Oman Women's Association takes part at the Women's Forum for the Economy and Society

The conference, gathered top women executives and leaders from politics, culture and society and provided a unique platform for them to come together and highlight issues they face in business particularly in the information and communications technology (ICT) sector, as well as solutions to overcome them.

The Deauville conference kicked off with the Sci-tech Girls (STG) Day, attended by a delegation of over 100 young women.

The event saw the European Commissioner for Information Society and Media as well as high level representatives from the technology industry discussing the future of women in technology.

Abdullah Lootah, Country Manager, Microsoft Oman, said:

"It was great to see the representation of Oman in an international forum and this will expand the Women in Technology (WIT) programme in Oman. "Microsoft's Unlimited Potential initiative gathered the women to talk about their mission to decrease the digital divide in their communities and in the process, use IT training to advance a woman's skills thereby enabling them to learn, grow and thrive in their communities. As a global company, we recognize that every country and community where we do business has its own social and economical challenges. We have developed citizenship programmes that are tailored to the specific needs of the people with the aim to transform education, foster local innovation and enable jobs and opportunities."

In her comments, Abeer said: "The conference highlighted the importance of technology and we are proud of the success of the WIT programme in Oman. Women's empowerment is essential to developing an open, active civil society and acquiring skills, in the field of IT, is a powerful building block. I am glad to have represented the Omani women and I hope to pass on what I have learnt to them."

The WIT programme has seen around 1,163 trainees graduating within a period of one and a half years since March 2007 and 33 women were trained by Microsoft as certified 'Trainers' to run the programme.

At the forum, Salwa, who is now majoring in Natural Resources Economics, highlighted how the WIT programme gave her access to further education and online government services.

"I am very happy to have had a chance to attend the conference and I thank the WIT programme for giving me the opportunity to share my experiences with other women and to learn what other are doing to improve skills for women," she said.

The Women in Technology program is a joint project funded by the U.S. Department of State, Institute of International Education and Microsoft and reaches women across the Middle East and North Africa.

This project has already changed the lives of 4500 women and aims to touch more than 10,000 before 2010.

Microsoft Oman has been supporting the WIT programme by training trainers as well as contributions through cash donations.

In line with their mission to support non-profit organisations, Microsoft has contributed 90 computers through their Microsoft Authorised Refurbishment programme to OWA to equip the project centres with the right hardware.

The Oman Women's Association is working towards raising awareness amongst Omani women in the areas of health and the development of ICT based skills.