WDO Participates in the UNFPA / UNICEF Regional Meeting on Harmful Practices

WDO Participates in the UNFPA / UNICEF Regional Meeting on Harmful Practices

CAIRO (UNA-OIC) – The Women development Organization participated in the UNFPA/UNICEF Regional Meeting for the Arab States / Middle East and North Africa, on Accelerating Efforts to End Harmful Practices (FGM and Child Marriage), which is currently held in Luxor-Egypt.

Counsellor Fatma Alzahraa Abdelkawy, the Director for Program, Policy and Intergovernmental Support at WDO, briefly introduced the WDO while stressing on its objectives and mandate which can serve the purpose of this important meeting. She then dwelled on the four thematic pillars of the WDO, with a special focus on the pillar on the Elimination of all Forms of Violence and Harmful Practices Against Women and Girls.

She gave more details on the projected outcomes for that pillar, which include but are not limited to, the enactment and enforcement of legislations, institutionalized quality prevention, protection and response services, as well as a multi-sectoral engagement of all relevant stakeholders at national, regional and international levels to put efforts together in combatting these harmful practices.

She also highlighted the interactive digital awareness raising campaigns launched by WDO on Zero Tolerance to FGM, and the Elimination of all Forms of Violence Against Women and Girls.

The different sessions of the meeting had panelists ranging from international organizations, religious leaders, government sector, Community Based Organizations and Youth-led Organizations. The major highlights of the different interventions pointed out to the power of coalition and multisectoral partnerships, optimal cooperation with governments to enforce legislations, sustainable and long-term support to local CSOs, investing in evidence generation, and integrating issues of FGM and harmful practices into large scale economic development and poverty eradication projects, as well as humanitarian response plans.

It is worth mentioning that the overarching goal of that regional meeting is to evaluate past programs and identify new entry points, and what could be done differently to achieve Zero FGM and Child Marriage.

 

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