Africa-Press – Mauritius. A High-Level debate on Gender Equality aimed at engaging Mauritian political representatives, Government officials, gender activists, academic circles as well as young people in a dialogue on gender equality and women’s and girl’s access to Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) education and careers, was launched in a hybrid format, this morning, at the Caudan Arts Centre in Port Louis.
The debate was organised by the delegation of the European Union to the Republic of Mauritius, the Embassy of Finland, and the Embassy of Sweden, which are two Member States with a strong gender equality focus in their global cooperation, including in Africa.
The Head of the Gender Unit of the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family Welfare, Mrs Mohini Bali; the Ambassador of the European Union (EU) to Mauritius and Seychelles, Mr Vincent Degert; the Ambassador of Sweden to Mauritius, Malawi and Zimbabwe, Ms Åsa Pehrson; the Ambassador of Finland to Mauritius, South Africa, Botswana and Lesotho, Mrs Anne Lammila; and other eminent personalities were present at the opening ceremony.
In her opening remarks, Mrs Bali highlighted that ownership of the gender mainstreaming must sit at the highest management level where decisions are taken while accountability must be inbuilt in the process of monitoring and evaluation.
She seized this opportunity to give a brief history of the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family Welfare and depicted how, along the years, it has expanded to play an important role in the socio-economic development of the Mauritian society.
Furthermore, she provided an overview of key milestones for women’s empowerment and gender equality such as the setting up of the National Women’s Entrepreneur Council; the adoption of the National Gender Policy Framework; the setting up of the National Steering Committee on Gender Mainstreaming; the formulation of Gender Policy Statements by different Ministries; and most recently, the launching of the National Strategy and Action Plan 2020-2024 on the Elimination of Gender-Based Violence.
The EU Ambassador, for his part, stated that this critical topic of women and girls in STEM shows that there is significant commitment from stakeholders in Mauritius to see how women and girls can enter several fields of work.
He also encouraged participants to make the most of the topical discussions on the agenda. As for the Finland Ambassador, she underscored that the idea of organising this debate results from a meeting with the Minister of Gender Equality and Family Welfare, Mrs Kalpana Koonjoo-Shah.
She observed that Mauritius has achieved a lot in terms of gender equality but that efforts have to be sustained in this field. For her part, the Swedish Ambassador commended every participant and encouraged them to actively participate in discussions so as to make the most of the High-Level debate. She also dwelt on some achievements of the Swedish Government in the field of gender equality.
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