Encouraging Results Registered in Ensuring Women's Participation in National Dev't

November 4, 2006 - (The Ethiopian Herald) An official of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said encouraging results have been registered towards strengthening the role of women in national development owing to the government's due attention to gender equality.

Speaking at a staff workshop of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Director General of Women Affairs and Participation Directorate with the Ministry, Ambassador Halima Mohammed said the issue of gender should not be left to a few experts in the field.

In a press release the ministry sent to ENA yesterday, Halima said the low participation of women in education, health, and decision making has shown improvement. However, Halima said, problems have been observed in the implementation of the policies set to ensure the rights of women.

Women's policies and strategies implementation department head with the Ministry of Women Affairs, Roman Tesfaye on the occasion said the government has prepared a package with a view to boosting the participation of women.

Women should take the leading role in addressing their problems, Roman said, adding the government would create a favourable condition. Ministry Women's Affairs senior expert, Hanna Abate on her part said the government has given due attention towards ensuring the political, social, and economic rights of women. She said the government has set plans to undertake various capacity building activities with a view to building the decision making capacity and political participation of women.

From: http://allafrica.com/stories/200611060489.html