Government of Tanzania and the UN Hosting Regional Policy Forum in Dar es Salaam to Highlight African Experiences of Advancing Gender Equitable Local Development
Delegates across Africa will gather in Dar es Salaam to discuss advancing gender equitable local development this Thursday 6 and Friday 7 June 2013.
The Gender Equitable Local Development (GELD) Regional Policy Forum is hosted by the Government of Tanzania and organized by UN Women and UN Capital Development Fund (UNCDF). It will showcase the experiences of Mozambique, Rwanda, Senegal, Sierra Leone and Tanzania who for the past two years have been piloting the GELD programme.
In attendance at the Forum will be UN officials, gender experts and ministerial and local government delegates from the five pilot countries, including The Deputy Minister of State, Prime Minister's Office Regional Administration and Local Government, Tanzania, Hon. Aggrey Mwanri (MP).
In Tanzania the programme is implemented together with PMO-RALG. The Municipality of Morogoro was chosen to pilot the GELD initiative, where UN Women has been advising on gender-responsive planning and budgeting – a tool to ensure that government resources are being spent on the needs of both women and men.
This regional forum will demonstrate that the GELD model could be used to support reforms for better delivery of services and alignment of institutions to empower women in local leadership and economic development.
This approach provides the building blocks for planning and budgeting gender equitable performance for sustainable local development. It has much relevance to discussions on that will examine promising practices, lessons learned, challenges and strategies for the achievement of gender responsive local development to contribute to the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals.
As a result of gender responsive community planning women in Kingolwira, Morogoro prioritized water as a community need and the GELD programme was able to construct seven water points. Women also formed the Tanzania Women’s Food Processing Trust. The Trust now has more than 200 members that make and sell food products like spicy mango pickle, nutritious flour and peanut butter that they produce at home.
In Mozambique health and water programmes were introduced and as a result of the training provided under GELD the women decided they needed identity cards, which resulted in greater empowerment of women. A voluntary savings and credit scheme was one of the projects decided on by communities in Rwanda, while in Senegal women are implementing health projects and income generating activities. In Sierra Leone a hotel was redeveloped for women to run. Additionally the GELD model was adopted by Ethiopia in 2010.
The Forum will be held at the Hilton Double Tree Hotel, Dar es Salaam, from 9 am – 5 pm on Thursday 6th June and Friday 7th June 2013. The media are welcome.
For interviews, photographs or further information please contact:
Stephanie Raison
Communications Officer
UN Women Tanzania
PO Box 9182
Dar es Salaam, Tanzania
Mob: +255 779 996 699
|
No comments:
Post a Comment