AMMAN — Women in Jordan still lack autonomy, equality, and
support from the public and private sectors speakers at a UN Talk on Monday
said. The event, on a gender-responsive COVID recovery, comes as part of a
series of UN-organized discussions.
اضافة اعلان
"There are structural issues, and there are unequal power
relations, there are structural issues within legislations that affect women’s
empowerment, autonomy, access to economic opportunity, which is related to
discrimination not only within laws, not only within households —it’s also
within the public sphere: discrimination is practiced informally," Salma
Nims, secretary-general of the Jordanian National Commission for Women
coordination said during the panel discussion, which was held at the St. Regis
hotel in Amman.
The UN Talk is part of the series of talks organized under the UN
Socio-Economic Framework (SEF) for COVID-19 response, launched in July 2020.
However, Jordanian society, the private sector, and the
government are still not implementing gender-positive roles formally and
informally, advocates contend. As a result, Jordanian women are facing
inequality and discrimination almost everywhere they go.
UN evidence shows the Jordanian system's inefficiency and
unfairness when dealing with women’s issues. According to Nims, there's an
apparent lack of coordination and support between the legislative public and
private spheres pre-and-post COVID times.
"Women are still unable to pay their loans in the
governorates and other areas, they still lose their jobs, they don't have equal
opportunities in the job market, discriminatory practices didn't stop, and pay
gaps are all issues that are not causing a change in the structure. Today, we
need the right coordination for the donors to work better with us to ensure
that funding is not going towards trendy things. It has to go to the right
balance inclusive way where all the national strategy is implemented,"
Nims said.
In frustration, Nims also shared information in the UN Women
talks about how the Jordanian government dismissed studies and national
strategy addendum when they created their economic priority plan for 2021–2023.
"We have a national strategy developed and submitted to the
government, saying how the COVID-19 situation has contributed and impacted the
priorities we established through this national strategy. Gender mainstreaming
policy — the fourth pillar of the national strategy — states that institutions
and the government can adopt policies, produce the right data, and direct
funding towards gender-responsive policies, plans, and strategies. And then the
government suddenly develops and submits an economic priority plan for
2021-2023 without any consultations of our national strategies and doesn't
respond to the challenges that affected women's access to the market,"
Nims added.
Anders Pedersen, UN resident
coordinator and humanitarian coordinator, talked about how there have been some
improvements that Jordan is witnessing in comprehending the issue and fixing
the sociopolitical and economic situation for women in Jordan. However, it is
still minimal action.
"There's proof that more action is being done now. There's
a lot like me speaking, and few like you doing, kudos to you on the way you are
taking this agenda forward," Pedersen said. "We need to engage and
get women in the workforce, to get out of this dilemma of exceptionally low
female labor participation rates in the region and Jordan in particular, and
last, but not least, we have to engage and see how the private sector is
leading in the issue of equality. Growth can only happen if we let the private
sector lead, but we also know that won't happen unless we have women in the
private sector leading," he added.
Pedersen also mentioned how their long-term investments are not
generating the planned results. Therefore, the results above can only be
achieved by changing the game and allowing women to lead the way, especially
after the COVID-19 times.
Whereas Hazim Rahahleh, the director of the Social Security
Corporation (SSC), talked about the governmental measures since the onset of
the pandemic and how they impacted women and men alike. He shared that 50
percent of individuals who benefited from the sustainability program
"Estidama" were women.
“Estidama” was launched by the government in December 2020 and
targeted the sectors and businesses most impacted by the pandemic. He also
talked about how the SSC's insurance system did manage to deal with women’s
challenges imposed by COVID-19, especially in terms of maternity care.
Representing a positive player from the private sector, Nadia
al-Saeed, Chief Executive of Bank al-Etihad, set an example by sharing her
institution's experience in implementing gender equality policies and
strategies that empower the women workforce at Bank al-Etihad, where she
mentioned that 50 percent of the workers are women.
"Now more than ever, corporate policies surrounding gender
diversity and equality are needed. Earlier in our journey, we enforced such
policies, which paid off because we quickly adapted to the new normal,” she
said.
However, she did not mention any efforts by her institution to
provide funding that would help women who do not work at Bank al-Etihad, which is
what the UN talk was calling for in terms of engaging the private sector in the
issue.
A lot remains to be done, and the responsibility falls on both
the public and private sectors to change the current norm that affects the
country, society, and women negatively as a collective. Moving forward and
growing from this stage requires intensive collaboration and coordination.
Read more National news
.jpg)
.jpg)
