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In July 2010, the United Nations General Assembly created UN Women, the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women. In doing so, UN Member States took a historic step in accelerating the Organization’s goals on gender equality and the empowerment of women. The Under Secretary General and Executive Director for UN Women, Ms. Michelle Bachelet, has called upon Governments, Women’s organizations, civil society and cooperating partners to assist in defining what UN Women should be doing within the context of its broad mandate as defined in the originating Resolution/64/289. Thus UN Women Sub-regional office for Southern Africa and Indian Ocean Islands is taking this opportunity to convene cyber consultations with UN Gender Theme Groups, women’s organizations, civil society partners (e.g. men’s groups and youth), governments partners, UNCTs and individual men and women within the region. In that regard we are kindly asking you to take a moment to answer all or any of the five questions provided below. We hope that together we can heed this call and make a meaningful contribution to how UN Women should work to make gender equality and women’s rights a reality in women and men’s daily lives.
 The Under Secretary General and Executive Director for UN Women, Ms. Michelle Bachelet, has called upon Governments, Women’s organizations, civil society and cooperating partners to assist in defining what UN Women should be doing within the context of its broad mandate. Thus UN Women Sub-regional office for Southern Africa and Indian Ocean Islands is taking this opportunity to convene cyber consultations with UN Gender Theme Groups, women’s organizations, civil society partners (e.g. men’s groups and youth), governments partners, UNCTs and individual men and women within the region. In that regard we are kindly asking you to take a moment to answer all or any of the five questions on our on-line forums. Please click here to go to our forums and answer these questions.

 

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UN Women and ILO awards South African companies on IWD

UN SA Resident Coordinator Agostinho Zacarias and UN Women SARO Regional Director Nomcebo Manzini

The United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women UN WOMEN in collaboration with International Labor Organization celebrated the 100th anniversary of the International Women's Day (IWD) in a glitz and glamorous award night to honor South African companies for their commitment to end sexual harassment in the world of work.

South Africa UN Resident Coordinator Dr. Agostinho Zacarias in his opening remarks said,
"It is UN's certainty that no decent work for women will be granted if violence in the workplace is not addressed and sexual harassment continues to be a common reality faced by women that access the labour market".

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UNIFEM Partners with Man Up Campaign to End Violence against Women and Girls

UNIFEM Partners with Man Up Campaign to End Violence against Women and Girls

 

Date: 12 July 2010

Johannesburg — UNIFEM (now part of UN Women) has partnered with the Man Up global campaign to activate youth to stop violence against women and girls. During the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa, UNIFEM supported Man Up in convening a Young Leaders Summit in Johannesburg on 5-11 July, where around 200 young women and men from 50 countries came together to learn from human rights leaders and each other about how to address violence against women in their communities.

 

The Young Leaders Summit marked the launch of the global Man Up campaign. It was attended by delegates from Africa, the Americas and the Caribbean, whereas a second summit will convene delegates from Europe, Asia and the Middle East. These international forums are the first of their kind, aiming to develop capacity and technical expertise among young people of both genders who are committed to stopping violence against women and girls.

 

The UNIFEM Sub-Regional Office for Southern Africa worked directly with the Man Up campaign to bring together the diverse group of delegates represented at the Young Leaders Summit. Nomcebo Manzini, UNIFEM Regional Programme Director for Southern Africa, gave a keynote speech at the summit, informing participants about the work of the UN to stop gender-based violence, including the Secretary-General’s UNiTE to End Violence against Women campaign and its regional component in Africa.

 

Ms. Manzini said that the partnership between UNIFEM and Man Up was likely to form a strong force. “Man Up represents a mass movement of young people committed to stopping violence. These young delegates have the power to change the relationship between men and women with their forward-thinking grassroots initiatives.”

 

The young delegates are at the helm of the Man Up movement and work with international partners and local grassroots organizations to build long-term, sustainable change in their respective countries. Returning from the summit, they brought a comprehensive action plan to grow their grassroots projects into a larger Man Up initiative. During the five-year campaign, they will be able to connect through a global network to share experiences, best practices and support.

 

For more information, please contact Rosemary Muchengeti, Communications Officer, UNIFEM Southern Africa Sub-Regional Office, rosemary.muchengeti[at]unifem.org.

 

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UNITE Campaign Rolled Out in Africa

UNiTE Campaign Rolled Out in Southern Africa

 

UNIFEM (part of UN Women) convened two workshops in Johannesburg from 31 August to 2 September to engage stakeholders in Southern Africa in the Africa UNiTE campaign, the regional component of the UN Secretary-General’s UNiTE to End Violence against Women campaign. The workshops, focusing respectively on inter-agency programming and media outreach, brought together representatives from UN agencies, the media, the donor community, the private sector, civil society and non-governmental organizations in the Southern African region.
In his opening remarks for the inter-agency workshop, the UN Resident Coordinator for South Africa, Agostinho Zacarias, pointed out that addressing violence against women and girls required comprehensive and multi-sectoral measures. A number of UN entities were well placed to contribute to the UNiTE campaign, each from a particular vantage point.
The main objective of the inter-agency workshop was for each participating agency to determine how its comparative advantage could best support national initiatives related to the Africa UNiTE campaign, and to identify initiatives that are already underway and possibly overlapping. Secondly, the workshop aimed to facilitate discussion on resource commitments by each agency and strategies to mobilize further resources. Participants also gave inputs into the development of the campaign action plan.
The media workshop aimed to develop a media strategy for the UNiTE campaign in Southern Africa and the Indian Ocean Islands, including on advocacy for government commitment, raising awareness on the issue of ending violence against women, and promoting social mobilization.
The workshops followed a regional consultative meeting in May, where government and civil society representatives from 13 countries met and agreed on national launches and national action plans for the Africa UNiTE campaign.
For more information, contact Rosemary Mucharonza Muchengeti, UNIFEM SARO Communications Specialist, This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

 

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UNIFEM and IPS Join hands

UNIFEM and IPS join hands in advancing women’s political participation, Johannesburg, September 20-22, 2010

 

UNIFEM Southern Africa and Indian Ocean Islands supported Interpress Press Services (IPS) to convene a “Women in Politics Training of Trainers” (TOT)

workshop in Johannesburg. The event forms part of UNIFEM’s global drive to advance women’s political participation. IPS initiated the three-day workshop. The workshop was attended by female politicians and representatives from parties and organizations supporting women’s involvement in politics across Southern Africa.

Speaking as guest speaker at the workshop, Nomcebo Manzini, UNIFEM SARO Regional Director pointed out that women in politics should also be empowered with means on access to media, resources, information and improved capacity to articulate women’s rights and gender equality issues. The main goal of the workshop was to raise female politicians’ educational skills and to improve their ability to correspond with the media. The participants were also trained on how to increase journalist awareness of female politicians and candidates.

The workshop also provided the educators with strategies for advocating for women politicians; educated trainers on the tools that women candidates can use to promote their candidacy and rally their supporters; gave trainers an idea of how the media works and how it can be used to their advantage; and generated case studies that can be used for learning elsewhere in the region. The workshop was convened in response to the slow progress made by SADC countries towards meeting the 50% pledge for women representation in key decision making positions. The 1997 SADC Declaration on Gender and Development stipulated a target of at least thirty 30% representation of women in positions of power and decision making at all levels and lately this has been increased to 50%.

Some of the organizations represented at the workshop are the Women’s Political Participation Project from Angola, Women & Law in Southern Africa from Lesotho, NGO Gender Coordinating Network from Malawi, NANGOF Trust from Namibia, Women Forward from South Africa, Inkatha Freedom party from South Africa, Coordinating Assembly of NGOs from Swaziland, National Women’s Lobby Group, from Zambia and the Women in Politics Support Unit from Zimbabwe. The project, covers 14 countries in Southern Africa and the Indian Ocean Islands, namely Angola; Botswana; Comoros; Lesotho; Mozambique; Mauritius; Malawi; Madagascar; Namibia; Seychelles; Swaziland; South Africa; Zambia and Zimbabwe. A further workshop will be held for the Indian Ocean Islands which includes Mauritius, Comoros, Madagascar and Seychelles. The Training of Trainers will then be closely followed up by training of women in politics in three selected countries with upcoming elections.

For details, contact Rosemary Mucharonza Muchengeti at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

 

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