/ Sunday, December 15, 2019 / Categories: Events, PMA, Ads, Announcements The Palestine Monetary Authority (PMA) and the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN Women) announce the results of Gender Audit for PMA Date: 11 December 2019, Ramallah and Gaza, Palestine The PMA and UN Women announced today the results of Participatory Gender Audit (PGA) of the PMA, through a joint press conference held in Ramallah connecting with Gaza through the video conference today, with the participation of the International Labor Organization (ILO) in Palestine. The results were presented in the presence of the Governor of the PMA, H.E Mr. Azzam Shawwa, the Special Representative of UN Women Palestine Office, Ms. Maryse Guimond, and the Country Representative of ILO in Palestine, Mr. Munir Kalibo, as well as several partner institutions, businesswomen and men, representatives of international organizations, general directors of some banks, Micro Finance Institutions, media and directors of PMA. The major results of the audit highlighted an action plan that PMA developed as part of the audit to support women’s participation in the Palestinian economy as part of the Financial Inclusion Strategy, along with its commitment towards mainstreaming gender and achieving gender equality in the PMA and the banking sector as a whole. This approach will play a major role in the inclusivity and sustainability of the development processes, where data has shown that the number of PMA employees are 339, where females form 30%, which is a good percentage in comparison with other sectors, where PMA will be providing the needed incentives for them equally. Within the framework of UN Women Strategic Plan, to enhance women income security, decent work and economic autonomy, through working on promoting national policies for decent work and economic opportunities for women in Palestine, UN Women and ILO are jointly implementing a regional programme titled “Promoting Productive Employment and Decent Work for Women in Egypt, Jordan and Palestine”, funded by Sweden, where the programme aims within the period 2019-2022 to support women engage in better quality of job opportunities, access protection in the workplace, equal access to professional development, family social protection, and integration in the society. The participating UN Agencies adopt a number of tools and methodologies to enhance gender mainstreaming in all development sectors, including the PGA, which is a tool developed by ILO to assess services, laws and internal policies of institutions, especially the private sector, and the extent of mainstreaming gender in the workplace. H. E Mr. Azzam Shawwa, the Governor of the Palestine Monetary Authority, praised the role of PMA in advancing gender equality and women’s empowerment, indicating that PMA conducted the Palestine international banking conference in 2017 dedicated for empowering women in banking to advocate for and reinforce collective efforts of all partners to create and enabling environment for women’s empowerment in banking and financially as a whole. He added, “PMA is committed with the gender audit results and recommendations, especially that it aligns with the governance framework, where these will be reflected in the PMA new strategy for 2020-2024 that was newly endorsed, we will make sure that women will enjoy their rights, we have women in different mid and high levels in PMA and we have witnessed an increase in the number of women employees, where we have open and equal opportunities for professional development for both men and women at PMA”. H.E acknowledged the work of UN Women and its role in ensuring gender mainstreaming in all aspects of development and thanked UN Women staff and consultants as well as the PMA audit team that was created along the process for their support and contribution. Ms. Maryse Guimond, the Special Representative of UN Women Palestine Office, affirmed the commitment of UN Women to work with strategic partners to promote effective participation of women in the economy, through access to equal opportunities to decision-making positions, inclusive products and financial services that address women’s needs and reduces the impact of social and economic challenges. She also indicated that investing in women and girls in their families, societies and the economy as a whole contribute to eliminating gender-based discrimination and violence. Mr. Munir Kleibo, Country Representative of ILO in Palestine explained that the PGA is one of the tools developed by ILO globally to promote gender equality and gender mainstreaming in the workplace, as this audit is also known as social audit, which is distinguished from financial audits, where challenges and gaps are identified and thus recommendations are made in order to make the changes that contribute to achieving gender equality. It is worth mentioning that the participatory audit from a gender perspective seeks to enhance the process of individual and institutional learning regarding gender mainstreaming in a practical and effective way at work, and comes within the framework of UN Women’s cooperation with PMA and the private sector, especially the banking sector in Palestine in order to enhance the corporates’ social responsibility, to increase women's participation in the labor market, and to provide financial services to women entrepreneurs and support them within the framework of the financial inclusion strategy in Palestine. For more information, please follow #Work4Women and #DecentWork, as well Twitter accounts of ILO, Sweden, UN Women and PMA. Previous Article Palestine Monetary Authority Issues Instructions to Banks Concerning Investment in Projects that Contribute to Economic Growth Next Article Palestine's National Committee for Financial Inclusion Holds Its Third Meeting Print 2721