Gender Talk Forum

Women’s movements are instrumental in flagging issues relating to women’s rights and Gender equality. This has been witnessed through the various movements that have championed women’s causes in Ethiopia. It is with this context that NEWA had planned this year’s “Gender talk Forum ”, which is NEWA’s signature dialogue platform that has been ongoing for many years. This year, in commemoration of International Women’s Day, The Gender talk forum tried to bring together governmental and non-governmental stakeholders with the theme of “Revisiting women’s movements in Ethiopia by sharing best practices, highlighting experiences, and deliberating on ways forward. The Gender talk forum is a part of the project titled ‘Women’s Voice and Leadership’ currently being implemented by NEWA in partnership with Plan International Ethiopia.

The gender talk forum was held on March 24, 2022, in Sapphire Addis Hotel. This platform brought together women right organizations, CSOs, International organizations, UN representatives, Academia’s, and also prominent women right activists. This year’s gender talk forum themed “Women’s right movements in Ethiopia towards gender equality” focused on highlighting the history, struggle, milestones, setbacks, success and challenges of the Ethiopian women’s right movement. A presentation by Dr. Agaredech from AAU was presented to the scene after which an intergenerational panel discussion was held. The panelist were two known women right defenders, Ms. Huluagerish from Addis Ababa Women Associations and Ruth Yitbarek from Yellow movement. An interesting discussion was held on the feminism history in Ethiopia as well as the importance of solidarity, networking and collaboration of women right structures for a better impact.

During this year’s Gender talk forum, Mrs. Letty Chiwara the UN women’s representative to Ethiopia, AU, and UN ECA was recognized and a small farewell party was held towards the end of the event.