Last Thursday, President Julius Maada Bio signed a new Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment Bill 2022, known also as the GEWE Act 2022, that is seeking to open up the country’s political space and establish a level playing field for women in politics.

Political parties are now required to ensure that 30% of their candidates for parliamentary and local council elections are women.

Of the 146 MPs in the country’s parliament, only 12.3% are currently women, and advocates of women’s rights are hoping that this new law will encourage more women to enter politics.

Sierra Leonean lawmakers on Tuesday voted unanimously to pass the Gender Empowerment Act, ensuring that one in three members of parliament, as well as local councillors, is a woman.

Currently only 19 of Sierra Leone’s 146 members of parliament are women.

An earlier draft stipulated a slightly lower 30-percent quota but was amended.

Women across Sierra Leone have through a communique submitted to the Speaker of Parliament called for the creation of a Women's Fund to enhance effective political participation and to also advance the interests and concerns of women for the development of the country.

Lawyer Yasim Jusu Sheriff presented the communique on behalf of women, who participated in the National Women's Conference held in Freetown on 16th &17th March, 2022.

Deliberate effort to put women in political positions, building institutions and strong legal frameworks, as well as strong human resource capacity,  are some of the catalysts that will ensure the African woman is empowered.

These are some of the solutions put forward by the First Lady Jeannette Kagame yesterday, during a sideline event at the on-going United Nations General Assembly taking place in New York.