Kingdom of Bahrain

In coordination with national authorities, the UN Country Teams in Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Saudi Arabia, UAE and Qatar held a meeting on 18 and 19 February 2008 in Manama to review their contingency plans regarding avian and pandemic influenza interventions.
In view of the commonalities between the countries of the sub-region, the UN teams suggested to kick off this process with a sub-regional workshop that would provide an opportunity to exchange experience with planning avian and pandemic influenza interventions and reflect collectively on the way forward.
The UN system worldwide has been bracing for a possible influenza pandemic due to the threat of avian influenza outbreaks for the last couple of years. In compliance with a request from the UN Secretary General, UN Country Teams in the region developed contingency plans in order to prepare for a possible influenza pandemic in early 2006.
In accordance with original guidance, contingency plans have focused on staff health and safety, specifying medical and non-medical interventions as well as internal communication arrangements. A review of these plans is required to reflect more recent UN guidance as well as changes in national preparedness. Law and order could break down and economies collapse in the event of a pandemic outbreak of avian (bird) or human flu, declared UN experts at the workshop.
The workshop exposed participants to pandemic scenarios and familiarized them with challenges, which are likely to arise during a response to a pandemic. Gaps and areas that need improvement in existing plans were identified, as well as key preparedness and response actions, which will need to be further developed at the country-level. Roadmaps were developed for updating plans in each country and ascertained the need for regional support.
Although the focus of the meeting will be on mitigating the impact of a possible pandemic, it will also provide an opportunity to discuss control of avian influenza and prevention of a pandemic.
Speaking at the workshop, Jean-Luc Tonglet, Middle East, North Africa, Iran and Afghanistan regional planning officer for the UN System Influenza Co-ordination and Pandemic Influenza Contingency, referred to a country plan "to be sustainable, it better be addressed at each multi-sector level and every country has its own solution."

At a conference organized by the Information Centre for Women, under the umbrella of the Children and Mothers Welfare Society, the RC, Sayed Aqa, gave a speech to the participants. Among the talking points, the RC reiterated that the UN recognizes that domestic violence is universal and present in every society and culture, and takes different forms.
He stressed that sustainable human development cannot take place without the active participation of women and girls. Domestic violence against women, whether a spouse or domestic worker, has real and harmful effects impeding development, peace and gender equality. The UN responds to these issues through its work to correct social, economic and political power imbalances through integration of gender equality perspective.
Mr. Aqa urged urgent action at all levels of society and recommended a three layer approach to prevent domestic violence: Primary – Stopping violence before it occurs,
secondary – an immediate response after violence is critical to limit the extent and consequences, and tertiary – longer-term care and support for victims.
The Kingdom of Bahrain has made significant progress, Mr. Aqa acknowledged. The National Action Charter safeguards women’s rights by stipulating that the country would promulgate laws to defend women and protect families. The Charter also guarantees the enjoyment of the right to participate in public affairs and political rights for both men and women. Bahraini women gained solid ground by large scale uplifting of their status with the establishment of the Supreme Council for Women in 2001. Bahraini women are actively engaged in women empowerment through a number of successful NGOs including the Mother and Child Welfare Society.
However, challenges remain. The number of women in decision making, both in the government and the private sector must increase. More women in policy positions help to support advocacy and policy as well as the improvement and implementation of laws.
“While we spend a lot of time discussing the role of women in a Muslim society, any domestic violence awareness campaign must also address what it means to be a “Muslim man” in a language that stresses Quranic justice and equity”, said Mr. Aqa. “Empowering women does not necessarily clash with cultural and religious principles. Women empowerment does not mean Westernization. By respecting the Islamic concept of humanity, I am confident that domestic violence incidents will decline. Furthermore, women will take their rightful place in development of family, society and the country.”
Mr. Aqa appealed to decision makers to allocate more resources for women empowerment and adapt zero tolerance against any form of violence and discrimination against women – at home and at the work place.

UNDP and the Government of Bahrain opened this morning a high-level Stakeholder Workshop at the Crowne Plaza Hotel on the Evaluation of UNDP’s Role in the Net Contributor Countries of the Arab Region.
The Stakeholder Workshop will provide an opportunity to discuss and get feed back on the findings, conclusions and recommendations contained in the draft evaluation report. The workshop participants include ministers, senior government representatives from the main counterpart agencies in the five countries, senior headquarter officials from the UNDP Evaluation Office and the Regional Bureau for Arab States (RBAS), the UNDP Resident Representatives and senior staff of the five UNDP Country Offices, and members of an Advisory Panel for the evaluation. The Advisory Panel consists of senior development specialists with expertise in the region.
In the Arab Region the NCC countries are the Kingdom of Bahrain; the State of Kuwait; the Great Socialist People's Libyan Arab Jamahiriya; the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, and; the United Arab Emirates.
The independent evaluation was managed by UNDP’s Evaluation Office and undertaken in 2007. The key objective of the evaluation was to assess UNDP’s activities and programmes in the Arab region NCCs in terms of addressing those countries development challenges and supporting their aspirations. The evaluation will also contribute to the formulation of UNDP’s new strategy for the NCCs and the middle income countries.
After setting the regional context the workshop will examine three core issues related to UNDP’s role in the Arab NCCs (a) UNDP’s response to national Development Challenges (b) UNDP’s Role and Comparative Advantage (c) Identifying the optimal programming arrangements and strengthening the implementation capacity to UNDP. The two day deliberations will help identify appropriate recommendations that would guide the way forward for UNDP in these countries.

UNDP, the Ministry of Social Development, and Ahli United Bank signed a three-year joint Micro-Finance project on 24th January. The joint project, entitled “Provision of Sustainable Micro-Finance Credit and Services to Needy Citizens of Bahrain”, aims at providing small, short-term loans to low-income individuals, especially women.
Thanks to a commitment of US$ 500,000 by Ahli United Bank and matched in funds by the Ministry of Social Development, more than 3,000 Bahrainis are set to benefit from this joint initiative with the Ministry of Social Development and UNDP. For its part, UNDP will contribute a further US$ 400,000 and will help in selecting and training national NGOs in microfinance procedures and management.
This project is the second of its kind, following a successful project initiated in 1999. The previous project aimed at providing small, short-term loans to low-income individuals, including women, while at the same time creating a system of sustainable credit delivery and management capacity in three national non-governmental organizations. The main beneficiaries under the programme were predominantly financially disadvantaged Bahraini women seeking to be economically active.
“This project will have a direct and positive impact on reducing unemployment in Bahrain”, said Dr. Fatima Al Balooshi, Minister of Social Development. “In order to sustain the benefits of such an important grass-root project and to reach more citizens in need, significant portion of the small loans will be provided to unemployed youth and women”. She added that this project supports the aims of national programme for the development of the productive families, which provides in addition to financial services, development, training and initiation of micro-finance initiatives.
“This initiative is designed to tackle one of the most pressing socio-economic concerns facing the country - the availability of local employment opportunities for the growing national labour force.”, said Sayed Aqa, Resident Representative of UNDP in Bahrain.
“Sustainability of the scheme and national capacity development are key objectives of this project. UNDP will also establish partnership with UNIDO to monitor successful beneficiaries and assist them to move from Micro to Small and Medium enterprises”, explained Mr. Aqa.
“Ahli United Bank is proud to support this important initiative”, said Adel El-Labban, Group CEO & Managing Director, AUB. "Contributing to a program that benefits disadvantaged Bahrainis will pay dividends in this community for many years to come. We look forward to seeing a broad range of non-profit organisations involved in furthering the economic and social development of Bahrain”.
The project will be executed through a “National Execution” modality in which the Ministry of Social Development will be the implementer.
“We hope this will be the start of many such partnerships with other private sector companies to address pressing social, environmental and humanitarian causes in the spirit of social responsibility and good business practice.”, Mr. Aqa concluded.