Burkina Faso/International African Women's Day: Associations and young girls exchange on female leadership

On August 5, 2022, the emblematic day of Burkina Faso's Independence Day celebration, the Network of Associations for Reproductive Health, Law and Gender (RENASAGE) celebrated, with a delay, the International African Women's Day (IADW) through a talk-debate session on a current theme.

International African Women's Day (IAWD) is celebrated every July 31 in recognition of the contributions and achievements of African women to the development and liberation of Africa. For the record, Aoua Keïta, a Malian politician and activist, initiated the day. In Burkina Faso, the Network of Associations for Reproductive Health, Law and Gender (RENASAGE) decided not to remain on the sidelines of this little known celebration in our country, by organizing a talk session. Convinced that the resilience and prosperity of African countries depends on the strengthening of women's leadership and empowerment, it chose the following central theme: "Women's leadership, the role of the African woman in our societies and its importance in decision-making as a keystone for its empowerment."

This appointment of giving and receiving had for objective to bring the young girls and the women to become aware of the role they can play in the society, according to the coordinator of the network. In her speech, Marie Salomé Diallo/Zoungrana said that the celebration of the IYFF by RENASAGE was made possible thanks to the Fund for Francophone Women XOESE, whose vision is "a world where girls and women fully enjoy all their basic human rights within a healthy and sustainable economic, social and environmental framework, and have equal opportunities to access resources and decision making on an equal basis with men. This session was animated by Alizata Kouda, consultant and trainer in several fields, and N'Pèrè Adèle Traoré, sociologist consultant, trainer and gender expert.

From the substance of Mrs. Traoré's intervention on the participation of women in the active life, we can retain that women still encounter, nowadays, in Burkina Faso as everywhere else, difficulties for their efficient participation at the level of the animation of political life and development activities. "At the level of Burkina Faso, we struggle to have 20% at the level of decision-making bodies such as the National Assembly and the government," she lamented.

Noting that the obstacles are also internal to the woman, the speaker believes that she must have more confidence in herself and engage in both economic and political struggles. She also wished that the political will be more confirmed and affirmed. Because, she said, "since we left the revolutionary era, we do not feel the political will to assert itself, even when the texts are there. We take the case of the law on the gender quota. A law on which we have been procrastinating for years, from revision to revision, and the effectiveness is hard to feel. All this proves the unwillingness of political parties and the government. Constructive exchanges took place between the participants and the panelists.

RENASAGE's performance

To date, RENASAGE has about fifteen trainers, sixty facilitators, and ten facilitators trained in issues of rights, gender, sexual health, and the fight against HIV and violence; with more than 30,000 people reached by the activities. Since January 2021, the network has been implementing a program to support rights, SRH and the fight against HIV/AIDS for young people in Burkina Faso, which will run until 2024.

After explaining the genesis of RENASAGE, the training officer, Isabelle Tall, said that the network operates in Ouagadougou, Bobo-Dioulasso, Ouahigouya and Kaya. It works in the field of health, income-generating activities, promotion of women's rights, the fight against HIV/AIDS and gender-based violence. "We reach out to several layers. At first, our actions targeted women, then young girls. Afterwards, we said to ourselves that if we talk about women and young girls, why not go towards men as well. Currently, we are distributed at the lower level to take children in primary and secondary school to see if it can change the life of the woman, "said Ms. Tall, referring to their priority targets. Created in 2014, the network has its headquarters in Ouagadougou.

Source: lefaso.net