Arab Women Connect (arabwomenconnect.org) was launched by the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM) as part of a strategy to enable women politically, socially and economically. This pioneering project aims to explore the potentials and applications of new information and communication technology for Arab women’s empowerment.
The Arab Women Connect website contains studies, reports, news and statistics on women in the Arab world. There are also two online databases. The first is a comprehensive online database of local women’s NGOs and government agencies. The second database is a list of experts in gender and development, media, new information technology, advocacy, project formulation and management and strategic planning and analysis.
UNIFEM focuses on three main areas of immediate concern:
• Strengthening women’s economic rights and empowering women to enjoy secure livelihoods;
• Engendering governance and leadership that increase women’s participation in the decision-making processes that shape their lives;
• Promoting women’s human rights to eliminate all forms of violence against women and transform development into a more peaceful, equitable and sustainable process.
Women’s organizations in Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Palestine, Syria, Yemen, UAE, and Qatar contributed information to the creation of the website. Arab Women Connect hopes that many groups will benefit from their initiative including NGOs, government institutions, researchers, policymakers and students.
