UNDP, NCW grant Egypt’s MSMEDA the Gender Equality Seal

CAIRO – 6 March 2019: Recognizing a significant progress towards achieving gender equality in Egypt, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), in collaboration with Egypt’s National Council for Women (NCW), have granted the UNDP’s “Gender Equality Seal” to the Egyptian Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency (MSMEDA).

Maya Morsy, president of the NCW, said in a statement on Tuesday that this accomplishment is an international recognition of the Egyptian entities’ efforts with regards to gender equality. According to the statement, “an assessment team consisting of gender experts from the UNDP and the National Council for women has worked on assessing MSMEDA based on 6 major criteria”.


“This assessment tool helps assessing the gender mainstreaming criteria in a number of public and private sectors within Egypt in the current period to help benefit from the resources and opportunities available to women’s economic and social empowerment,” Morsy explained.



“The assessment process depends on three main pillars, obtaining information from secondary and basic sources outside and inside the targeted organization, reviewing the inside reports and the information revealing roles of the different departments and administration, and perform opinion polls among employees and representative of the civil society organizations,” added Morsy.


Egypt’s Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly expressed his pride with this international achievement, declaring that Egypt is the first Arab country to receive this award, and the second in the world. Madbouly further affirmed that the “seal” is a direct reflection of the support offered by the political leadership and the state with regards to women’s issues and the keenness to assert gender equality in all fields.

CEO of the MSMEDA Nevine Game also expressed her happiness with this achievement, adding that it is an international recognition of the agency’s successful efforts.

Earlier this month, the World Bank (WB)’s Regional Director for Egypt Marina Wes praised Egypt’s commitment towards promoting the participation of women in the economy, further referring to President Abdel Fatah al Sisi’s decision to declare 2017 the Year of Women. Wes' remarks came during the launching of the WB’s "Egypt: Women Economic Empowerment Study", in the presence of Morsy and the British Ambassador in Cairo Geoffrey Adams.