2013-03-12 11:26:56 - During the MENA ICT 2013 which was held on 6,7 March, 2013 Under the patronage of his Majesty King Abdullah the second, The King of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan

, and was organized by the Information and Communications Technology Association of Jordan (int@j) in co-operation with the Arab ICT Organization "IJMA3", the official launching of the "Women Alliance for virtual exchange-WAVE" took place on the 7th of March, the second day of the MENA ICT Forum that was held in the King Hussein Bin Talal Convention Center -Dead Sea-Jordan in the presence of the alliance general assembly .
The launching of this Alliance goes in line with the extensive efforts that are now being made in order to enhance the quality of life of women and amplify their voice.
Currently, ICT is a very dynamic field that we could benefit from to improve the status of women and unleash their

potential in different fields.
The uniqueness of this Alliance lies in the fact that it consists of diverse technical expertise from various non-governmental organizations and civil society organizations that work on advocacy and campaigning on women related causes and online freedom, and others that are entrepreneurs and specialized in internet technology.
Furthermore, this Alliance covers a diverse geographical and religious area where it consists of more than fifty non political NGOs and CSOs located in the MENA and Central Asia region, committed to enhance the quality of life of women. Thus, this Alliance strives to empower its members through specialized programs that build their capacities and allow them to share experiences.

In parallel to the "World Women Day" on the 8th of March, the Alliance launched its first regional advocacy campaign for the year 2013 entitled "Towards Equal Career Opportunities", where WAVE members will be working on the national and regional levels to raise the awareness and engage stakeholders to enhance equal career opportunities between men and women. The Alliance will also work on organizing a regional annual conference to discuss the progress made regarding the status of women and exchange expertise on the national and regional levels.
The launching of this Alliance comes after a series of regional meetings that started in July 2012, when the "Arab ICT Organization-Ijma3" and "The Lebanese Center for Civic Education" called for the first regional meeting for a group of NGOs in the Middle East, North Africa and Central Asia region. The meeting aimed at elaborating ideas for a joint action and resulted in the launching of WAVE electronic portal for information exchange and online training www.waveprogram.org
The second regional meeting was held in November 2012, where the participating CSOs developed a memorandum of understanding for the Alliance. A third meeting followed in January 2013, where participants signed the Alliance bylaws and elaborated its vision, mission and objectives.
The Alliance objectives include raising women's' voice in the targeted region, establishing a data base on the situation of women, and advocating for causes such as equal career opportunities, women's' rights and entrepreneurship. The Alliance also aimed at supporting the work of member CSOs in decision making on the national and regional levels, and work on building their capacities in various fields.
The Alliance will work on promoting international and regional cooperation opportunities that aim at advocating for women's causes, networking, information exchange and sharing expertise.
The Alliance temporary office will be located in Beirut at the "Arab ICT Organization-Ijma3". The "Lebanese Center for Civic Education" will be in charge of developing the capacities of the Alliance to implement their action plan in the next phase.