By Iminza Keboge
Published September 13, 2019
Commonwealth women’s affairs ministers are scheduled to consider a strategy for achieving gender equity goals across all 53 member countries by 2030 during their triennial meeting in Nairobi, Kenya September 19 – 20, 2019.
The strategy, the Commonwealth says, will include provisions to help increase women’s access to leadership, to achieve a minimum number of years of free quality education, to boost family planning and health services and to ensure legal protection from violence.
Margaret Kobia, Kenya’s Minister for Public Service, Youth and Gender, is expected to chair this 12th Women’s Affairs Ministers Meeting that will serve as a platform for Ministers and senior officials of Government to tackle issues that hamper women’s progress.
“This meeting provides a platform to strategise on emerging gender issues by examining critical areas that still require further attention; share experiences and lessons learned; and forge common positions for accelerating gender equality and empowerment of women and girls,” Kobia says,
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“Recommendations and decisions made by ministers at the meeting will help to shape innovative Commonwealth approaches to accelerate gender equality, which is such a vital part of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development,” Patricia Scotland , Commonwealth Secretary-General, says. “Assessing progress is particularly important as we prepare for the 25th anniversaries of the International Conference on Population and Development and the adoption of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action.”
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Ministers will be presented with a summary on the status of gender equality in the Commonwealth in four priority areas: women in leadership, women’s economic empowerment, ending violence against women and girls, and gender and climate change.
Scotland will launch a publication–Case Law Handbook on Violence Against Women and Girls in Commonwealth East Africa–that is designed to enhance the capacity of judicial officers to protect the rights of women in Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda on September 19.
