The Middle East and North Africa Region of the World Bank produced four regional reports on the occasion of the World Bank-International Monetary Fund Annual Meetings in Dubai in September 2003. These reports - on employment, gender, governance, and trade and investment - are intended to enrich the debate on the major development challenges of the region at the beginning of the 21st century. (See: MNA Regional Reports)

On April 9-10, 2005, the Yemen MNA Regional Development Reports Roundtable took place in Sanaa, Yemen, which was organized by the World Bank in partnership with the Ministry of Planning.  Objective of the Yemen Roundtable was to disseminate the findings of the four MNA Regional Development Reports as they relate to Yemen.

In order to prepare roundtable participants to be able to discuss gender issues in trade, employment, and governance, the Bank organized a two day preparatory workshop entitled "Gender and the Economy"  in partnership with the Women's National Committee.  The workshop was attended by 30-40 participants with an interest in gender issues and included government representative, ministerial gender focal points, academics, donors, and representatives from the civil society.  The topics, which were Yemen focused, included gender and labor markets, gender and trade, gender and governance, as well as gender and public sector downsizing.

Gender and Labor Markets: English  |  Arabic
Gender and Trade:  English  |  Arabic
Gender and Public Sector Downsizing:  English  |  Arabic

The Gender Session of the Roundtable was chaired by Nabil Sadik Basha, Member of Parliament, and Rashida Al-Hamdani (Chairperson of the Women National Committee) gave the main gender presentation (also in Arabic), which provided a wealth of employment and human development statistics comparing Yemen with other countries in the region.  The presentation by Mr. Nabeel Shamsan (Deputy Minister of the Ministry of Civil Service and Director of the Civil Service Modernization Project) made the case for employing women in the public sector. 

Overall, the gender session tabled three main messages: 1) In order to provide health and education services to women, the public sector needs to make sure that it employs women in sufficient numbers.  To this end, the public sector needs to apply a gender perspective when designing public sector down-sizing measures; 2)  The private sector can be an important sector for women's economic participation and economic growth.  Hence, the government can play a role in facilitating women's entrepreneurship; 3) Women's participation in decision-making is important towards promoting good governance.  It was suggested that a women's quota may be important to facilitate women's political participation.  Women and men participants also called for the establishment of a Women's Ministry.

Additional information:

"Gender and Development in Yemen: Women in the Public Sphere" - Background paper (.pdf)
Also in Arabic (.pdf)