Popularizing the Local Authorities Charter for Gender Equality in Africa: REFELA-Central Africa sets the tone!

More than 200 locally elected women gathered in Yaoundé (Cameroon) from November 13 to 15, 2023 for a sub-regional conference to popularize the Local Authorities Charter for Gender Equality in Africa, under the theme: “The female local official and the requirements of the Local Authorities Charter for Gender Equality in Africa“.

The objectives of the sub-regional conference were, among others, to enable local elected women to master the challenges of gender in the sustainable development of their decentralized local governments; to help them understand the Local Authorities Charter for Gender Equality in Africa and master its priorities; and to equip them for the adoption of the Charter within their local governments.

Since the Local Authorities Charter for Gender Equality in Africa was adopted on May 20, 2022, in Kisumu during the Africities Summit, the main challenge for REFELA country chapters is to make it known and adopted.

For this REFELA landmark event, the presidents of the Country Chapters of Gabon, Chad, the Central African Republic and the Republic of Congo each travelled to Yaoundé with a delegation of mayors. This is a sign of the solidarity and synergy of action that prevails within REFELA-Central Africa. On the agenda was the training on themes inspired by the Charter’s priority action areas, experience sharing, group work and networking.

This meeting enabled REFELA-Cameroon to set up a network of gender focal points whose role is to take the conference resolutions to their respective communes and facilitate adoption of the Charter. At the end of three days’ work, almost 120 focal points went back with the determination of taking up the cause of gender equality with their local and regional executives.

As the last delegations left Yaoundé on November 17, 2023, Mrs Marie-Angèle MEYANGA (President of REFELA-Cameroon), Mrs GYSELE ITOUMBA (President of REFELA-Gabon), Mrs MARIAM DJIMET IBET (President of REFELA-Chad), Mrs Léontine YANGBA BONNA (President of REFELA-CAR) and Mrs OBA LOEMBE SAUTHAT LUCILE YSABEL (REFELA-Republic of the Congo Focal Point), are determined to forge ahead and further the cause of gender equality in the sub-region and beyond.