ShareKUWAIT: The Women Against Corruption Forum, which was launched Sunday in cooperation between the Public Authority for Anti-Corruption (Nazaha) and the Women’s Cultural and Social Society highlighted the role of women in combating and preventing corruption. The forum was hosted by the Kuwait National Library jointly with its United Nations branch in Kuwait. A number of Kuwaiti public associations and faculty members from various educational institutions participated in the forum.
The discussion was initiated by Abrar Al-Hammad, assistant Secretary-General for the Prevention Sector at (Nazaha), who stressed the importance of preventing corruption compared to combating corruption, which “comes after the occurrence of the crime.” Al-Hammad said that the forum comes within the goal of raising awareness about corruption issues and ways to combat it, strengthening the principles of integrity in society, particularly highlighting the role of women in promoting integrity and combating corruption from their various positions and clarifying everything that would protect them from the scourge of corruption and its harms.
She cited several international studies that showed that “the more women are present in decision-making circles and leadership positions, the less corruption, the more ethical behavior, and the more solid efforts to combat corruption become,” in both the government and private sectors. She indicated that in Kuwait, women constitute 63 percent of workers in the government sector and 51 percent of the workforce, indicating the importance of focusing efforts on increasing their awareness and societal integrity because this will reflect its positive effects on the entire society.
Regarding the forum, she stated that it also aims to establish a network of women who supports efforts to combat and prevent corruption and enhance societal integrity, guided by international preventive measures and activating local legislation, and to involve women in comprehensive national efforts by reviewing the most important obstacles that may prevent them from exercising this important role in society.
For her part, chair of the board of directors of the Women’s Cultural and Social Association, Lulwa Al-Mulla, said that corruption “has become a complex social, political and economic phenomenon that affects all countries, undermines democratic institutions and slows down economic development, which contributes to ‘governmental instability’. She stressed that women’s greater contribution to decision-making positions and providing them with the ‘necessary skills ‘enhances integrity and advances renaissance and progress in the country.
Al-Mulla pointed out the importance of the role of women in society in general and the importance of empowering them in various fields, especially in the field of enhancing societal integrity, combating corruption, and raising awareness of its dangers and ways to prevent it, hoping that this forum and its results will contribute to ways of addressing deficiencies and reaching safety.
In turn, the representative of the Secretary-General of the United Nations and the resident coordinator of its bodies in Kuwait, Dr Ghada Al-Taher, referred to the fifth goal out of 17 within the United Nations Sustainable Development Plan by 2030, which stipulates gender equality, explaining that this goal is at the heart of reaching all the goals that were agreed upon.
It was approved by all members of the United Nations in September 2015 and adopted as a general plan for sustainable development in all countries of the world Taher added, “Today we have moved beyond the fact that women’s rights are human rights only to the awareness of the active and fundamental role of women in all areas of life,” indicating that the world has become fully aware of the role of women and their importance in social, political, economic and other fields.—KUNA
