Sierra Leone’s President Julius Maada Bio Signs Landmark Gender Equality Law, Celebrates Women and Urges More Women Political Representation within the Elections
Foreign Service Academy, Freetown, Thursday 19 January 2023 – His Excellency President Dr Julius Maada Bio has signed into regulation the Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment Bill 2022, now GEWE Act 2022, and cited some transformative authorities reforms and gender insurance policies within the final 4 and half years of his presidency.
“For me, ladies’s financial empowerment and safety should not political rhetoric. Empowering ladies is important to the well being and social improvement of households, communities and nations. Women can attain their full potential once they stay protected, fulfilled, productive lives.
“When I became President, I proclaimed that gender is firmly on my New Direction Agenda. The future of Sierra Leone is female; we must do all it takes to facilitate the timely, full, and unconditional inclusion of women in our national life, governance, and development,” he stated.
He emphasised that with the brand new regulation, they hoped to interrupt limitations to parliamentary illustration and stated he appeared ahead to a extra vibrant and various parliament with larger numbers of girls and ladies’s voices. He used the event to induce all political events to transcend the authorized minimal of the variety of ladies once they compiled their proportional illustration lists forward of the elections in June this 12 months.
He famous that his authorities had taken on deep-rooted and multifaceted challenges confronting ladies within the nation, including that their framework for motion had additionally taken a broad and even sweep of these challenges by introducing progressive insurance policies and measures, reviewing current legal guidelines and proposing new legislations.
President Julius Maada Bio additionally advised the well-attended occasion, which attracted folks from the personal sector, gender activists, ladies’s leaders and women in addition to improvement companions and representatives from the diplomatic neighborhood, that as a Government they had been desperate to work with them to create extra jobs for ladies, harness enterprise cultures that promote range and inclusion and put money into coaching programmes tailor-made to create extra job alternatives for ladies.
“Can we do extra? Yes, and this Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment Act, which I’m signing into regulation at present, will now handle the gender imbalances on this nation comprehensively.
“The key provisions of this regulation communicate to the ideas of inclusion, illustration, participation, and a extra responsive posture on gender. These embrace: At least 30% illustration in Cabinet; At least 30% illustration in Parliament; At least 30% of all appointments as Ambassadors/High Commissioners;
“…At least 30% of all positions in Local Councils; At least 30% of all jobs within the Civil Service; At least 30% of all jobs in personal establishments with 25 and extra workers; Maternal go away prolonged from 12 weeks to 14 weeks; Financial inclusion for ladies;
“Mainstreaming of the gender requirements across all sectoral policies and legal frameworks; Gender Responsive Budgeting; Gender Units within every Planning Directorate within MDAs; and The creation of a multi-sectoral Gender Steering Committee to oversee the implementation of the GEWE Act,” he stated.
President Bio additionally paid tribute to his late mom, whom she known as Yei Amie, noting that she had at all times been the primary to think about when he considered robust ladies and leaders.
“I’ve usually advised the story of my humble and selfless mom, Yei Amie Navo Bio, who, upon my father’s passing, bore the burden of elevating our household and inculcating in us the work ethic and sense of service I’m privileged to have at present.
“She and other resilient women in my family formed the foundation upon which I stand. They come from a long history of Sierra Leonean women who have been the foundation of our people and communities as mothers, leaders, warriors, educators and, very crucially, peacemakers,” he stated.
He insisted that there was no path to a democratic, free, steady and affluent society that didn’t embrace ladies’s central and uninhibited participation, including that they may not have written the historical past of Sierra Leon’s democracy with out mentioning the function of the courageous ladies who risked and generally misplaced their lives to battle for peace.
“From Queen Nyarroh of Bandasuma (modern-day Bandajuma), a warrior, a frontrunner, a mediator and a peacemaker; to Madam Yoko, one in every of our most outstanding historic leaders and a notable mediator; to the outstanding Madam Nenge of Baoma Chiefdom born right into a hierarchy of warriors.
“…to Adelaide Casely-Hayford who fought for the rights of girls, the preservation of African cultural heritage and formulated a plan for ladies’ training over 100 years in the past; to Constance Cummings-John, who pushed for vocational training of women and was the primary girl in Africa to hitch a municipal council in 1938. The checklist is infinite.
“This story is why, now that we have a stable and peaceful Sierra Leone, we cannot afford to have women, who make up 52% of our population, not featuring prominently in politics and leadership. Women’s Rights are Human Rights. Women’s rights are not about making women better or stronger,” he requested.
Manager and Head of Office at UN Women in Sierra Leone, Setcheme Jeronime Mongbo stated, “Gender has to be a priority on the president’s agenda to be able to gather this VIP crowd. Thank you, Mr. President. Equality means a state of being equal in status, rights, and opportunities”.
She additional disclosed that whereas the world was not on monitor to reaching equality by 2030, she was, nonetheless, sure that the GEWE Act 2022 was shortening the street for Sierra Leone to make big progress as a result of the federal government had set a ground-breaking precedent for ladies’s rights and equality within the area.
Irish Ambassador to Sierra Leone, Her Excellency Claire Buckley, stated, “This is evidence of His Excellency, President Julius Maada Bio’s true and passionate commitment to gender equality and women’s rights. Ireland and Sierra Leone are partners with a shared commitment to the Sustainable Development Goals and the gender policy, empowering women and girls, and ending all forms of discrimination and violence against women and girls”.
She added: “Today, we are one step closer to that goal. When women and men do not have equal access to resources or equal opportunities to take part in decision-making, there are direct economic and social costs”. She additional said that gender inequality was a basic human proper however that addressing it could create the required basis for a peaceable, affluent and sustainable world.
