FEMNET | DRC: Call for women's solidarity in promoting inclusive democracy

DRC: Call for women’s solidarity in promoting inclusive democracy

By Femnet_
28 Jun 2023

Kinshasa, June 28, 2023 (published by the Agence Congolaise de Press)

Women leaders who are members of public institutions, the private sector and civil society organizations were invited on Tuesday to strengthen their solidarity in promoting inclusive democracy in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), at a workshop organized in Kinshasa by the African Women’s Development and Communication Network (FEMNET).

“We invite Congolese women to reflect on strategies for solidarity among themselves to promote inclusive democracy in their country,” said Kenyan Dorothée Otieno, project coordinator at FEMNET. The presence of women in institutions in the DRC, she said, is not visible, and their influence is not felt. For this reason, she believes, women must work together to promote their leadership in the media, in politics, in parliament and everywhere else.

“You have the power to influence decisions”, she told participants at the two-day workshop, attended by delegates from South Kivu, Central Kongo, the former Bandundu province and Kinshasa, and supervised by the teaching team from Nairobi, the headquarters of the FEMNET.

Dorothée Otieno cited the objectives pursued by the Kinshasa workshop, namely to mobilize women leaders in the field of rights so that they can effectively claim, assert and use their power in defence of the inclusive democratic process and good governance; to formulate strategies to strengthen support for women candidates in the upcoming elections in the DRC; and to reinforce solidarity within the women’s movement to influence inclusive democracy and hold decision-makers accountable for commitments to gender equality and women’s empowerment.

FEMNET Board Vice President Bibish Mundjo said her organization is a pan-African network that informs and mobilizes women in building the women’s movement and amplifying African women’s voices to influence decisions at national, regional and global levels. “The African Women’s Development and Communication Network (FEMNET) was created in 1988. It has implemented a campaign to increase the quality and quantity of women’s political participation in the DRC, Botswana, Eswatini, Ivory Coast, Kenya, Senegal, Tanzania and Zimbabwe.

The original article was published by the L’Agence congolaise de presse est une agence de presse officielle de la République démocratique du Congo. Click here: https://bit.ly/46nCWlh. For more information on FEMNET’s programming in Women in Political Participation in the Democratic Republic of Congo contact Dorothy Otieno via d.otieno@femnet.or.ke