By patricia.ngevao@awokonewspaper.sl
Freetown, SIERRA LEONE – Being a political document which sets out critical issues of concern to women in Sierra Leone, the “Sierra Leone Women’s Manifesto 2023” has been launched.
It is an initiative from several Civil Society Organizations (CS0s) working in Sierra Leone including Campaign for Good Governance (CGG), 50/50 Group, and Send SL, with support funding from Irish Aid, Trocaire and Christian Aid.
Themed “Advancing Gender Equality & Inclusion for a Prosperous Sierra Leone,” the event, held at Bank Complex, Kingtom in Freetown, on May 11th 2023, convened attendees from various CSOs, women groups, PWDs, and media, among others.
During the presentation of the manifesto, the issues tackled in it range from women’s low participation in governance, women’s poor access to resources, the harmful and discriminatory social practices against them, and the law reforms to improve their effectiveness, among others.
Speaking to Awoko, the Head of Development at Irish Aid, Clarol Hannah, noted that the manifesto is a direct result of concern about the little attention given to critical issues affecting women.
“Given the challenges that women are faced with, it is important to put in place instruments that would gradually draw attention to their needs and concerns which will enable them to participate actively in public affairs,” she said, affirming that Irish Aid will continue to give its support for the enhancement of women and girls in the country.
According to the Executive Director of CGG, Marcella Samba Sesay, the primary motive behind the manifesto is to ensure that women’s inclusion is in the agenda of politicians, thus, making sure that the concerns and needs of women are reflected.
“Another idea that came with the manifesto is to also incorporate it with an advocacy strategy so that it can delineate the pathway for the next step in actualizing its content,” she added.
Madam Sesay disclosed that their next step is to go with the advocacy strategy, which is to take the document to political parties to ensure that they also use it as a way of integrating the content into their blueprint that they would be having.
“Under the ‘Advocacy Strategy,’ there is a section on Measurements and Evaluation (M&E) which will mobilize the efforts that are required to ensure that we do monitoring and evaluation so that we would be able to measure the successes of the manifesto,” she continued, stressing that it is very important when CSOs work together.
“We can have a cohesive platform to advocate for women’s right, inclusion and their needs in the next five years when the political leadership will take office,” said Madam Sesay.
Other speakers extensively deliberated on broad national issues and policies affecting women in the country. Committing themselves to be in the spirit of advocating for women, they encouraged all to keep supporting each other. PSN/12/5/2023