Palestine Economy Portal

Translated by Tamara Barakat

The Ministry of Women Affairs launched on Monday the 'Guiding Points for the Labor Market’ program in cooperation with the Ministry of Labor and the Italian Agency for Development Cooperation with the aim of creating job opportunities for women and decreasing the gap between males and females in the labor market.

According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS), the participation of females in the labor market reaches 18%, a percentage that is four times less than that of males.

The Minister of Women Affairs, Haifa Al-Agha, said that the project includes 11 contact centers in the West Bank governorates and that the Ministry strives to expand the program to include the governorates of the Gaza Strip.

Al-Agha told the Palestine Economy Portal that women can visit the Ministry of Women Affairs’ website and enter their information in the available form. Ministries, governmental, and non-governmental institutions can also visit the website and list the specialties they need and their vacancies. After that the Ministry will connect them with each other.

However, she affirmed that this does not mean that all the women who register their information on the website will be immediately employed, and she mentioned that the Ministry’s role is to collect the information and connect the women with the institutions that are hiring.

She added that this project will help women save the expenses of several things, such as transportation expenses since it would allow them to find a job opportunity through the website, rather than having to move between governorates in search for a job. It will also contribute to preserving the dignity of women since there are men who blackmail women when they interview them.

Regarding the marginalized areas, Al-Agha said that women residing in Area “C” or poor areas who do not have computers or internet access, can go to the nearest contact center and fill the form there.