The UAE has jumped 23 positions to 26th in the 2019 UNDP Gender Equality Index making it the highest ranked Arab country in the world.
This achievement was accomplished just four years after the establishment of the UAE Gender Balance Council in 2015, when the UAE was then ranked 49th in the world. The country is now just one spot away from achieving its goal of becoming one of the world’s top 25 countries in the Index by 2021.
President of the UAE Gender Balance Council Her Highness Shaikha Manal bint Mohammad bin Rashid Al Maktoum, said, “We will work hard to exceed our national target for 2021. Our leadership inspires us to launch new initiatives that will help us continue achieving successes in this field.”
Initiatives such as increasing female representation in the Federal National Council to 50 per cent this year, helped the UAE’s ranking added Shaikha Manal.