United Nations Under-Secretary-General and UN Women Executive Director Sima Bahous concluded a three-day visit to Jordan focused on advancing women’s economic empowerment and political participation and supporting the implementation of the country’s Political, Economic, and Public Sector Modernization Vision.
During the visit, Ms. Bahous met with H.E. Walid Masri, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Local Administration; H.E. Wafa Bani Mustafa, Minister of Social Development and Chair of the Inter-Ministerial Committee for Women’s Empowerment, together with members of the Committee, including the Ministers of Labour, Transport, Education, Health, Youth and Environment, as well as the Minister of State for Foreign Affairs; H.E. Abdullah Nsour, Deputy Speaker of the Senate, together with members of the Senate’s Women’s Committee; H.E. Mazen Al-Qadi, Speaker of the House of Representatives, together with parliamentary committee chairs; and H.E. Dima Jweihan, Acting Secretary-General of the Jordanian National Commission for Women.
Discussions recognized Jordan’s progress in placing women’s empowerment at the heart of its Political, Economic, and Public Sector Modernization Vision. Recent legislative and policy reforms have strengthened women’s workplace protections, economic opportunities, and political participation. The new Local Administration Law, for example, provides for women to hold at least 30 per cent of seats on municipal and governorate councils.
With this strong foundation in place, attention now turns to accelerating implementation and ensuring that legislative and policy gains lead to measurable progress in women’s employment, leadership, and participation.
UN Women reaffirmed its commitment to supporting Jordan by drawing on the full breadth of its global expertise – combining technical and normative assistance, upstream policy advice, support for financing gender equality initiatives, global good practices, and gender data to turn reforms into results. This reflects the approach set out in UN Women’s Strategic Plan and, consistent with UN 2.0, places stronger data and evidence at the centre of policy design, implementation, and accountability.
Women’s employment in technology was a particular focus of the visit. Information and communication technology is among the sectors prioritized under the Economic Modernization Vision for its potential to drive growth and create quality employment. Women account for around 30 per cent of Jordan’s ICT workforce but hold only 21 per cent of leadership positions, according to the Information and Communications Technology Association of Jordan.
At Maysalward Games, a Jordanian mobile-game developer and signatory to the Women’s Empowerment Principles, Ms. Bahous met women developers and observed live demonstrations of game development, coding, testing, and software for three-dimensional printing. She heard directly about their routes into the sector, the technical skills their work requires, and the support needed to progress into senior technical and leadership roles.
Ms. Bahous also met technology-sector leaders and representatives of companies that have signed the Women’s Empowerment Principles. Their exchange focused on connecting education and skills with employment, retaining women in the sector, and creating clear pathways for advancement.
Jordan leads the Arab region in adopting the Women’s Empowerment Principles, with close to 300 signatory companies representing more than 100,000 employees. UN Women supports participating companies with practical tools, technical advice, and Gender Action Plans. It has also supported the development of Jordan’s newly adopted National Gender Equality Seal for the private sector, designed to translate commitments into measurable institutional practice.
Ms. Bahous also met representatives of Jordanian civil society and the women’s movement for an exchange on their priorities and recommendations.
In a meeting with development partners, Ms. Bahous thanked them for their longstanding support for gender equality and UN Women’s work in Jordan and discussed sustaining momentum behind recent reforms through continued partnership and investment.
