UN Women Executive Director visits Mozambique on African Women’s Day

Date:

Coinciding with African Women’s Day, the Executive Director of UN Women will visit Mozambique from 31 July – 1 August, reaffirming UN Women’s commitment to support the efforts to advance gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls in the country and the region. During the visit, Ms. Mlambo-Ngcuka will meet with government officials, parliamentarians, academics, donors, civil society organizations and feminist advocates.

In addition to her meetings with high-level government officials, the Executive Director will participate in a press conference and an interactive dialogue hosted by the Higher Institute of International Relations, focusing on factors driving or stalling progress towards women’s economic empowerment in Mozambique.

As part of the visit to Mozambique, the Executive Director will meet with civil society leaders and women’s groups to hear first-hand accounts of their experiences, priorities and good practices in the context of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

Highlights

1 August

UN Women Executive Director Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka with Speaker of the Mozambican Parliament Verónica Macamo. Photo: UN Women/Lesira Gerdes
UN Women Executive Director Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka with Speaker of the Mozambican Parliament Verónica Macamo. Photo: UN Women/Lesira Gerdes

On day two, Ms. Mlambo-Ngcuka held a high-level meeting with Speaker of the Mozambican Parliament Verónica Macamo. Ms Mlambo-Ngcuka congratulated Ms. Macamo on recent achievements to promote gender equality in government policies and urged the parliament to rigorously monitor the implementation of such policies to ensure that they are reflected at all levels of the country. Ms. Macamo agreed and stated that ͞sometimes, the mechanisms are in place, but not working correctly.͟ She added that for instance in Mozambique, gender discrimination is still visible in the inheritance law and the parliament is working on reviewing this law.

A member of a civil society organization speaks at an event in Mozambique. Photo: UN Women/Lesira Gerdes
A member of a civil society organization speaks at an event in Mozambique. Photo: UN Women/Lesira Gerdes

On 1 August, Ms. Mlambo Ngcuka also met with civil society leaders and women’s groups to hear first-hand accounts of their experiences, priorities and good practices in the context of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. At the event, the Executive Director called on the need to include all in the gender equality movement, saying: "We need to create a space in which men and women can work together so that we can demonstrate that by being together with a shared purpose we can make a bigger difference and we can also strengthen one another".

31 July

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UN Women Executive Director Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka with the Minister of Gender, Children and Social Action Cidália Chaúque Oliveira. Photo: UN Women/Ouri Pota

UN Women Executive Director Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka met with the Minister of Gender, Children and Social Action Cidália Chaúque Oliveira. During the meeting, Ms. Mlambo-Ngcuka and Ms. Oliveira discussed the significant steps taken in Mozambique to pass legislation and policy that is gender-responsive and work towards women’s empowerment. Ms. Mlambo-Ngcuka also encouraged the Government of Mozambique to work towards challenging the norms and practices that hinder the good policies that have been enacted. Ms. Oliveira, spoke about the planned launch of the HeForShe campaign in Mozambique in November 2017. She expressed that the campaign will catalyze and assist our joint efforts in the elimination of violence against women and girls in Mozambique.

UN Women Executive Director Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka. Photo: UN Women/Ouri Pota
UN Women Executive Director Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka. Photo: UN Women/Ouri Pota

The Executive Director also led in an interactive dialogue, coinciding withAfrican Women's Day, hosted by the Higher Institute of International Relations to discuss factors driving and stalling progress towards women’s economic empowerment in Mozambique. Ms. Mlambo-Ngcuka highlighted that 2030 should be the year by which we achieve globally substantive gender equality; in which unequal pay for equal work is not a reality, in which we eradicate child marriage, in which the underrepresentation of women should be an exception and not the norm.