Commissioner for Gender Equality, Josie Christodoulou, said Monday that issues related to gender equality in Cyprus urgently need improvement.

The Commissioner was speaking during the first meeting she held with contact points of all Ministries and Deputy Ministries, aiming at integrating the gender dimension into the state machinery.

According to an official press release, the Commissioner presented the mission and priorities of her Office, stressing that equality between women and men is a high priority of the Government. Only through the strengthening of cooperation and through holistic, horizontal actions, she underlined, can we achieve our goals.

She added that the result of this broad cooperation and consultation will be the new Strategy for Gender Equality, that will include targeted and implementable actions that will bring substantial changes to the benefit of gender equality culture.

Referring to data on gender equality in Cyprus, she noted that according to the Global Gender Gap Report (2022), Cyprus ranks 106th (out of 146 countries) and 22nd (out of 27 countries) in the Equality Index of the European Institute for Gender Equality (EIGE). These figures, she underlined, demonstrate that equality issues urgently need improvement.

The contact points were appointed following a decision of the Council of Ministers, on 8 March 2023, and constitute the inter-ministerial committee chaired by the Commissioner for Gender Equality.

Source: Cyprus News Agency