The purpose of this workshop is to gather all these actors to discuss dissemination and advocacy strategies of key findings of the researches undertaken in the frame of GERPA, to reach the wider public and policy makers. The key priority issues identified in GERPA are education, labour, poverty and human development, SMEs and entrepreneurship, health, socio-economic analysis of gender empowerment, meeting with challenges facing women beyond the MENA region. «Gender equality is a goal in itself, but is also a precondition for meeting many other challenges – from reducing poverty, promoting sustainable development and increasing productivity and economic competitiveness to promoting god governance” said Dr Ismail Sirageldin, current Director of Bibliotheca Alexandria and Member of the Advisory Committee of GERPA.

The meeting will be an opportunity for participants to know more about the projects that are being developed by GERPA grantees, and the possible synergies with ANGED members in the dissemination and advocacy strategy. ”The modern world is not about physical strength. It is about knowledge and information. Therefore, people are at the centre of modern economies and women account for a large share of a country’s human capital, a share that has often been neglected in most economies. Without full utilization of this potential, these economies will not grow and develop as they could”, said Gary Becker, Nobel Prize Laureate and Member of the Advisory Committee of GERPA.

It is worth mentioning that The Center of Arab Women for Training and Research (CAWTAR) and the World Bank created GERPA in 2005. According to Dr. Soukeina Bouraoui, Executive Director of CAWTAR, which is also the executing agency for GERPA the purpose of this innovative project “is to promote policy relevant and gender mainstreamed research, by inserting a gender component into researches through a series of research competitions. This meets with the vision of GERPA to make sure that Arab research agendas address the particular circumstances of women in the Arab region”.. “Through a DGF grant since 2002, the Bank has been strengthening Arab and Persian Gender Networks which consist of civil society, academia, and policymakers,” said Nadereh Chamlou, Senior Gender Advisor in MENA at the World Bank. “In recognition that more needed to be done for Gender in MNA, the DGF approved in 2006 to migrate the MNA Gender initiative from Window2 (temporary) to window I (long term), and increased its funding to $ 800.000 to strengthen the policy research on gender and economics.» The dissemination of the research results requires identifying priority areas for intervention and the most appropriate way for the government and civil society representatives to develop and implement future reforms.

Further to the workshop, CAWTAR and the World Bank will hold a public session at the Woodrow Wilson Center (Washington DC), located near the World Bank Headquarters, to present the outcomes of the two-day workshop, and to discuss some of the recent developments, achievements, continuing challenges, and suggest an action plan on how to proceed in the future.