Sana Afouaiz: "We need to rethink the way we look at North African countries"

In the second part of the EUROMENA Show 2021, the economy and women were the main topics discussed. Specifically, women as agents driving economic recovery and the right to affordable and sustainable housing. In addition, the importance of the role of technology in society and the phenomenon of the urban exodus were highlighted, a situation that has led to the debate on the right to housing.

The pandemic has aggravated the massive global economic situation as an economic recession has been experienced in which many women have emphasised that their situation has suffered as the main sectors in which they work (tourism, manufacturing, business and commerce) are not compatible with telework. In addition, 70% of the health workforce that has been on the front line is made up of women, which translates globally into 37% of the world's GDP.

On the other hand, women in the business sector and their role as entrepreneurs was another of the fundamental blocks that took centre stage at the conference.

The founder and CEO of the organisation Womenpreneur Initiative, Sana Afouaiz, pointed out that, in the business sector, women suffer "discriminatory attitudes, an example of which is when women want to ask for a loan and are asked for a guarantee, which is very difficult for women in Morocco". Even so, Afouaiz affirmed that "Morocco has one of the highest ratios of women working in the region, it also has the highest number of women engineers". 

In the sense of collaboration and relations between the European Union and Africa, the businesswoman affirmed that "we need to change the structural narrative" since "we will have more opportunities if we change the way we work, establish the economy, partnership, human dignity, collaboration".

For this reason, Afouaiz advocated maintaining diplomatic relations in which "we are more empathetic and committed to recognising human dignity, playing an important role and looking to the countries of the south as allies today more than ever, given that there are still many value judgements". On the other hand, in reference to the situation of women in the region, the CEO defended that "the women of the region have to continue fighting" and make their voices heard "so that other women speak out, the more we speak out, the more opportunities we will have to change things, make your voices heard, put pressure on them and do not remain silent".

In this sense, the UNESCO Chair of Sustainability at the Polytechnic University of Catalonia (UPC), Dr. Rafael Prado, stated that "we have to find the best solution, taking care of property rights, the rule of law, the liberalisation of land and, of course, free enterprise with smart cities".

The debate raised a series of questions that sought to answer some of the main questions: how should public policies respond to housing shortages; how can we promote real policy solutions to really pressing social problems without these negative setbacks? In relation to the limited availability of housing supply.

In this way, a series of keys to promote innovation in housing accessibility, through contemporary perspectives, have been put forward. "In view of the challenges of the 21st century, we must bear in mind that housing is a good rather than a right; the right to housing must once again have a sacred value, return to the importance it was given in the past, create innovative and new policies to respond to this new challenge", he stated.  For this reason, they warned that "it is necessary to reconcile public policies with housing and the environment".

Prado stressed that "when we look at our current policies, we see that these types of interventionist policies in this sector lack the availability to take into consideration the broader picture and generally lose the ramifications that these intervention policies can generate in our society; therefore, from a free-market perspective let's say that the solution is quite complex and must always take into account the land, the law, the municipality". In addition, "all public administrations must take into account their responsibility to have a good regulation; and also, fiscal and labour reforms"

Therefore, "we have to think about this sector, intervention policies are always going to create more barriers to entry for those people especially, and for low-income and middle-class homeowners" as "we are called to implement new ideas and innovate to strive and work: there are many factors that interact with each other, stakeholders, the law, society, etc".

"In view of the challenges of the 21st century, we must bear in mind that housing is a good rather than a right; the right to housing must once again have a sacred value, return to the importance it was given in the past, create innovative and new policies to respond to this new challenge", he concluded. 

Thus, the day went on to address different topics that dealt with political, social, economic, energy and cultural issues, with the aim of being able to reflect on the future diplomatic relations that are beginning to be built in a new post-pandemic era, with the help of important international experts. The day's finale was followed by a flamenco music show, thus vindicating national culture. After the show, the head of the Fiedrich Naumann Foundation's office in Madrid, David Henneberger, once again stressed the need to hold this type of event "to continue making progress and give greater coverage to these problems with the aim of providing solutions".