Cyprus needs an astonishing 86 years to reach full and meaningful gender equality, Gender Equality Commissioner Josie Christodoulou said on Monday.
Christodoulou was speaking at the unveiling of the government’s National Strategy for Gender Equality, which covers the period between now and 2026.
Qualifying her statement, she pointed out Eurostat’s survey which drew the conclusion that Europe as a whole needs 86 years to reach equality, and the fact that Cyprus ranked a lowly 21st out of 27 European Union member states for gender equality in the same survey.
Speaking regarding the National Strategy itself, Christodoulou said it exists as a continuation of the National Action Plan which existed between 2019 and 2023.
“It has been formed taking into account what has been achieved so far [in Cyprus], but also global challenges and crises which affect the daily lives of women and men,” she said.
“We are continuing to build on what has been achieved so far, integrating the dimension of gender equality across the board in the state’s policies.”
She added that it had been created in cooperation and consultation with ministries, deputy ministries, civil society, employers’ organisations, trade unions,and academic institutions, and it was formed on the basis of national and European legislation.
She said an important element of the strategy is “evaluation, accountability and transparency”.
“Through arrangements for recording the process of the implementation of the actions promoted within the strategy’s framework, we are seeking continuous feedback and evaluation of the extent of achievements regarding the strategy’s objectives,” she said.
She said data garnered from the evaluations would be published and updated at regular intervals and will be publicly available and accessible.
