UNDP and OHCHR in Collaboration with Alnahda Society on a first of its kind

Training on CEDAW Parallel Report for Civil Society Organizations

During the Country Gender Assessment (CGA) process, UNDP was approached by Alnahda Society to support capacity building of Saudi Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) working on gender-related issues. Alnahda, which was established in 1963, is one of the oldest nonprofit organizations in the Kingdom dedicated to empowering women socially and economically through dedicated projects and programs.

In June 2019, Alnahda was officially accredited by the UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) as a consultative non-governmental organization. Furthermore, Alnahda represented Saudi Arabia at the Women 20 (W20), the official G20 engagement group on women. The representatives of the Women 2020 (W20), which was chaired by Saudi Arabia in 2020  put forth a communiqué that provided G20 leaders with recommendations, including key measures required to expedite the economic recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic. W20’s Saudi chair was Dr. Thoraya Obaid, former Executive Director of UNFPA, former UN Under-Secretary General and Member of the Board of Directors of Alnahda.

Alnahda developed a set of actions specific to Saudi Arabia based on those recommendations according to the following five themes: inclusive decision-making, labor inclusion, financial inclusion, digital inclusion, and women’s entrepreneurship. Furthermore, Alnahda is planning to lead the effort to produce Saudi Arabia’s first CEDAW parallel report.

The workshop took place from 31 October-03 November 2021, hosted by Alnahda, under the leadership of H.R.H. Princess Moudi Bint Khalid Al Saud. The workshop was the first of its kind to be organized by Civil Society in KSA on the CEDAW parallel report, looking at both theoretical and practical approaches on gender and women’s empowerment. The specific objectives of the workshop were: introducing UNDP to key CSOs working on gender-related issues in KSA; increasing CSOs understanding of gender- concepts; identifying areas for UNDP to support CSOs; increasing CSOs’ understanding of CEDAW Convention and processes; supporting Alnahda in launching the parallel reporting process. A number of international and regional gender and women’s rights experts facilitated the training. National experts and officials also contributed so as to ensure the KSA context was included and understood. .

A total of 25 participants attended (20 females/ 5 males), representing 10 organizations in a range of thematic areas of expertise: human rights, women’s health, education, labor, family stability, women economic empowerment, and orphans, and from  across the regions of the Kingdom. The five-day workshop covered the following topics: Gender concepts and theories; UNDP Country Gender Assessment; CEDAW and the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women; Engagement of National Civil Society Organizations in the Reporting Procedure; Reporting to the CEDAW Committee.

As the way forward, Alnahda presented a draft of CEDAW parallel report and invited the CSOs to feed into it according to each CSO mandate and area of focus to meet the submission timeline, March 2022.