We must move much farther forward and much faster

Mar 12, 2017 APNU Column, Features / Columnists

---

(International Women’s Day Address by HE David Granger)

Guyanese women have moved forward since the presentation of the State Paper on Equality of Women to the National Assembly on 15th January 1976. The State Paper – which was described as forward-looking forty-one years ago – was aimed, among other things, at:
“…making sex discrimination unlawful in employment, recruitment, training, education and the provision of housing, goods, services and facilities to the public.”
Legislation was passed; discrimination declined; political participation improved and policies for the promotion of women’s equality were promulgated. Women advanced economically, politically and socially in our nation.
Guyana, today, happily joins the rest of humanity in celebrating International Women’s Day. We endorse, totally, the United Nations’ theme of this year’s observance –”Women in the Changing World of Work: Planet 50-50 by 2030″.
Guyana, at the Global Leaders’ Meeting on Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment, at the United Nations Headquarters in September 2015, reaffirmed its commitment:
“…to build a country in which women and girls can expect to live in safety, to be protected from abuse, such as trafficking in persons, domestic violence and workplace hazards.”
Guyana, in September 2015, adopted the UN Resolution – Transforming our World: the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Guyana reasserts its total commitment to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals, including Goal No. 5, to: “Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls” and Goal No. 4, to: “Ensure inclusive and quality education for all and promote lifelong learning.”
Guyana will honour its commitment to achieve gender equality and to empower women and to educate and protect girls. Guyana will continue to work towards eliminating inequality, unemployment, illiteracy and poverty and towards promoting political empowerment.
Guyana must move beyond the mere passage of legislation. It must move to dismantle the structural impediments to gender equality in order to fulfil its commitment under the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. Guyana’s approach is to move forward along four fronts:
· Equality: Gender equality must be made a paramount policy of government. Gender parity cannot be achieved in the absence of a more equal society. Enforcement of legislation to protect women, to prevent abuse and to promote greater equality must be more robust. The disparities between hinterland and coastland and between rural and urban communities, for example, must be reduced.
· Education: Gender equality can be achieved mainly by ensuring unimpeded access to education. Education will open opportunities for women and allow them to rise more rapidly to the highest levels of the occupations and professions. The surest and quickest means of enhancing the status of women and providing them with greater opportunities for upward mobility is through education.
· Employment. Gender equality can be achieved, also, by breaking the cycle of poverty. Poor people produce poor children and these poor children in turn produce more poor children. It is a vicious cycle of ‘hereditary poverty.’ The burden of poverty falls heavily on women. The vicious cycle of poverty has to be broken in order to create a virtuous cycle of gender equality. Jobs are necessary to enable poor women to enjoy sustainable incomes and to have a chance at exiting poverty.
· Empowerment: Women must be empowered to embrace their role in political decision-making. Women must be empowered to assume leadership in their communities and in non-governmental and state institutions. Citizens’ constitutional right to participate in the governance of their communities at local government elections was restored last year. Local democracy is empowering women by encouraging their participation in political processes.
We can move much further towards:
– creating an educated nation by ensuring that every girl child completes primary and secondary school;
– removing the barriers to gender equality by ensuring that geographical, occupational, political and racial differences are diminished;
– empowering women by ensuring that our committees, commissions and councils are more representative; and providing more opportunities for women’s employment by ensuring developing small- and micro-industries in communities and by encouraging corporations to promote qualified women to executive positions.
Guyana is committed to fulfilling its obligations under the Sustainable Development Goal No. 5. We can, we must and we will “achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls.”
We extend best wishes to all the women of Guyana on International Women’s Day 2017. The struggle for equality and parity continues! God Bless Guyanese women!

---

---