By: Precious Miracle Kargbo
The Minister of Gender and Children Affairs, Dr. Isata Mahoi on Monday16th October 2023, through a conference organized by the UN women and other development partners has called for an equal participation of women in Governance and politics in Sierra Leone.
Delivering her key note address, Minister of Gender and Children Affairs Dr Isata Mahoi calls on PPRC and ECSL to look in the recommendations being put together by women on their quest of participation in Governance. She added that as a ministry they are looking at gender responsiveness as a process just like the general elections which transcends into different stages before the final pooling day, every process should be gender responsive and taken into consideration gender activities and profile of women. She also said there is a need to initiate safeguarding mechanism against electoral violence as women experience election violence differently from men in terms of type and frequency.
Dr Mahoi asserts that violence against women in Politics is not physical as compared to men but as psychological or sexual in nature which they are likely to face based on fear of their personal security and their loved ones, fear from social ostracism and attacks on their moral character and self-confidence, also they are more likely than men to face sexual harassment within their political parties.
She ended that her Ministry will ensure that there is an increment of women’s participation in Governance and to secure and maintain leadership in parliament and government related activities.
Head of Office of UN women Sierra Leone, Setcheme Jeronime M. Mongbo outlines the main purpose for the conference through the UN women Sierra Leone, they outline is for them to be able to work against the discrimination of women and girls, empowerment of women’s achievements in society and the achievement of equality between women and men as partners and beneficiaries of development, human right in maintaining peace, sanity and security in Sierra Leone.
She added that the UN women lead and coordinate a system which seeks to ensure the commitment on Gender equality and gender mainstreaming to translate into action not only in Sierra Leone but throughout the world placing women’s rights at the center of all discussion and international agreement.
Furthermore, Miss Mongbo added that Sierra Leone has made significant progress in terms of women’s participation in political leadership despite many difficulties to achieve that. She said “at this juncture I wish to congratulate the government of Sierra Leone and its people for taking the bold step on Gender equality and especially with the signing of the GEWE act by President Julius Maada Bio in 2022”.
Head of Development at Action Aid, Carroll Arnold, continues to shed light on the impact of the conference in identifying women’s right, gender equality and empowerment to be at the center of all governance corporation work in Sierra Leone.
Arnold explained that they have made significant investments when it comes to the area of supporting women’s political participation through a number of organizations in the country including the UN women, she expressed delights in the progress made so far but also admonished women not to sit at their laurels as there are still a lot of challenges which needs to be addressed and giving directions of how women are supposed to be represented on the next elections in 2028.