By: Aminata Sesay
Stakeholders working to protect women and girls in Sierra Leone are pushing for a stronger and more coordinated women’s movement to improve collective efforts to prevent and respond to violence against women and girls.
The initiative is being led by the Ministry of Gender and Children’s Affairs (MoGCA), in partnership with UN Women and civil society organizations, under the Spotlight Initiative 2.0.
The three-day co-creation workshop, held in Freetown from September 23 to 25, brought together government representatives, women’s rights advocates, civil society organizations and child protection actors to assess existing structures and identify areas requiring stronger coordination.
UN Women Officer-in-Charge, Mrs. Baindu Massaquoi, said the process was designed to ensure that the proposed strategy reflects the priorities and experiences of stakeholders involved in the women’s movement.
She stressed that UN Women was facilitating the process rather than developing the strategy independently, noting that government, civil society, women’s groups and development partners would collectively determine its priorities and direction.
Mrs. Massaquoi said stronger coalitions, joint advocacy, women’s leadership, social transformation and accountability would be essential to advancing efforts to prevent and respond to violence against women and girls.
She also called for mechanisms to enable stakeholders to track commitments made to women and girls and hold institutions accountable for delivering on those commitments.
Representing MoGCA, Chief Director of Protection, Mr. Charles Vandi, highlighted the complementary roles of institutions and partners under the Spotlight Initiative.
He noted that UNDP plays a coordination and implementation role, while UNFPA focuses on areas including gender-based violence, sexual and reproductive health, and harmful practices.
UN Women, he added, is supporting efforts to strengthen the structures and capacity of women’s movements.
During the workshop, participants assessed the current state of women’s movements in Sierra Leone, identifying strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and challenges through SWOT analysis and stakeholder mapping.
The discussions then focused on developing a proposed vision, mission, core values and strategic pillars for the movement.
Key areas under consideration include advocacy, women’s leadership, meaningful engagement of girls and stronger coordination mechanisms between government and women’s organizations.
The proposed vision is to build a strong and formidable women’s movement capable of collectively advocating for the elimination of all forms of violence against women and girls.
The process forms part of broader national efforts to strengthen coordination among stakeholders working to prevent violence and ensure that commitments to women and girls translate into sustained action.