We are approaching the end of August, the Women’s Month and the focus on women empowerment and issues will slowly fade away until August next year. Throughout the month, there have been a lot of talks about women challenges and promises to address those issues. The end of August must not mean the end of the women emancipation and empowerment agenda, but it must always be a catalyst for action for women development and to improve their socio-economic status in society.
This year, the celebration of the Women’s Month took place under difficult conditions as the country is busy fighting the scourge of the deadly coronavirus, but it also provided a window of opportunity to look at the serious challenges faced by women. The Covid-19 pandemic has further laid bare the challenges faced by women in our country. Women remain disproportionately affected by the pandemic. The livelihoods of millions of women have been negatively affected by job losses and loss of income in the informal sector. Rural women have to double their efforts to ensure reliable access to water for their families to be able to fight the coronavirus. The Covid-19 pandemic has made it quite clear that it is more critical than ever before to implement good resolutions and empower our beautiful women. The time for action is now to relieve women of the socio-economic hardships in our country.
The theme for Women’s Month this year is “Generation Equality: Realising Women’s Rights for an Equal Future”, but this can never be realized if we keep talking but no actions to achieve our discussion resolutions. Let us invest in women development. The time for action and implementation is now.
The pandemic has also exposed the vultures who only care about their pockets above service delivery to communities. This corruption must be severely dealt with to ensure quality services to the people and to relieve women of the hardships of poor service delivery. Corruption destroys the country and leads to more hardships for the women of the country. Let’s all play our role in fighting corruption for a better country, especially our women who bear all the suffering and hardships.
Gender-based violence is another serious challenge faced by the wonderful women of this country. This must be stopped to have an equal society where women are free. Freedom is important for women’s confidence and to preserve their dignity. Let us not just be reactive but let us also look at social ills that lead to gender-based violence in our communities and deal with it as it manifests its ugly head.
In everything we do as a country, let us not forget the rural women who bear most of the hardships in society. Due to their living conditions, rural women keep our rivers, streams and wetlands clean healthy and free-flowing for water security. Water is life and central to every aspect of life, so it is, therefore, crucial that rural women have access to reliable water to make their life much easier and give them enough time and a chance to compete to better their lives.
The time is now to act and support and empower women for women development.