News

Al Mina municipality and the MOSA centre for development services organized yesterday a gathering to discuss NCLW’s national strategy for gender equality. The meeting was attended by the president of the municipal council, embassador Mohammed Issa, the vice president of the Tripoli municipal council, George Jallad as well as representatives from local women and development organisations, social clubs and civil society organisations. The NCLW consultant, Ms. Dalia Lakkis, gave an overview of the national strategy and its 12 areas of concern followed by a review of the situation of women and the challenges faces. Lakkis reiterated that the objectives of the strategy are based on recognition of the rights of women and the need to support these and ensure equality between women and men in social, political and economic life.  The plenary discussion focused on ways to operationalise the strategy in addition to agreeing recommendations to be sent to the NCLW.

Source: Assafir 14 November 2012

Several activities aiming at empowering rural women were registered across Lebanon yesterday.  In the North, the Safadi Association concluded an IT training for women as part of its programme entitled “my skills are the secret of my success” and implemented at the old Serail venue in Tripoli.  In Mount Lebanon, the “Home-Made” association concluded its first training workshop in the village of Kfarnabrakh in the Shouf.  The workshop is part of the association’s programme entitled “Empowerment of Women in Rural Areas” which is funded by the US Embassy in Lebanon.  In South Lebanon, the Central Office of Women’s Affair of Amal Movement organized a workshop on “the concept of participation in women’s empowerment project”.  The workshop was held under the auspices of Ms. Randa Berri who, in her opening address, reiterated the importance of women’s participation in political and public life.  According to Ms Berry, women need to take initiative without waiting for anyone to allow her to do so as their rights are enshrined in both religion and Constitutions.

Source: Annahar and Assafir, 13 October 2012)

Ethiopian migrant domestic worker, Janesh Sirant Rajoseph, lost her life yesterday after falling off the 11th floor of her employers’ house in Zalka.  Her body was transported to the Abou-Jawdeh hospital morgue whilst the police is investigating the circumstances of her death.

Source: Al Akhbar, 13 November 2012

The administrators of the “The Uprising of Women in the Arab world” Facebook group accused, last Wednesday, Facebook of censorship and of scheming to shut the group down, after one photo that was unexpectedly controversial. This photo first posted on Oct. 21, shows a young Syrian woman, Dana Bakdounis, her short hair unveiled, holding up her passport to show the photo, in which she wears the veil. Beneath it is a hand-written message which reads “I am with the uprising of women in the Arab world because for 20 years I wasn’t to feel the wind in my hair and my body.”
The photo, along with many others showing women unveiled, veiled and in the niqab, was removed from the group by Facebook on Oct. 25, without explanation, and the administrator who posted it was blocked from her account for 24 hours. Which urged the page administrators to issue the following statement: “The repeated temporary blockades on the admins’ personal accounts with no clear motive or explanation show a direct attack on the Uprising of Women in the Arab World’s Page. It also raises serious questions about the true intentions behind FB’s policies, and whether Dana’s ‘controversial’ image is a mere excuse to shut down the voice of the Uprising of Women in the Arab World.”
One of the administrators also told The Daily Star that: “There is something wrong with the administration of Facebook in tackling this issue. The person in charge of the content of the links and the photos ... they don’t ban [a photo] just because there are reports – they look at it. So there must be someone who’s really annoyed with the content of our photos.”

Source: The Daily Star 12/11/2012

The Arab Woman Organisation announced the launching of its new research grants for students enrolled in higher studies in social sciences and who would like to prepare their thesis (in Arabic) about the situation of women in the Arab region with emphasis on a number of disciplines namely political sciences, social sciences, anthropology, economic, psychology, social policies, gender, development, regional and international relations, education, and others.  The aim of these research grants project is to encourage researchers to mainstream women’s studies within their disciplines as well as to conduct their researches in this field thus bridging theory and practices.

The total number of available research grants are seven of up to USD 7000 each.  Interested applicants are encouraged to submit their research plans to Arab Woman Organisation.  Further information on procedures and eligibility are available on:  http://grantsandawards.arabwomenorg.com

Source: Al Hayat, 11 November 2012

ABAAD resource centre for gender equality and Save the Children concluded a training workshop in Beirut on how to use the “let’s play together for gender equality” package.  The training workshop that was attended by 27 participants, who work with children as well as the Ministry of Social Affairs, emphasized the prevention approach to raise awareness on gender equality and mobilize people to think critically so that they are more aware about gender stereotypes especially for people between the ages of 8 and 11 years.

Source: Al Mustaqbal, 12/11/2012

The weakness of the micro-credit sector in Lebanon and its inefficiency negatively affects women’s chance for economic empowerment since they tend to resort to this form of financial assistance to start up their small economic initiatives.  According to a new report published by the Economist, the weakness of government policies and political instability contribute to a failure in creating an enabling environment for microfinance as, according to the Economist, the Lebanese government is not able to regulate financial transactions of micro-credit institutions.  In addition, this sector is not considered to be a priority for the Central Bank of Lebanon especially since the former does not enjoy any mechanism for resolving contentious legal issues between lenders and borrowers.  As such, the Economic international monitor for micro-financial ranked Lebanon in position 44 out of 55 countries covered by the 2012 review.  Lebanon also ranked 11 out of 15 MENA countries included in the review and 12th out of 16 countries of middle to upper income, according to the weekly newsletter released by Byblos Bank last week.
However, the Economist noted that microfinance is still a promising sector with good prospects of extending in rural areas and noting that currently there are around 20 micro-finance institutions, all of which are non-governmental organisations based in the cities and not in rural areas.  The same sources indicated that the “Al Qard al Hassan” has some 69,000 clients and ‘Imkaan’ has 10,000 thus making these two institutions the biggest in the sector in Lebanon.

Source: Annahar 06 November 2012

AL Hayat newspapers shared the findings of an international study which indicated that although women have been able to reach high positions in the corporate world, yet, their numbers have not increased much.  The study indicated that despite their small numbers, women were able reach the top positions in very influential companies.  The study indicates that there are currently 14 Arab women who hold the position of CEO in the Arab region. These were listed in Arabian Business of 2012 and include Lubna Oleyan, the CEO of Oleyan for Financing in the KSA, Amina Rustumani, the CEO of Tecom Business Parks in UAE, Shekha al Baher, the CEO of the National Bank of Kuwait. These women were also listed amongst the 50 most powerful women in the Arab region.
The study was conducted by CTPartners executive search Inc. and notes that these figures seem to indicate that women are playing a bigger role in businesses in the Arab region especially in the UAE, Kuwait, KSA and Qatar.
The Global Fortune 500 list of the most powerful corporates in the work indicates that 12 women hold the position of CEOs of the listed corporates thus representing only 2.4%of the overall leading corporates form Asia, Europe, and the USA.  These handful women now control some USD 680 billion compared to USD 102 billion in 2005.  The same report indicated that currently, only 2.6% of major companies in the world are controlled by women.  However, this still represents an increased from the total of 6 women in 2005 to 12 women this year. Although this may look like a 100% increase over the period but, in fact, represents an increase of one woman CEO per year for the entire world!

Source: Al-Hayat 8 November 2012

The “Food Packaging” conference was jointly organized by LibanPack and UNIDO, yesterday at the “Adnan Kassar” center, in the presence of ambassadors, officials, industrialists, experts and media.  The Minister of Industry, Freij Sabonejian, announced that the Lebanese packaging sector holds a prominent position as an innovative and creative marketing sector. He added that this is apparent in way this sector complements the work of the advertising companies. For his part, the President of the Association of Lebanese Industrialists, Nehmeh Ifram, warned that the Lebanese economy is bleeding and is amid an existential crisis that was never encountered before.

Ms. Soha Atallah, president of LibanPack spoke about the work of the center which succeeded in a short period of time to acquire a license from the British Center of General Health, an institution which is considered as one of the most important of its find un Europe, adding that this will allow the center to organise internationally recognized training sessions in food packaging.

Source: Al-Mustaqbal, Annahar, Assafir 7 November 2012