12th Commonwealth Women’s Affairs Ministers Meeting |27 September 2019
Minister Larue headed Seychelles’ delegation at the conference
Minister Larue heads Seychelles’ delegation
The Minister for Family Affairs, Mitcy Larue, headed a delegation from Seychelles at the 12th Commonwealth Women Affairs Ministers' meeting (12WAMM) held recently in Nairobi, Kenya.
The minister was accompanied by the principal secretary for Family Affairs, Marie-Josée Bonne, and public relations officer Raissa Uranie.
The meeting, held under the theme ‘From Commitment to Action: Accelerating Gender Equality and Women's Empowerment for Sustainable Development’,
brought together ministers, senior officials, civil society organisations and other gender experts to discuss critical issues in advancing gender equality and women’s empowerment.
The two-day meeting provided a platform for building synergy around critical issues on women’s empowerment and gender equality in the Commonwealth, and the world at large.
The meeting is in line with the four gender priorities of the Commonwealth specifically women in leadership; women’s economic empowerment; ending violence against women and girls; and, gender and climate change.
Discussions focused on linking Commonwealth commitments on gender equality to global action, affordable and quality healthcare, and tracking progress and sharing successes on the 4 Commonwealth gender priorities by member states present.
The meeting was preceded by the senior officials meeting, a two-day forum for civil society organisations facilitated by Commonwealth Foundation and other partners where they called for effective resourcing from sectoral and national budgets for women’s rights and gender equality, meaningful international climate financing to address gendered impact of climate change, strengthen institutions and leadership and accountability on women’s rights and commitments.
In addition, the Commonwealth Business Council held a side event and also developed a 10-point plan for future action.
The 12th Commonwealth Women Affairs Ministers' meeting, chaired by the Commonwealth secretary-general Baroness Patricia Scotland, took place at an opportune time given that a range of other international platforms on gender equality and sustainable development are scheduled to take place in the near future. These include the 25th anniversary of the ICPD Plan of Action in November 2019, the 25th anniversary of the Beijing Platform for Action in 2020 and the 5th anniversary of the Agenda for Sustainable Development Goals.
In attendance were Her Royal Highness Sophie, the Countess of Wessex, the under secretary-general and executive director of the UNFPA, Dr Natalia Kanem, and other high level dignitaries of the Kenyan government.
