Climate, Gender, and Food Security Resilience – Good Practices from the Middle East and North Africa

Join us for a live event on International Women's Day in partnership with the UNDP Regional Bureau for Arab States that will bring together thought leaders to discuss the nexus of climate action, food security and gender equality in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. The discussion will center around taking stock of progress that has been made in setting up gender-responsive and transformative climate interventions in Arab countries. Speakers will also share experiences and lessons, while highlighting good practices on gender equality, women empowerment in food security and climate action contributing to the achievement of the 2030 Agenda.

In the MENA region, the climate change debate connects with discussions about social vulnerability, gender inequality and wider instability. Global and regional research show that women and girls face increased vulnerabilities to climate change. Cultural gender norms and practices resulting from existing structures and unbalanced power relationships place women and girls at a disadvantage, in terms of exposure to adverse climate impacts and adaptive capacity. Women tend to be overly burdened with unpaid care work in the region compared to men, and when disasters strike, women are thus less likely to survive and more likely to be injured. Similarly, women and girls are likely to have diminished decision-making within the household and community thus are less engaged in policy formulation or community decision making. Around 23% of employed women in the region are in agriculture and depend on farming and natural resources for livelihoods and are thus impacted by droughts, floods and declining harvest resulting from climate change.

World Bank MENA Vice-President Ferid Belhaj and Assistant Secretary General of the UNDP Regional Bureau for Arab States Kanni Wignaraja will be giving opening remarks.

• Ferid Belhaj, World Bank MENA Vice-President, Opening remarks

  Ferid Belhaj has been the World Bank Group Vice President for Middle East and North Africa since July 1, 2018. Prior to this, Belhaj served 15 months as the Chief of Staff of the President of the World Bank Group. From 2012 to 2017, Belhaj was World Bank Director for the Middle East, in charge of World Bank work programs in Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Iraq and Iran, based in Beirut, Lebanon. A Tunisian national, Belhaj joined the Bank in 1996 as Senior Counsel in the Legal Department, managing a number of legal and judicial reform projects. He also served as Bank Counsel for countries, including Egypt, Morocco, Iran, Algeria and Thailand.

• Meskerem Brhane, Regional Director, Sustainable Development, Middle East and North Africa, World Bank, Moderator

  Mesky Brhane is Regional Director for the Sustainable Development Department in the World Bank's Middle East and North Africa (MNA) Region. She is responsible for setting the policy direction, fostering partnerships and ensuring the integrated delivery of country and regional programs of the Sustainable Development Practice Group in MNA, consistent with the regional/country strategies. The Department's sectoral areas of focus include agriculture and food, climate change, environment, natural resources and the blue economy, social inclusion and sustainability, water, urban, disaster risk management, resilience, and land. She oversees a lending portfolio of $8 billion and a team of 140 professionals based in Washington DC and 8 country offices. She holds a doctorate in Political Science from the University of Chicago and has over 25 years of experience in international development working in the Middle East, East Asia, South Asia and Africa Regions.

• Claire Kfouri, Manager, Development Effectiveness Unit, Middle East and North Africa, World Bank, Moderator

  Claire A. Kfouri is the Manager for Development Effectiveness at the World Bank Middle East and North Africa Region, where she oversees an active portfolio of over 24 billion USD with cross-cutting focus on sustainable infrastructure, economic reform and social protection for the most vulnerable populations. An environmental engineer by training, Dr. Kfouri was previously the World Bank Program Coordinator for the Mashreq Region and a senior water and sanitation specialist leading large water infrastructure and institutional reform programs in the Middle East, North Africa and South Asia regions.

  A Canadian and Lebanese national, Dr. Kfouri joined the World Bank in 2006 after working in the private sector as a consulting engineer and advisor in the fields of project management and infrastructure development. She holds a PhD in Civil Engineering and Program Management from the University of Maryland, a Masters in Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Cambridge, MA and undergraduate degrees in water resources engineering from the University of Guelph in Ontario, Canada. She can be reached at [email protected]

• Kanni Wignaraja, Assistant Secretary General of the UNDP Regional Bureau for Arab States, Opening remarks

  Ms. Wignaraja joined the Organization in 1990 as the Policy and Evaluation Officer of United Nations Volunteers (UNV) and has worked in various field as well as in UNDP's Headquarters in New York, serving in the Asia and Pacific and the Africa Region. She also served in the Bureau for Development Policy in progressively senior positions, including that of United Nations Resident Coordinator and UNDP Resident Representative in Zambia. She holds a Master's degree in Public Administration (Development Economics) from Princeton University and a Bachelor of Arts (Economics) from Bryn Mawr College, USA.

• Sarah Poole, Deputy Director, Regional Bureau of Arab States, UNDP, Closing remarks

  Prior to this, she was Deputy Director of the Bureau for Programme and Policy Support; Senior Advisor for the Europe and CIS Region; Deputy Resident Representative and Resident Representative a.i. in Turkey; before joining UNDP, Sarah served as the Deputy and Regional Refugee Coordinator with the US State Department's Bureau for Population, Refugees and Migration in Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia and Serbia-Montenegro between 1996-1999; and with USAID's Office of US Foreign Disaster Assistance in Rwanda, Burundi, and Bosnia-Herzegovina from 1994 to 1996. Sarah holds a MSc in Government from the London School of Economics and Political Science, and a BA in Political Science from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor.

• Dr. Nivine El Kabbag, Minister of Social Solidarity, Egypt

  Dr. Nivine El Kabbag is the Minister of Social Solidarity. She has more than 25 years of experience in development policies, social protection, childhood protection, strategic planning, monitoring, and evaluation. She has also served as an adviser in the Ministry of Social Solidarity and Social Protection for social protection since 2015 until June 2018. She has held several positions in international bodies such as UNICEF, the American Development Association, and the American National Council for Women.

• Dr. Yasmine Fouad, Minister of Environment, Egypt

  Dr. Yasmine Fouad is Minister of Environment of the Arabic Republic of Egypt. She holds her MSc in Environmental Science and PhD in Political Science / Euro Mediterranean Studies. She had gained an extensive experience in climate change issues through her diversified work with academic, government and non-government organizations and International organizations. Her expertise demonstrated through her proven record in overall supervision and management of AMCEN, Sustainable Development and Climate Change portfolios. She gained a wealth of coordination, management and operations experience through seven years working in two GEF/UNDP cross cutting capacity development projects in Egypt.

• Dr. Aawatif Hayar, Minister of Solidarity, Morocco

  Dr. Aawatif Hayar is the Minister of Solidarity, Social Integration, and Family. She was President of Hassan II University Casablanca 2019-2021. Since 2016, she has served as the Scientific Advisor of Smart City Expo Casablanca and General Co-Chair of IEEE international Smart Cities She received a "Diplôme d'Etudes Approfondies" in signal processing image and communications and a degree in Engineering in Telecommunications Systems and Networks from ENSEEIHT de Toulouse in 1997. She earned her PhD with honors from Institut National Polytechnique in Toulouse in 2001.

• Hana Al Hashimi, Senior COP28 Negotiator, UAE

  Hana AlHashimi is a senior adviser in the Office of the President of the 73rd Session of the United Nations General Assembly. She leads on environment and climate action, sustainable energy, frontier technologies, and information and communications technologies (ICTs). She also serves as the liaison with the Group of 77 and China. Hana previously served as Happiness Representative, Sustainable Development and Digital Cooperation Expert at the Permanent Mission of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) to the United Nations in New York from 2015 to 2018. Hana holds a Masters of Sciences in International Relations and Diplomacy from Leiden University and the Netherlands Institute for International Relations (Clingendael), and a Bachelors of Commerce in General Management and the Social Context of Business from McGill University in Montreal, Canada.

• Hanan Ahli, Director General of the Federal Competitiveness and Statistics Center, UAE

  Her Excellency Hanan Ahli is the Director of the Federal Competitiveness and Statistics Centre (FCSC), a government entity affiliated with the Ministry of Cabinet Affairs in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). The Centre works on developing and enhancing the UAE's performance in the sectors of global competitiveness, statistics and data through coordination with partners to implement initiatives and define policies of importance to vital sectors across the UAE. The Centre is considered as one of the most important government sources for national data, and for monitoring the competitive performance of the UAE in global reports, and hold the responsibility for the SDGs in the UAE. In her capacity as the Director of FCSC, Hanan looks after a range of policies outlined in the UAE's National Agenda, with a particular focus on supporting gender balance, promoting favorable business regulations, and strengthening the performance in the UAE's public sector.

• AlMaha AlMuhairi, Agripreneur, Inventor and Urban Farmer, UAE

  Aged 17, she had invented her first smart food production growing system FreshFridge Smart Personal Microherb Farm. In 2017 AlMaha received first place in the Think Science 'Smart Systems' category for her debut inventionIn 2020, AlMaha established her Agritech business Mahayas's which specializes in creating local agricultural solutions for regionally based home growers and smallholder farms. Mahaya's Mix Super Potting Soil is the UAE bestselling soil sold online. Recently Almaha received a patent for her latest invention; TerraPod which is a revolution in hybrid plant growth technology. TerraPod is an automated adjustable air pruning planter utilizing passive technology. In 2022, Mahaya's was awarded "Best Arab Startup" at Youth Pitches 2022 UN Climate Change Conference of Youth (COY17).

• Safiya Al-Jabry - the Executive Director of the Small and Micro Enterprise Promotion Service (SMEPS), Yemen

  Safiya Al-Jabry is the Executive Director of the Small and Micro Enterprise Promotion Service (SMEPS), which is a subsidiary of the Social Fund for Development in Yemen. She is also a selected member of the Young Global Leaders under the World Economic Forum. Safiya is experienced in private sector development, rural development and humanitarian work specifically in conflict & fragile settings. Prior to the current position, she was the Deputy Executive Director in a leading national NGO in Yemen working to respond to the humanitarian crisis. Safiya holds a Master's of Science degree in Finance from the University of Southampton in the United Kingdom.

• Reem Alsarraf, Cofounder & Executive Director at MENA Youth Network, Iraq

  Reem is a 22 year old Iraqi climate justice activist, biologist, poet and karateka. She works on raising awareness about climate change and the environmental crisis with an emphasis on youth and women's empowerment in the Middle East & North Africa (MENA region) and globally. She is co-founder and Executive Director of MENA Youth Network, a hub for MENA youth and youth-led organizations to connect, learn and collaborate and to act as a platform where young climate and social justice advocates in the region can coordinate their efforts and share their ideas for positive change. In line with her work, Reem is also the MENA regional youth focal point for the World Food Forum and head of the Iraqi national youth delegation to COP27 & COP28.