United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and Empowerment of Women (UN Women) on Tuesday, April 4 unveiled its strategic note (2023 - 2026) detailing four areas toward empowering the country's women and girls.
They include; ending violence against women and girls, democratic governance - women in political leadership and participation, women's economic empowerment and women, peace, and security, and humanitarian action.
The UN women strategic note was unveiled by the country representative Anna Mutavati during a breakfast meeting with editors at Kempinski Hotel, Nairobi County.
Mutavati said that the UN women would work with the Government, civil society, and the media to formulate policies and legislative frameworks that will promote the participation and representation of women in leadership and governance.
"UN women Kenya will focus on strengthening systems for financing gender equality, public participation in governance and accountability for gender-responsive service delivery as well as enhancing the visibility and capacity of women and girls to participate in democratic processes and inclusive governance,” Mutavati said during the meeting.
Mutavati also highlighted the role UN women has played in supporting women in the last four years citing the example of women elected in the August 2022 general election and the role they played.
According to the UN report, 23.5% of women were elected in the August 2022 polls as compared to 22% in 2017. In addition, more counties allocated budgets to gender as well as a reduction in female genital mutilation cases (FGM).
UN played a pivotal role in supporting the review and implementation of laws to enable more women to take up leadership positions and rolling out a gender-responsive civic education campaign to create community and civic understanding of women’s political participation and leadership rights.
UN Women will also scale up its work on strengthening the institutional capacity of state and non-state actors to prevent and respond to violence against women.
The new Strategic Note is aligned to Kenya's national priorities including Vision 2030 and the MTP IV (Mid Term Plan IV), in addition to the UN Sustainable Development Cooperation Framework, UN Sustainable Development Goals, the global normative gender frameworks, and UN Women Global Strategic Plan.
