In a statement before the United Nations? 61st session of the ?Commission on the Status of Women,? CSW61, in New York, Mona Al Marri, Vice President of the UAE Gender Balance Council, affirmed the UAE’s keenness to work with relevant global entities to empower women and enhance gender balance. She added that the country placed women empowerment among the key areas for achieving foreign aid policy for 2017-2021.

She also said the UAE government had successfully closed the gender gap in education ? the literacy rate of women in the UAE is 95.8 percent and women account for 70 percent of university enrolment.

She noted that women currently represent 46.4 percent of the UAE’s total workforce, occupying 66 percent of public sector jobs, including 30 percent of decision-making jobs. The country, she continued, has 23,000 businesswomen, running projects at a total value of US$15 billion.

The CSW, established in 1946, is a functional commission of the United Nations Economic and Social Council, which specialises in creating global policies on gender balance and strengthening the role of women through the development of recommendations and reports for the Economic and Social Council, ECOSOC, on women?s empowerment.