Good Practice: Gender-equit­able and in­clus­ive polit­ics and busi­ness in the MENA re­gion 

In decision-making processes, women in all their diversity are poorly represented. As a result, their demands and perspectives have little access to national and regional political and economic processes. 

The political and economic participation of women in the MENA region has been strengthened. Women are better represented in decision-making positions in politics and business and have improved opportunities in the labour market and in working life.

Among other things, the project is dedicated to gender inequalities in unpaid care work, as the unequal distribution of care work is a structural obstacle to the economic, social and political participation of women in all their diversity. 
In this context, exchange formats on the topic of unpaid care work are organized in cooperation with the regional partner organization Arab Women Organization (AWO). Participants are actors from the public and private sectors as well as civil society. 

In the first workshop, participants from six countries in the MENA region identified corresponding challenges, such as the lack of qualified professional caregivers, the lack of social security for single mothers or the legal possibility for fathers to take parental leave. On the basis of this exchange, action plans were developed to draw attention to the topic of care work. The second workshop gave the opportunity to present the concrete initiatives of the participants, which will be supported in their implementation by the project in the further course. In addition to information campaigns, these include, among other things, the adaptation of the legal situation on parental leave, the introduction of new training courses in the care and education sector and the improvement of the data situation on the care economy.