Acknowledgments

The Middle East Women’s Initiative would like to express its deepest gratitude to the team of collaborators, contributors, and partners who made this research possible. We would like to acknowledge the support of the leadership at the Woodrow Wilson Center for International Scholars, without whom the development of the of the to Pipeline-Participation-Authority Framework (PPA) would not be possible.

A special thanks to the Director, President and CEO of the Wilson Center, Jane Harman, for her leadership and support.

Our gratitude also extends to Dr. Haleh Esfandiari, founding Director of the Middle East Program at the Woodrow Wilson Center, and a true champion of women’s rights in the MENA region.

This index benefited tremendously from the advice and insights of Dr. Müge Köten Finkel and Dr. Melanie Hughes of the University of Pittsburgh and the Gender Inequality Research Lab (GIRL Lab), and we are ever grateful for your continued scholarship and collaboration on the subject of women’s participation in the public sector.

We are grateful for the support of the Middle East Women’s Initiative team, who have brought their rich experiences, vision and dedication to the development and execution of this research. A heartfelt thanks to Alex Horner and Alexander Farley for their dedication, insights and hard work, without which this research would not have been possible. Special thanks to Merissa Khurma for her inspiring leadership of the initiative.

We also thank the United Arab Emirates Gender Balance Council for its generous support of this initiative, which made it possible to continue this important work in the region.