Prince Talal to chair meeting of CAWTAR’S Board of Trustees

His Royal Highness Prince Talal Bin Abdul Aziz Al-Saud, President of the Arab Gulf Program for United Nations Development Organizations will chair the 9th meeting of CAWTAR’ Board of Trustees due on November 4, 2008 in Tunis.
Works of the Board of Trustees will focus on the presentation of projects and activities carried out during 2008 and discuss the center’s working document and its activities scheduled for the years 2009 - 2011 and study the work plan and budget estimates for the coming year.

It should be noted that "CAWTAR" has made distinguished achievements in 2008 in basic   areas of its action which are the production of knowledge, training, information and electronic production.

 During a year of activity, “CAWTAR” published nine deep studies and researches on topics of priority in the Arab region. These researches and studies were carried out either as part of the follow up of reports on the development of Arab women or within the framework of different projects and programs it implemented.

These studies consist of a regional report entitled "Women Entrepreneurs in Five Arab Countries: Characteristics, Contributions and Challenges" and two national reports on "Women Entrepreneurs in Tunisia" and "Women Entrepreneurs in the UAE."

“CAWTAR” also published two studies on "Women and Decision-Making in Morocco" and "Gender and Decision-Making: a Case Study of the Republic of Sudan," a book on "Arab Women and Information and Communication Technology" and a booklet entitled "No More Marginalization,”  as well as a practical and collected guide to best practices in addressing discriminatory social behaviors and beliefs that hinder equal access to resources and opportunities between sexes in Middle Eastern and North African Arabic-speaking countries.

In the area of training, “CAWTAR” endeavored, in 2008, to implement the components of its training program and went on publishing its training kits, organizing training sessions and building capacities of different groups from various Arab countries.
Hence, “CAWTAR” published a training manual on “Planning and Action for the Millennium Goals" and a couple of training kits: the first on "Arab Female Adolescents" and the second on "Building Capacities of Service-Providers in the Area of Combating Violence against Women," in addition to training materials on "Advocacy in the Area of Women’s Participation in Decision-Making and Political Life "and "Gender and Leadership."
The year 2008 witnessed the organization of 14 training courses covering many areas, including the Millennium Development Goals, the empowerment of women, the support of the rights of women and children, combating violence, the development of entrepreneurs, the techniques of advocacy for change ... 269 people from 15 Arab countries, namely Sudan, Palestine, Syria, Jordan, Bahrain, Tunisia, Algeria, Lebanon, Egypt, Morocco, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Djibouti, Qatar and the UAE benefitted from this training.
The most notable accomplishments in the field of information and advocacy for the year 2008 consisted in the preparation of a strategy entitled "Gender and the Arab Media," containing a set of conclusions and recommendations with a view to ensuring a balanced and varied image of women and men in the Arab media and an equal participation of different actors in the media sector in the Arab region. 
As far as electronic production is concerned, “CAWTAR” launched three new specialized sites.
 The first site is on Arab women and media: www. arabwomanmedia.net  is  an interactive space to cope with the rapid transformations that defined the image of Arab women in the media. The second is a space for networking and advocacy tools http://gewamed.cawtar.org, carried out under the project "Gender Mainstreaming in the Development and Management of Water Resources to the Mediterranean" and the third site, whose experimental version will be launched soon on the address:  http://genderequity.cawtar.org is a site dedicated to the project of the dynamics of discriminatory social practices and gender equity.
“CAWTAR” has also made progress in launching its electronic center for the exchange of information and resources on gender. This knowledge space will provide the opportunity for exchanging published and unpublished documents on topics of interest to “CAWTAR” which are prepared by its local, regional and international partners, organizations and research centers. It will also allow access to all databases of “CAWTAR” and its specialized sites and electronic newsletters.