RIYADH, 10 March 2006 — A senior official of the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) has called for more participation of Saudi women in different sectors.
Nasser Shammout, deputy resident representative of the Riyadh-based UNDP office, said there is need to further the achievements so far made by the Kingdom in the empowerment of women and “promote their role toward an even healthier participation.”
Shammout, speaking on the occasion of the International Women’s Day here on Wednesday, said guidelines can be taken from the National Development Plan and the Arab Human Development report for 2006 to strengthen women’s role.
The UNDP report, also issued on Wednesday, emphasized what Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah has said — empowering women is not only just, but also economically vital.
“The participation of women in national human development is not a question of following healthy international models, but a matter of utilizing half of a nation’s assets in human resources in effectively building up a healthy national economy and truly sustainable human development,” said the report.
The report lauded efforts by the Kingdom to promote gender parity.
“(Women) acquiring full recognition of their rights ... has never been a unilateral effort, but one in which the whole community has participated, and this is the same in the Kingdom,” said Muna Abu Sulayman, UNDP’s national goodwill ambassador.
“We see a lot of efforts being made by the Kingdom to promote women,” she said, adding that part of the problem is related to the awareness of issues. “We need to ensure that the momentum is sustained and is advanced to a level where women are informed of their rights, and can get them,” she said, adding that the theme of this year’s International Women’s Day is the role of women in decision-making.
At the moment, there are 11 women heads of state in different countries. Three nations — Chile, Spain and Sweden — have the world’s highest ratio of women to men in government jobs.
