In the words of Asseny Muro: “Generation Equality shows us that every generation of women has its own story to tell”
Ms. Asseny Muro, 72, is one of the pioneers of the Beijing Platform for Action (1995) and spent more than half her life championing the rights of women in Tanzania. In 1993, Muro was one of the founders of the Tanzania Gender Networking Programme (TGNP), a leading women’s rights and feminist organization where she is currently the Chairperson of the Board. She is also a Champion of the Generation Equality Campaign by UN Women, and a Steering Committee Member of the Tanzania Chapter of the African Women Leaders’ Network (AWLN). A firm believer that the aspirations of the Beijing Platform for Action are relevant today, Muro calls on young women and girls to demonstrate their capacity and interest to take over the baton from previous generations.Date:
As the Women’s Rights Movement in Tanzania, we are improving our partnership with the young women and girls as one of our key strategies to support efforts that will increase women’s leadership across all sectors. Looking at how we have worked in the past, I think it is critical that we do not apply the same strategies in situations that obviously require different tactics.
We have seen that some challenges that we thought were addressed later emerged even more complex than before. This tells us of the need for multifaceted and flexible approaches in responding to emerging challenges such as the COVID-19 pandemic.
In Tanzania one important area we continue investing in is advocating for policies and laws that can create opportunities for the leadership of women, including young women. Working with partners such as UN Women, Tanzania continues to improve her policies and laws in line with the signed regional and international Treaties that speak to gender equality. Much as we welcome this effort, we continue to advocate for greater investment in the effective and sustained implementation of those frameworks to accelerate progress.
Intergenerational partnerships took the centre stage in Tanzania in 2020, raising the need for serious conversations on how to combine the old and the new strategies to innovate the gender movement in a more digital world. One new innovation on the global gender space is the Generation Equality Campaign by UN Women, which is promoting intergenerational partnerships to accelerate progress in the unfinished business of the Beijing Platform for Action.
In Tanzania Generation Equality is working alongside other initiatives such as the African Women Leaders Network, the Coalition on Constitution and Women in Leadership and the Gender Festival and Gender Seminar Series by the Tanzania Gender Networking Programme to promote partnerships that can renew the women’s rights agenda.
Through the Generation Equality discussions, we have seen that every generation of women has its own story to tell, of how they fought for their rights in different spaces. As we prepare for more Generation Equality innovations in 2021, young women and girls should demonstrate their capacity and interest to take over the baton from previous generations. The women’s rights agenda is a serious matter for all women and girls in Tanzania. I envision a significant progress in gender equality in Tanzania in the near future if only we can steer the movement in the right direction."