Women are key target beneficiaries of the MDG-F Joint Programmes on Culture and Development. In that regard the Joint Programmes are contributing to the achievement of MDG 3, namely by creating jobs, incomes, and new market opportunities for women in the culture sector, while also empowering them to participate in cultural life, in multiple ways, including by:

• Strengthening technical capacities of women in the culture sector (e.g. training course on handicraft production benefiting 160 women in Egypt)

• Supporting cultural ventures run by women (e.g. support provided to women's handicraft enterprises in Cambodia has led to a 33% increase in sales, and therefore greater incomes for those women)

• Mainstreaming gender equality in national and local development policies, strategies and programmes (e.g. gender sensitive “National Sector Strategy of Culture” developed in oPt, resulting in gender sensitive programmes and activities)

• Promoting political participation of women (e.g. political representation of women in Guelmin, Morocco, was achieved for the first time, following information and awareness-raising campaigns and capacity-building activities)