Under the theme of empowering women, the event sought to encourage women to join nuclear-related fields.
The permanent delegation of Qatar virtually organised a side event on the margins of the 68th annual Commission on the Status of Women (CSW68) focused on empowering women in nuclear and related fields.
As the UN’s largest annual gathering on gender equality and women’s empowerment takes place this month from the 11th to the 22nd, the Gulf state highlighted the importance of women’s attention in the fields related to nuclear energy, sciences, and technology,
Addressing the event, Qatar’s Permanent Representative to the UN, Sheikha Alya Ahmed Saif Al-Thani, said that Qatar accounts for more than 50 percent of all undergraduate engineering students.
The Qatari representative said success was possible through initiatives like the Qatar National Research Fund (QNRF), which supports women-led projects and research and development in STEM-related fields.
In addition, she said that Qatar’s institutions like Hamad Bin Khalifa University offer scholarships for graduate studies in STEM fields to attract talented students globally and ambitious women who aspire to work in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics.
Preventing and resolving conflict
Earlier this month, Sheikha Alya delivered a speech on Qatar’s goal of preventing and resolving conflicts by peaceful means through foreign policy.
Speaking at the UN Headquarters in New York, the Qatari official stated that the Gulf State’s commitment to solving international crises goes beyond negotiations and mediation.
Sheikha Alya underlined that Qatar has implemented humanitarian, development, and human rights projects to address the root causes of conflicts, having invested more than 6.4 billion dollars in more than 100 developing countries.
With education being the focal point, in her speech, Sheikha Alya said: “That is why the State of Qatar continues to prioritise education initiatives. For example, we have successfully enrolled more than 11.6 million children in school in more than 57 countries through the Education Above All Foundation’s prominent “Teach a Child” program.”
“In 2023, the State of Qatar and Education Above All Foundation committed to supporting the education sectors in many countries in Africa with the aim of providing quality education to more than 2.3 million children out of school,” she added. “
