The approval of the recently completed CARICOM Gender Equality Strategy (CGES) will be a highlight of the upcoming Council for Human and Social Development (COHSOD) – Gender on 18 October 2023. This is particularly significant as the CARICOM Secretariat joins the world to observe International Day of the Girl Child on 11 October. Activities this year are being held under the theme “Invest in Girls’ Rights: Our Leadership, Our Well-being”.
Titled “Stepping It Up: A Strategy to Achieve Gender Equality in the Caribbean Community”, the strategy is spearheaded by Ms Ann-Marie Williams, Deputy Programme Manager, Gender Development at the CARICOM Secretariat. She underscored the importance of the strategy to the development of Caribbean girls and the synergy with this year’s theme for International Day of the Girl Child.
“In the past, girls were often invisible or left out of the conversation on youth development,” stated the Deputy Programme Manager, “but it was the 1995 Beijing Declaration and platform for action that recognised the importance of the girl child. Protection and development of the girl child was one of the twelve-point actions or pillars that countries had signed on to and agreed to implement programmes to improve the lives of women and girls.”
She explained that the declaration subsequently resulted in the United Nations declaring 11 October as significant for activities that promote the protection and development of the girl child.
Ms Williams also underscored that the observance is particularly important now, as many of the gains made to increase opportunities for girls and to protect their sexual and reproductive health and rights have declined in recent years, particularly during the COVID-19 Pandemic. “This year’s theme is ideal as it advocates for the rights of girls to protection, education and health,” stated Ms Williams, “when girls are supported and educated, they have the potential to change the world. By empowering girls to use their potential to change the world, we will all have better futures. When women thrive, all of society benefits. Women account for 49.74% of the World’s population. We ignore them at our own detriment.”
The Deputy Programme Manager further explained that this year’s theme aligns with key aspects of the CGES. “The strategy is anchored by the girl child,” stated Ms Williams, “specifically, the approaches that can be utilised for the protection, education and overall development of girls. This is a significant achievement for the Region”.
In addition, the Deputy Programme Manager emphasised that the CGES provides a roadmap for Member States to provide a regional coordinated approach to achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls. Its principal goal: To accelerate the effective implementation of priority actions through a regional coordinated approach to achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls, aligns with Goal 5 of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
The strategy is guided and informed by a series of international human rights commitments, regional policies and frameworks, and other gender equality instruments that outline the Region’s commitments to advancing human development and gender-equitable outcomes.
It is anticipated that the CGES will receive approval and commendation at the upcoming COHSOD-Gender with the overarching goal of advancing the protection and development of girls across the Region.
Gender Equality is just a disguise for the destruction of the nuclear family and by extension communities/society. Western societies are experiencing significant declines in birth rates as a direct result – check the statistics! As always, our sell out leaders are happy to conform to these oppressive agendas in return for a cheque!
Women are being taught to hate/oppress men and behave in degenerate ways while being empowered by the state to wage war against men through child support, alimony, false accusations leading to litigation etc.
Simultaneously men are being feminised leading to women having no instinctual respect for men.
Western societies are descending into chaos as a result, the evidence is all over social media.
We don’t need gender equality, what we need is men and women working together, loving each other, making children and building strong societies that will stand up and fight to build a culture that will benefit our children centuries from now.
Since these agendas are supposedly about GENDER EQUALITY (cough cough….
), I look forward to hearing about activities for International Day of the Boy Child with themes such as “Invest in Boys’ Rights: Our Leadership, Our Well-being”.
Women are presently doing very well for themselves. They have worked diligently to earn all that they have achieved. Look at our colleges and universities, the civil service, women dominate in numbers.
Having said that, this gender agenda is marginalizing and neglecting our young males. When compared to our females, our young males make up the higher unemployment rate, are most likely to get gunned down, make up the bulk of the prison population, they most definitely need more attention and help.
My concern is this. We, as a society, have to ensure that our women are not discriminated against or treated as second class citizens like the past. But in doing this we must not leave our males behind fortuitously.
It simple wi. What men offer, comes a dime a dozen or even free. What women offer, people will pay and even kxxx for. So is no surprise woman get more opportunities and more support.
But really, as a man you shouldn’t really be looking for easy road like woman. Get out there and earn your keep fellas.
You sound dumb. And you comment reaks of gender bias and inequality. While men shouldnt be asking for hand out, You make it sound like women (Who are saying they want EQUALITY) should be given the easy way out in life. Men have been going out and earning their keep. However, we must realize that in no way are men and women equal to each other. men and women are very much different and complimentary to each other. There is no such thing as gender equality and we should stop chasing this magical ball. While i fully support the empowerment of women, women have it made for them. What we need to do is encouraging proper values in both men and women. encourage the nuclear family. Encourage youth. What we are doing now is disenfranchising men and young boys. Which in itself is forstering inequality.
Those employers prefer to see Breast rather than chest. So they keep employing more women. You husbands be warned.
All you are back again with this gender stuff? It’s the young men who should be echoing such disparities. Go to the registry, the post office, supermarkets, wholesale places, domlec and dawasco offices, treasury, banks and credit unions, KFC, CHINESE stores, and the lists are endless where the majority of employees are women. So give me a break. All you taking everything and habits from America the great Babylon. Women should be ashamed of themselves to see that favoritisms are given to them in the work place because they dress to entice.
Nah its not about dress to entice that’s probably your self-comforting bs, women are “better” students across the board, they are more likely to seek and maintain academic achievement especially in Universities and certain fields they gravitate towards “soft” sciences, business, nursing, while men still into math’s “hard” sciences engineering and the like though more women are excelling their too
But we agree on one thing: truly this women empowerment dogma has become mindless and very intellectually dishonest, what is their focus gender equality or empowerment of women? These are actually opposites…seems like “newspeak” something out of George Orwell’s book 1984, you know the guy behind Animal Farm which Dice sang an old-time calypso about.
Girls and boys have the same chances up to college levels. There are many male dominated jobs where women don’t fit. construction, fishing, heavy equipment handling. Our girls choose to work at the supermarkets Chinese stores etc for small salaries. our boys choose to seat on a block all day and talk about girls, guns and drugs. They don’t want to take directives and won’t work for small salaries.
Gender equality doesnt mean that for decades girls and women alone that getting ll the help. Gender equality doesnt mean that our young boy and men should be forgotten and left by the wayside to fight their own battles. Gender equality doesnt mean that the majority of people hired in offices and the like should be majority women. Gender equality doesnt mean that special financing facilities should be set up for women but none for young men. Equality should mean that you are allowed to go to the homecoming dance like everybody else, equality should not mean that your are automatically brought to VIP and awarded the homecoming queen title. This is right now gender inequality. What about our young boys? Especially the ones who lack father figures and positive male role models. NOTHING is being done about this regional problem. Especially in Dominica we see rise in crime, rise in male unemployment, less and less male presence in tertiary education.