Somalia to launch National Gender Policy

Somalia’s Ministry of Women and Human Rights Development has started consultations aimed at developing a national gender policy.
The first of a planned series of consultations was held on Saturday in Mogadishu with activists and members from the civil society groups to derive a framework for the policy.
According to the Minister of Women and Human Rights Development of the Federal government, Mrs Sahra Mohamed Ali, the overarching goal of the Policy is to mainstream gender equality concerns into the national development processes.
She added that this will be done by improving the social, legal, civic, political, economic and socio-cultural conditions of the people of Somalia particularly women, children, the vulnerable and people with special needs; persons with disability and the marginalized.
Others are: Inequalities between women and men in sharing of power and decision making at all levels and in dealing with all kinds of conflicts and insecurities and threats on women.

“The Government is committed to developing a framework for integrating a gender perspective in all policy and programmes.”
After the preparation of the new policy, the ministry will submit to the cabinet for approval.
According to International organizations, the Gender Inequality Index for Somalia remains 0.776, placing Somalia at the fourth highest position globally. Somalia women continue to face extremely high maternal mortality, rape, female genital mutilation, child marriage rates, and violence against women and girls.
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