Ooredoo Supports WEF's Gender Parity Programme

New Report Shows Gender Gap Narrowing Globally - but Significant Progress Still Needed; Ooredoo Continues to Pursue Women Economic Empowerment Initiatives across its Footprint

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Nov 10, 2014, 09:00 ET

DOHA, Qatar, Nov. 10, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- According to the Global Gender Gap Report 2014 from the World Economic Forum, launched this month, the gender gap for economic participation and opportunity now stands at 60% worldwide, having closed by 4% from 56% in 2006 when the Forum first started measuring it. Based on this trajectory, with all else remaining equal, it will take 81 years for the world to close this gap completely.

Ooredoo, which is one of the Partners of the World Economic Forum's Gender Parity Programme, has stressed it will continue to support initiatives designed to close these gaps in markets across its footprint in the Middle East, North Africa and Southeast Asia.

H.E. Sheikh Abdullah Bin Mohammed Bin Saud Al Thani, Chairman, Ooredoo Group, who is a member of the Global Advisory Board of the World Economic Forum's Gender Parity Programme and the World Bank Group Advisory Council on Gender and Development, said: "Ooredoo supports a diverse range of initiatives that enable human growth with a particular focus on the economic empowerment of women. We are striving to accelerate the growth of the female digital economy, both through dedicated products for women customers and enhanced opportunities for employment and development across our markets. We believe that these initiatives will go some way towards reducing the gaps identified in this report."

The ninth edition of the report finds that, among the 142 countries measured, the gender gap is narrowest in terms of health and survival. This gap stands at 96% globally, with 35 countries having closed the gap entirely. This includes three countries that have closed the gap in the past 12 months.

The educational attainment gap is the next narrowest, standing at 94% globally. Here, 25 countries have closed the gap entirely. While the gender gap for economic participation and opportunity lags stubbornly behind, the gap for political empowerment, the fourth pillar measured, remains wider still, standing at just 21%, although this area has seen the most improvement since 2006.

With no one country having closed its overall gender gap, Nordic nations remain the most gender-equal societies in the world. Last year's leading four nations – Iceland (1), Finland (2), Norway (3) and Sweden (4) – are joined by Denmark, which climbs from eighth place to fifth.

In Asia and the Pacific, the Philippines remains the region's highest-ranked country, followed by New Zealand (13) and Australia (24). Indonesia, where Ooredoo's Indosat continues to pursue a range of programmes aimed at women's empowerment, sits at 97^th place.

In the Middle East and North Africa, Kuwait, at 113th, is the highest-placed country in the region, after making significant gains in overall income, including for women. Qatar, which stands at 117^th, has also shown significant improvements since the previous report. The region is also home to the lowest-ranked country in the index, Yemen, which, at 142nd, has remained at the bottom of the index since 2006; but it has significantly improved relative to its own past scores.

There are numerous economic and policy implications for reducing the gender gap. Healthy and educated women are likely to have healthier and more educated children, creating a virtuous cycle for any community or country. When the number of women involved in political decision-making reaches a critical mass, their decisions – which take into account the needs of a wider segment of society – lead to more inclusive results. Companies that recruit and retain women, and ensure that they attain leadership positions, outperform those that do not. The report covers the latest research on the benefits of gender equality from a variety of sectors, the current use of policy tools and business practices, and future implications for business leaders and policy-makers.

The Global Gender Gap Index ranks 142 countries on the gap between women and men on health, education, economic and political indicators. It aims to understand whether countries are distributing their resources and opportunities equitably between women and men, irrespective of their overall income levels. The report measures the size of the gender inequality gap in four areas:

Economic participation and opportunity – salaries, participation and leadership
Education – access to basic and higher levels of education
Political empowerment – representation in decision-making structures
Health and survival – life expectancy and sex ratio

In addition to benchmarking gender gaps through the Global Gender Gap Report series and other topical studies, the World Economic Forum's Gender Parity Programme disseminates actionable best practices to close economic gender gaps, collaborates on public-private partnerships (Gender Parity Task Forces) in selected countries and works with multi-stakeholder communities of leaders and experts dedicated to closing gender gaps.

Partners of the Gender Parity Programme are: Aetna, Bank of America, Burda Media, The Coca-Cola Company, EY, Heidrick & Struggles, JLL, ManpowerGroup, McKinsey & Company, NYSE, The Olayan Group, Old Mutual, Omnilife-Angelissima Group, Ooredoo, PwC, Renault-Nissan Alliance, SABMiller, Takeda Pharmaceutical and Tupperware.

Read the report here: http://wef.ch/gendergap14

Learn about the Forum's Gender Parity Programme at http://www.weforum.org/genderparity

Join the conversation: #gendergap

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About Ooredoo

Ooredoo is a leading international communications company delivering mobile, fixed, broadband internet and corporate managed services tailored to the needs of consumers and businesses across markets in the Middle East, North Africa and Southeast Asia. As a community-focused company, Ooredoo is guided by its vision of enriching people's lives and its belief that it can stimulate human growth by leveraging communications to help people achieve their full potential. Ooredoo has a presence in markets such as Qatar, Kuwait, Oman, Algeria, Tunisia, Iraq, Palestine, the Maldives, Myanmar and Indonesia. The company was named "Best Mobile Operator of the Year" at the World Communication Awards 2013.

The company reported revenues of US$9.3 billion in 2013 and had a consolidated global customer base of more than 95 million people as of 31 December 2013. Ooredoo's shares are listed on the Qatar Exchange and the Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange.
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