Cawtar's Publications

This Eighth Arab Women Development Report (AWDR) on Women in the Arab World and digitalization in post Covid-19 era addresses digitalization as a development mechanism, and as an important tool for the inclusive empowerment of women in the Arab Region. It takes into consideration the fact that the issue of digitalization in the Arab Region is still not addressed as a development mechanism that can significantly contribute to the overall empowerment of women and tries to bridge the gap. Through this report, the Centre of Arab Women for Training and Research (CAWTAR) aspires to document and highlight development initiatives that have been successful in reducing inequalities in the technological field, in relation with achieving the Sustainable Development Goals, and with a focus on the critical role of digital transformation in improving the lives of women and their communities in the Arab World.

The 8th AWDR Report is supported by the Arab Gulf Program for Development (AGFUND). CAWTAR issued a ‘Call for Report Coordinators’ to develop papers on ‘Arab Women and Digitalization after the COVID-19 pandemic’. Ten expert papers were selected as background for this report. The papers highlight the Impact of Covid-19 on Women in the MENA Region, and how the lockdown has accelerated the digitalization of public and private sector activities in the countries, including countries in the Arab Region. The themes revolve around four main topics:

Distance learning, and the digitalization of Education

e-marketing, e-finance, and entrepreneurship

Digital technology to address GBV and VAW

NGOs/WLOs using online platforms to achieve SDGs