Ministerial Panel on Empowering women-centred resilience

Solutions discussed:

Design solutions to build women's resilience in combating crises such as the COVID-19 pandemic

In developing solutions that foster women-centred resilience, there should not be a one-size fits all approach. The government should provide budgets and funding in preparedness to respond to unforseen crisis like the COVID-19 pandemic. There is need to build infrastructures that are able to deal with future crises. Women and girls need to be empowered with knowledge that makes them resilient. They should be reequipped and upscaled especially in digital innovation. Gender mainstreaming should be redefined and not be limited solely to providing a line item for gender but ensuring that women are meaningfully engaged in all decision making processes. Should identify and involve all key stakeholders in designing solutions to addressing crises.

Presented by: Neo Masisi, First Lady of Botswana

Provision of education that builds the resilience of women and girls

Provision of competency based curriculum which is an holistic approach when it comes to education. This helps to build the resilience of women and girls especially with regards to emotional intelligence.

Presented by: Nadia Abdalla, Deputy Minister, Ministry of ICT, Innovation and Youth Affairs, Kenya

Provision of support services to small and medium enterprises especially women's businesses

Stimulus packages were provided to support small- and medium-sized enterprises for different industries every quarter including women who want to start businesses, start-ups, creatives and entrepreneurs. The government launched the Women Enterprise Development Fund which has zero interest and any woman with an ID card can register and access funds. It was set up to help women curb lack of finances and also to establish businesses.

Presented by: Nadia Abdalla, Deputy Minister, Ministry of ICT, Innovation and Youth Affairs, Kenya

Leveraging the power of technology to build the resilience of women and girls

Build the capacity of women and girls on the use of social media in their businesses. Launched online campaigns to drive mental health education and awareness which involved connecting business coaches and psychologists online with business owners including women and young people.

Presented by: Nadia Abdalla, Deputy Minister, Ministry of ICT, Innovation and Youth Affairs, Kenya

Recognise and compensate care work

Identify and recognise women's essential roles that are dominated in the health sector and care work and provide adequate compensation for these roles.

Presented by: Gabriela Ramos, Assistant Director General for the Social and Human Sciences, UNESCO

Changing societal perceptions for boys and girls

Changing men's mentalities starting from the families and the societal expectations of boys and girls.

Presented by: Gabriela Ramos, Assistant Director General for the Social and Human Sciences, UNESCO

Public policies that foster women's resilience through public-private partnerships

Examples of such measures include: increase the quality and quantity of women workers in the labour market and reduce the gender gap in salary for women workers; pomote leadership of women across all sectors in society; introduce an innovative tool called the gender equality certificate for companies measuring the capability of companies to promote women's career and work. This certificate gives companies benefits in the area of taxes and public procurement.

Presented by: Elena Bonetti, Minister for Equal Opportunities and Family, Italy

Address gender based violence amidst the COVID-19 pandemic

The national GBV Campaign was launched in Botswana which involved different sessions held with different groups of people at the community level. The community was empowered to develop the solutions and using the rule of 10 -10, disseminate the message to another 10 persons. They also worked with the traditional parliament in getting the messages to the grassroots as well as the engagement of men as allies. They also had sessions for spouses that were seperate (husband and wives) in order to allow for safe spaces for conversation and dialogue.

Presented by: Neo Masisi, First Lady of Botswana

Multi-pronged approach needed to combat gender based violence due to COVID-19 pandemic

The government partnered with CSOs to increase the number of shelters. They set up the Gender Based Response Inter Ministerial Committee which cuts across different sectors that provided strategic guidance in addressing GBV issues.
The law enforcement agency created a new division called the gender and child protection unit including specialists such as forensics and psychologists. They started a toll free line and launched child friendly police stations, as well as trained the police force on standard operating procedures. GBV courts were set up to fast track justice services.
The prison service started the gender based violence perpetrators program where it is projecting the minds and voice of the perpetrators, stiffer penalties, sex offenders bill and sex offenders registry. 

Presented by: Neo Masisi, First Lady of Botswana