The "Promoting Equal Opportunities through Empowerment" Project

The project "Promoting Equal Opportunities through Empowerment" is implemented by the National Commission for the Promotion of Equality (NCPE). This Commission was set up to monitor the implementation of the Act to Promote Equality for Men and Women, and to promote equality in spheres where it may be lacking. The Commission works to ensure that Maltese society is a society free from all forms of discrimination based on gender in all sectors at all levels in particular training and employment, and the provision of services and benefits.

PROJECT BACKGROUND

The background information and statistics clearly indicate that action is needed in the theme chosen - Equal Opportunities for Women and Men. The aim of the project 'Promoting Equal Opportunities through Empowerment' is to help achieve the overall objective of this equal thematic priority, that of having valuable initiatives actually affecting the figures and rates in the Maltese Labour Market, since women form the majority of inactive persons in Malta.

Giving women the necessary empowerment to seek employment and/or entrepreneurship is viewed as a way of giving women more opportunity to seek such labour market participation so that their lack of encouragement, particularly in the case of inactive women since these have been away from the labour market for a significant period of time, does not serve as a barrier to their taking up available opportunities to increase their eligibility/skills for employment/entrepreneurship.

The project thus focuses on awareness and seminar sessions that should increase the take up of such opportunities by women. As part of this goal the project also focuses on encouraging women to seek participation in the formal economy instead of being content with earning an income from the hidden economy which offers no security to themselves and their families.

Therefore the project 'Promoting EQUAL Opportunities through Empowerment' is related to the need of increasing female employment rate in Malta, since women form a significant majority of inactive persons in Malta.

Publication of : 23-03-2006 by Annabelle