News updates

The Collective for Research and Training on Development - Action convened last week a consultative meeting to launch its new regional initiative entitled "Supporting and connecting rural women's traditional know how within the Mediterranean Sea Basin through the promotion of fair products to enhance their economic and social future and to participate towards the achievement of a harmonious development for a good neighborhood in the region"and which implementation begun in Lebanon, Palestine and Spain on November 2012, and is expected to stretch until the end of 2015.
The Consultation meeting was held at the YWCA centre in Ain Mreisseh and was attended by representative of 8 organisations active in women's economic empowerment fields and working with both Lebanese and Palestinian communities .  The meeting begun with an overview of the regional project which is funded by the European Union, followed up by the sharing of the key results of the assessment review that was completed to inform implementation.  The meeting concluded with a discussion of the dispositions of participants to engage in the implementation of various components of the project.
Source: Al-Safir, Al-Mustaqbal 2 November 2013

Within the framework of creating new work opportunities for Lebanese youth, the Youth and Sports Parliamentary Committee, headed by MP Simon Abi Ramia, held yesterday a new meeting to study the report recently prepared by the Ministry of Labor in collaboration with the World Bank, regarding the launching of the Youth First Job project.
The proposed project will aim to train some 2400 young man and woman, under the supervision of the National Employment Office, who will subsequently be hired by private enterprises. According to the project the Lebanese government will provide an incentive to these enterprises by covering their contributions to the social security fund for a period of 2 years, according to the following ratios: 100% during the first year, two thirds during the first half of the second year and one third during the last. In addition, the Lebanese government is expected to pump LBP 10 billions during 5 years, while the WB provides USD 1.2 million in funding for managing of the project.
Following the meeting, Abi Ramia commented the project, pointing out that although it will not resolve the overall unemployment issue in Lebanon, it should be considered a prototype project that will ease the problem. He added by saying that 22 different queries were raised by the participating parliamentarians regarding the project, to which the Ministry of Labor will be responding in time for the next meeting.
Source: Al-Diyar, Al-Nahar 31 October 2013

The Ethiopian Ministry of Foreign Affairs has just announced a ban on the travel of Ethiopian domestic workers comparing this mass migration to human trafficking, in what is the second of such bans.  The spokesperson of the Ethiopian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Dina Mufti, noted that this type of migration is facilitated by traders involved in human trafficking and is distorting the image of Ethiopia.  The Minister did not specify the period of the ban but promised that all illegal agencies will be closed, noting that these agencies deceive Ethiopian workers and organizes their travel illegally and under harsh working conditions.  He declared that this is affecting young women and men and is leading to serious economic and social problems in the country.
To be noted that the Ethiopian Minister of Labor and Social Affairs estimated that 200000 women left the country in 2012 to seek work opportunities mostly in the Middle East, whilst the ILO declared that most women were victims of physical abuse and racism in addition to working in difficult conditions with low pay.
Source: L’Orient Le Jour

The president of the Arab Internationa Women Forum (AIWF) Haifaa AL-Fahom Kilani highlighted the progress in the role and condition of Arab women in the job market over the past decade which, according to her, is as a result of the struggle of women and the political will at the highest official levels (!?). Kilani also noted that there was increased investment in the education of girls in most Arab countries as well as more opening for women in the Arab job market despite differences amongst Arab countries.
Kilani was speaking in an interview with the Al Hayat newspaper conducted during the annual conference of the “The role of women in business leadership, from the partnership to the overall growth” which was held last week in Berlin and was entitled “women’s role in leading businesses: from partnership to comprehensive development”.  Kilani asked Arab governments to enact laws  that will ensure gender equality in employment and pay and highlighted the need to benefit from the German experience especially with regards to women’s position in the job markets as studies by the global business monitor indicate that there are three times more men than women who set up corportations in Arab countries whereas this difference does not exceed 30% in Germany.
The conference also discussed the challenges facing Arab and German women in leadership positions and the needed incentives as well as ways for strengthening economic growth and innovation, scientific and cultural cooperation between Germany and the Arab world.  
Source: Al-Hayat 28 October 2013

The Daily Star published a report about Sabira Itani, the only fisherwoman in Beirut who challenged the stereotype of defeated widows and provided a role model of the hidden capabilities of women.  Sabira left school to help her father with his farm in Dalia area of Beirut after the death of her mother.  She is engaged in fishing for the past 12 years after the death of her spouse when she held a fishing net weighing 8 kilograms and threw it in the water to feed her three children.
Sabira was born in 1962 in a family of eight children.  She went very briefly to school and left it in 1975 after the death of her mother and so as to help her father and work with embroidery.  She raised poultry and sold milk until she married in 1979 to a fisherman whom she loved and helped in his work and learned the secrets of the trade from him.  Her husband died in a boat collision and the perpetrator of the accident was never identified.  After that, Sabira took hold of the net and started working and taught the trade to her sons and tought them until they decided not to go to university.
Sabira practices a trade generally reserved for men but is accompanied by her brother every day she goes to fish or prepare for fishing at 2:00 am.  When she works during the day, she works alone and drives her car to Zahrani to sell her fish to shops and to private clients.  Her daughter runs the household.  She has little relations with her women neighbor as she is different from them since she has challenged taboos as a result of economic hardship which required her to be economically independent.  She also smokes in public after smoking privately for years.  As such, Sabira became a role model for women so as they are inspired to release their inner capabilities.
The fisherfolk of the area remember the tragic death of Sabira's husband and the disaster that hit the family and talk proudly about this strong woman who was able to land on her feet after the accident that changed her life.  She not only worked with the fisherfolk in the harbor but she also helps them in marketing their harvest in her car in Zahrani,as her presence constitutes an addition to theirs and wash aside the traditional stereotype of the lone woman amongst the community of men.  She herself thinks highly of them and confirms that they never made her feel as an intruder or a competitor or that she does not deserve to be amongst them.
Source: The Daily Star 24 October 2013

Insan organised yesterday an event at the Faculty of Law at the Sagesse University during which it launched a booklet on the conditions of migrant domestic workers in Lebanon in 2012-2013.  The production of the booklet was funded by the Open Society Foundation in collaboration wit the Sagesse University, within the framework of Insan's programme on justice for migrant workers and their families in Lebanon, and in an attempt to strengthen legal protection for migrant women workers in Lebanon.
The director of the project, Lala Arabian, presented the content of the booklet which addresses several legal problems facing migrant women domestic workers, and resulting from the sponsorship system, such as difficulty in filing complaints and accessing justice, entering Lebanon and acquiring residence, as well as examples of racist practices vis-a-vis migrant women in Lebanon.  Furthermore, the booklet presents the achievements of various civil society organisations working on migrant workers' issues including Insan.  
Source: Al-Safir, Al-Mustaqbal 24 October 2013
You can access the booklet which is only available in Arabic via the following link.

http://www.charlesayoub.com/more/203478

BLC issued a statement yesterday indicating that it has appointed Ms. Tania Musallem, assistant general director, to represent the BLC at the Board of Trustees of the International Banking Federation for Women. Musallem who is the creator of the “We Initiative” will serve a three year mandate at the Federation. Musallem had joined the bank in 2008, has more than 17 years of banking experience, and holds a Masters degree in finance and communication from the ESSEC University in France and a Business Administration degree from the American University in Beirut.
The bank statement notes that the Federation was set up in 2000 to serve as an international network of pioneer finance organisations concerned in supporting women's capacities worldwide while focusing on business women who head small and medium enterprises.  The Federation currently consists of 34 organisations working in more than 135 countries to build creative programmes and provide women with opportunities to reach markets, capital, education and training.  The Federation builds the capacities of its members to serve their women clients and to raise women’s awareness of their vital economic roles as investors, consumers and business owners.
The BLC statement also notes that the bank became a member of the Federation in 2011, and was the first from the Middle East, because of its efforts in promoting women's economic empowerment and after launching the “We Initiative” which has become a well known platform for women as it allows them to learn, communicate and share experience with a view towards encouraging them to develop their businesses and meet their personal and financial goals.  The bank has also contributed to the preparation of a guidebook that the Federation has launched, for the sole usage of its members, and which provides a checklist of needed steps to set up a women economic empowerment initiative.  
Source: Al-Diyar 23 October 2013