Africa-Press – Botswana. March 8 is a date recognised by the United Nations for the world to commemorate International Women’s Day annually and Paje is the host for the national event today.
This year’s theme: Invest in Women: Accelerate Progress, is too close to home because just recently when addressing Parliament about his trip to Namibia for the memorial service and burial of former president, Dr Hage Geingob, President Dr Mokgweetsi Masisi emphasised his commitment to uplift and increase women representation and participation in leadership positions.
The latest noteworthy appointment of a female leader by Dr Masisi is Ms Dinah Marathe, who in 2021 was appointed first female commissioner of Botswana Prison Service, a position she held until February 29, this year, when she once again made history and became the first female commissioner of Botswana Police Service.
As a signatory to among other instruments, the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, which promotes the status of women, Botswana joins the world to honour women’s contribution to the cultural, social, economic and political aspects of society.
Botswana, like other nations, will on this day, take a moment to gauge its achievements in advancing the cause of women and how much ground still needed to be covered.
Senior gender affairs officer in Serowe, Ms Peoyame Tladi, told BOPA that the day was about achieving gender equality across the globe and recognising women’s achievements and future prospects.
This year’s commemoration, where President Masisi is expected to officiate, is driven by five components, one of them outlines that investing in a woman is a human right, a statement that challenges governments to inject resources in helping women because if you empower a woman, you empower a nation, Ms Tladi said.
Others include ending poverty with the aim to address the aftermath of COVID- 19 that left many especially women, poor, a need to implement gender responsive financing which gives both men and women equal chances to acquire assistance from financial institutions, as well as a call to shift to a green economy and caring society which seeks to address the effects of climate change and how much it affects natural resources that women make a living out of.
Ms Tladi stated that there was a need to support feminist organisations leading efforts to tackle women’s poverty.
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