I joined the Gender is My Agenda Campaign (GiMAC) Network, in a consultative meeting to educate and empower Ghanaian youth, particularly girls and young women, about meaningful involvement and engagement with the African Union (AU) processes and platforms.
Owing to the pressing need to ensure that girls and young women are meaningfully involved and engaged in these processes, the consultative meeting was held to educate young girls on the “Toolkit for Meaningful Involvement and Engagement of Girls and Young Women in African Union Processes and Platforms.”
The objective of the meeting was to raise awareness and equip young Ghanaians, particularly girls and young women, with knowledge about the AU and its work, introduce to them the newly developed toolkit, and help them identify existing opportunities for youth to engage with the AU.
The toolkit provides step-by-step processes that can be followed to successfully engage and ensure the effective participation of GYW in AU policy spaces. The toolkit provides a guide on what meaningful engagement and participation of girls and young women mean and discusses resources required to support the processes involved.
My takeaway? We need to shift from the conversation on Gender Equality to Gender Equity. It’s a must!
Gender equality has been a longstanding goal for many organisations and individuals. It has been argued (to which I subscribe) that the focus of this advocacy should be intentionally shifted toward the call for gender equity. The gender gap that has existed over the years is too wide in number, influence, and affluence, to maintain the conversation at equality, and assume that with quality, problems are solved.
Dr Jane Kato, a gender expert, argues, that gender equality is not enough, because equality assumes everyone starts from the same place, but that’s not the case. Women have historically been disadvantaged, so we need to address that gap.
In educational access, retention, and completion, for instance, equal access to schools, i.e., gender parity, is not enough. Girls need additional support to overcome cultural and social barriers that prevent them from attending, staying in, and completing school, and progressing to higher attainments.
The world needs to make that conscious shift from advocating for gender equality to gender equity. This requires recognising and addressing the different needs and experiences of women and men and addressing the systemic barriers that prevent women from achieving their full potential.
Kwasi Nimo Jnr is a Communications Specialist and Education Policy Influencer. He’s also the Programme Officer for education think tank, Africa Education Watch.
©Kwasi Nimo Jnr
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