Due to COVID-19 situation, and in conjunction with its presidency of the G20, Alnahda convened its third and last webinar that was remotely attended by interested and specialists from the eastern region.

The meeting started with a welcome speech presented by HRH Princess Moudi Bint Khalid, Board of Directors Chairman of Alnahda. During her speech, HRH explained the importance of such dialogues which is to obtain the largest number of recommendations that will hopefully have a significant impact in the design of policies related to women’s economic empowerment.

This was followed by a speech from the regional partner for the third series of national dialogues presented by HH Princess Abeer bint Faisal bin Turki, Board of Trustees Chair of the Eastern Region Council for Social Responsibility.

After that, Ms. Rasha Alturki, Executive Director of Alnahda, presented an overview of the organization as the leader of the W20.

This was followed by an overview of W20 in 2020 and the priorities of the presidency delivered by Dr. Thoraya Obaid, President of W20 and member of Alnahda Board of Directors.

The Secretary General of the Family Affairs Council and the Deputy Dean of the College of Arts at King Saud University Dr. Hala Al-Tuwaijri gave a presentation on the national strategic plan for women empowerment.

Then, the first dialogue session entitled (the current situation of Saudi women in the context of W20 areas of interest: Labor market and technical inclusion) was presented by Ms. Hind Al Zahed, Ministry of Human Resources and Social Development, Ms. Tasneem Alghamdi, Ministry of Human Resources and Social Development, and Ms. Dima Al Yahya, consultant on innovation and digital economy. The session was moderated by: Jawaher Alsudairy, Alnahda.

The second session discussed the current situation of Saudi women in the context of W20 areas of interest: Financial and entrepreneurship inclusion. It was presented by Ms. Nour Al-Abdulkarim – Social Development Bank, Ms. Afnan Albabtain – Monshaat, and Ms. Amal Dukhan – Global Entrepreneurship Network. This session was moderated by Ms. Salma Alrashid – Alnahda.

In the third session, Dr. Aseel Almansour from the General Authority for Statistics and Dr. Maymouna Alkhalil from the National Observatory of Women and Ms. Jawaher Alsudairy from Alnahdha discussed the monitoring and follow-up mechanisms. This session was moderated by Rasha Alturki from Alnahda. The meeting concluded by opening the floor for questions and answers.

It is worth mentioning that this series aims to cast some light on the priorities of Saudi women and their economic empowerment. This, indeed, would contribute to the creation of policies that would affect financial and technical, labor market, and entrepreneurship inclusion. These dialogues were initially launched in Riyadh, then they were implemented for the second time in Jeddah and finally they were launched in the eastern region. The outputs of these dialogues will be displayed remotely through Zoom on Wednesday 8 July, 2020.

To watch the recoded webinar (First day):