African Young Women and Girls Advocacy Training

31st GIMAC- AU Pre-summit meeting

Written by Rophina Kerre

On the 19th to the 21st of January 2018, I had the opportunity to participate in the youth advocacy training and GIMAC Pre-Summit meeting in Addis Ababa. The one-day advocacy training workshop organized and facilitated by three active organizations namely Women’s Rights and Empowerment Partnership in Africa (WREPA), Rozaria Memorial Trust (RMT) and the Forum for Africa Women Educationalists (FAWE) under the theme: A Corrupt Free Africa: Unleashing Potential and protecting Right of Africa’s Young People Especially Girls and Young Women.

The lead organizations sought to build the capacity of the youth to actively engage African leaders in designing solutions on the issue of corruption as well as prepare the team of young people participating in the GIMAC Summit. Through the training I was able to connect with various young people from different countries in Africa and discuss more about how to prevent, detect and eradicate corruption in our respective communities. I was also encouraged to pitch more ideas to my peers through breakout group discussions and present the outcome of our discussion to our fellow participants.

The 31st Pre -Summit Consultative Meeting on the Gender is My Agenda Campaign(GIMAC)  held from the 20-21 January 2018 with the theme “Corruption and Governance: Impact and way out for Women, Children and Youth” brought together a large delegation of youth and women across Africa to discuss on issues of Corruption and Governance from a multi-faceted perspective. As a panelist in the opening plenary session Elena Okondo, Executive Director WREPA Presented on Women and Inclusive Anti-Corruption Framework for Africa, where she highlighted the ways in which the women from her community were affected by corruption and solutions to the unethical practices.

One of the panelist at the summit Tadiwa Tunduwani gave her life testimony on how she had been a victim of child marriage and teenage pregnancy and how her situation had led to social exclusion when she went back to school to achieve her education goals. She also talked about the difficulties of juggling mother hood and school at the same time. It was inspiring to see that as a young mother Tadiwa was still motivated to continue with her education despite the stigma she faced in school. Her life testimony also made me more appreciative of the opportunities that had been provided to me.

As a young African leader of today and tomorrow, I pledge to work towards achieving Gender Equality and justice in maximum commitments ensuring peace and justice within our Nation and through that Influencing fellow youth to actively participate in the implementation of Gender Equality policies that we always talk about in our High level conventions around the world.