The Korea International Cooperation Agency's (KOICA) office in Egypt and the National Council for Women (NCW) recently hosted an annual knowledge sharing seminar titled 'Empower Women, Prosper Together.' The knowledge sharing seminar is a gathering for policy-oriented discourse where government policy makers and practitioners share their first-hand knowledge and experiences from the front of their administration. These government officials are alumni of the KOICA CIAT(Capacity Improvement and Advancement for Tomorrow) programs that deliver multi-year training programmes, including master's degree programmes in various sectors. This year's event was even more special given the collaboration with the NCW. This special edition of the seminar with the NCW marked the closing year of the country training programme and the wrap up of the achievements and feedbacks from the previous action plans and lessons learned, which contributed consequently to building up capacities at the institutional level beyond individual officers. The KOICA is Korean government agency under the Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs dedicated to implementing grant aid programmes. The KOICA aims to combat poverty and support sustainable socio-economic growth in developing countries around the globe. The event was attended by South Korea's Ambassador in Cairo Hong Jin Wook, President of the NCW Maya Morsy, Deputy Assistant to the Minister of Foreign Affairs Hatem Hassouba, and Country Director of the KOICA in Egypt Jinyoung Kim. Morsy welcomed the attendees by saying: "I would like to express my thanks to the genuine efforts of the Korean government for cooperating with the NCW in providing the Country Training Programme for NCW officials over the last three years. The programme has created a unique and strong partnership between the two countries." "This kind of partnerships brings mutual benefits for all, so we can always be ready for new agendas that can be rolled out globally, from which we derive what suits our culture and communities. Through this, we can identify the new terminologies and use them professionally. The more technicalities we know, the more able we can hold discussions," she concluded. A long way to go for women's empowerment In his congratulatory speech, Hong said: "I would like to highlight the importance of the historical relations between Korea and Egypt, especially in the cultural and development fields." "There is a long way ahead of Korea and Egypt in terms of women's empowerment. However, I hope today's seminar will be an opportunity for both countries to learn from each other, so we can witness a bigger growth in our partnership in the coming period," he added. The seminar featured inspiring presentations by four NCW officials who participated in KOICA's Master's Degree Scholarship programme and three-year Country Training programme. The presentations discussed several topics, including financial inclusion programmes, economic empowerment for women, the national project for family development, and national laws and legislations for violence against women. "The Korean and Egyptian governments have achieved a lot on the path of empowering women. We can witness a breakthrough in economic and cultural development," Hassouba highlighted. "When we talk about women empowerment, we have to mention that throughout Egyptian history, women occupied significant leadership positions. However, when we talk about this issue at the moment, we are seeking to achieve women empowerment for the demands of the modern age." For her part, Jinyoung said: "I have witnessed the growing power of accumulation and dissemination of knowledge and the growing impact of that shared knowledge on making progress to achieve women's empowerment and gender equality through Gender Champions." Financial Inclusion National Program Director Angy Al-Yamany — one of the five alumni in the NCW from the KOICA's Master's Degree Scholarship programme — said: "It was great to have an opportunity to share my experience in Korea, not to mention the NCW's signature programme." She also presented one of the NCW's financial inclusion programmes, which is called the 'Village Saving Loan Association' (VSLA). The Capacity Development of Gender-Sensitive Management country training programme was conducted from 2020 to 2022 consecutively, fostering a total of 72 trainees from the NCW. The training was designed to enhance gender awareness of NCW officials and to reinforce gender-responsive organisations and governance capabilities in the Egyptian government. Throughout the training, the participants developed action plans on topics such as women's economic activities, the elimination of female genital mutilation (FGM), and so forth Meanwhile, the KOICA is also cooperating with the NCW in implementing projects for violence against women and women's economic empowerment with two UN agencies — the UNFPA and UN Women. Moreover, the Noura programme was launched with Intissar Al-Sisi's acknowledgement and is the one of KOICA's efforts to support the NCW's activities through the UNFPA. "The Korean government will continue to work with the NCW and the Egyptian government through the KOICA to broaden the scope of partnership and development."
