Under Secretary of State Karen Hughes Unveils Women's Economic Empowerment Initiatives to Support Middle East Reform

Middle East Partnership Initiative
February 19, 2006

On February 19 in the United Arab Emirates, Under Secretary of State Karen Hughes unveiled two initiatives that will promote increased participation of women in Middle Eastern society as part of the ongoing effort to support the work of reformers in the region who seek increased freedom and opportunity.

The first initiative will train and network successful women entrepreneurs from the Middle East and North Africa to build their professional skills, strengthen their businesses, and expand their contacts. As part of this initiative, UAE has been selected as the site for a November Business Women’s Summit, which will follow on the success of a 2005 summit in Tunis, Tunisia.

The second initiative will provide business and information technology skills training to Emirati women. Microsoft and the Institute of International Education have joined with the State Department’s Middle East Partnership Initiative to implement this program that will train 800-1,000 women in the UAE to use cutting-edge IT and business skills to successfully participate in the global economy. The initiative also will help build the capacity of participating women’s organizations and serve as a model for similar programs in Saudi Arabia, Oman, Kuwait, Iraq, and Yemen.

Both initiatives are made possible by grants from the Middle East Partnership Initiative (MEPI), which President George W. Bush launched in 2002 to promote positive reform in the Middle East and North Africa. The initiative has received more than $293 million to support more than 350 programs in 14 countries and the Palestinian territories.

Women’s empowerment and economic development are two significant areas of MEPI’s work. In addition to the programs announced by Hughes, MEPI has programs such as the Business Women’s Network, which aims to build a network of business women in the region to increase the commercial and social impact of local women’s businesses. The Network’s activities will be run from six hubs across the region. The Business Women’s Hubs will serve as focal points for skills training, mentoring, and a wide-range of business training materials. One hub will be located in UAE.

Further, young women entrepreneurs from the UAE have participated in both sessions of the Business Internship Program for Young Middle Eastern Women. The program give young women professionals the chance to learn management and business skills while working in the dynamic and productive U.S. business environment at firms such as Burston-Marsteller, KPMG, Boeing, and Microsoft. The program, which already has benefited 120 women from across the region, consists of a four-week MBA-level academic program at Emory or Duke Universities, followed by three-month internships at Fortune 500 companies, law firms, and small- and medium-size companies.