By Amin Kef Sesay (Ranger)
Equality Now, in partnership with Solidarity for African Women’s Rights (SOAWR) Coalition and with the support of the UNDP and UN Women, organized a three day Virtual training workshop from the 29th – 31st August, 2022 in which journalists from 10 countries, in four Regional Economic Communities, of the Francophone and Anglophone countries of Burundi, Kenya, Madagascar, Malawi, Mali, Rwanda, Senegal, Sierra Leone, South Sudan, and Zambia. Sierra Leone, actively participated.
The workshop was tailored to enhance participants’ capacities to report on Gender-Based Violence against women and girls vis-à-vis gender equality and women’s empowerment instruments in addition to the women’s rights frameworks and instruments.
During the three days training, emphasis was placed on understanding the Maputo Protocol, the Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) and the C100 ILO Equal Remuneration Convention for the benefit of participants and to put us at vantage positions to promote women’s rights across Africa.
The facilitators also guided us, the participants, to identify opportunities to hold our respective countries accountable for ending violence against women and girls in Africa.
As and when the sessions were facilitated journalists were also given a platform to share experiences and best practices in highlighting women’s rights violations.
Held virtually via Zoom, the sessions throughout the three days were facilitated by seasoned gender and media experts and the sessions were very interactive as we were availed opportunities to share experiences acquired or learnt about from our various countries.
Short presentations were made by individual participants which were then followed by discussions and debates focusing on relevant women’s rights instruments. Examples were made of best practices drawn from the various women’s rights and CSOs organizations.
The workshop further availed us, the participants, certain skills and techniques that have now positioned us as journalists to be able to analyze facts, issues, and data from a gender perspective.
Sub-topics taught such as: What are human rights?, What is the nature of human rights?, Definition of SGBV, its components, status and prevalence in Africa, The role of the media in ending SGBV across Africa, exploring the role of the media in the advancement and protection of women’s rights through the Maputo Protocol, CEDAW, and ILO Equal Remuneration, Impact of socialization and patriarchy in reporting and advancing the rights of women and girls in Africa, Principles of gender-sensitive reporting, Ethical considerations needed when interviewing survivors of SGBV, Drawing from the experiences of a survivor of FGM and exploring opportunities that exist for journalists and other media actors for advocacy on ending violence against women and girls, have broaden my horizon on Sexual and Gender Based Violence.
A recap of topics covered on a previous day really reinforced my understanding of all the topics that were discussed.
For now I can track the Government’s efforts in addressing gender equality and enhancing women empowerment in Sierra Leone and as well raise awareness on the Maputo Protocol, the Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) and the C100 ILO Equal Remuneration Convention through reporting and monitoring their implementation by Sierra Leone.
Further, I now understand as a journalist that stereotypical and harmful gender language must not be used as they help to further impede efforts that are made to advocate for the ratification, domestication, and implementation of the aforementioned instruments.
I want to be very grateful to Equality Now and its partners for building my capacity on women empowerment because through the training workshop my knowledge about gender equality and women empowerment framework and instruments has improved.
Besides, I am now in a position to report and monitor the implementation of the gender equality and women empowerment instruments within my country, which will feed into continental news and be used as an advocacy tool to engage with other Member States.
At the end of the three day training workshop, Certificates of Participation were issued to all the participants that went through the training.
I would like to express profound thanks and appreciation to Equality Now for affording me the opportunity to be capacitated to become an informed journalist on Sexual and Gender Based Violence issues.
