At least 45,000 new jobs for women are expected to be created across the Arab region in the coming year, a senior UN Women official has confirmed. The announcement came during a panel session held alongside the ‘Second World Summit for Social Development’, which is taking place at the Qatar National Convention Centre (QNCC) until 6 November.
Speaking at the session titled ‘Solutions Spotlight – Jobs, Skills & Care: Scaling Inclusive Employment for People-Centred Development’, Dr Moez Doraid, UN Women Regional Director for the Arab States, said the jobs creation target forms part of the organisation’s ‘Surging Women’s Employment Initiative’ (SWEI) programme, which is being delivered with international partners.
Doraid stressed that improving women’s access to employment is a priority across the region. “One of UN Women’s top priorities in the Arab region is to solve one of the most persistent problems, both in this region and globally, which is the low levels of women’s labour force participation. It’s a global problem, but in the Arab countries, it takes one of its most extreme manifestations: For the past three decades, women’s labour force participation in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) has stagnated at around 20%. That is nearly half the global levels.”
He noted that, through SWEI, UN Women aims to lift women’s labour force participation by “5 percentage points in five years” and highlighted the “persistent paradox” seen in much of the region, where high educational achievements among women contrast sharply with low employment figures.
Despite the significant increase in educational attainment in recent years, including a rise in female literacy and higher representation of women in universities, employment levels remain disproportionately low. “Women’s capabilities have advanced because women’s illiteracy has been halved in the last two decades. Today, there are more women than men enrolled in universities, and 57% of STEM graduates in the MENA region are women. However, when looking at the workforce, the average labour force participation rate for women across the region is only 20%. There are notable exceptions, such as Qatar, where the participation rate is 63%, nearly three times the regional average,” he said.
Doraid also pointed to emerging growth areas for women in the region, noting increasing involvement in science and technology and business ventures. “Women are increasingly represented in STEM education and entrepreneurship. For instance, in the MENA region, the percentage of women tech entrepreneurs surpasses that of Silicon Valley. Additionally, a significant growth area lies in the green economy, which addresses both environmental challenges and enhances women’s employment opportunities.”
He also highlighted opportunities within the care economy, where women are already a majority. “And it covers the entire spectrum of the value chain, empowering women from access to finance to sales, including both in domestic and external markets. The third is the care economy because women constitute the majority of employees in this dimension, as well as care services, such as day care services. And we are doing that by addressing three dimensions of both overcoming obstacles and enabling women.”
According to Doraid, SWEI’s strategy includes macroeconomic policy reform, legal work, and social norm-change programmes. He referenced the ‘Dare to Care’ initiative, which encourages men to take greater responsibility at home. Women currently spend “4.7 hours” a day on unpaid domestic work compared with “one hour” for men, he noted.
He urged governments and partner organisations to support enabling policy environments, legal protections, and cultural attitudes that help women balance work and family demands.
After the panel, Doraid shared his remarks again on LinkedIn. In his post, he reiterated the scale of the initiative and its goals. “Women in the region remain vastly underrepresented in the labour market, despite being among the most educated in the world. SWEI tackles this paradox head-on, working to create 500,000 new jobs within five years and increase women’s employment by 5% by 2030.”
He also highlighted the initiative’s coalition of supporters, noting backing from governments and global institutions. “The initiative combines evidence-based policy reform, legal change, and social norm transformation – backed by powerful partnerships with Arab governments, the EU, Spain, Germany, and the Islamic Development Bank. It also builds on positive momentum across the region, where 72% of fathers express a desire to spend more time with their children and 86% of policymakers support extended paternity leave – strong indicators of evolving mindsets toward shared care responsibilities,” he said.
Doraid added that SWEI is placing particular attention on sectors already seeing strong female involvement. “SWEI drives growth where women already lead in the Care, Green, and STEM Economies, and partners with over 700 private sector companies under the Women’s Empowerment Principles (WEPs) to open new pathways for women’s leadership, entrepreneurship, and financial inclusion.”
The planned jobs and policy measures represent one of the most ambitious regional efforts to date to increase women’s participation in the workforce, in line with broader social and economic development priorities across the Arab world.
