BUSINESSMED represented by its General Secretary, Mrs. Jihen Boutiba Mrad, attended on October 10-11, 2016 in Barcelona, the 3^rd High-Level Conference on Women’s Empowerment “Women for the Mediterranean: Driving force for development and stability”.

The Conference witnessed the participation of high-level personalities such as the Minister of Social Development of Jordan, Wajeeh Azayzeh, the Minister of Women and Family Affairs of Tunisia, Néziha Labidi, the former vice-president of the Government of Spain and President of Mujeres por África, María Teresa Fernández de la Vega and the President of the National Council for Women of Egypt, Maya Morsi.  Engaged women from the civil society also participated, such as Inès Safi, Researcher at the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Nabila Hamza, Member of the Civicus Gender Working Group Advisory Board, and Suzanne Jabbour, Restart Center Director and Member of the UN Subcommittee on Prevention of Torture from Lebanon.

Over the 2 days, the Conference provided a regional dialogue forum where the 250 participants from more than 30 countries stressed the need to invest in the essential contribution of women as a response to the current Mediterranean challenges, including inclusive growth, extremism and radicalisation as well as migration challenges.  The conference featured a wealth of exchanges of experiences, best practices and concrete initiatives.

During the Conference, the 2^nd phase of the UfM-UNIDO project “Promoting women’s empowerment for inclusive and sustainable industrial development in the MENA region”

The project is contributing to enhance women’s economic inclusion by harnessing the potential of women entrepreneurs in Algeria, Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, Palestine and Tunisia, and facilitating an inclusive policy dialogue to achieve an enabling environment for women’s entrepreneurship in the region. Endorsed by the UfM Member States in November 2015 with a total budget of €4.5M, the project is promoted by the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO). Over 2,000 female entrepreneurs are expected to benefit from the project’s activities resulting in an estimated number of 500 promising business projects.

The Conference was the occasion to discuss the preliminary findings from the “Regional Dialogue on women’s empowerment”, aiming at the organization of BUSINESSMED’S international Conference “Women in BSo’s” which will be held in Marrakech on the occasion on the occasion of the World Women’s Day, on March 8^th 2017.