Sheikh Nahayan signs MoU on Women and Technology

The MoU will strengthen educational and economic cooperation between the two organizations by providing programs, research, and resources in support of women and technology.

Signed by His Excellency and Ms. Claudia Morrell, Chief Executive Officer for MDWIT, and in presence of Dr. Tayeb Kamali, Vice Chancellor of the HCT, and Dr. Behjat Al Yousuf, DWC Associate Director, the MOU reflects His Excellency's support of women to achieve their potential in the knowledge society. Sheikh Nahayan also received a letter from Martin O'Mally, Governor of Maryland, USA, commending the leadership of His Excellency in supporting this initiative and acclaiming the efforts of MDWIT and DWC in empowering women in technology.

The parties agreed to utilize technology in order to continue making advances in health, politics, education, business, agriculture, consumer goods, and national security. Furthermore, the parties will regularly share effective practices relating to expanding girls' and women's participation and leadership in technological careers, technology entrepreneurship and technologically-enabled entrepreneurship to expand the knowledge economy and resource base about what works locally, nationally, regionally, and globally. This will ensure workforce development and increase economic impact in both parties' respective communities of practice.

MDWIT and DWC will also provide thought leadership and guidance to support global, regional, national, and local efforts to define indicators, stimulate data collection, and set benchmarks in order to produce accurate and comparable worldwide statistics in education, workforce development and entrepreneurship for the knowledge society. In addition, they will build critical workforce and entrepreneurial mass by creating and encouraging women to join networks that mentor, support, and encourage women in technology. Precise targets for measuring program development will be set and critical need areas for the development of activities, programs, and policies will be identified.

Dr. Tayeb Kamali, Vice Chancellor of the HCT, noted:

"The leadership of the HCT and indeed the United Arab Emirates are unequivocally committed to develop women and help them realize their fullest potential and contribute effectively to the development of this young nation."

"This strong commitment from the HCT and the enthusiastic reception from the young women of the nation are demonstrated by the high level participation of women in higher education," he added.

The MoU is a result of previous cooperation between the College and MDWIT which resulted in a Leadership Summit on Women and Technology in the Middle-East held at DWC last month. The Summit aimed at establishing a regional center for women and technology and assembled the support of a significant number of international organizations representing government, business, education, and the NGO communities interested in advocating innovative approaches to encourage womens participation and leadership in technology.

"This was a result of three years of work that was first developed by the International Taskforce for Women and Technology, of which I have been honored to help lead. The Summit ended by establishing five committees focusing on 15 Arab states to move forward on the action items and build a business plan. We have set up a collective online site for enhancing collaboration," noted Dr. Al Yousuf, DWC Associate Director and Summit Chairperson.

It is also expected that parties expand collaborative global efforts to strengthen current initiatives for mutual benefit to ensure economic growth and sustainability though women's contributions and Information Communication Technologies.

The MoU also establishes continuous communication between the two parties in order to support technology entrepreneurship development for women to enhance the economic development of the regions.

Claudia Morrell, Chief Executive Officer for MDWIT noted the MoU is a first step in creating the global collaborative that will allow girls and women to benefit fully from the knowledge society.

"By bringing together the latent talents of women with the innovation best driven through technology, we can better advance our economies. This collaboration will allow us to begin to address many of the global challenges we all face today. We are deeply appreciative of His Excellency's forward thinking leadership in this effort," said Ms Morrell.