From 11 to 14 October 2022, the GIZ Gender Sector Networking Meeting took place in Lilongwe, Malawi. The event was hosted by GIZ Malawi in collaboration with the GIZ Africa Department.
The EAC-GIZ team was represented by Mrs. Joyce Kevin Abalo-Kimaro who was among the 31 participants made up of GIZ staff from all over the African continent. Joyce utilized the opportunity to present on the Tanzania & EAC gender profile including best practices and gender mainstreaming in GIZ projects.
The meeting was opened by Mr. Alan Walsch, Country Director GIZ Malawi. In his remarks, Walsch urged the Gender Focal Points Africa to think radical and outside the box when designing, implementing, and reporting on gender to invoke and achieve structural socio-economic change.
The four-day event enabled the GIZ Gender Focal Points in Africa to exchange and built their capacity on the concept of feminist development policy, operationalization of sexual harassment policy at national level, mainstreaming gender in projects, integration of diversity in country programmes, as well as economic challenges of women in Africa and how to tackle them.
A highlight was the exchange with Emma Kaliya, a renowned Panafrican feminist from Malawi, who deliberated on gender and feminism.
The event concluded with a showcase of transformative gender approaches combining theory and practice with field excursions to Malawi projects implementing gender transformative approaches as well as women’s empowerment initiatives focusing on food security and nutrition, renewable energy and technical and vocational education and training (TVET).
Background
The GIZ Gender Sector Network is a platform for Gender Focal Points within GIZ to exchange on gender, inclusion and diversity in their various projects and share best practices in gender transformative programming in various sectors in line with the GIZ gender strategy, guideline and corporate principles of human rights and good governance. GIZ Tanzania & EAC are implementing various activities and projects that promote gender equality in the EAC region.