UN Women has signed a memorandum of understanding with the Bahraini Supreme Council for Women Sunday for coordination and preparation for a new global award for the empowerment of women. The signing ceremony was held in Bahrain Sunday and was attended by Her Royal Highness Princess Sabeeka Bint Ibrahim Al Khalifa, the President of the Bahraini Supreme Council for Women, Yannick Glemarec, UN Women Deputy Executive Director and Mohammad Naciri, UN Women Regional Director for Arab States. 

The award aims to ensure the commitment of countries, official agencies and organizations through their legislative, public and private sector authorities or civil society to adopt non-discriminatory policies against women, to achieve equal opportunities between women and men in various fields and to show appreciation for institutional and individual efforts and initiatives for gender mainstreaming. The opportunity to compete for the award will be opn to public, private and civil society institutions and individuals all over the world. Details will be announced at a later date. 

"The award will provide an opportunity to engage on a larger discussion on how we can all contribute, in our individual and institutional capacity to equality. It will enable us to review what works well at the global level, with the overall aim of both codifying lessons learned and disseminating the best practices identified to accelerate gender equality and women empowerment," Said Mr. Glemarac in a statement at the press conference following the signing ceremony. 

During the signing ceremony, Her Royal Highness commented that the global launch of the award coincides with the 10 year anniversary of the launch of the National Edition of the Award. Her Royal Highness also mentioned that it is a privilege for the Kingdom of Bahrain to globalize this experience allowing other countries to benefit from the success the award had contributed on the national level. 

“The Arab Region still has a long way to go to achieve gender equality and end gender-based discrimination. However, steps like this award, and other small and big steps taken by Arab countries to empower women and raise awareness on the importance of this empowerment make us optimistic about the future of gender equality in the region,” stated Mr. Naciri.