She emphasized that women are the Kingdom’s greatest strength Vision 2030: Goals, initiatives, programs and mechanisms for the advancement and empowerment of women in rights, work and society Since the era of the founder King Abdulaziz – may God have mercy on him – until the reign of the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, Saudi women have received many royal decisions and royal orders, some of which were directly related to supporting the role of women, and others were within the system of government and private institutions until the Kingdom’s Vision 2030 came as an “ambitious project for Saudi women,” for the variety of gains they obtained, which reflect a brighter picture and their potential, by providing job opportunities in many entities in all aspects of the Kingdom.
Vision 2030 stipulates that “Saudi women are an important element of the Kingdom’s strength, and we will continue to develop their talents, invest their energies, and enable them to obtain the appropriate opportunities to build their future and contribute to the development of our society and economy” by providing the factors that help empower them, including political will, economic potential, and societal awareness of the importance of the role of women in development.
The vision included goals, initiatives, programs, projects and mechanisms that would advance women and empower them in rights, work and society, by encouraging women’s full participation in the labor market, developing their talents, investing their energies and enabling them to obtain the appropriate opportunities to build their future and contribute to the development of their society and their country’s economy.
The Council of Economic and Development Affairs has set twelve executive programs to achieve the 96 strategic goals of the Saudi Vision 2030. The first was the launch of the National Transformation Program, which contained 36 strategic goals that support the economic empowerment of women and increase their participation in the labor market, focusing on empowering female citizens through the social services system, in addition to encouraging volunteer work and supporting the growth of the non-profit sector.
He also launched the Fiscal Balance Program, which aims to strengthen fiscal management and support the social and economic goals that the vision seeks to achieve. The Citizen Account Program is a spin-off of the Fiscal Balance Program, which aims to improve the social welfare system for the neediest families and effectively support them. The Citizen Account Program is an offshoot of the Fiscal Balance Program and aims to improve and direct the support to its beneficiaries, in order to reduce the effects of the energy price correction and other economic reforms taken within the framework of the vision.
The program works through cash payments to middle- and low-income citizens of both sexes, as the percentage of independent female beneficiaries reached 55% of the total independent beneficiaries of both sexes, and the percentage of female heads of households reached 7% of the total heads of households, in addition to being a member of the family benefiting from the support. Among these programs is the Quality of Life 2020 program, which aims to make the Kingdom the best place to live for citizens and residents of both sexes by developing appropriate activities that contribute to enhancing the quality of life of individuals and families, creating more job opportunities, and diversifying the economy.
The Human Capacity Development Program aims to improve the outputs of the education and training system at all stages through education, qualification and training programs that keep pace with the latest developments and requirements of the times, and are in line with the needs of development and the local and global labor market. The executive process continued with the launch of the Saudi Character Enhancement Program, which promotes the values of moderation, tolerance, positivity and perseverance, and aims to support policies that address youth of both sexes in a modern way that promotes initiative, giving, volunteering, mastery and love of work, and motivates them to success and optimism. Initiatives that promote the role of women The vision has set goals that advance society as a whole by addressing both genders without discrimination, in order to achieve the vision’s main objective of achieving high levels of gender equality, in addition to what may be specific to women due to their gender, such as matters related to motherhood.
In order to create a suitable environment for the vision’s programs, the relevant authorities, including the Shura Council and the Ministry of Justice, are making tangible efforts to improve the human rights and legislative status of women in the Kingdom by issuing decisions and enacting legislation related to women, focusing on three main areas: supporting the employment and empowerment of women in the government sector, social, health and security support for women, and supporting women’s orientation towards entrepreneurship, trade and investment.
The Shura Council has drafted a number of regulations and proposed amendments to others to protect women’s rights. First: Initiatives in the field of labor The vision has allocated goals and initiatives that contribute to reducing the unemployment rate among women in general by setting the institutional and legislative framework to empower women and their qualitative participation in government and private sectors, increasing their representation in positions of authority and decision-making, and opening the way for them to work in different sectors to achieve equal opportunities between the sexes in employment, which helps reduce the gender gap and empower Saudi women, and highlight their role to be part of the nation-building system, including labor-related initiatives: 1- Participation in the labor market: The Vision sets the empowerment of Saudi women as a priority, as it aims to raise the percentage of women’s participation in the labor market from 22% to 30% by 2030, in addition to reducing unemployment among them.
Through the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Development, the Kingdom has adopted a number of programs and amended some labor regulations to help provide a flexible and suitable environment for women, and has worked on several initiatives to increase women’s contribution to economic participation by encouraging remote and flexible work, as well as leadership mentoring for female cadres.
This is in addition to programs to support childcare centers for working women, parallel training for labor market requirements, improving employment mechanisms and other programs that achieve the targets of empowering women’s work within the National Transformation Program.
Among the aspects of empowering Saudi women is the leadership’s interest in bringing them to leadership positions, providing opportunities for creative, educated and distinguished women to participate in the renaissance and construction, and encouraging them to produce while adhering to their traditions, hijabs and customs. 2- Among the initiatives is creating a safe and attractive work environment by raising the compliance rate of the Wage Protection System from 50% to 80% by the end of 2020, and supporting the costs of nursery care for working women’s children through the launch of the (Qurra) program, which aims to enable women to join and continue in the labor market while they are assured of caring for their children in qualified nursery centers, and the period of support is four years for one child. 3) The initiative also includes the initiative to support working women’s transportation through the launch of the “Access” program, which aims to enable working women to provide safe and low-cost transportation, and the initiative to develop a work environment suitable for women, people with disabilities and people with limited income, and to develop women’s work in the tourism and heritage fields.
Government work: As part of efforts to achieve the goals of Saudi Vision 2030 to increase the percentage of women working in the government sector from 39.8% to 42%, and increase the percentage of women in senior positions (rank 11 and above) from 1.27% to 5% by 2020.
In addition to creating 1,200 suitable job opportunities for Saudi men and women in the private sector, and raising the percentage of the female labor force from 23% to 28% by 2020, several initiatives were launched, namely: 1- The initiative to empower women and enhance their leadership role in the civil service, which includes raising the percentage of women in senior positions, including rank 11 and above and undersecretaries and assistant undersecretaries, as an agency for women’s empowerment in the public sector was established in early April 2019 at the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Development to contribute to raising this percentage. 2- The National Program for the Preparation and Development of Administrative Leaders, which is one of the initiatives of the Institute of Public Administration for the year 2020, was launched to empower women leaders in the civil service by building their leadership potential and capabilities and increasing their participation in decision-making positions. 3- In continuation of the empowerment process, women were encouraged to work and (remote work), as the (Remote Work Strategy in the Civil Service) project aims to prepare a strategy to organize women’s remote work in the civil service to ensure the success of its implementation.
private sector: The National Transformation Program 2020 included a major goal to generate more than 450,000 jobs in the non-governmental sectors during the life of the program, contributing to achieving the Saudi Vision 2030 goal of developing opportunities for all, strengthening the partnership with the private sector, saving about 40 percent of government spending on initiatives, and raising the private sector’s contribution to GDP from 40 percent to 65 percent.
In support of the objectives of the National Transformation Program 2020, which includes the pursuit of Emiratization in all its meanings, as well as promoting community development, Saudization efforts continue to provide more job opportunities for Saudi men and women.
Entrepreneurship: The Kingdom’s vision aims to promote entrepreneurship by promoting and supporting the culture of innovation and entrepreneurship, encouraging women in the field of industry, especially small enterprises that need support, which is the basis for the vision and increasing the number of existing limited liability enterprises from (50 thousand) to (104 thousand) for the year 2020, in addition to developing and nurturing the microenterprise sector to enhance the role of young Saudi men and women and enable them to contribute effectively to economic and social development in partnership with the sister institutions of the Ministry of Labor and Social Development. Second: Initiatives to Confront Domestic Violence The Kingdom’s Vision 2030 has prioritized the issue of domestic violence, and the National Transformation Program 2020 included initiatives aimed at addressing this issue across various sectors, assigning the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Development this vital role.
These initiatives include: 1- Increasing the number of qualified workers in family counseling and social protection from (90) to (21,000) during this year 2020, as the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Development has developed its plans to achieve this goal and create an integrated family protection system. The Ministry also seeks to develop the services of family support and counseling centers, in order to provide support and assistance to those seeking counseling services of all kinds, according to international standards and specialized human resources, in the best and easiest ways for the beneficiaries.
The ministry has trained the staff professionally. 2- Establishing an integrated family protection system: The Protection from Abuse Law was issued with the aim of ensuring protection from various types of abuse, providing assistance and treatment, providing shelter and the necessary social, psychological and health care, and taking the necessary legal measures to hold the perpetrator accountable and punish him, spreading awareness among members of society about the concept of abuse and its consequences, addressing behavioral phenomena in society that indicate an environment suitable for the occurrence of abuse cases, and creating scientific and applied mechanisms to deal with abuse, the system includes increasing the number of family counseling centers and social protection units (of visitors and the private sector). Over the past few years, Saudi women have proven their worth, competence and ability to fulfill their role in all fields, and have participated in the membership of the Shura Council and municipal councils, and held prestigious positions in a number of government and private sectors.
