Advocacy & Lobbying

In a significant step towards gender inclusivity in peace processes, southern Africa continues to acknowledge the crucial role women play in conflict prevention and resolution.

The Southern African Development Community (Sadc) has approved guidelines to promote the participation of women in regional efforts to prevent, manage and resolve conflicts in the 16 member states.

The Guidelines for Establishing and Operationalising a Network of Women Mediators in the Southern African Region aim to promote the roles and meaningful participation of women in conflict prevention, management, resolution and the undertaking of inclusive mediation efforts.

This ground-breaking initiative aims to establish a network of women mediators at community, national and regional levels who will facilitate conflict mediation and peace-building efforts.

By fostering women’s involvement, southern Africa is re-inforcing its commitment to sustainable peace through diverse and inclusive strategies.

Read here the full article published by The Chronicle on 24 July 2024.

Image by The Chronicle

“Gender equality is more than a goal in itself. It is a precondition for meeting the challenge of reducing poverty, promoting sustainable development, and building good governance.” - Kofi Annan, Former Secretary General of the United Nations.

Throughout history, societies have been shaped by the power of words and expressions. It's essential to examine the role of women in this context – their quest for rights and the progress made towards gender equality. The principle of fairness and equal opportunities needs to be embraced by every part of society and reflected in laws that protect and support everyone.

One significant milestone in advancing gender equality is the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, adopted in 1995. It addresses crucial issues like poverty, education, health, violence, discrimination, and more. This declaration serves as is a guide to understanding and improving women's rights across the world. To truly grasp the challenges women face, we need to consider various factors - cultural, social, economic, and political. Presenting this context with specific references to women's social experiences at certain points will help us to understand the solutions beyond the numbers.

Data from reliable sources highlight some realities. Reports show that between 5-13% of women in Türkiye don’t complete basic education, even though gender distribution is balanced. This lack of education leads to economic hardships. Additionally, four out of ten women experience violence, and online harassment is a growing problem, with 51% of women facing threats or stalking on social media. Early marriages also remain an issue, with over 24% of women married before the age of 18.

Read here the full article published by UN Women on 19 July 2024.

Image by UN Women

Women and girls around the world are facing significant threats, from wars and conflicts to devastating climate change, widening inequalities, and pushback on their human rights and freedoms. 

These threats were at the top of the agenda of the High-Level Political Forum (HLPF), the main UN platform to assess progress towards achieving the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. This year’s forum opened on 8 July 2024 under the theme of “Reinforcing the 2030 Agenda and eradicating poverty in times of multiple crises: the effective delivery of sustainable, resilient, and innovative solutions.”

“Women and girls continue to face discrimination and disadvantage,” said Amina J. Mohammed, the United Nations Deputy Secretary General, during the forum.

“Policies to support the empowerment of women and youth, and the rights of children and their social and emotional well-being, have been implemented,” she added. “But we must keep our focus on women’s rights at every level in every constituency across all issues.”

Over the course of ten days, UN Member States, alongside civil society organizations, youth, the private sector, and international organizations, convened to review achievements, identify areas for action, and share best practices in catalyzing the implementation of the 2030 Agenda, in a context where only 17 per cent of targets are set to be realized at the current pace.

Read here the full article published by UN Women on 19 July 2024.

The National Council for Women Societies (NCWS) has commended the House of Representatives for passing for second reading, a bill seeking to amend the Constitution to create extra legislative seats for women in the National and State Assemblies.

It also urged the Senate to concur so that Nigeria can join the ranks of countries that have made significant strides in promoting gender equality in governance.

Recall that a constitutional amendment bill to improve women’s representation in parliament through the introduction of special seats, last Tuesday, scaled second reading in the lower legislative chamber.

Acting National President of NCWS, Geraldine Etuk, while reacting to the development in a statement, said the passage was a landmark achievement and a significant step towards gender equality and representation in Nigeria.

Similarly, a group of civil society organisations and gender activists, yesterday, sought affirmative action to increase women’s representation in the nation’s political leadership space.

They lamented that the current political arrangement in the country was in favour of men. Gender advocate and President of Women in Politics Forum, EbereIfendu, made the appeal during a one-day workshop for civil society organisations (CSOs), with the theme, ‘Coordination and Strategy Meeting on Affirmative Action Reform to Increase Women Political Representations in the Ongoing Constitution Review Process’, in Abuja.

Read here the full article published by The Guardian Nigeria on 15 July 2024.

Image by The Guardian Nigeria

UN Women, in partnership with the Ministry of Local Administration Governance and the Agency for Gender Equality within the Office of the Prime Minister of Kosovo, under the European Union-funded “Gender Equality Project”, on June 2024, organized an exchange visit and workshop in Albania to strengthen the knowledge, skills, and capacities of local Gender Equality Officers to effectively engage in gender-responsive governance and EU accession.

The exchange visit and workshop brought together over 20 gender officers from 10 municipalities to exchange experiences, knowledge, skills, and capacities of local gender equality officers to effectively engage in gender-responsive governance and EU accession. Participants discussed standardizing the reporting matrix for local governance, as issued by the Ministry of Local Governance Administration (MLGA) and the Agency for Gender Equality (AGE). Participants also shared experiences and discussed key gender equality issues related to local planning and development.

The event offered a platform for public administration officers from both central and local governance in Kosovo¹ to exchange insights with senior public officers from Tirana, Durres, and Elbasan – the three municipalities targeted by Gender Equality Facility (GEF) in Albania. Kosovo participants had the opportunity to learn from their experiences implementing the European Charter for Equality of Women and Men in Local Life, particularly in the context of local governance and EU acceleration. 

At the workshop's opening, Albana Lumi, Monitoring and Reporting Officer at AGE, emphasized that "We need to keep enhancing our coordination mechanisms and adopting European gender equality standards. This will support Kosovo's progress towards European integration."

Ejup Kamberaj, Head of the Division for the Advancement of Human Rights, MLGA, highlighted a major success of the first year of GEF implementation, specifically Output 2 which focuses on local government units and gender mainstreaming of policies and plans in alignment with EU gender acquis.

Read here the full article published by UN Women on 4 July 2024.