Gender and Economics

General information

InnovAgroWoMed” is ready to be launched

General information

Acronym:  InnovAgroWoMed

Open call for tenders: Project Manager for the InnovAgroWoMed project

Full title:  Social Innovation in the Agri-food sector for Women’s Empowerment in the Mediterranean sea basin

Thematic objective:  Promotion of social inclusion and the fight against poverty

Priority:  Professionalization of young people (NEETS) and women

Countries:  Italy, Spain, Tunisia, Palestine

Project duration (months) : 36 - Start date: 25 December 2019  / End date: 24 December 2022

About the project

On both sides of the Mediterranean Sea, there is a common trend in terms of low women empowerment and participation in the labor force. InnovAgroWoMed project aims at boosting women labor participation and entrepreneurship, by leveraging on the potential of the agri-food sector - an industry closely linked to the cultural identity of the Mediterranean region - and showing a significant level of untapped potential in terms of innovation and growth. While countries such as Spain and Italy feature comparatively high levels of growth in the agri-food sector, albeit, with very low levels of women participation, the MENA agricultural business is still fragmented, and with low women employment. This project will focus on two European regions (Valencia, Spain and Sicily, Italy) and two MENA areas (Béja and Médenine in Tunisia, and Palestine), identified as suitable for the implementation and scaling up of a sustainable value model in the agri-food sector: Rural Social Innovation (RSI). RSI redefines the boundaries between organizations and the community, addressing broader societal challenges by seeking economic, social and environmental sustainability, balancing tradition and innovation and explicitly seeking community development at the local level. 

What will be improved?

The innovative RSI model, tailored according to the local needs, ensures that the women after the intensive training programs will have the necessary skills to be competitive and more prepared to find a job or become entrepreneurs. This will allow them not only to find a job but also a “sustainable” and desirable job as it will transform them into real agents of change in the rural contexts they live in, reducing poverty and boosting social inclusion. 

Who will benefit?

• 140 young women, especially NEETS, in rural areas of Italy, Palestine, Spain and Tunisia
• Local agri-food businesses

Expected  achievements

• 140 women trained in marketable skills in the agri-food sector
• 4 job profiles defined according to the needs of the agri-food sector
• 4 coaching and mentoring programmes
• 4 traineeship programmes for women on Rural Social Innovation
• 2 agro-business fora to match job profiles with local business needs
• 4 agreements for a local agri-food stakeholder network to help match between job offers and demand
• 112 women with a sustainable job by the end of the project

Partnership

The project involves five (05) organizations from four (04) different countries (Italy, Spain, Palestine, Tunisia) including the University of Rome Tor Vergata (UTV) in quality of Leading Beneficiary, a European study and initiative center (CESIE) Jóvenes hacia la solidaridad y el desarrollo (Jovesolides), the Palestinian Business Women Association (Asala), and Center of Arab Women for Training and Research (CAWTAR).

Role	Name of the organisation	Country	Region
Lead beneficiary	UNIVERSITY OF ROME TOR VERGATA (UTV)	Italy	Lazio
Partner 1	CESIE	Italy	Sicilia
Partner 2	Jóvenes hacia la solidaridad y el desarrollo (JOVE)	Spain	Comunidad Valenciana
Partner 3	Centre of Arab Women for Training and Research (CAWTAR)	Tunisia	Tunis
Partner 4	Palestinian businesswomen's association (ASALA)	Palestine	West Bank

For more information about ENI CBC Med program - Link : http://www.enicbcmed.eu/home

For more information about InnoAgroWoMed project – link : http://www.enicbcmed.eu/projects/innovagrowomed

Facebook : Innovagrowomed – ENI CBC Med Project

Twitter : Innovagrowomed – ENI CBC Med Project

Despite the clear links between labor force and economic growth, Arab women’s work skills are amongst the world’s most under-utilized resource as women are often still excluded from paid work, and many do not utilize their skills in productive activities. Due to the essential relevance of economics to all aspects of life, CAWTAR encourages policy dialogue on a wide range of topics concerning Arab women’s economic participation and strives to better equip women to participate effectively in national economic development by securing productive and sustainable employment.

Different projects and components of projects are being implemented to achieve a better integration of women in the economic processes.​

Call for Audiovisual production agency for the design and production

The Center of Arab Women for Training and Research (CAWTAR), Tunisian partner of the InnovAgroWoMed project , is looking for an audiovisual production agency for the design and production of two (02) awareness spots (one audio and one audiovisual spot)

The deadline for submission of tenders is Monday, October 5th, 2020 at 3 p.m. (Tunis local time)

For more information : www.enicbcmed.eu/innovagrowomed-looking-audiovisual-production-agency

Interested parties are invited to contact CAWTAR at hedi.finance@cawtar.org to get the tender dossier

Open call for tenders: technical assistance for the InnovAgroWoMed project

Date : 29 July 2020

CAWTAR is looking for expert(s) in Communication, Networking and Awareness Raising.

Deadline for submitting offers is 20th of August 2020 at 01:00 PM (Tunis time).

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Tunisia: InnovAgroWoMed is looking for researchers in women empowerment and agri-food sector

Date : 23 June 2020

CAWTAR is is looking for researchers in women empowerment and agri-food sector to coordinate and implement the WP3 "research for the development of the training model.

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Spain: InnovAgroWoMed is looking for a researcher in the agri-food sector

Date : 21 May 2020

Deadline for submitting offers is 1st of July 2020.

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Tunisia: the InnovAgroWoMed project is looking for an external auditor

Date : 18 May 2020

The deadline for the receipt of bids is 19 June 2020.

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InnovAgroWoMed project is looking for experts in the fields of project management and financial management

Date : 28 April 2020

The deadline for the submission of applications is May 1st 2020.

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Open call for a job vacancy : Social Media Manager for the InnovAgroWoMed project

Date : 15 January 2020

CAWTAR is looking for a social media manager to manage the social Media accounts of the InnovAgroWoMed Project in close collaboration with the Communication Team Leader Deadline for submitting offers is 03th of February 2020 at 01:00 PM (Tunis time). For More information Contact Mail: info@cawtar.org

Open call for a job vacancy : Communication Team Leader for the InnovAgroWoMed project

Date : 03 January 2020

CAWTAR is looking for a communication team leader to lead, monitor and coach the communication team (WP2) of the InnovAgroWoMed Project in strong collaboration with communication officer of the ENI CBC Med Programme Deadline for submitting offers is 15th of January 2020 at 01:00 PM (Tunis time). For More information Contact Mail: info@cawtar.org

Open call for a job vacancy : Project Manager for the InnovAgroWoMed project

Date : 20 December 2019

CAWTAR is looking for a project manager to ensure the achievement of InnovAgroWoMed objectives and delivery of project outputs across the four countries in close consultation with project lead beneficiary, stakeholders and partners. Deadline for submitting offers is 5th of January 2020 at 01:00 PM (Tunis time). For More information Contact Mail: info@cawtar.org

Improving women’s access to health and legal services in Tunisia, Syria and Yemen, Egypt and Sudan

Status : Completed
Description : Achieving gender equality and countering deficiencies in access to services for women is a challenge for all states but particularly for those in the Middle East. Women in the region encounter serious problems of basic health care, educational access, income poverty and access to financial services (credits, business counseling and technical, vocational and managerial programmes), as well as suffering from exposure to violence, limited legal rights, and lack of access to justice ( i.e. courts, legal counseling).

Poor services and women-unfriendly environments discourage women from seeking advice or support or even from claiming their basic legal rights. As a result, many women and girls are not encouraged to use their capabilities on an equal footing with men.

Despite the increasing political commitment to improving women’s access to public services, and the growing number of legislative reforms aimed at achieving gender equity and a better quality of life for women, major gender gaps continue to exist as regards the equal access to basic services and the quality of services received by men and women.

Field studies funded by AGFUND and implemented by CAWTAR in Tunisia, Syria and Jordan observed that female civil servants are very often left behind when it comes to capacity building programmes leading to career promotion. Even though the number of women in public services has considerably increased, they are not sufficiently represented in decision-making positions and often lack skills to deliver good quality services. On the other hand, men generally have a limited knowledge (often ignorance) of gender issues. Consequently, they are not able to tailor gender-based services delivery strategies.

This project builds upon the lessons learnt and recommendations of the aforementioned field studies funded by AGFUND.

Project sheet

Alleviating Poverty Among Women through facilitating their access to and control of resources and services

Status :  Completed
Description : Project title “Alleviating Poverty Among Women in Rural Areas Through Facilitating their Access to and Control of Resources including Information, Social protection and Services”.

Short title : Empowering Disadvantaged Women to Access Public Services

Partner : OPEC Fund for International Development(OFID)

Covered countries : Mauritania, Sudan and Yemen

Duration : 2010-2012

General objectives :
Contribute to the empowerment of women in rural areas, formal and informal sectors through facilitating their access to and control of economic resources including information, social protection and services.

Specific objectives : The capacity of NGOs, local associations and cooperatives as strategic intermediaries will be build/reinforced to be able to:

• Collect and analyze information on disadvantages women in their area, both in terms of needs for public services, their ability to access those services and specific difficulties inhibiting them from obtaining public services;
• Use and disseminate relevant information as a strategic tool for change and empowerment and become the effective voice of the groups of disadvantaged women;
• Train groups of disadvantaged women and women leaders on self-empowerment skills to be able to speak out and claim their right to public services;
• Increase awareness among public agencies for better integration of gender equality and equity and social protection in the policies and frameworks related to public services, particularly of access of disadvantaged women.

Achievements :

• Organization of a launching seminar with the expert teams from the 3 countries;
• Implementation of a desk review in the 3 countries;
• A survey on women´s access to services is implemented in two localities in Mauritania and Sudan;
• Aguide of institutions offering services targeting women is developed in 2 countries.

Project sheet

Regional Economic Empowerment of Women Project (REEWP)

Status : Completed
Description : This 3 years project funded by CIDA and OXFAM Quebec aims to increase the participation of women (including women aged 18 to 35) in the economic development of the four target countries: the West Bank and Gaza strip, Jordan, Lebanon and Tunisia.

CAWTAR is part of this project as a partner in order to offer its expertise as well as to provide technical assistance in terms of non-financial services.

It is implemented in 2 regions in Tunisia; Wed Sbaihia (Governorate of Zaghouan) and Ain El Baya (Governorate of Jendouba) through 2 local NGOs under CAWTAR’s supervision. Advocacy for the empowerment of women in rural areas and capacity building of the local actors and stakeholders will result in an environment that is more conducive to women’s economic empowerment.

Project sheet

Gender Equality and Workers’ Rights in the Informal Economies of Arab States

Status : Completed
Description : The nature of employment is rapidly and dramatically changing around the world, including in Arab States. The increasing flexibility of labour markets at global and local levels has led to a rise of informal employment, self-employment and atypical forms of employment. This process, termed as informalization, has been accompanied by an increase of insecurity and poverty, particularly for women. Official statistics, laws, policies, and programmes, however, are not sufficiently capturing the informalization of jobs, thereby impeding the much needed extension of social protection to informal workers.

To fill the gap, the ILO and CAWTAR launched in January 2007 a regional initiative on Gender Equality and Workers’ Rights in the Informal Economies of Arab States. This two-year regional initiative aims to mainstream Arab States into the current global thinking on informal employment using a perspective of gender equality and workers’ rights. It consists of three interlinked components: research, knowledge sharing and awareness raising. The project focuses on select Arab States (Lebanon, Syria, Yemen, occupied Palestinian territories, Jordan, Egypt and Tunisia).

Project sheet

Gender Economic Research and Policy Analyses (GERPA)

Status : Ongoing
Description : GERPA is a World Bank/CAWTAR initiative whose purpose is to promote quality research work that is policy relevant and that can bridge the gap between policy and action.

The GERPA vision is to build on established scholars, policy making economic research institutions think – tanks and university department by providing incentives and mechanisms to make gender sensitive research a part of the policy discourse over time and to support it within so-called “Gender neutral” economic research.

Project sheet

Regional Barriers Assessment and Organizational Profile of Women Business Associations

Status : Achieved
Description : Within the framework of its mission to enhance the social, economic, and political empowerment of women in the Arab world, the Center of Arab Women for Training and Research (CAWTAR) is partnering with the Center for International Private Enterprise (CIPE) to conduct a research project assessing the regional barriers facing women’s business associations in three MENA sub-regions covered by the project: North Africa, the Levant and the Gulf.

This regional research project is part of a book CIPE is producing containing thorough analyses of the environments in which women’s business associations operate, as well as profiles of the successes of selected women’s associations, in the entire world. Each regional chapter of the book will contain two types of documents. The first document in each chapter will be a regional barriers analysis that outlines challenges faced by women’s business associations in the given region, as well as the positive role that women have had on economic development and political reform. The second document in each chapter will be an organizational profile of a successful women’s business association.

Project sheet