NAMA Women Advancement Establishment (NAMA) and the ‘Women in Sustainability, Environment and Renewable Energy’ (WiSER) platform – a Masdar-led initiative dedicated to inspiring women and girls to play an active role in addressing global sustainability challenges – have announced a strategic partnership for the year 2019.
Through this year-long partnership, the two will collaborate on several programmes designed to position women and girls of all nationalities as drivers of change and innovation, to further their joint ambition to empower present and future generations of female sustainability leaders and help them play more active roles in the attainment of the UN SDGs Agenda 2030.
The agreement was signed on Wednesday, January 16 by NAMA Director, Reem BinKaram, and Dr. Lamya Fawwaz, Executive Director for Brand & Strategic Initiatives at Masdar and WiSER Programme Director, at Abu Dhabi Sustainability Week (ADSW) 2019, held under the theme, ‘Industry Convergence: Accelerating Sustainable Development’.
The partnership is a long-term collaboration to promote women’s engagement in key sectors such as energy, environment and technology. The first collaborative effort under this NAMA-WiSER union was NAMA’s support and active participation at the annual WiSER Forum, one of the highlights of ADSW, which offers women a vibrant networking platform with a unique mix of policy makers, industry specialists, and technology pioneers, to collaborate on solutions that will empower more women to drive sustainability fields.
In her remarks at the forum, Reem BinKaram said: “Both NAMA Women Advancement Establishment’s and WiSER’s mandate are strategically built towards making international initiatives for women locally relevant, and in this sense, we are natural partners. We, therefore, look forward to making the most of this year-long strategic partnership between us to accelerate women’s access to education and professional training, as well as bring them closer to effective networking opportunities.”
BinKaram added, “Evidence-based programmes and targeted interventions need to be made on both micro and macro levels through such partnerships between likeminded organisations in order to achieve proper integration of women across sectors and functions. To make a real impact and achieve the desired outcomes of the UN Sustainable Development Goals, we need to consolidate our efforts to bring women and men on the same platform to work together in emerging sectors.”
Dr. Lamya Fawwaz emphasized the important role of female role models for younger generations.
“We are looking forward to collaborating with NAMA Women Advancement Establishment, which will further strengthen our efforts at WiSER to provide young women with the tools, inspiration and role models they need to become future sustainability leaders,” Dr. Fawwaz said. “The key aim of WiSER is to bring female leaders into the limelight, and connect them with our community.”
The WiSER Forum at ADSW 2019 saw the participation of sustainability experts, industry leaders, decision makers, innovators, key influencers, and young women, who came together to discuss ‘The Role of Women in Advancing the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)’. Reem BinKaram, and Lina Hamdan, Research and Development Manager at NAMA; contributed to specific round table discussion focusing on Finance and Policy, and Culture/Changing Behaviour.
The speakers highlighted how women can take a bigger role through these sectors to advance the UN SDGs. The recommended actions resulting from these roundtable discussions will contribute to a white paper, designed to stimulate further dialogue and action, and inspire the year-long WiSER Pioneers’ Programme – a WiSER initiative that provides 14 young women yearly with educational workshops, professional internships and access to global networking events.
As part of their participation at ADSW 2019, NAMA is also promoting the collective efforts of its own initiatives, as well as its affiliates, in promoting women’s access to education and training to enter and excel in emerging sectors.