Euro-Mediterranean Women’s Foundation: Local perspectives from the South on Gender equality

The Euro-Mediterranean Women’s Foundation analyses women’s local realities and public policies though consultations and dialogues at a grass-roots level; it sets up local clusters of gender equality actors every year. The Foundation lately published a document which presents the diagnoses and some findings and conclusions of the local clusters in Oran (Algeria), Giza (Egypt), Irbid (Jordan), Mount Lebanon (Lebanon), Marrakech – Safi (Morocco), West Bank (Palestine) and Sousse and Monastir (Tunisia). They found out that in these regions women’s participation and their decision-making position in public and private life is still insufficient. There is a lack of political awareness, training and preparation among women in local communities. The role of rural and countryside women is ignored. Violence against women in different cases is not condemned. The local cluster’s leaders of these countries have mobilised to change this reality, encouraging projects for the promotion of women’s efficient political participation; they want to help women to play a more effective role in the society’s development, to raise awareness on violence against women or child marriage, involving the organizations, as well as media and local authorities.