In celebration of International Women’s Day on March 8, Egypt’s National Council for Women (NCW), the Central Bank of Egypt (CBE), the European Union (EU), the Embassy of the Netherlands, and UN Women in Egypt launched a project to eliminate violence against women and advance women’s economic empowerment in rural Egypt. The project, titled “‘Women’s Empowerment and Financial and Economic Inclusion in Rural Egypt: COVID-19 Response”, will seek to overcome obstacles to women’s financial inclusion by improving and digitizing an already existing initiative, Village Savings and Loans Associations (VSLAs) for women. Maya Morsy, NCW’s president reiterated that women’s economic empowerment is one of Egypt’s top priorities. “This project aims at attaining woman’s financial inclusion and her economic empowerment to mitigate COVID-19 implications. UN Women Representative in Egypt, Ms. Christine Arab said that violence against women continues to be a worldwide challenge, calling it “the shadow pandemic”.

Source: Egypt Independent March 11, 2021 13:52 UTC