Barriers to women’s economic empowerment – such as access to capital, navigating harassment and gender-based violence, and business formalization – widen gender and socioeconomic inequalities and hinder opportunities for women’s full and active economic and democratic participation. With rising levels of authoritarianism, violence, and economic stagnation in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), the region needs more inclusive participation in public and private decision-making processes. Evidence suggests that more women in public and private decision-making leads to better results for all, and women’s empowerment and gender equality are correlated with the overall growth, stability, and prosperity of a society.
Izdihar: Regional Alliance of Women Experts is a CIPE-supported community of practice for women leaders from the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region working to advance inclusive economic and market-oriented policy reform. The objectives of Izdihar are to:
- amplify and enhance the leadership and expertise of its members, and
- give members a space to
- discuss reforms,
- productively debate policy perspectives,
- share professional expertise,
- crowdsource solutions to challenges, and
- lend each other mutual support and encouragement.
The Izdihar Alliance includes more than 50 members from 13 countries in the MENA region who, through their leadership of businesses, civil society organizations, and business membership organizations and associations, are advancing economic reform, good governance, and women’s full economic and civic participation.
Three characteristics of engagement in Izdihar:
- Cultivate: Izdihar provides training and skill-building opportunities led by CIPE experts, other Izdihar members, or subject matter experts to cultivate skills among members to be better equipped to develop context-specific approaches to policy challenges.
- Collaborate: Through Izdihar, members have a “brain trust” of like-minded women experts from the region with whom they can collaborate to discuss shared challenges and strategies for advancing key issues and catalyzing efforts, where possible.
- Connect: The Izdihar Alliance serves as a hub that connects members across the region to forge linkages and share resources to contribute to individual initiatives, such as gender-responsive policies in their respective countries.
Learn more
CIPE’s MENA team welcomes inquiries about the Izdihar Alliance. Email mprincipe@cipe.org and follow CIPE MENA on LinkedIn and X for updates.
For a bird’s-eye view of the critical challenges facing women in the MENA region through an economic empowerment lens—and how this view informs CIPE’s approach to women’s economic empowerment (WEE) programming—watch CIPE’s MENA WEE introduction video below: