By Precious D. Freeman
The Coordinator of the ECOWAS Radio, Eva M. Flomo has declared that the attacks against women in the country must end.
According to her, women are equally qualified for participation in politics and should be given the platform in order to express themselves, and that they should not be seen as enemies of progress.
She made the remarks at a high level meeting between women leaders and the Media, on the theme: “the Role of Media in Promoting Gender Responsible Reporting during Elections”.
The dialogue that was held in Monrovia yesterday brought together several media groups and dignitaries, organizations among others graced the occasion.
Speaking further, Madam Flomo mentioned that women voices should be heard and enable them take the lead, adding that media women should also be allowed to be part of decision-makers in their various entities especially in electoral processes.
“As you consider the role of media in promoting gender responsive reporting during election, we at ECOWAS Radio are pleased to note that promoting gender equality is at the core of our work, in that the themes for the IWD celebration and the campaign fall directly in line with the Supplementary Act on Equality of Rights between Women and Men for Sustainable Development in the ECOWAS Region, which was adopted by the 47th Ordinary Session of the conference of the Heads of State and Government held in Ghana, on May, 19, 2015, and is annexed to the Revised ECOWAS treaty of which is an integral part,” she explained.
Madam Flomo stated further that they are particularly hopeful that women and girls in this digital age will be opportune to access the digital space, equally as their male counterparts, so that they can market their ideals and interest which will by and large engender gender equality.
She furthered that the theme for this years’ International Women’s Day was Digital Innovation and Technology for Gender Equality aligned with the priority theme for the upcoming 67th Session of the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW-67), “Innovation and Technology Change, and education in the digital age for achieving gender equality and the empowerment of all women and girls.”
Speaking further, the Executive Director for CEMESP Malcom Joseph added that the epic fact of breaking the glass ceiling notwithstanding the structural gap and barriers to women’s political participation are so stark; looking at the statistics of grave disproportionate female representation.
He stressed that this situation behooves a reordering of the trend as they prepare for elections, and that he is of the fervent conviction that as they are all sharing views that there is immense benefit when women have the opportunity to hold out their own in patriarchal social constructs.
“In many parts of the world, people of diverse socio-economic and political persuasion seem to agree that the media are potential powerful channels of information in society,” he said.
He added that as the country is aware, that these elections are critical and it will be a period of solidifying the democratization to a new Liberia where systems and institutions work.
