AfricaPress-Tanzania: VICE President Samia Suluhu Hassan said yesterday that for the country to achieve gender equality, men should be involved in all initiatives and programmes leveraged to promote women empowerment.
“We must engage men when discussing various issues related to women. We cannot succeed if we sideline men because most of the decision making posts are held by men,” the VP asserted.
Officiating at a special event dubbed ‘Super Woman’ organized to commemorate the International Women’s Day (IWD) marked this year under the theme ‘Women in leadership: Achieving an equal future in a challenging world.’
“If we are to achieve gender equality and fight poverty among women, we have to ensure that every empowerment programme engages men because they should also be educated on the importance of valuing women,” she said.
The Vice President affirmed that Tanzania will succeed in the war against gender based violence (GBV) if men are properly engaged in the campaign, noting that it is high time that men change their perspective on women.
“The government continues to promote women’s growth efforts as well as ensuring that their rights are not violated,” she said, highlighting the need for concerted efforts to bring down incidents of violence against women.
Despite the setting up of supportive centres in hospitals and gender desks at police stations, the number of GBV cases reported at the centres was still high, she stated.
Samia appealed to the public to collaborate with law enforcers by reporting and providing information on GBV incidents, urging women to support one another so as to achieve the targeted goals, underlining that the challenges women face must be addressed at family and community level as it is where violence occurs.
Inspite of strides attained by government efforts, the private sector and other stakeholders to empower women and promote gender equality in all sectors, there is still a long way to go to achieve these goals, the VP declared.
She asserted that President John Magufuli had periodically sought to put up policies and laws which promote women’s rights and appoint them in top leadership positions.
“Various studies have shown that the more women are in top leadership positions, the faster the pace of development. We have a number of graduates from the Female Future Program; these women can support implementation of the mentorship programme by educating younger women as to what it takes for them to become good leaders,” she had earlier declared.
