Young Girls Demand for Protection, Equal Opportunity, Inclusion, and Law Enforcement

Young girls living in Addis Ababa claimed that the government and all non-state actors, civic society organizations in particular, must beef up their efforts to stop gender-based violence manifested in different forms. They urged this in a workshop where they presented their research findings commissioned by ActionAid Ethiopia to representatives of different government ministries/agencies and civic society organizations based in Addis Ababa.

Girls-Led Action, a project aimed at ending gender-based violence by empowering young girls, trained these girls drawn from two sub-cities of Addis Ababa in research methodology and gender issues during the COVID 19 shut down and afterwards. Then they made practical research and found all sorts of gender-based violences by the society.

Ministry of Justice, Ministry of Education, Ministry of Women and Social Affairs, and CSOs working on women’s right were the major stakeholders the young girls forwarded their calls for better coordination to advocate for the ratification of better policies, improvement of public services, and law enforcements so that women and girls can get safer spaces to live, to learn, and to work thereby benefit from inclusive development.

Members of Global Platform, another ActionAid affiliate of young people, staged a short drama that shows the magnitude of vivid and systemic gender-based violence which filled the eyes of many of the participants with tears. At the conclusion of the workshop, representatives of government ministries and CSOs entered commitment to create better network among themselves and government agencies to bolster advocacy efforts to address the demands presented by the young girls.