UN Women Executive Director meets with South Sudanese women leaders at African Union Summit

Meetings on women living with HIV and AIDS were held and a Great Lakes Women’s Platform was also launched by the United Nations Special Envoy of the Secretary-General for the Great Lakes region.

A cross-section of South Sudanese women met with UN Women’s Executive Director Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka on the margins of the 22nd African Union Heads of States summit in the Ethiopian Capital on 30 January 2014. The meeting gave the opportunity for South Sudanese women to share their concerns on the future of their country, and to call for support in ensuring that women and girls priorities are included in the ongoing peace negotiations.

During the meeting, the women described the current situation of women and girls in South Sudan, which became the world’s newest sovereign State in July 2011 and which has been swept by a wave of internal conflict since December 2013. They outlined the role women should take as agents for peace and development and shared their expectations of the international community and the United Nations. .   

Ms. Mlambo-Ngcuka congratulated the women of South Sudan for their various initiatives aimed at resolving conflicts in South Sudan and expressed UN Women’s deep commitment to ensuring that women are at the heart of peacebuilding processes. “UN Women is in solidarity with women of South Sudan and with women and girls all over the world where there is conflict, war or violence” she said. “We will work closely with the African Union special envoy and we will support you.”