Dr / Maya Morsy

Maya Morsy took office as President of Egypt’s National Council for Women (NCW) on 1 February 2016 elected as the third and the youngest President of the NCW since it was established in 2000.

UNDP Gender Regional Advisor 2013-2016
Head of the Egypt Country Office United Nations Fund for Women 2011- 2013,
Country Coordinator/Director of UNIFEM and liaison for the League of Arab States 1999- 2010.
Dr. Morsy started her career working in different International Organizations such as USAID, UNDP and other agencies.

More than 24 years’ experience National, Regional and International organizations working in the National Council for Women, the United Nations, USAID, Academic institutions, and Private Sector. The work experience has strengthened the strategic partnership with the League of Arab States, European Union, Organization of Islamic Cooperation, African Union, Union for the Mediterranean, Government Organizations, Civil Society, Academic institutions and Private Sector.

Managed and Led more than 50 programs and authored more than 45 training manuals, books, articles, research and policy papers in areas of Public Policy, development, Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment, Peace and Security, Human Security, Finance for Development.

Areas of Technical Focus are: Public Policies, Public Administration, Business Administration, Management and Human Resources, Social and Economic Policies (Welfare Systems, Fiscal Stimulus Packages, Conditional Cash Transfer). Human Security, Human Rights, International Conventions Treaties, Strategic Planning, Political and Democratic Transition, Electoral Assistance, Gender Transitional Justice, Rights based approach. Gender Equality and Women's Empowerment, engendering public polices and statistics, Gender Responsive Planning and Budgeting, Performance Based budgeting, Financial Inclusion, Monitoring and Impact Evaluation, Fair Trade, Entrepreneurship and Social innovation, Academic/Action oriented research and Behavioural Change.

Dr. Morsy was awarded ‘The woman of the decade in public life and empowerment” during the Women economic forum conveyed in India in 2018 and the national award of one of the 100 most influential women in Egypt in the year 2016 and the Women Pioneer from the UAE in 2019.

In the year 2017 announced as the YEAR OF EGYPTIAN WOMEN, Dr Morsy, led the process of the Egypt’s National Strategy for the Empowerment of Women 2030 as the first strategy adopted by the President of Egypt and the First Strategy globally with the Sustainable development goals agenda. Also the first ever National Women Observatory was established to monitor the progress of the strategy indicators. Dr. Morsy is the first NCW President that succeeds to pass the law that institutionalize the work of the National Council for Women, the amendment of the Female Gentile law, The inheritance law, amendment on the abduction law, the electronic crimes law, and the ratification of the Women Organization of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation.

During her Presidency, Several International Conferences and Conventions were held in and hosted by Egypt such as The 4th Ministerial Conference to the Declaration of the Union for the Mediterranean, 29th Business and Professional Women (BPW) International Congress in Cairo, & National Council for Women participated in the alliance for financial Inclusion Global Policy Forum (AFI-GPF) held in Sharm El Shiekh

Among Major Programs achieved from 2016-2019 as President of the National Council for Women in Egypt: The number of beneficiaries of NCW social, political & economic programs have increased from 341,000 in 2015 - to 917,000 in 2016 - to 3,000,000 in 2017 - to 7,500,000 in 2018 – and around 10,000,000 in 2019

- The first nationwide campaign on Women’s Empowerment “Taa Marboota: The secret of your power” with the aim of utilizing the power of media and communications to address misconceptions, redefining gender roles, and fostering women’s participation in all spheres of life outreach to more than 121 million Egyptians.
- Awareness Raising “knocking doors” campaign, reaching out to around 14 million Women in 27 Governorates.
- 700,000 National ID cards were issued for women free of charge,
- 18,000 women enrolled to the Savings groups of the Villages Savings & loans associations,
- 50,000 Egyptian women had free of charge life insurance policy
- 22 Violence Against Women Units in National Universities were established
- 7000 Women peace makers statement was issued
- 10 million viewership on the first campaign to engage men and boy in the gender issues titled “because I am a man campaign”
- Launching of the first program to include religious women leaders (nuns and muslim leaders) as change agents
- First ever partnership between a national women machinery & a central bank was developed to enhance women’s financial inclusion in Egypt
- Introduce the Gender Seal Award in Egypt for the first time as an incentive tool for the public and private agencies to develop gender sensitive policies.
- Co-Chaired the National Committee to Eradicate Female Genital Mutilation

Prior to joining the NCW, Maya Morsy had served, since 2013, As Regional Advisor on Gender Policies and Programmes in the United Nations Development Programme’s (UNDP) Regional Centre for Arab States in Cairo. She was responsible for providing policy advice and technical support for women's empowerment and gender mainstreaming in planning and public budgets, as well as the formulation, monitoring and evaluation of regional and national strategies and plans for the advancement of women across the Arab region. A wide range of a regional partners benefitted from her services, including the League of Arab States and the Organization of Arab Women, alongside many partners at national level, including government agencies, civil society organizations and national councils for women and similar national mechanisms for the advancement of women’s affairs, in all Arab countries.

Maya Morsy’s career spans more than twenty years of dedicated service to the advancement of women and defending their fundamental rights. She served as Head of the Egypt Country Office of the United Nations Fund For Women – UNIFEM (2000-2013); UNIFEM Project Coordinator (1999-2000); Consultant for the Girls Education and Empowerment Project of the Ministry of Education in Egypt (1998-1999); and Project Officer in the Sustainable Human Development Platform for Action and Monitoring, implemented by UNDP in collaboration with the Ministry of Local Administration in Egypt (1995-1998). Prior to that she served as Academic Facilitator in the Public Administration and Communication Joint Program between City University of Seattle and the Arab Academy of Science and Technology of the League of Arab States (1997-1998).

Over her long career Maya Morsy contributed to many pioneering initiatives, including the formulation of the Arab Strategy for Women, Peace and Security, the Regional Strategy for Combating Violence against Arab Women, and the Arab Plan of Action for the implementation of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), including the development of specific indicators to monitor implementation. She also advised and assisted relevant authorities in a number of Arab countries, including Egypt, in the development of gender-responsive national plans and budgets. In Egypt, she contributed to the design and implementation of many national initiatives and projects aimed at the advancement of women, including projects to support women’s economic empowerment and security, providing them with small loans and training to increase productivity; initiatives for women’s literacy focusing on poorest governorates; girls' education initiatives (one-class room and community schools); programs for the political empowerment of women and training/provision of technical support to women Parliamentarians; the establishment of a Women’s Media Observatory; Safe Cities Project promoting public spaces that are free of violence against women and girls; the national project to combat female genital mutilation; and the establishment and training of Equal Opportunity Units in line ministries, and initiatives promoting equal opportunity within private sector companies.

Education
In 2008, Maya Morsy received a Ph.D. in Public Policy with a focus on the human security of Arab women from the Institute of Arab Studies and Research of the League of Arab States. She completed two Master’s degrees at the City University of Seattle, USA, in Business Administration (1998) and Public Administration (1997), after receiving a Bachelor’s of Arts degree in Political Science from the American University in Cairo (1995), with a minor in Mass Communication (Journalism).