EAST AFRICA: UN set to empower Dar women before elections

Date: 
Thursday, September 2, 2010
Source: 
The Citizen
Countries: 
Africa
Eastern Africa
PeaceWomen Consolidated Themes: 
General Women, Peace and Security
Reconstruction and Peacebuilding

The UN is set to empower Tanzanian women ahead of the General Election in October 31, the world body said in a statement released Wednesday.

It said the empowerment includes improving their skills in public speaking, media engagement, campaign planning, presentations, community mobilisation, advocacy and lobbying.

According to the UN, a series of workshops will be conducted throughout this month September by the UN Development Fund for Women (Unifem) for the Tanzanian ladies.

It said the workshops would be conducted by 30 facilitators from across the country who have already received training from Unifem, which is part of the larger, new gender entity known as UN Women.

The candidates will also learn about women in Tanzanian politics, current political issues surrounding the elections, the roles of Parliament, the House of Representatives and local councils, and relevant election laws, rules and regulations.

“'Women and men must join hands to promote equal representation, participation and leadership of women in the political processes and representative institutions,” Ni Sha, Unifem's Deputy Regional Programme Director for East and Horn of Africa, noted in the statement.

Meanwhile, Unifem said it was collaborating with the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (Unesco) to train community radio coordinators in the cities of Arusha, Pemba and Unguja in September to spread awareness on voter information to women in remote areas.

The agency also added said that journalists would be coached to provide fair and equal coverage of female candidates ahead of the 31 October polls.

“'The UN Development Programme (UNDP) is also providing substantial technical assistance to support the country's elections through the Elections Support Project 2010,” it noted.

The project, which began last year, is aimed at helping the National Electoral Commission (NEC) and the Zanzibar Electoral Commission (ZEC) plan for and manage elements of the electoral process such as voter registration, voter education, coordinating election observers and communications.