The Top 50 Women Forum organizes this summit, the first platform in Egypt to work exclusively on empowering female professionals to strengthen their contributions to development and decision-making processes.
Evyenia Sidereas, the deputy chief of mission at the US embassy in Cairo, participated in a panel discussion themed “Global Changes and the Enabling Environment.”
Sidereas highlighted the importance of Egyptian women in the country’s development, shedding light on advances in women's empowerment across legislative, professional, and social spheres.
The US, through USAID, is sponsoring this event under the Women’s Economic and Social Empowerment Programme, in partnership with the National Council for Women and the European Union. Through this sponsorship, USAID will offer workshop sessions on financial inclusion and women’s social empowerment during the summit.
The participants in the panel also included Rania Al-Mashat, minister of international cooperation; Hala El-Said, minister of planning and economic development; Maya Morsy, president of the National Council for Women; Nevine El-Qabbaj, minister of social solidarity; Yasmine Fouad, minister of environment; Soha Gendy, minister of immigration and expatriates affairs; Ambassador Christian Berger, head of the European Union Delegation to Egypt.
“It is a great honor for me and a great honor for the United States to support Egypt in its broader efforts to promote the inclusive empowerment of women and girls as we're thinking about implementing Vision 2030 and beyond,” said Sidereas.
She said Egypt is in the middle of a very tough region, with several conflicts on the borders, and has a leadership role in diplomacy and conflict resolution.
“So across the board, any initiative we're thinking about, we're thinking about this partnership and how women and girls can play a role in this. So when we invest, we want to invest in the professional development of women and girls in forums such as this summit that has been developed here. And we want to think about what can be done to allow Egyptian women to participate more fully in civic and economic life,” Sidereas added.
She also affirmed that it is such a pleasure to see Egyptian women in the halls of power, leading business positions, influencing decisions, and ensuring the broader needs of society are taken into account.
“Of course, that's a challenge for us in America as well. We are very proud here. Our ambassador to Egypt is a very distinguished ambassador and a woman,” according to Sidereas.
However, Sidereas noted that only 30 percent of ambassadors in the US are women, which means that there is a lot of work to do.
“We know that Egypt is working hard to help advance more women to these important positions. So beyond the broader commitment to looking at gender empowerment and all of our development programs here across the board, we work with the private sector and the government on improving the work environment and expanding access to banking and non-banking finance, mentoring, skills development, entrepreneurship programs, and angel investing. We know there's a lot of dynamism and a lot of really, really talented young Egyptian women and girls,” she explained.
“They can do so much with a little bit more skills, a little bit more networking, a little bit of funds, and partnering with your government. And I commend the element of Vision 2030 that relates to the private sector and helping ensure women can play this kind of role in the economy,” she concluded.
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