In the spirit of accelerating progress toward more comprehension information, knowledge and generation sharing guided by the 2030 agenda for Sustainable Development, the UN Women East and Southern Africa region is looking for 9 members on voluntary basis for the Youth Steering Committee. The successful members should dedicate at least to hours every quarter for consultations and meetings. The membership of the Steering Committee will include: • Diverse young girls, boys, women, and men between the ages of 15-35 segmented into three clusters (15-24, 25-29,30-35) • Young women and men with a record of accomplishment of working on programmes and advocacy initiatives related to gender equality and young women and men’s engagement work in their countries and the East and Southern Africa region. • Young people from the East and Southern Africa region • Young people representing diverse backgrounds and experiences, including groups less represented in other UN platforms and fora.

Are you an institution focusing on gender equality, women’s rights, and women empowerment in the East and Southern Africa region? The UN Women Regional Office is looking for organizations and groups to drive dialogue & engagement on gender equality, to support consultations between UN Women and civil society and help inform UN Women’s priorities and strategies in the region. Membership will be drawn from institutions working in the region. This is a voluntary role, with a term of 2 years. Institutions (NGOs, Community Based Organizations, Networks, research institutions etc) with a proven track record working on diverse gender equality, women’s rights and empowerment areas are encouraged to apply for consideration for the 12 member Advisory Group. The RCSAG members will serve for a 2 year term.

Delegates comprising policy analysts and gender statistics experts from line ministries, national statistical offices, and civil society will exchange knowledge on the latest innovations and best practices in gender statistics to inform action plans in AU member states and the region as a whole. Gender statistics are instrumental in measuring progress towards achieving regional and global gender development goals. However, the production of gender statistics is relatively new, and information is not fully consolidated and always readily available, even at the global level.

The Government of South Sudan, under the leadership of the Ministry of Gender, Child and Social Welfare and with support from UN Women, is in a process of developing its second National Action Plan on the UN Security Council Resolution 1325 on Women, Peace and Security (WPS) for 2023-2027 in South Sudan. As the National Action Plan captures timely issues across the society with its four pillars of prevention, participation, protection, and relief and recovery, the new “SSNAP” represents a country-wide interest and effort. Consultations with a variety of stakeholders are ongoing at the national and state levels, and the new Plan is expected to be launched during the 16 Days of Activism against Gender-Based Violence campaign later in 2022.

Yolanda Ginya is a creative director at SYLG Creations which produces hand-crafted beadwork in Amathole District, Eastern Cape, South Africa. Her company is part of the women-owned enterprises benefiting from training, conferences, networking opportunities, and mentoring programs supported by UN Women South Africa Multi-country office that assists the enterprises in accessing opportunities within the district. Yolanda gives back to her community by training other young women on beadwork to empower them economically.

Beatrice Akello is a Child and Family Protection Officer (CFPO) based in Amuria District, East Kyoga Region, Uganda. Beatrice is one of 30 police officers who attended a training in Soroti on how to collect, handle and submit forensics evidence pertaining to SGBV crimes.

In Uganda, UN Women is providing skills for life to teenage mothers, girls and young women living with HIV, women in sex work, people with disabilities, and survivors of sexual gender-based violence and child brides through its “Promoting Second Chance Education" Programme.

“Today, we honor and celebrate the lives of these courageous women by acting more audaciously and strategically to advance gender equality and Women’ Human Rights. I want to see that commitment from everyone, men and women”, Hon. Betty Amongi, the Minister of Gender, Labor and Social Development stated at the commemoration of the Women’s Month.

Outcomes of this project, which are close to the Sustainable Development Goals, particularly SDG 5 on gender equality, and SDG 3 on good health and well-being, focuses on social norm programming that will contribute to protection and empowerment of crisis-affected women and girls in Amhara, Afar, and Tigray regions of Ethiopia; scaling up partnerships with local women-led organisations (WLOs) / women rights organisations (WROs) and strengthening their capacities to participate in humanitarian decision-making; increasing access and improving quality of services provided to crisis-affected women and girls both in relation to protection and livelihoods.

This project aims to mitigate, prevent, and respond to GBV in crisis-affected communities through GBV awareness raising in conflict-affected communities, including through coffee corner discussions, community dialogues and media campaigns; establishing community-based complaint mechanisms (CBCMs) and build capacity of CBCM focal points in communities on their functionality and process of GBV / sexual exploitation and abuse (SEA) reporting; and providing GBV/SEA related survivor support and services based on risk assessments, service mapping, and CBCM establishment.

On this momentous day 18th of September, international equal pay day, UN Women urges policymakers, non-governmental organizations, and the rest of the UN system to continue working towards closing the gender pay gap. UN Women pledges to continue efforts to raise awareness and promote policy change to narrow and close the gender pay gap and ensure women and girls have equal rights as their male counterparts.

Mariam Tungu, a woman farmer from Singida’s Ikungi district in central Tanzania spent decades cultivating the small piece of land behind her home and had resigned herself to yielding only enough to sustain her family.

Globally, women and girls shoulder a disproportionate share of care work that is unpaid, unrecognized, and undervalued. According to a recent baseline study by UN Women Rwanda on unpaid care work in eight districts, on average women work for around 4.1 hours per day compared to men who on average do approximately 1.7 hours on unpaid care and domestic work, particularly those in areas with limited access to regular basic services such as energy, water, and sanitation.

Mealii Swazuri is 25 and lives in Kwale County, Kenya. She is active in her community and has been leading discussions on youth affairs and grass roots conflict prevention initiatives. Since 2020, she has been a member of the Kwale Youth Assembly who have recently been travelling across the county to collect information from young people about what they want to see from their decision makers.

Kisumu and Nandi are neighbouring counties in Western Kenya. Their predominant ethnicities mirror the tribal background of the two leading presidential candidates in this year’s election. Mixed with historical injustice and sustained socio-economic pressures, the border region has been identified as a hotspot for elections-related violence. National-scale efforts are aiming for peaceful elections in the region and nationally –  ensuring women’s voices are heard in these peace and security discussions. 

The report “Lessons Learned, Promising Practices, & Challenges to Overcome” provides first-hand experiences from the eight African countries implementing the Spotlight Initiative in ending violence against women and girls.

New York, 30 August 2022 – The Elsie Initiative Fund for Uniformed Women in Peace Operations (EIF) announced today that the Ghana Armed Forces (GAF) will receive funding of USD 3.7 million over three years to substantially increase the number of military women who deploy into peacekeeping missions— including in command positions—and to transform the GAF to be more gender-inclusive. As the 7th highest contributor to United Nations peacekeeping, Ghana currently deploys 2,760 uniformed personnel, among which 15.6 per cent are women.

Women globally shoulder a disproportionate amount of unpaid care and domestic work compared to men. Indeed, studies show that women perform more than three-quarters of all unpaid care work – more than three times the unpaid care work carried out by men. According to Oxfam International, two out of every five or 42 percent of women globally are outside the paid workforce because they are responsible for all the caregiving compared to 6 percent of men.

Achieving gender parity not only in politics but across all spheres and institutions within government and private sector will be her priority, Hon Khadija emphasized. The ministry is committed to lead and support the implementation of the national action plan and in receiving its endorsement of the cabinet followed by high level launch event for wider dissemination and ownership.

UN Women Mozambique hosted a dialogue with ten adolescent girls as part of Plan International's campaign “Eu Amanhã” (Me, Tomorrow) aimed to mobilize youth for gender equality and participation of young women in leadership