INTERNATIONAL WOMENS DAY (IWD) 2023

AWLA reiterates call for Gender partiy, inclusion, Political Participation, Financial and Technological Empowerment of women

President of the African Women Lawyers Association (AWLA) Mrs Amanda Demechi-Asagba has called for a continuos empowerment of women both financially, technologically, socially, politically and otherwise, in a bid to promote gender parity in our new dispensation

Asagba moved for a change in the long standing narrative, where women were relegated to the back seat in matters touching on dire areas of human development and advancement.

She harped on the importance of women emancipation in these crucial areas, and urged every woman to strive to be in the spotlight in charting the course of national growth.

Asagba made this call to commemorate the 2023 International Women's Day Celebration.

She noted that IWD has been around us since 1911 adding that anyone anywhere, can play a part in helping to forge women's development.

The International Women's Day is celebrated annually on March 8, yet the global campaign theme continues all year long to encourage action.

The UN theme for this year’s International Women’s Day is “DigitALL: Innovation and technology for gender equality”.

Asagba noted that this theme is aligned with the priority theme for the upcoming 67th Session of the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW-67), which is “Innovation and technological change, and education in the digital age for achieving gender equality and the empowerment of all women and girls”.

According to her, IWD is supported by organizations, groups, governments and individuals worldwide who are committed to a more gender equal world.

GENDER PARITY

According to Asagba, Gender parity and empowerment remains a priority for AWLA both in its operations and in the Association as a whole.

To drive this transformative change, AWLA tries to accelerate this equality initiative by exploring the important progress made in leading this crusade and building on the lessons learnt from real experiences of the girl child.

Even though the task are onerous, we at AWLA believe that it is very achieveable with the right approach and resilience which are the basics we need to reach set goals

POLITICAL PARTICIPATION

The participation of women in politics over the years, have left much more to be desired This is first largely as a result of the somewhat indifference on the part of gender, to gain political recognition.

Nevertheless, we give much ado to some of our notable women of repute in Africa who have dared to tred the part of politics. We recognize women like: Slyvie Kiningi, first acting President of Burundi, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, who was first female president elect of Liberia and also Africa's first elected female head of state, Joyce Hilda Banda, a former female president of Malawi among other notable women who have distinguished themselves in politics.

In Nigeria, we also recognize female political icons like Chief Margaret Ekpo, Nigeria's first female politician, Otunba Grace Titi Laoye-Tomori, Daisy Ehanire Danjuma, Abike Dabiri Erewa, Oluremi Tinubu, among other females, who have made remarkable advancements in the nation's political space

The just concluded 2023 General elections in Nigeria, is one of such "Big political Ventures" but alas, women were visibly "unseen" running for major political offices. Women cannot continue to take the back seat in national exercise. Every gender is a pearl, embodied with virtue, We must remain emboldened by this fact, and push for a change.

There muat be a continuous push for women to keep #breaking the bias, and launching into gray areas which hitherto were exclusive preserves for men.

TECHNOLOGY

The world is fast becoming a digitalized space and technological advancements have also seen men mostly occupying top notch positions in the tech indices

In line with the campaign theme for the 2023 IWD, “DigitALL: Innovation and technology for gender equality”, it remains apt for all women to key into the technology arena to demonstrate that truly WE CAN REACH ENVIABLE GOALS.

Therefore, on the occasion of International Women’s Day 2023, we at AWLA continuously celebrate women’s achievements, contributions and engagements in vital areas of human endeavours, and we look forward to more participation of women nationally and internationally for the common good of all

AMANDA DEMECHI-ASAGBA
PRESIDENT
AFRICAN WOMEN LAWYERS ASSOCIATION (AWLA