon, compared to 55.7 servers per one million worldwide, 56.4 servers for middle to high income countries and 44.8 servers per one million people in the Arab region. Finally, the index indicated that Lebanon made 70 points in the Integrated Index for Postal Development as compared to a global average of (53.7), middle to high income countries (49.3) and an Arab rate of (56.1), where Lebanon ranked 62 globally, 15 among middle to high income countries and third regionally. You can find the complete results of the index in English, on the following link: : http://unctad.org/en/PublicationsLibrary/tn_unctad_ict4d09_en.pdf ( L’Orient Le Jour, October 24, 2017)

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New French branch in Beirut for Entrepreneurship Master

25-10-2017

Yesterday saw the launch from the Grand Serail of the partnership between the Chamber of Commerce, Industry and Agriculture for Beirut and Mount Lebanon, HEC-Paris and Ecole Superieure des Affaires to inaugurate a new Entrepreneurship Master degree from the HEC Beirut branch as of September 2018. On the occasion, Nicolas Boukhater, president of the HEC Alumni in Lebanon underlined the important role played by HEC in developing the educational level and the national economy, as well as, in creation of jobs. For his part, the president of Beirut Chamber, Mohamad Choukeir, said: “Today with the presence of HEC, the prestigious French university at the forefront of the world’s selective graduate schools of business and commerce, we have made a progressive step to institute Lebanon as a regional academic and economic hub.” Similarly, HEC CEO Jean-Paul Fermisse pointed out that innovation is of utmost importance for Lebanon and France as it galvanizes development for both nations, and introduce this truth to the young generation. Hariri, in turn, maintained that this stride reflects hope for the young men and women of Lebanon that they can develop themselves and move forward. (Al Diyar, An Nahar, Al Mustaqbal, October 25, 2017)

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