Update from Morocco: Concrete Commitments to Promote Women’s Empowerment

On  Monday, September 3, in El Jadida, Morocco, over the course of three focused 90-minute sessions, 78 representatives of civil society organizations and governments--both men and women--from the Broader Middle East and North Africa met to discuss actions and changes that are urgently needed to empower women in the region.

Participants traveled to attend the workshop from 20 countries.  In close cooperation with our Tunisian NGO partner, the Association des Responsables de Formation et de Gestion Humaine dans les Entreprises (ARFORGHE), League staff participated in all sessions and carefully recorded the discussions, which were facilitated by staff from the US Department of State.  The sessions elicited a variety of concrete commitments that the representatives felt were realistic and necessary ways to promote women's empowerment nationally and regionally.

A draft document was distributed to participants on Tuesday, September 4 and further discussed in a plenary session led by Melanne Verveer, United States Ambassador-at-Large for Global Women's Issues, and United States Department of State Deputy Assistant Secretary for Near Eastern Affairs, Nazanin Ash.

The meeting was also attended by representatives of G8 countries:  Germany, Japan, France, and the Russian Federation.

The League's and the State Department's attention will now shift to the forthcoming meeting in Amman, Jordan, October 1-2, 2012.