What’s the significance of March 8 in the Ethiopian context?

In Ethiopia’s context, women are facing many difficulties because of lack of gender equality and disparities in different sectors. So when we celebrate March 8, we are saying there are issues and needs of women for gender equality in Ethiopia. We need to do more to address these issues. We are bringing solidarity and are also revising our commitment towards action. We have to ensure gender equality and all the problems regarding women’s empowerment in health, the economy and other aspects. That’s how I understand this important day.

What is the importance of the Gender Talk Forum?

Today’s Gender Forum is in commemoration of March 8. We are, in a way, looking at what’s happening and the actions we have taken. It’s all about doing what is necessary, not just in celebrating the day but to advocate and defend women in every sense.

What was NEWA established and what are its primary objectives?

NEWA was established in 2003 and is a non profit, non confessional NGO. It was founded to enhance the contribution of members through collaboration and co- ordination of individuals efforts towards the pursuit of common goals regarding women’s empowerment.

What has NEWA done so far in empowering women?

Since our establishment in 2003, we have mainly been networking. We believe unless every actor in this area comes together, we cannot have definite and clear results. Working on the same problem and points is very important. The whole idea of networking is to come and work together for gender equality. Within that, we have managed to develop such forums of discussions about gender. We also work on advocating and improvement of policies regarding women through the different forums we have. We have been performing capacity building for our member organizations that have been active in promoting women’s rights at grassroots level. We want to build their capacity in this regard to make them be better advocates and work for women’s empowerment efficiently.

With the 8 million birr fund we have obtained form CIDAS, we have been able to distribute money among 70 organizations, mainly to work on FGM and in economic empowerment like the education of women and girls. Moreover, at elections, we have been training candidates and promoting women to enter parliament and be in decision-making positions. All in all, in each sector, we use the strategy of networking, advocacy and capacity building.

We have launched “Your Story, My Story, is Our Story”, a book on victims of violence. We also organized the signing of a petition for implementing the Maputo Protocol by the Ethiopian Millennium.

What’s the role of women in decision making?

One thing is that having women in those positions helps a lot. If she is there, she understands what is happening to women and will work for better and effective polices which are meaningful to all segments of the society.
In this respect, practices in our country do not treat men and women equally. In order to have that, we need women to be empowered. Gender is not a political issue but it needs attention. If people in decision making fail to give due attention to it, then women in decision making will push the others to take action. They will have a part to play and will be role models to fellow women.
Having women in decision making positions shows how power distribution is fair in a given country and ensures equality.

What are the main challenges faced by Ethiopian women?

Cultural and traditional constraints. If women are not economically empowered, at the end of the day, they tend to depend on men to make their decision at country or household level. Lack of access to education and different issues of health such as maternal mortality, and acts of violence are some of the challenges. Most of the time, it is difficult to say these are the main challenges and these are not, or are less so. Somehow, everything is interconnected. For instance, if you take HIV/AIDS, it has economical and social dimensions that affect women.

What is NEWA doing in regard to the increasing instances of violence against women?

The prevalence of gender based violence (GBV) in Ethiopia is very high. Up to 88% of women will experience some form of violence in their life time. this is intolerable. NEWA is committed to fight GBV along with other members of the Gender Based coalition which was formed in 2006 as a direct response to GBV. The coalition was established by 10 civil society organizations and UN agencies.