EWC conference launches 'Expat Egyptian Forum' online

CAIRO – 4 July 2017: The two-day conference ‘Egyptian Women Can’ concluded on Monday. During the conference, the Minister of Immigration and Expatriate Affairs, Nabila Makram, launched the

expat Egyptian Forum

. The online forum aims to connect Egyptians around the world via internet to ensure continuous communication among all generations and also to serve as a bank for information and innovative development ideas.

Participants in the conference presented and discussed ideas to achieve sustainable development in Egypt. Furthermore, participating ministers reviewed the government's efforts to achieve the sustainable development strategy ‘Egypt 2030.’

The conference witnessed active participation of a group of parliamentarians from both genders, which was an indication of the legislative authority's interest in achieving women's empowerment in Egypt. The conference also witnessed launching several initiatives linking internal and external experts. Preparatory sessions for these initiatives will take place immediately after the end of the ‘Egyptian Women Can’ conference.

Among these initiatives, the participants agreed on:
Enhancing young Egyptians awareness of governance, inside and outside Egypt, through workshops and interactive training to developing youth skills and to prepare them for the labor market.
Strengthening the role of media and culture in development, in accordance to standards of media content control, measuring performance and promoting constructive values.
Entrepreneurship and local development Initiative, which aims to develop investment attractive business models at the level of districts and governorates.

The ‘Egyptian Women Can’ conference was organized on July 2-3 by the Ministry of Immigration and Expatriate Affairs under the auspices of President Abdel Fatah al-Sisi and in cooperation with the National Council for Women (NCW). The conference aimed to strengthen the role of female Egyptian expatriates in developing Egypt, and to achieve the sustainable development goals of Egypt’s Vision by 2030. It also shed light on the achievements of women in all fields. They encourage them to form role models for new generations of young men and women

The conference came as part of the “Al Taa Marbouta is your strength” awareness campaign launched by the NCW during the month of Ramadan, it was created to support and empower Egyptian women and highlight the importance of women's participation in all economic, political and social sectors. A total of 31 expat female Egyptian experts specializing in scientific, intellectual and academic fields participated in the conference.

The conference also came in conjunction with Sisi’s announcement that 2017 is the ‘year of Egyptian women’ and the national initiative to enable Egyptian women.