Middle East and North Africa

Most of the national Constitutions in Arab countries include provisions for the equal rights of women and equality of opportunity in all facets of society. All but Palestine have ratified the Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW). Almost all MENA governments have developed national gender strategies (the exceptions appear to be Egypt, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia) that cover a variety of issues related to the equity and protection of women’s rights, promotion of gender equality, removal of gender discrimination in laws and regulations, increasing the representation of women in political decision-making. They also advocate improving women’s labour market skills, promoting more equal opportunities in employment and, in relevant cases, the right to carry out business activities independently of men’s approval (OECD 2012). 

​

Countries like Jordan, Morocco, Egypt and Bahrain report establishing structures (units) specifically responsible for embedding gender concerns in public sector human resources management processes. Such institutions can promote gender equality in the public sector and provide the necessary sustainability to initiatives aimed at closing the representation gap in public organisations (Cawtar). 

​

There also have been an increasing number of initiatives, led by government bodies, businesswomen's associations and other stakeholders, to promote women as entrepreneurs and to create more awareness of the contributions they make to the national economy.

 

These include publications profiling success stories, documentaries (Lebanon & Palestine), recognition and awards programmes, and conferences on women’s entrepreneurship (OECD, 2012). 

​

South Asia 

India has several programmes and policies aimed at women’s economic empowerment. Most notable amongst them is the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA). This law introduced in 2005 aims to assure employment to rural households, guaranteeing that at least one third of these rural jobs go to women, additionally to providing on-site childcare for children under the age of six years old who appear at the worksite with a parent or caregiver (ActionAid International Secretariat, 2017)

​

Additionally, the Indian state of Maharashtra eliminated restrictions on women’s ability to work in jobs deemed dangerous (World Bank, 2020). At the national level, one of Pakistan’s key programs for female economic empowerment is the Benazir Income Support Program (BISP) that seeks to promote the poorest and most vulnerable women through budgetary plans such as cash transfer programs. Whereas BISP is the main government-led activity, different advancement division programs work on women inclusion in the workplace in Pakistan, counting including Asia Foundation’s Women’s Economic Empowerment Program, Karvaan’s Skills for Market Program and USAID’s Pakistan Gender Equality Program (ActionAid International Secretariat, 2017). 

​

On the political level, Nepal’s new constitutional provision is a promising new opportunity to expand the visibility of women in leadership roles, as well as their participation in decision making as well as in the formulation and implementation of government policies, as 33% of seats are reserved for women in Parliament, and in state and local levels of government (Gulati and Johnson, 2017).  Nepal also introduced a new labor law that prohibits discrimination in the workplace in its various forms; thus allowing women to work at night, and earn the same remuneration for work of equal value (World Bank, 2018).