GIZ, Egypt’s Raya sign gender diversity support agreement

Egypt’s information telecommunications firm, Raya Holding has signed on Saturday a technical and financial support agreement with the German Agency for International Cooperation (GIZ) to enforce gender diversity.

The agreement is part of GIZ’s regional programme Economic Integration of Women in the MENA Region (EconoWin) that works on improving the conditions for the economic participation of women in Egypt, Jordan, Morocco, and Tunisia. The aim is women’s integration into business and employment so that economies grow and societies prosper.

Together with partners from civil society, governmental and non-governmental organisations as well as private companies, the programme develops and implements tools on mobilising women’s potential for the benefits of business and the economy.

EconoWin is implemented by GIZ on behalf of the German Federal Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ).

Medhat Khalil, Chairman and CEO at Raya Holding, said that his company started an initiative to enforce gender diversity in the world of business and Raya in particular.

The project will be executed within one year and a half by a number of HR experts at Raya and high-ranking officials from GIZ to fulfill a number of objectives, notably the economic empowerment of women, Khalil added.

For her part, Hildegard Vogelmann, Coordinator of EconoWin at GIZ said that empowering women economically bears a major potential for economic growth of partner countries.

When women join the workforce, their socioeconomic situation improves and so does the quality of their lives and that of their families, Vogelmann added. Future generations benefit as income generating women invest in the health and education of their children.

As for Egypt, the initiative is expected to boost the GDP up to 34 percent triggered by enabling female workforce to be part of Egyptian work market, the German official said.