Amman: Minister of Social Development and Chair of the Ministerial Committee for Women’s Empowerment, Wafa Bani Mustafa, highlighted on Thursday the significant strides made for Jordanian women under the Economic Modernization Vision, attributing them to collaborative efforts by the government and local and international allies.
Bani Mustafa, overseeing the culmination of the “Advancing Women’s Economic Participation in Jordan” project, emphasized an uptick in women’s engagement in the economy and notable enhancements in Jordan’s global standing on pertinent indices, such as the Women, Business, and Law Index by the World Bank.
She outlined several achievements from the past year, notably the introduction of a bus service catering to female agricultural workers in various regions, addressing their transportation needs while ensuring safety and dignity. Approximately 171 women benefited from this initiative.
Legislative gains and revisions to laws like the Labor and Social Security Law and the Companies Law
also contributed to improved indicators in women’s economic participation.
Plans are underway, in collaboration with the Ministry of Labor, to enact a new flexible work system to facilitate women’s employment and foster supportive work environments, she added.
Expanding nursery services, particularly home-based ones, saw training and support for 80 women to establish their own projects in this sector. A specialized system for nurseries, simplifying registration procedures and encouraging associations to establish them, aims to transition women from informal to formal employment, recognizing the sector’s potential for female empowerment.
Bani Mustafa highlighted forthcoming initiatives, including the implementation of a gender equality benchmark to be adopted by public and private sector institutions. Financial inclusion strides include an agreement with the Development and Employment Fund offering soft loans to women entrepreneurs at favorable terms, she noted.
Implemented with European Union funding, the
project toward enhancing women’s economic participation in Jordan, spearheaded by the EuroMed Feminist Initiative in partnership with local organizations, signifies a concerted effort towards gender-inclusive economic development.
Source: Jordan News Agency