AfricaPress-Tanzania: IN the fight against Covid- 19, UN Women on Thursday organised a virtual roundtable dialogue that discussed opportunities and strategies to safeguard women’s livelihoods.
UN Women in partnership with the Msichana Initiative, Plan International and the African Women Leaders’ Network (AWLN) organised a discussion that involved over 100 participants.
The participants included the government of Tanzania, the United Nations, development partners, women’s human rights organisations, civil society, youth organisations, the private sector and community- based networks.
According to a statement released identifies that young panelists were more active and shared how they were making changes in their work to contribute towards multi-layered impacts of Covid-19 on young women and girls as they are local heroes.
UN Women Representative Hodan Addou said “UN Women is mobilising gender equality youth activists to drive the generation equality campaign, to amplify the voice, agency and leadership of young women in Tanzania.”
“These gender youth activists are leaders and influencers who are giving visibility to issues of gender equality and women’s empowerment in their local communities. They are local heroes impacting their communities working to mobilise their peers for the achievement of gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls,” she said.
The dialogue further created space for participants to discuss the vulnerability of women in business and women’s economic resilience and strengthening women’s participation in decision-making processes.
The Executive Director of the Msichana Initiative and Co-chair of the African Women Leaders Network Tanzania Chapter, Ms Rebeca Gyumi, added that the roundtable created space for women and girls across Tanzania to speak up for themselves and for those who were affected and infected with Covid-19.
The dialogue had centred on young women and girls’ voices in issues that affected them and for the wellbeing of multiple generations through the exchange of ideas and solution expecting to widen their scope and ensure a better future.
The generation equality campaign was launched globally in 2019 to build a momentum to the 25th anniversary of the Beijing Platform for Action and create opportunities that would bring together the next generations of women’s rights activists with the gender equality advocates and visionaries who were instrumental in creating the Beijing Platform for Action in 1995
