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By Annonciata Byukusenge
First Lady Jeannette Kagame has emphasised the need for solidarity in sustaining gender gains and addressing the global crises that still affect women disproportionately.
She was speaking at a fireside chat session themed “The State of Gender Equality in Era of Crises”, on July 18, which analysed the gains made in global systems change over gender inequalities, and discussed what more could be done to address them.
The First Lady observed that global crises such as violent conflicts, economic recessions, climate disasters, food shortages, and pandemics may affect humanity as a whole, but they undoubtedly affect individual humans differently.
Indeed, in case of a tragedy, disaster or other global disruption, your gender origin, race, financial status or power status will define the extent of misfortune you will experience, she said.
“Nevertheless, women and girls and yes, specifically, the global south women and girls were not by nature designed only to face the most straining whenever the world is challenged.”
“In times when the world is weakened by devastating occurrences, who benefits when women and girls, who comprise slightly over half of our communities, are weakened, disempowered, or victimised?”
She questioned why the world systems are apathetic towards the fate of women and girls, as they tend to view gender equality solely as a female issue rather than a moral human issue. This leads to a situation where those in power often determine who suffers the least and who must endure the most.
“I hope that together we can reflect on questions arising from global crises that seem to persist or multiply across the world. If the crises we face are globally shared, what is the globally shared responsibility to ensure that we combat them with cross-border, cross-ocean solidarity?” she added.
Coming from coastal Mombasa, Kenya, where women are considered not to have power, Faridah Ally, a 24-year-old education advocate and founder of Elimu Care, said that being a voice in the panel discussion is actually a powerful statement in gender equality.
“Gender equality is not only a women’s issue, it’s a leadership and society issue, so we encourage everyone to put in efforts to achieve the future we want. I request that all humanitarian approaches listen to the voice of young girls and actively involve them when it comes to decision-making.”
Maliha Khan, President and CEO of Women Deliver, said while the greater journey lies ahead, so much has been achieved over the past years in pushing for gender equality.
For instance, available data shows that women education attainment increased by 186 per cent, political representation increased by 100 per cent, maternal mortality decreased by 34 per cent, and child marriage decreased by 23 per cent, however, labour participation also decreased by 9.8 per cent.
“Let us also celebrate our hard-fought victories, if we keep sustaining the progress we have made, we will get there. Let us come together and fight for the future we deserve,” she noted.
