Gender and trade

The novel coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has been wreaking havoc on the international community in recent weeks and months, Women and girls in MENA faced numerous barriers to education, mobility, financial and asset control, and public leadership prior to the pandemic, and any positive gains made recently are at risk. They are impacted by losses in the informal labor market, elevated levels of violence and harassment, and increased burdens of caregiving for out-of-school children, sick and elderly family members.

This brief gives an overview of disability rights in the MENA region, which is seen to include Algeria, Bahrain, Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Morocco, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Tunisia, United Arab Emirates, West Bank/Gaza, Western Sahara and Yemen. Where relevant, it also provides some more detailed information about the situation in Egypt, Lebanon and Tunisia.

This report focuses on social protection in the Arab region, taking its basis in the understanding of social protection as an integral part of the CRPD and the 2030 Agenda. The objective is to provide an overview of the social protection systems in several Arab countries, and to set these in relation to the specific situation and needs of persons with disabilities in light of the provisions of the CRPD and the Agenda 2030 with its 17 Sustainable Development Goals. It aims to enrich and expand the current discussion about ongoing reforms of social protection systems in several Arab countries.

This report was prepared under the framework of the G7 Deauville Partnership MENA Transition Fund project on “Promoting women’s participation in parliaments and policy making” (“Project” thereafter), with a view to identifying targeted policy recommendations that can be implemented to accelerate progress towards gender equality and women’s political empowerment in Egypt.

The purpose of this report is to examine how digitalization and the spread of digital technologies have enabled the creation of new businesses and the development of existing businesses in Tunisia over the past decade. The study builds on lessons learned from the Mashrou3i project implemented by the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) in Tunisia in 2013.