Also available in: Arabic , French Media contact: In Washington
Lara Saade
(202) 473-3245
lsaade@worldbank.org WASHINGTON, December 2, 2005 - The World Bank signed today an $800,000 grant agreement with the Tunisia-based Center of Arab Women for training and Research (CAWTAR). CAWTAR was selected as the executing agency for this grant due to its success in developing a gender research and training network for the Arab region. The grant aims at supporting sustainable and diversified capacity in the Arab and Farsi speaking countries to carry out gender related policy research and training for the Sustainable Advancement of Gender equality in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) Region initiative (SAGE/MENA initiative). "Women’s position in society has impacted the performance of the economies of the Middle East and North African countries," said Mustapha Kamel Nabli, World Bank’s Chief Economist for the MENA Region. "Therefore, more needs to be done to understand how policies can impact men and women differently, how these inequalities can affect economic growth and the success of policies, and what governments and civil society must do to advance gender equality for economic development." Under the Grant, a new window is developed through which all research institutions and think tanks can propose and compete for funding to incorporate gender issues in their regular policy research work. The purpose of the grant is to provide "seed money" and incentives to broaden the gender research and policy advice to mainstream institutions which may not have had the opportunity to address the gender dimension of their work due to shortage of funds. "The economies of the MENA region will undergo a range of reforms in the coming years to make them more competitive," said Nadereh Chamlou, Senior Advisor and Gender Coordinator for MENA. "Now is the time to incorporate gender issues as part and parcel of the reform agenda, which affect women’s economic rights and opportunities." The Grant will consist of three components. It will support CAWTAR’s gender network @nged and its gender-specific research and training efforts in Arab countries. Second, it will fund the activities of a similar network for the Farsi speaking countries of Iran, Afghanistan and Tajikstan. Finally, it will allocate resources to mainstream gender issues into high level research and policy analysis which are undertaken by a variety of research and think tanks. "In the past, it has been assumed that gender-neutral policies bring about gender-egalitarian outcomes," added Nabli. "Evidence shows that this is not necessarily the case. As a result, policies may not achieve the expected growth and poverty alleviation outcome which was expected." ### For more information on the World Bank’s work in Tunisia, visit
http://www.worldbank.org/tn | 
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