The High-Level International Conference of "Women in Public Life : From Policies to Impact" Concludes in Bahrain With Outstanding International Participation

The high-level  international conference of "Women in Public Life: From Policies to Impact"  held under the patronage of Her Royal Highness Princess Sabeeka bint Ibrahim Al Khalifa, Wife of the King President of the Supreme Council for Women (SCW) concluded in the Kingdom of Bahrain today.

The Conference was attended by high-level international representatives including policy makers, senior governmental officials, parliamentarians as well as representatives from international organizations and NGOs in addition to civil society and the private sector.

The three-day conference which was organized by the Supreme Council for Woman jointly with the Organization for Economic Development (OECD) resulted in final remarks asserting the importance of developing a complete country-specific Governance system, the implementation of an auditing methodology in the field of promoting equal opportunities at the national level, as well as formulating national guidance instruments that would be able to assist policymakers in Bahrain on how to use existing parliamentary tools in following up the exerted efforts in raising levels of women's development and close any gap quality.

The conference also called international organizations to review their methodologies for performance measurement in the Arab countries in the field of women advancement that depend on indicators that measure the qualitative progress and not the quantity; while ensuring that the responsibility of monitoring its progress does not rely on one organization; however it is a national responsibility in which all official, public and private institutions took part.

Sessions also focused on promoting access to equal opportunities in the private sector, leveraging civil society to advance gender-responsive policies, promoting equal opportunities in the parliamentary and electoral practices as well as building accountability for gender responsive policies from strategy to impact.

The 2014 OECD-CAWTAR Report highlighted that the Kingdom of Bahrain has the highest percentage of women in senior and middle management positions in the public sector among countries studied in the region. The percentage of women employed in the public sector in administrative senior positions is 45% (2014), which exceeds the 29.1% regional average for MENA countries. In addition, Bahraini women's share of public middle management positions surpasses that of men, at 59% (2014).