In his capacity as African Union Gender Champion, President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo on Thursday, 25th November 2021, attended the inaugural conference on violence against women and young girls, held in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo.
The Conference was hosted in partnership with the African Women Leaders Network (AWLN) under the leadership of its patron, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, and former President of the Republic of Liberia, with the support of UN Women.
Men in various leadership diversities were mobilized to play a key role in supporting and driving efforts towards the eradication of Voilence Against Women and Girls (VAWG) on the continent.
Held on the theme ‘’African Men Leaders Engage in Positive Masculinity Approaches to End the Scourge of Violence Against Women and Girls in Africa’’, the conference sought to mobilise commitment and galvanise action by men in leadership to accelerate the prevention and elimination of violence against women and girls in Africa at all spheres and at all levels.
The men’s conference was also aimed to secure commitment to create enabling environments to ensure an increase in the numbers of women in leadership at all levels, including as heads of state, government and other sectors to take this agenda forward while also creating political ownership of the AU Campaign on ending VAWG at national level.
Leaders representing governments, business, youth, traditional and religious sectors, among others adopted a declaration with concrete actions and strategies to enhance men’s leadership and role towards ending VAWG, in their various capacities.
The declaration is meant to inform the engagement of African men and boys going forward.
Speaking at the event, Nana Akufo-Addo urged participants at the conference to be guided by the fact that discrimination and inequality have unbearable burdens and costs on economies, societies and the development of the African continent.
“Let us all stand together to create a bold, visible force for gender equality, saying no to acts and threats of violence against women and girls,” he stated.
