This document seeks to capture the key conclusions of the conference and bring forward some of the main findings of the 2017 report. The first section provides a statistical overview of women’s current position in education and the labour market in different regions. The second section aims to put progress in gender equality and legal reform in a regional context. The third section identifies the main legal barriers and implementation gaps. The final sections recap key cross-cutting findings and conclusions.

The study is based on a detailed analysis of women’s legal rights and on discussions with experts and focus groups in the six countries. This methodology has allowed the collection of rich and unique input following extensive research. As we aim to build better policies for a better world, promoting approaches that unleash the talent and dynamism of women in the Middle East-North Africa region and beyond will mean better lives for us all.

Women in Business 2014 summarises the progress made by the OECD-MENA Women Business Forum (WBF) since the publication of its first Women in Business report in 2012. In 2012, five groups of actions had been identified as priorities to be carried out by governments, international stakeholders, financial and business support organisations, as well as statistical agencies. In two years, the WBF has developed inputs for three of these areas of priority actions. The WBF’s contributions are growing along with its increased recognition as a hub which spurs concrete improvements in the business climate for women entrepreneurs in the MENA region.

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 report is also a call to action for governments to focus efforts on the SDGs with new information on where they stand. The Dashboards should help each African country identify priorities for action, understand key implementation challenges, and identify the gaps that must be closed in order to achieve the SDGs by 2030. We hope this report supports African discussions about priorities in achieving the SDGs and that it is operationalized into a tool for national and regional discussion and planning. Our vision is for an official day on which African countries will convene stakeholders in their respective countries around the SDGs, with this report presented as a useful tool for analysis and action. The “Africa SDG Day” would allow all actors to discuss appropriate SDG strategies given their national contexts and the findings of this and related reports. Additionally, we hope that the results of this report are disseminated in creative ways into local communities to spark collective and inclusive engagement on ways they can contextualize the SDGs and spur on progress.