UN Women organized the 2025 WEPs Forum for WEPs signatories in Arab States from 29 to 30 January 2025. The Forum attracted 150 participants CEOs, human resources (HR) and marketing directors from Bahrain, Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, Tunisia and the United Arab Emirates. Participants represented some of the largest employers and advertising companies in the Arab region including Accor Group, Hassan Allam Group, Mansour Group, Orange, Pepsico, Proctor and Gamble (P&G) and many more.
The Forum theme was "The role of businesses in promoting gender equitable social norms” and conducted through two tracks: gender-responsive marketing and HR with a focus on male allyship in the workplace.
Highlights included sessions on:
- A Masterclass by Leo Burnett Beirut, sharing a decade of creative activism.
- The role of the sports industry in advancing women's representation with Deloitte, P&G and the Confederation of African Football.
- The business case for gender-responsive marketing featuring the research by the Unstereotype Alliance and Oxford University.
- Behind-the-scenes perspectives from the region's campaigns, such as the Mio social experiment.
- The role of data and AI in promoting women's empowerment, featuring the prototype WEPs Adviser.
- Mars case study on incorporating women into a male-dominated factory in Egypt. Also the Male Allyship Toolkit was launched, see here.
- An industry-initiative to advance gender equality and uptake of the WEPs in the watch and jewelry industry.
UN Women presented its goal to raise women’s employment in the region by 5 per cent by 2030 by helping to create 400,000 jobs in key markets, such as green and STEM sectors, and the care economy. Twenty-three HR professionals participating in the HR-focused “Way Forward” welcomed this goal and were open to join this initiative.
