President Marie-Louise Coleiro Preca has recently embarked on the first state visit by a Maltese head of state to the Republic of Chile. At the La Moneda Palace, in Santiago, President Coleiro Preca was welcomed by Chilean President Michelle Bachelet, with whom she later had a private meeting. President Coleiro Preca and President Bachelet recently met during an event, which focused on the empowerment of women and issues of gender-based violence. The event was organised by the Council of World Women Leaders, of which President Coleiro Preca is a member. The Maltese leaders said she was proud and reassured that both presidents “stand in solidarity with all peoples who are experiencing exclusion, violence, and precarity, simply because of their gender,” and she was even more proud to have President Bachelet as a committed ally in the work which had to be done, “to ensure that equality…

The Gender Balance Council’s new move aims to achieve the UAE’s target of a 20 per cent female presence in corporate boardrooms. The UAE Gender Balance Council recently held its second meeting for 2017 to discuss a variety of topics, including the preliminary results of the Gender Balance Index (GBI) across federal government entities, pension entitlements for the families of deceased female employees, the Council’s brand identity, and updates on the UAE Gender Balance Guide. In a key move – taken in line with the UAE Cabinet’s decision to make women’s representation on companies’ boards of directors compulsory – the Council have signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Securities and Commodities Authority (SCA) to enhance the participation of women on the boards of listed companies. This move will support the UAE’s National Key Performance Indicators and is aimed at strategic partnerships to enhance female participation in…

South Africa’s human settlements minister Lindiwe Sisulu has recently accepted the nomination of some African National Congress (ANC) branches to lead the ruling party, she told local media. Sisulu, a veteran cabinet minister and a member of a family that along with the Mandelas were among the most prominent in the struggle against apartheid, joins a crowded race to succeed scandal-plagued President Jacob Zuma as ANC leader in December. At least six branches of the ANC have nominated Sisulu as a leader and she has publicly accepted, the state broadcaster SABC reported. “I have agreed,” Sisulu told the eNCA news channel in an interview on Sunday, adding that she had a daunting task ahead to return the “dignity” of the ruling party and securing a majority in the 2019 general election. Sisulu and the ANC could not be reached for comment. Zuma’s government has been dogged by allegations of corruption…

Iran has appointed a female Chief Executive Officer to lead its national airline for the first time since it was established in the 1940s. The state-owned Iran Daily reported Wednesday, that the transport minister appointed Farzaneh Sharafbani, 44, who holds a Ph.D. in aerospace engineering and previously served on the board of Iran Air. Iran is in the process of revamping its aging passenger fleet following the 2015 nuclear deal with world powers, which lifted international sanctions. It has struck billion-dollar deals with Boeing and Airbus to buy scores of passenger planes. The administration of President Hassan Rouhani, a relative moderate who was re-elected earlier this year, has appointed women to a number of management posts, breaking with tradition in the Islamic republic. Source: The Independence

By: Rachael Boon Hyflux executive chairman and group chief executive Olivia Lum, has joined tennis star and five-time Grand Slam champion Maria Sharapova on a global advisory board for UBS Wealth Management. The board is part of a five-year plan to better serve women, said the private bank recently, including a commitment to help increase the financial confidence of a million women. The other advisory board member from the Asia-Pacific is Ms. Jane Jie Sun, chief executive of Chinese online travel service Ctrip.com International, which is backed by Baidu. Senior wealth management executives will work closely with the board, which held its first meeting late last month. Ms. Tracey Woon, the vice-chairman of UBS Wealth Management, said: “As Asia leads the way in wealth creation, many of our Asian female clients have told us that they wish to be served in ways that also focus…

By: Nadia Neophytou United Nations (UN) secretary general Antonio Guiterres says that Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka will stay on for a second term as executive director of UN Women. South Africa’s Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka joined the organization, which is tasked with empowering women and encouraging gender equality, four years ago. Under her, UN Women established the much-publicized HeForShe campaign, that engages men and boys on issues of gender equality. UN Women has played a significant role in ensuring that women were put front and centre of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and that the responsibility of ending gender inequality became everyone’s responsibility. She has said she wants to use the next four years to build on the momentum already achieved to put the new Strategic Plan for 2018-2021 into practice, as well as work towards implementing the 2030 Agenda with gender equality and women’s empowerment at its…

By: Vince Chadwick The European Commission is preparing a 500 million euro ($570 million) program with the United Nations on women’s rights, which is to be announced at the United Nations General Assembly in September, according to a senior European Union aid official. “The [EU development] commissioner has proposed this to the U.N. and we are talking right now to the U.N. to shape the program,” Klaus Rudischhauser, deputy director-general of DEVCO — the European Commission’s development arm — told Devex in Brussels recently. Rudischhauser said the initiative will focus on preventing violence against women but that it would have a broad scope, noting it followed the decision by United States President Donald Trump earlier this year to reinstate the “global gag rule,” resulting in the loss of an estimated $600 million of funding for reproductive health. The new program was “in the pipeline” before Trump’s…