YWCA is working to ensure that girls have improved access to education resulting in high completion rate at primary, secondary and territory levels. Additionally, YWCA is working to contribute to the quality of education provision by running tutorial and mentorship programs and feeding into relevant government policy processes through assessments and documenting practices.
Implement accountability process in local, national and regional policy setting platforms.
Carry out advocacy activities and campaigns, organize gender policy dialogues.
Implement different capacity building initiatives to increase the awareness & knowledge on Gender equality concept
Funded by the European Union, the three-year advocacy, communication and awareness-raising campaign project remains from 1st April 2017 to 31st March 2020. This project is being implemented in 16 African countries having the overall objective of securing, realizing and extending women’s rights enshrined in African Union policies in African countries. The campaign focuses on strengthening the civil society’s contribution to promote the implementation of the AU Protocol on the Rights of Women (Maputo Protocol) and the Maputo Plan of Action (MPoA).
The project creates a platform that brings 16 African YWCAs to share strengths, strategies and networks. The 16 YWCAs represented by Youth Champions and their General Secretaries are being taken through capacity building training and workshops on the Maputo protocol and advocacy skills, with an aim of increasing their knowledge and skills towards campaigning.
As part of the project, YWCA recruited two young girls to be women/girls right champions, to coordinate and carryout different advocacy activities. Since the start of the project; the youth champions have been able to organize awareness raising workshops, Speak about the Maputo protocol during different events and engage more than 500 youth through different social media and club activities.
Moreover, the youth champions are engaged with Women Self Help Group federations. The federations, as people’s institution have a major role to lobby and advocate for the right of women and to positively influence the implementation of polices in the country.
To this end, an awareness raising and consultative meeting on Maputo protocol was organized among 10 Women Self Help Group Federations from different regions of the country. The training workshop was conducted as a side event to the’ Self Help Group day’ event organized by Consortium of Self-help group Approach Promoters (CoSAP) on November 24-25/2017 in Amhara Region, Debre Birhan town. The focus articles of the workshop were; article two, article five and article fourteen of the Maputo protocol.
Discussing on the above articles, participants shared different experiences and practical cases that confirm the vast existence of various harmful traditional practices, gender based violence and challenges of women in health and reproductive services in Ethiopia. Agreeing on the high prevalence of different women right violations from where the federation members are coming, the work shop participants discuss on their respective advocacy roles as self-help group Federations. The following are among the identified roles which the SHG women Federations priories;
Furthermore, to enhance the advocacy work of SHG women Federations, YWCA and CoSAP are working together to engage the youth champions of YWCA to engage with the different federations in the country.
