MENA & Africa Arab International Women's Maritime Forum

Mission
“We mean to promote more female induction into the marine industry in MENA & Africa and empower women decision-making change the world in full collaboration with IMO.”

Background
Annex II in the memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between the International maritime Organization and the Ministry of Transport of Egypt and the Arab Academy for Science and Technology and Maritime Transport (AASTMT) endorses a 'description', an 'objective', and an 'output' for a two-day conference in Egypt for the launch of the Association of Women in Maritime Sector, which has triggered the spark for our conference.
Then the Regional Conference on the Arab International Maritime Women in MENA and Africa "Opportunities and Challenges" was held on 16-17 July 2007. Day two of the conference witnessed the launching of MENA & Africa AIWMF Forum. The conference was divided into 4 sessions, discussed fifteen papers presented by 15 speakers coming from 10 different Arab & Foreign countries, namely: Jordan, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Palestine, United Arab Emirates, Egypt, United Kingdom, Sweden, Austria, and USA.

Objectives
The main objective of the forum is to function as a lobbying and advocacy body on women's concerns at the national, regional and international levels. The forum aims to build on and deepen the IMO gender mainstreaming approach, especially when addressing such challenges as the achievement of women's full participation in leadership and decision-making in the maritime sector in most of the Arab countries

• Laying out a strategy for maritime women empowerment
• Establishing the necessary mechanisms that are necessary for the implementation of the given strategy.
• Capacity building is crucial and the IMO prospective training programs aim to target all levels: decision-makers, middle management and graduate students.
• Conducting seminars in order to upgrade the professional skills of maritime women.
• Networking with other similar women empowerment forums and organizations.

Activities

• The First Seminar on the training program agenda was held on 28^th June - 3 July 2008. Twenty One Ladies in leadership positions from 9 Arab countries in the Maritime profession participated in the seminar. The topic was "Maritime Women's Leadership".
• The Second seminar has been held on 19^th – 23^rd July 2009. Nineteen women candidates from Seven Arab countries have participated in the seminar. The topic was "Women and Marine Environment".
• The Third seminar on the training program agenda was held in 2010 ,on Climatic factors and their impact on water resources. Participants came from eight countries:
  Egypt – Jordan – Syria – Sudan – Libya – Tunis –Nigeria
• The Fourth seminar on the training program agenda 16-9 February 2012 on IT and Port Logistics. Participants came from seven countries:
  Egypt – Jordan –– Sudan – Libya – Tunis – Nigeria – Yemen.
• The Fifth seminar on the training program agenda 17-25 April 2013 entitled: Global Climate Change, Biodiversity and Sustainability: Challenges and Opportunities

Forum Chair
Prof. Layla El-Saeed