Al-Mahrouq: Signing this agreement with UN Women is the second phase and a continuation of the first phase completed in partnership with ILO, which had resulted in positive impacts.

· Burniat: UN Women believes that it is critical to support women’s active participation and representation in the private sectors at all levels as employers, self-employed, and employees.

· Burniat: Our collaboration with the Association of Banks in Jordan will strengthen the capacity of women-owned businesses to remain in the labor market and to scale up, contributing to further recruitment and retention of women in enterprises.

The Association of Banks in Jordan (ABJ) signed a cooperation agreement with UN Women on Thursday, 22 February 2023 aiming to empower women through financial inclusion, leadership and education. The agreement was signed by Dr. Maher Al-Mahrouq, Director General of the ABJ, and Mr. Nicolas Burniat, UN Women Country Representative in Jordan, to promote women’s economic participation in the private sector.

The agreement includes three main pillars to enhance the economic empowerment of women. The first pillar aims to support the resilience and financial sustainability of women-owned enterprises, mainly focused on micro and small enterprises owned by women. The second pillar focuses on providing the necessary and specialized training to facilitate the transitions of competent and experienced female practitioners to leadership, managerial and corporate board positions. The third pillar aims to strengthen financial literacy among women and youth through designing and developing additional educational content available on the Financial Awareness Platform (FINAP).

Dr. Maher Al-Mahrouq, Director General of ABJ, remarked on the occasion that signing the agreement with UN Women is a continuation of previous efforts made in the context of enhancing economic empowerment and supporting the resilience and financial sustainability of women. Al-Mahrouq indicated that ABJ had signed an agreement a year ago for the first phase of the project with the International Labour Organization (ILO), achieving important results including the launch of the “All on Board” platform and the Business Clinic (BC), in addition to the financial awareness platform (FINAP).

Dr. Al-Mahrouq expressed gratitude to UN Women for the partnership with ABJ. He also emphasized that the agreement will serve a significant number of Jordanian women and have achieve impact through the topics covered.

Thanking the ABJ for the partnership and its commitment to support women’s economic empowerment, Mr. Nicolas Burniat, Country Representative of UN Women in Jordan. spoke of the strong association between economic growth in and the increase in economic

participation of women in the labor market around the globe. He highlighted that increased participation of women in the labor force increases productivity and promotes diversity in the workplace, which are associated with higher returns on investment, contributes towards more equal income distribution and supports social mobility.

Mr. Burniat emphasized on the importance of promoting the participation of women and ensuring their representation in the private sector at all levels. He underscored the crucial role of the private sector as a main driver in enhancing women’s economic participation and, consequently, towards sustainable economic growth. He concluded by thanking the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida) and the Embassy of Sweden in Jordan for their support to this program which will address the challenges faced by businesswomen through enhancing their access to opportunities and information in cooperation with a number of national partners.