Kingdom of Bahrain

A two-day National Conference on Mainstreaming Gender in Development was held in Bahrain on June 9 - 10, 2008. The Conference, organized by the Supreme Council for Women (SCW) under the patronage of His Majesty King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa, aimed towards promoting inclusive development, enhancing planning and policy-making abilities and to emerge with practical recommendations towards the empowerment of Bahraini women.
Women hold the keys, alongside men, to the country's development, said Her Highness Shaikha Sabeeka bint Ibrahim Al Khalifa, wife of His Majesty King Hamad and chairwoman of the Supreme Council for Women. Enabling Bahraini women is essential in the development of the country, she said at the opening of the conference. The empowerment of women is neither a luxury nor an option but an urgent necessity,
"The SCW is meeting its national responsibility in establishing a base for this initiative, by providing all the support to create a framework and implementation system," said Shaikha Sabeeka. "This will allow certain bodies in the country, especially the Parliament and the Shura Council, to work towards meeting women's needs in legislation, systems, programmes and work plans".
Over 200 representatives from government ministries, the Parliament, the Shura Council, civil societies, the private sector, media, religious scholars and youth societies as well as other regional and international organizations participated in the Conference. International organizations participating in the Conference included the Arab Woman's Organisation, UNIFEM, AGFUND, UNDP, ESCWA, United Nations Development Fund for Women, Al Hariri Organisation from Lebanon, the UAE General Women's Union and the National Council for Women in Egypt. As an outcome of the Conference, the SCW seeks to mobilise support of local, regional and international partners to back various programmes technically and financially.
UN Assistant Secretary General and Regional Director of the United Nations Development Programme, Amat Al Alim Alsoswa, presented a paper on the terminology of social mainstreaming in international agreements and accords. She also highlighted Arab commitments to ensure equal gender partnership in their plans and policies and emphasized on the need to exploit human and financial resources to help men and women take decisions voluntarily, confidently and with dignity.
The participants called on the authorities concerned to provide comprehensive and beneficial information and statistics regarding women and to enhance the capabilities of ministry employees and officials in dealing with the issue of gender equality.
As an outcome of the Conference, a recommendation was made to promote and support the role of women in society as well as to make available the necessary resources to set up policies in support of the role of women. Other recommendations included a study and review of the role of official organizations in Bahrain to identify their ability to meet the needs of women as well as building their capacity in integrating the national plan to promote the role of women in their programmes.
The SCW called upon the government and the Economic Development Board to draw up a clear national plan, which will guarantee a successful transformation for Bahrain. "I hope that this conference will lead us to a just co-operation that will begin to preserve and provide rights and stability to women and children, in addition to their continuous role in supporting men," said Shaikha Sabee.

In 2005, recognizing the importance of addressing disaster risk reduction as a global issue, 168 member states met in Kobe, Japan, and endorsed the Hyogo Framework for Action (HFA). The HFA calls on the United Nations International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (ISDR) to prepare periodic reviews of progress and to identify gaps in implementation. In this context, the ISDR Secretariat will coordinate the preparation of a major global assessment report to be launched by the UN Secretary-General in 2009.
In a press conference held on June 8th, 2008, the Minister of Foreign Affairs Shaikh Khalid Bin Ahmed Al Khalifa pledged the support of the Government of Bahrain,to the 2009 ISDR Global Assessment Report on Disaster Risk Reduction by contributing $1 million (BD 378,000). The Report will be launched in Bahrain next year and aims to focus media and political attention to the issue of disaster risk. UN Assistant Secretary-General and UN Development Programme’s (UNDP) Regional Bureau for Arab States Director Amat Al Alim Alsoswa stated that “Bahrain’s contribution will provide a powerful stimulus to global efforts to reduce disaster risk.” Ms. Alsoswa also stressed that the ISDR and UN are confident that the contribution from Bahrain will help consolidate political and economic support and commitment to disaster risk reduction throughout the world.

The UN Human Rights Council will formally endorse Bahrain’s Universal Periodic Review (UPR) in Geneva today, June 8th, 2008. The Bahrain UPR Report was prepared by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in consultation with non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and submitted to the Council in February this year. Bahrain’s UPR Report was reviewed on April 7th and Bahrain’s election to the Council was welcomed due to its significant achievements, which were highlighted in the Report.
Heading the delegation, which includes officials and NGO representatives, Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Dr. Nazar Al Baharna will give a 20 minute presentation in Geneva, which would mark the formal adoption of the UPR. Bahrain’s Permanent Representative to the UN in Geneva Abdulla Abdullatif Abdulla declared that Bahrain was considered one of the pioneering countries in the UN’s reform efforts.

A training workshop was held for the UNCT and national counterparts on May 26th to 28th as a follow up step in implementing the Action 2 HRBA strategy. The training sessions were facilitated by Clarence Dias, Human Rights consultant, and Karin Lucke, Human Rights Officer, OHCHR.
Action 2 is a global programme designed to strengthen the capacity of UN country teams to support the efforts of Member States, at their request, in strengthening their national human rights promotion and protection systems. In order to achieve this, adequate national capacity, dedicated resources and expertise are fundamental prerequisites.
As an introduction, the workshop introduced the HRBA and the UN Common Understanding as well as briefly revisited Bahrain’s Country Programme Action Plan. This was followed by a presentation on applying HRBA in situational analysis as well as to monitoring of implementation and to assessing results. The workshop adopted a participatory approach where participants worked in small groups on exercises relevant to Bahrain, giving practical experience. Participants in the workshop included UNCT members as well as representatives from key government ministries and authorities.
The HRBA workshop coincided with the launch of Bahrain’s Draft Action Plan on UPR implementation which outlines the road by which Bahrain intends to honor its voluntary pledges and commitments to the Human Rights Council. A brief on the process was provided to participants of the workshop as well as key areas of the Plan. The Action Plan further confirmed the importance of building national capacity in HRBA in development programming.

Further to the close cooperation between the Ministry of Social Development and UNDP, a workshop was jointly organized entitled MDG Statistical Literacy for CSOs & the Media at the NGO Center affiliated to the Ministry of Social Development.
The 5 day workshop aims to build the capacities of civil society organizations and the media on achieving the MDGs and, in turn, training other organizations to do the same. The plan is to empower and inform CSOs in order to be productive in creating programmes that develop various sectors of the country.
The training works towards the realization of the MDGs by improving their understanding and by strengthening capacity to produce statistics, indicators and analyses for monitoring their implementation at the national level. Data analysis enables civil society advocates to monitor progress and tailor numerical targets to fit national priorities. Familiarity with the indicators and data will allow advocates to choose appropriate ones and to use them for reporting on intermediate and disaggregated targets.
The training is conducted by Adib Nemeh, UNDP Policy Advisor for poverty reduction, Atidel Mejberi, Communication and Information Officer for the Centre for Arab Women Training and Research (CAWTAR) and Zyad Al Samadi. A total of 29 people from 4 countries representing different NGOs and journalists from Bahrain, Yemen, Djibouti and Saudi Arabia are participating.

Being one of the first member states for Universal Periodic Review by the Human Rights Council in April 2007, the Kingdom of Bahrain has taken steps to prepare its UPR paper in a very transparent and participatory manner with technical support from UNDP. Based on the Government’s request, UNDP is advising the Government on the processes and formulation of an action plan to implement its pledges and commitments.
A draft of the Bahrain Action Plan on the Implementation of UPR Outcomes has been prepared by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs with technical support from UNDP. The draft Action Plan has been presented to media, civil society, academics and researchers, as well as governmental ministries for comment. UNDP is training the Bahrain delegation to the Human Rights Council on human rights issues, the Human Rights Council and the UPR process . The delegation will also receive a briefing on possible issues that may arise during the Interactive Dialogue and on strategizing about responses.
UNDP Bahrain will continue to support the Government in the UPR process and the implementation of Bahrain’s voluntary commitments over the next four years.

Taking the empowerment of women as a top priority, UNDP Bahrain continues to work towards enhancing the capacity of women to exercise their rights and actively participate in Bahrain’s development. In addition to the activities focused on gender mainstreaming and improved access to justice, activities also focus on improving women’s political and economic participation. UNDP’s key partner in this goal is the Supreme Council for Women, Bahrain’s national entity for the advancement of women.
A roundtable meeting was organized on March 12 -13, 2008 by the Supreme Council for Women and UNDP, in cooperation with the World Economic Forum and the Arab Women Organization to discuss “Gender Empowerment Indicators”.
The two-day meeting began with a theoretical introduction on gender indicators and the concept of human development and gender mainstreaming. Nuzhat Ahmad, UNDP Poverty Policy Advisor in New York, and Adib Nehmeh of AS-SURF, gave an overview of current indicators and economic empowerment of women. A comparative study between the actual status of Bahraini women and their status within international reports as well as an overview of the World Economic Forum Gender Gap Report, were presented.
Based on the presentations, discussions among the participants, representatives from the government as well as several NGOs, revolved around the absence of a mechanism that accurately measures the status of Arab women and suggestions for improvement. As part of the broader partnership, the Supreme Council for Women and UNDP will work on implementing the recommendations of this meeting and mainstreaming gender in development work.

On the occasion of the International Women's Day, the Government of Bahrain represented by the Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Dr. Nezar Al Baharna, the UN Team in cooperation with the Bahrain Businesswomen Association marked the day on Saturday 8 March 2008 at the Headquarters of the Bahrain Businesswomen’s Society, Mahooz, Bahrain.
In his statement at the press conference, Sayed Aqa, UN Resident Coordinator and UNDP Resident Representative, said that “The Kingdom of Bahrain has taken practical and encouraging steps towards women empowerment….we look forward to further initiatives that will reinforce the economic and political empowerment of women including realignment of budgets”. "Investing in women and girls has a multiplier effect on productivity and sustained economic growth.”
Dr. Al Baharna, in his statement on behalf of the Government of Bahrain, emphasized the need for the Government, the private sector, and civil society to work together to empower women as a core for further development. The Minister declared the full support of the Government of Bahrain to the campaign of the UN Secretary General to invest in women and girls and to fight violence against women. He further announced the launch of a joint initiative on investing in women and girls between the Government, the UN in Bahrain, the private sector and civil society
Mr. Aqa made the announcement that the UN team in Bahrain, in cooperation with the Government of the Kingdom of Bahrain, NGOs and civil society will organize a workshop in the next two months to further develop and coordinate initiatives towards the empowerment of women in Bahrain. This call was reiterated by Bahija Al Daylami, Assistant Secretary General of the Supreme Council for Women where she outlined the body’s National Strategy for the Empowerment of Women which will focus on the economic empowerment of women, family stability, and increasing the number of women in decision-making positions.
Bahrain Businesswomen Society President, Ms. Mona Almoayed, in her statement to the press, said that the MDGs could not be achieved without the eradication of discrimination against women in economic and social laws in the Kingdom and called for united action towards this goal.
Investment in the empowerment of women to become active members of society and the financial investment in productive projects undertaken by women and girls, such as those spearheaded by UNIDO Arab Regional Centre for Entrepreneurship and Investment Training were highlighted by UNIDO programme co-coordinator and investment promotion expert Afif Barhoumi.

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