H.H. Sheikha Fatima bint Mubarak, Chairwoman of the General Women's Union (GWU), Supreme Chairwoman of the Family Development Foundation (FDF) and President of the Supreme Council for Motherhood and Childhood, has launched the National Strategy for Empowerment of Emirati Women in the UAE from 2015-2021.
The launch of the strategy coincides with the celebration of the International Women's Day, and aims to provide a general framework for all federal and local government, private sector, as well as civil society organisations, to set work plans and programmes so as to provide a decent living for women and make them creative in all sustainable and developmental fields.
The new strategy updates earlier strategy launched by Sheikha Fatima in 2002. It is also seen as a fruit of the joint cooperation between GWU and other competent organistions at the federal and local levels, and the civil society organsations.
It was based on the surveys that analyses reality, weakness and strength points in the policies and programmes, which had been implemented by various women empowerment institutions. The workshops were held to discuss the results with partners on the strategic objectives of women priorities and urgent requirements of Emirati women, as well as making them major partners in the achievement of UAE Vision 2021.
Sheikha Fatima said, "The overall surveys have unveiled that the achievements attained by women in all domains exceeded the expectations as the challenges did not pose any obstacle, but they made those in charge to think in a scientific way to discover ways and approaches to overcome them", adding that "All those achievements in a short time in the history of countries impressed the world ." She added, ''We wish that the strategy would contribute to drawing future for our people and country through partnerships with federal and local government departments, civil society organisations, and regional and international organisations." Sheikha Fatima reiterated that, "We also wish that the strategy 2015-2021 would be a framework for setting up work plans which would contribute to position the UAE among the advanced countries in the area of women empowerment."