UAE Gender Balance Council
The national council's website, and the secure platform behind its SDG 5 pledge.
| Client | UAE Gender Balance Council |
|---|---|
| What we built | Website and pledge data platform |
| Platform | WordPress |
| My role | Head of UX cum Project Manager |
| Live site | gbc.gov.ae |
The brief
The UAE Gender Balance Council leads the country's work to close gender gaps. Its website had to carry national statistics, initiatives and live platforms with the authority of a federal body.
Alongside it sits the SDG 5 Pledge to Accelerate Gender Balance, which asks private-sector companies to reach at least 30% women in mid-to-senior management by 2028. Companies report confidential workforce data through a separate, secure pledge portal.
Built with
UX lead & PM I led UX and ran a two-product build: a public website and a confidential data platform.
What I did
- Ran workshops with the council to define two products: a public website and a confidential pledge platform.
- Designed the pledge submission so a company's HR team can finish it in one sitting.
- Planned the build with a security review at every milestone, given the data involved.
- Designed the admin reporting the council uses to track progress against the 2028 target.
- Managed delivery, acceptance testing with council staff, and the launch.
The impact
- 80+private-sector signatories onboarded
- 30%women in mid-to-senior roles: the pledge target for 2028
- 2products: a public website and a secure platform
- 0data incidents since launch
The call I made
Keep the data platform separate
It would have been quicker to put the pledge forms inside the website. I argued for a separate pledge portal with its own security model, because companies were trusting the council with confidential workforce data. That separation made the security review straightforward.
What shipped
- A WordPress website for the council, with impact figures, initiatives and live platforms
- A secure pledge portal for confidential company submissions
- An admin area for the council team to review submissions and report
- Government branding applied across both, in Arabic and English
- Over 80 major private-sector signatories onboarded through the platform
On screen
