By Mabinty M. Kamara
The Assistant Secretary-General of the United Nations and Deputy Executive Director of UN Women, Asa Regner has commended Sierra Leone’s policy reforms towards gender equality but urged that the policies be implemented to reflect the reality.
The United Nations Assistant Scribe was addressing pressmen in Freetown on Friday, 1st of July 2022 after holding several engagements with government officials, and Civil Society Groups during her visit to Sierra Leone.
She said the visit is to strengthen and reaffirm UN Women’s support towards the advancement of gender equality and empowerment of women and girls with a view to furthering advocacy and partnership in line with the development agenda of Sierra Leone and the Sustainable Development Goals.
Regner said she is aware of the challenges faced by women and girls in Sierra Leone such as female genital mutilation, early marriage, violence, lack of income, and the increased rate of illiteracy among women.
Therefore, she said since her arrival on the 29th of June, she has engaged several government officials including President Julius Maada Bio, and that from the discussions, she felt they are keen on working towards gender equality and promoting women’s rights.
However, she said: “We also told the government that policies and legislatures are important but you also have to work on implementations which change reality,” saying she is aware of the fact that implementation requires money and resources and that it is the responsibility of the government to request for support where necessary and that the UN can support and give technical advice on reforms and legislations.
In her statement, the UN Women Regional Coordinator for Western and Central Africa of UN women, Oulimata Sarr noted the critical role of the media in their work. She therefore called on the media to help amplify their messages, change the narrative, and break the stereotype. She said UN Women Sierra Leone office will provide the relevant data, knowledge and advocacy papers needed by the media to play their role in ensuring gender equality and women’s empowerment.
She said they emphasized women empowerment and gender equality because “the communities, societies, the countries that are the most positive peaceful, most just, are the countries where women and girls have equal opportunities”.
She added that achieving gender equality is about partnership, working with religious and traditional leaders, Civil Society Organisations, and the private sector, to accelerate action.
She challenged Sierra Leone to copy from her country Senegal which has gender parity in governance.
“In Senegal, we believe 50/50 is the best. When it started, a lot of people said it was impossible but it was accelerated by the Political Will,” she stated, noting that it wasn’t easy but with technical and financial support from development partners, they were able to break the barriers.
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