UNV Supports the Efforts of UN Women Towards Gender Equality and Women's Empowerment in Africa
Since its creation in 2010, the partnership between the United Nations Volunteers (UNV) programme and the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN Women) has engaged hundreds of talented men and women from diverse backgrounds to serve as volunteers advocates for women's rights in Africa and the world. In 2018, 230 UN Volunteers were an important component of UN Women’s capacity on the ground and were at the forefront of promoting gender equality and the empowerment of women.
Last year in West and Central Africa, 54 UN Volunteers contributed to UN Women’s missions towards reducing discrimination against women and girls, empowering women and achieving equality between women and men. They did so in many functions, including as Programme Assistants, Project Coordination Officers, Gender Experts, Communications Officers and Monitoring and Evaluation Specialists.
“UN Volunteers play a key role in UN Women’s strategic focus on humanitarian response to ensuring that women and girls lead, access, are empowered and participate in response initiatives within their communities, providing them with the opportunity to build on their capacity to respond to shocks and be more resilient”. --Oulimata Sarr, Acting Regional Director of UN Women West and Central Africa Regional Office
Angela Nnoko Mejane is one of the 6 UN Volunteers currently working with UN Women in Senegal.
Mainstreaming gender into peace, security and humanitarian response in West and Central Africa is her day-to-day responsibility. To this end, Angela provides technical contribution to the development of an Emergency Response Plan for the region, coordinates humanitarian programs for UN Women offices, organizes trainings on gender-based violence, collects data, builds analysis and reports on psycho-social support to raped survivors in refugee camps etc.
UN Women works with governments and civil society to design the laws, policies, programs and services needed to ensure that women and girls benefit from them all over the world. UN Women endeavors to make the Sustainable Development Goals a reality for women and girls with a focus on five areas priority: strengthening women's leadership and participation, ending violence against women, integrating women in all aspects of peace and security processes, strengthening women's economic empowerment, and placing gender equality at the heart of national planning and budgeting processes.
