Her Highness in her remarks on the 10 anniversary of the SCW said that the creation of a knowledge-based society would serve as a cornerstone for raising the standards of living and prosperity of individuals, who are the engine of growth and development.
Addressing the packed auditorium at the Bahrain International Circuit in Sakhir, Her Highness said the celebration of the tenth anniversary is a significant moment to review and assess the volume and impact of performance throughout the past decade professionally and transparently as the SCW looks forward to achieve many gigantic goals through a team work in years ahead.
Following is the text of the full speech
In the Name of Allah, the Most Gracious, Most Merciful
Your Excellences,
Honorable attendees
Peace of Allah, His blessings and mercy be upon you
In the beginning we would like to express to all attendees our deep appreciation and utmost gratitude for partaking on the 10th anniversary of the creation of the Supreme Council for Women in the Kingdom of Bahrain and the celebrations of Bahraini Women’s Day, both occasions are dear to us, as we avail of this opportunity to celebrate the tenth anniversary since the inception of the Council, which is a significant point to revise and appraise the volume and impact of achievements and performance thought the past decade professionally and transparently in order to quality, with support from all partners, and to be capable of proceeding forwards, realistically and constructively, to maintain the pace of the success and to build on its components, and to transform any failure into an opportunity for improvement and perfection, in order to yield the spirit of competitiveness and uphold the foundations of justice and to know when and how to sustain the assets of knowledge for the sake of raising the standard of living and prosperity of individuals who are the prime locomotive for any development.
Fortunately, today as we celebrate Bahraini Women’s Day after four years since this day – December 7th – has been devoted to celebrate women’s efforts and performance at the national level, in order to consider women’s contribution and its impact on our national economy which we consider an essential gateway to women’s stability and thus family welfare and growth and as a practical launching into women’s political participation which would provide opportunities for women to contribute into public life and to embody her gradual efforts from the time when she learns the basics of reading and writing until she attains full participation.
Bahraini women’s have been courageous in delving into the private sector since the nineteen sixties especially in the banking sector and have been capable as usual to develop and grow in this sector until today and this is the reason why the celebration topic this year has been chosen as an opportunity to shed light on women’s success stories and challenges at the same time, as we are keen on the other hand to show women’s gradually working in other domains in this fertile sector, particularly free business which has remarkably grown with women’s participation as business pioneers and women’s increasingly growing interest in exploiting other opportunities available for them.
Memories have still been lingering in our minds since the inception of the Supreme Council for Women, when His Majesty King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa Monarch of the Kingdom of Bahrain instructed in 2011 the conducting of an integrated urgent study to create an organization concerned with women’s issues having advisory role to follow up all matters pertaining to women’s renaissance and to build on the achievements of our national action process which happened and we have always been keen on convening meetings and seminars in collaboration with pioneering Bahraini expertise in the area of women’s action and consulting with them regarding the feasibility of inclinations as well as continuous meetings in Al-Roadha Palace of which we are proud to say that it has been an eyewitness to the concept of creation of the Supreme Council for Women created in compliance with a royal ordinance simultaneously with the launching of the reform project and national modernization which we have considered the point of reference in all business of the Council and we are committed to showcase it to the whole world as one of the most significant reformative projects in our country.
Ever since then, we are proud to bear the responsibility for the business of the Supreme Council for Women under direct royal supervision and support from the Kingdom of Bahrain’s government and assistance from all our partners in order to realize the Council’s mission of (Making Bahraini women capable, worthy partners to carry on the construction of the motherland and to sustains our national gains).
The efforts of the Council over the past decade, with support from all respective parties of whose efforts we are proud continued to the support the Council as business partners with the government, its ministries and institutions, the private sector, Arab and international organizations, we were able to lay down the overall framework of our national model concerned with women’s empowerment and renaissance and assimilate all of women’s needs in the comprehensive development progress. This work resulted in an ambitious strategic plan with one thing in mind: that is making women and their issues amongst the government’s prime priorities and to ensure that they remain on top of these priorities in line with the stages of development and construction.
This work is not devoid of challenges which require constant readiness in order to ensure women’s remain as one of the vital resources to realize sustainable development. We therefore began, in cooperation with one of the pioneering programs set up by the government, to follow up the improvement of performance and that is with the Bahrain Center for Excellence in order to carry out appraisal and verification of the national plan for women’s renaissance a.k.a the national plan for “women’s self-renaissance” and not “women’s externally induced renaissance”. Women alone possess the willpower to change and the will to partake and eagerness to learn and love of exerting efforts for the best interest of the motherland. These plans and programs are sheer instruments which assist in launching women’s capabilities and investing their energies to attain aspired transformation, development.
As you may ask: So, what else afterwards? Can the Council provide better than it has done? Our reply to these questions: yes, the Council can provide more but with support and help from every one of you. We are keen to double-check everything in order to verify a number of things which we sum up as the stimulants for our work during the next phase:
First: The Supreme Council for Women, although its power clearly focuses on serving the best interest of Bahraini women, nonetheless, the impact of SCW’s work exceeds women and touches on the life of family and community members and no efforts can succeed unless women find supportive, helpful environment
Second: The national plan for Bahraini women’s renaissance is a document whose intellectual property rights are ascribable to the Kingdom of Bahrain as a whole and not to the Supreme Council for Women alone and we are keen to assert during this important phase in our national work to rest on our sure beliefs, needs and potentials as to who benefits from them and who implements them in cooperation with the Supreme Council for Women.
Third: The Supreme Council for Women is keen to cooperate with all partners in order to ensure that the national plan for Bahraini women’s renaissance form an integral and inseparable part of their business and aims to achieve maximum performance.
Fourth: the volume, or quantity, of performance, is not necessarily the sole gauge to measure success or failure but the impact of performance essentially measurable within the next phase of appraisal of performance of the national plan.
Fifth: One of the most important aspects to which we uphold in the process of our work is Bahraini cadres expertise and how to depict and harness them. This is why we take things much seriously when it comes to preparation of world-class national professional experts in order for Bahrain to boost women’s empowerment and community welfare.
Sixth: We take into our consideration the need for the Supreme Council for Women to include in its business the best national Arab and international expertise and applications so that the Council will become in future the source and point of reference for specialized work in the area of women’s empowerment and development.