REMAFEDE
Le Réseau Malien des Femmes Elues et Politiques pour la Démocratie Participative
Le Réseau Malien des Femmes Elues et Politiques pour la Démocratie Participative
Lunch debate “Women in politics: Lives and aspirations”. on the occasion of the celebration of International Women’s Day, March 8, 2012
On the occasion of the celebration of March 8, 2012, the Ministry for the Promotion of Women, Children and the Family and its partners, the United Nations Development Program (through the Support Program for strengthening gender equity for the reduction of economic and socio-political disparities), the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and the Network of Elected Women for Participatory Democracy (REMAFEDE) organized a lunch which gave women the opportunity to discuss:
- their political commitments in their community,
- challenges related to the exercise of power,
- the strengths developed and the strategies they use;
- shared issues and lessons learned from their difficulties;
- the solutions they offer and;
- citizen participation as a tool for integration into their community.
The participants were elected women and men from political training, researchers, teachers, development agents or simply interested in citizen involvement. This space will give the opportunity to elected women from the rural and urban world to tell each other, to give an account of their dreams, hopes, achievements, failures but also motivations and aspirations.
This initiative is part of the Support Program for Strengthening Gender Equity for the Reduction of Economic and Sociopolitical Disparities PAREFH3 (2009-2012). This program, financed by Luxembourg Cooperation is implemented by UNDP / Mali. Its overall objective is to contribute to the reduction of disparities between men and women at the economic, political, legal and social levels. Specifically, PAREHF 3 aims to:
Strengthen the economic base of women in order to promote their empowerment, particularly in the regions of Ségou and Sikasso;
Strengthen the capacities of women for the full enjoyment of all their political, legal and civic rights;
Ensure the integration of gender in development policies and programs in all sectors.