Global Citizenship Day – Gender Equality

14/03/2013

This article is written as part of my role within the Media team for the volunteers placed in Awassa, it is published for the VSO ICS program.

Friday 8^th March 2013 marked the Global Citizenship Day (GCD) on Gender Equality held by ICS volunteers based in Hawassa and International Women’s Day.

International Women’s Day 2013 brandishes the slogan “The Gender Agenda - Over time and distance, the equal rights of women have progressed. We celebrate the achievements of women while remaining vigilant and tenacious for further sustainable change. There is global momentum for championing women's equality.”

The purpose of a GCD is to raise awareness and create topical discussion regarding different global issues. Over the duration of the three month program, four GCDs will be held. This was the second one to take place. Alex, Endalkachew, Fisseha, Kimberly and Laura were responsible for organizing the day. The majority of the event took place at Ebenzer Grace, an orphanage which is also the placement organization which Fisseha is part of.

Their intentions for the day were to provide information to the other volunteers about Gender Equality, discussing it at a global level and bringing it in to Ethiopia. To put the information into context the contrast between the UK and Ethiopia were highlighted. The topics covered included; a brief history of women’s empowerment around the world, information about International Women’s Day, details of Millennium Development Goal 3 – promote gender equality and empower women, key facts from the Global Gender Gap Report produced by the World Economic Forum, African gender issues, excerpts from the National Policy for Women in Ethiopia and role models from the UK and Ethiopia which break ‘gender specific’ expectations.

Following this, the group was split to have segregated male and female coffee ceremonies. It was agreed that having segregated discussions would allow for comfort and confidentiality to ensure that the topics covered were openly reviewed. The men went to another venue to have their coffee ceremony and discussion.

Each coffee ceremony consisted of the ICS volunteers and a couple of guests from the community. It was vital to have people from the community involved to learn the perceptions of gender equality from the people that it matters to. It also ensured that there were a couple of generations involved, and therefore comparisons could be made from the past to current day. Some of the items raised in the discussion included; Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) and other Harmful Traditional Practice (HTP), how a young woman can develop her self-esteem and self-image in the eye of the community, and what contributions can be made by the male population of Ethiopia to empower their women.

After the debates came to an end, the volunteers regrouped to review and compare the outcome from each group. The general consensus from both groups brought agreement on the importance of changing opinion and improving female status in the community. The female group had in depth and precise information as the community members involved had a breadth of real life scenarios to share. Their stories had a direct and emotive effect on the volunteers. The men had a different perspective on the subjects and also discussed some situations that had been rumored in the area.

As a whole the GCD was informative, it brought a lot of quality discussion and raised several critical issues which proved to be an eye opening for many of the volunteers. For some it has cemented that there needs to be considerably more done to close the gender gap around the world and that education on HTPs needs to be at the forefront.

Kx