CELEBRATION OF THE 35th EDITION OF INTERNATIONAL WOMEN'S DAY 2020

The United Nations joins the International Community to celebrate the 35th edition of International Women's Day organized this year under the theme: “I am Generation Equality: Realizing Women’s Rights". In Cameroon, International Women's Day was celebrated under the theme "Promotion of equality and protection of women's rights by 2020: Take stock of the actions carried out, set a new course".

The United Nations in Cameroon, through the Gender Theme Group, kicked off the celebrations with a set of cultural and social activities. One of the activities carried out during the celebration was the organization on March 05th 2020 of the 20th edition of the “Gender Café” under the theme : "Promotion of equality and protection of women's rights by 2020: taking stock of the actions taken, setting a new course",.

The objective of the Gender Cafe was to assess the progress made in favor of women's rights since the adoption of the Beijing Platform for Action in 1995 and rise awairness on the way forward within the context of the lauch of "Generation Equality" campaign, a civil society-centered, global gathering for gender equality, convened by UN Women. 

64 women and men were presents representing the government, the United Nations Agencies, and national and international civil society. With the facilitation of Mrs. Allegra Maria Del Pilar Baiocchi, Resident Coordinator of the United Nations System in Cameroon, 3 presentations were made and discussed by the assembly. They were as follows: 1/ “Promotion of equality and protection of women's rights by 2020: taking stock of the actions carried out, setting a new course”, presented by Mr. Atangana Vincent, head of the service on gender dissemination in the MINPROFF; 2/ “The Generation Equality campaign, what should be understood? How to get involved?” presented by Mrs. Hind Jalal, Officer in Charge of UNWOMEN ; 3/ “The contribution of the Cameroonian girl in the achievement of gender equality” presented by Mrs. Mandio Anastasie who is a young woman and president of the Family & Life association, and Mr. Patrick Okwen, director of the organization eBASE prensented the conclusion of a study on “An experimenting and learning community : achieving gender equality”.

The situational analysis of women worldwide have revealed that women are the poorest people because of they faced many forms of exclusion, whether in the family, at school, in the workplace, at work and in their communities. Participants agreed that changing this situation means promoting equality and protecting women's rights. This is possible if all men and women start from the same starting point, enjoy the same opportunities with equal treatment free of sexual discrimination.

After an animated debate, recommendations were formulated by the participants to pave the way forward :

• Creation of gender clubs in schools and universities;
• Including gender equality learning in educational curricula from primary school to realize that : "a HeForShe boy is a HeForShe man"
• Advocate for the introduction of comprehensive sexual education at school, as the gap in HIV prevalence between boys and girls is very high (1 boy per 9 girls is HIV positive), ensure that taboos are broken within the community so that young girls become involved in the fight against HIV as leaders
• Include women prisoners as beneficiaries in UN programs;
• Create networks of girls's associations and promote their involvement through volunteerism.

Mrs. Allegra Maria Del Pilar Baiocchi, Resident Coordinator of the United Nations System in Cameroon closed the the 20th Gender Café with a call to every one to engage in GENERATION EQUALITY and to ensure follow up of recommandations to make tomorrow a better world for women and girls.