Page 309 - Ministry of Economy - December 2017

12/26/2017 Abdullah gets ‘best personality for supporting gender balance’ medal – Emirates Business
honoured in recognition for his strong support to women in the diplomatic sector, which has helped

numerous Emirati women achieve global success. Currently, women represent 20 percent of employees in

the diplomatic sector in the Ministry of
Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation.

He also honoured the Federal Competitiveness and Statistics Authority (FCSA), as the Best Federal Entity

for Supporting Gender Balance. Reem bint Ibrahim Al Hashimy, Minister of State for International
Cooperation and Chairwoman of the FCSA, received the ‘UAE Gender Balance Seal’.

The honouring of FCSA was based on three major criteria; decision-making, education and experience, and
a supportive environment for working mothers. Evaluation in this category was based on statistics from

the Federal Authority for Government Human Resources (FAHR), and polls conducted by a neutral party

among more than 64,000 employees in the federal government.
Evaluation in the third category of Best Initiative for Supporting Gender Balance was based on best

practices, projects, and policies and legislations established to support gender balance.

The UAE Securities and Commodities Authority (SCA), was honoured the Best Initiative for Supporting
Gender Balance for its ‘Women in Boards’ initiative, and Sultan bin Saeed Al Mansouri, Minister of

Economy and Chairman of the SCA Board of Directors, received the trophy. The authority aims to increase

female representation on the boards of public shareholding companies to 20 percent by 2020.
Sheikha Manal bint Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, President of the UAE Gender Balance Council and

wife of HH Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Presidential

Affairs, expressed her gratitude to Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid for honouring the winners of the
inaugural Gender Balance Index. She said that this recognition from the leadership reflects the

importance of gender balance in the national agenda, and encourages all private and governmental

entities to strive for further progress in this field.

Sheikha Manal thanked the UAE Government for incorporating gender balance into the country’s national
indicators, which measure the performance of all organisations. This will support the UAE’s national goals

as well as the UAE Gender Balance Council’s vision to establish the country as a role model for gender
balance legislation in the region. She also highlighted the strategic partnership with the Prime Minister’s

Office to work on the results of the index by reviewing the initiatives and procedures of the federal

government organisations, and the policies they have adopted to support gender balance.

Mona Al Marri, Vice President of the UAE Gender Balance Council, said, “The UAE’s Gender Balance Index
is based on the highest national and global benchmarks that include the UAE Cabinet’s national indicators

and the United Nations Development Programme’s, UNDP, ‘Gender Inequality Index’.”

The first category of the index recognises individuals who have played a key role in their organisation to

http://emirates-business.ae/abdullah-gets-best-personality-for-supporting-gender-balance-medal/ 2/3