By Tilly Barrie
Ministry of social welfare with funding from the UN Women has held a report sensitisation and mock session at the Njala Venue in Freetown before the country presents its gender report in Geneva on 19 February 2014.
Head of UN Women, Melrose Kargbo, said state parties, including the government of Sierra Leone, signed up to that treaty and that they had done their first five reports.
The would-be delegation needed to understand how and what would be presented in Geneva so that they would not be found wanting, she added.
Director of gender in the ministry, Charles Vandi, said it was not just their responsibility but a national one because obligations in the document cut across all facets of the society.
He said the report would look at progress in areas like education, employment, maternal and paternal issues, adding that the country ratified CEDAW in 1998 and had done a combined report because for 16 years it had not done any report.
He said their aim was to score higher marks in Geneva than what they had scored in New York, adding that they were proud of the successes they had made so far.
Vandi also said that there was need to look at the report critically but complained that they didn’t have enough staff and operated a very low budget.
A resource person, Dr. Nemata Majeks-Walker, explained that there were 16 articles in the Convention and that the UN was asking what they had done to achieve what was contained in the Convention.
She asked the ministry to raise awareness on the Convention and that representatives from line ministries, who would be presenting the report, should prepare well so they would not be intimidated by the presence of the panel.
(C) Politico 11/02/14
