The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is determined to promote change on many different levels within the nation. One of which has become the main incubator of transformation that resides with the concept of women in the workplace. The government along with all of its entities believes and supports that women are vital not only in the home but also in the professional sectors, workforce, and empowerment.

The United Nations Development Program (UNDP) in Saudi Arabia has successfully positioned itself as a supporting arm to The Ministry of Human Resources and Social Development (HRSD). The Ministry started in 2019 as a direct result of a merger between the Ministry of Civil Service (MCS) and the Ministry of Labor and Social Development (MLSD). The entities work on a wide range of development programs, one of which is a specific program that empowers women in the public and private service sectors. 

The UNDP Saudi Arabia office along with its international experience and expertise has aimed not only to support and assist the HRSD but also to bridge the gap that allows for women to partake in the workplace through its own Sustainable Development Goals (SDG’s), which entail gender equality, a reduction in inequalities, decent work and economic growth and improving institutional goals within the Kingdom.

The program outlined by the HRSD consists of 3 pillars:

• A policy of change.
• Development of both the entities and the people that work within them.
• Enablement with the use of dedicated technology.

The UNDP supports these pillars on various levels that cater to impact in sectors that further carry the initiative forward, such support includes:

• In-depth study of the process and its approach
• Recommendations in labor law amendments
• Training of Human Resource (HR) departments within the public and private sectors
• Building awareness campaigns
• Recommendations to transfer the program into the private sector within the scope of the program
• Expert advice and program guidance.

By assessing and monitoring the impact from a social perspective, that introduces the idea of change to improve life for all, and in return empowering families as well as the nation by offering a gender balance system and having women become contributing members of communities, is one of the goals of such a program.

Technically the HRSD is building a powerful digital platform that offers leadership-training programs, where women could sign up and be trained in various sectors. This in return creates a pool of leadership and local-based talent that acts as a pool for the public sector to choose from and acts as a sustainable tool that enhances career growth while encouraging advanced skills to become leaders in their own right.

The legal impacts are also an area in which the UNDP has prevailed, by making strong recommendations that have introduced and enticed non-discrimination law throughout the Kingdom that states no entity is allowed to discriminate based on gender, religion, or any other criteria.

From these efforts, an instruction manual on how to train, maintain and monitor HR departments has been created to guide, direct, and advise the women to become board members at leadership levels.

The levels of success in the program have already broken barriers. The Vision 2030 goals set out by the Kingdom, for example, had previously targeted 20% of women to join the workforce by 2030. To demonstrate the levels of the dedication of the nation, this target has not already been reached and surpassed, but it has done it in record time and with a staggering 31%.

The data gathered from the statistical centers around the Kingdom have allowed for the delivery of the program to be constantly adapted and utilized. Ranging from face-to-face interviews, surveys, and interviews with top-line management, the findings are fed back into the program and passed over via training manuals to the relevant HR departments.

For HRSD and UNDP alike, the record numbers and work allocations slots can measure the level of success and the reduction in the gender inequality gap is constantly being narrowed.

Overall the offering of such a program allows for leadership roles to be more readily available to Business-to-Business relationships. They are there to support the system to entice women to join the professional sectors and no details go unnoticed. The HRSD has even daycare and transportation support set up, to ensure that women have all the resources at their disposal in support of the program.

Complimenting the HRSD efforts, influencing diversity into the Kingdom has also been introduced at the educational level, whereby the Ministry of Education has adopted the concept and is inserting it into the curriculum by creating role models in books, programming, and other mediums.

The Kingdom proudly holds an international award of the most reformed nation on the planet to empower women, and this is no small feat as The World Economic Forum has endorsed it.

The hopes of this program with the UNDP and the HRSD does not plan to stop in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia but has hopes of becoming a global initiative for the world to follow.