Sincere thanks and appreciation are owed to our dear sister Leila Ben Ali for her outstanding efforts. During her leadership of the Arab Women's Organization, she put forth numerous prominent initiatives to convey the voice of Arab women to a world that looks forward to great sustainable achievements

We are pleased to hold together the third conference of the Arab Women's Organization as a thoughtful effort towards discussing the status of Arab women in the sustainable development process based on the principles of equal opportunities and freedom of choice.

Development challenges faced by Arab countries are numerous and overwhelming. They vary from an economy that seeks to redefine itself, to education systems in search for ways to successfully interact with a free and competitive labour market capable of employing citizens and to traditions that tend to exclude women and weaken their participation.

Confronting such challenges is intolerable, unless there is a common vision to integrate the needs of women in the national development process and, simultaneously, to intensify endeavors to empower them towards becoming vital and commendable partners throughout all the stages of the nation building and development process.

By this I mean that there should be clear measures and processes to incorporate women's needs and roles in national action programs. The gradual, steady and well-followed integration should be based both on a clear vision that considers women as partners in the progressive change and on the principle that any exclusion of women will undermine development.

In Bahrain, we will soon launch a national plan, "Mainstreaming women’s need in development and the Role of National Efforts," under the theme "Equal Opportunities ... Justice and Progress for All."

We have been keen to involve all parties in charge of development in order to review and assess national efforts to integrate the needs of Bahraini women in work programs, in order to come out with a national model that is adaptable to the Bahraini Society and at the same time, consolidates partnership with women in the development process.

We hope that this experience will be studied in our upcoming conferences so that we can exchange practical experience and highlight successful national programs and projects that are consistent with the seven areas of the Arab women advancement strategy.

We look forward with great confidence to the results of our third conference, which will, undoubtedly, provide a new assessment of the standards required for the involvement of Arab women and will present a comprehensive review of the status of women and their role in the sustainable development process.