Women in the Emirates, Sheikha Fatima bint Mubarak once said, "have managed to carve out a niche and to impress the whole world". Her Highness offered the observation in 2009, but her words are as true now as ever.
As the world honours half the planet's population on International Women's Day today - 100 years after its global launch - it's worth recognising the achievements of our sisters, mothers and daughters. Unthinkable just a few decades ago, women in the UAE are now business executives and paramedics, police officers and physicians.
Yet despite all the progress towards true equality, the road ahead for women - in the UAE and elsewhere - is long.
Some leaders in the Emirates, for instance, have pushed hard to enact maternity leave policies that rival those in western countries and even elsewhere in the region. But new mothers in most industries are still given just a few weeks to recover and return to work. This is a key oversight that needs immediate attention. Efforts to protect female domestic help are also long overdue.
But in a part of the world where women's personal freedoms are not always guaranteed, the country that Sheikha Fatima has helped build should be seen as a model. Other regional states have far further to go.
In Saudi Arabia, gender roles have traditionally centred on a patriarchal structure, where male guardians are mandatory and veils are required. In Egypt, women continue to be the targets of harassment and sexual violence, and disenfranchisement from the political process. And in Iran, despite high levels of education, women are unable to pass their nationality on to their children.
Generally speaking, most countries in the region have made progress in recent years to increase legal protections for women. And yet gaps remain.
In a report last year, Freedom House, a US-based research group, found that physical abuse continues to go unaddressed. In each of the region's 18 countries surveyed, the institute found, "only Tunisia and Jordan offer specific protections against domestic violence, and none prohibit spousal rape". Clearly this needs attention.
Sheikha Fatima, who herself will be honoured by the UN today for her role in advancing the rights of women in the UAE, concluded her 2009 observation with this thought: "It is enough to say that the UAE women are no longer busy claiming their rights, but exercising them." We look forward to the day that women across the region, and the around the world, are able to say the same.
Leap of Faith
Michael J Mazarr
Public Affairs
Dh67
Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
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Villains
Queens of the Stone Age
Matador
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Pakistan squad
Sarfraz (c), Zaman, Imam, Masood, Azam, Malik, Asif, Sohail, Shadab, Nawaz, Ashraf, Hasan, Amir, Junaid, Shinwari and Afridi
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MATCH INFO
Manchester City 1 (Gundogan 56')
Shakhtar Donetsk 1 (Solomon 69')