Johannesburg, November 3, 2020
The Graça Machel Trust will mark its 10th anniversary this year by launching the Expanding Equality (EE) Initiative. The Trust was constituted with a primary goal of amplifying women’s movements, influence governance and promote women’s contributions and leadership in the economic, social and political development of Africa; and advocate for the protection of children’s rights and dignity. The Expanding Equality Initiative goes in-line with the founding objective and work in multiplying faces and amplifying voices of African women and children.
The Expanding Equality Initiative will aim at mobilizing partnerships to catalyze, drive collective action and accelerate the advancement of women’s contributions in the African economy and advocate for the holistic development of African girls. The forum was also created to brings visibility that inspires sustained ambitious actions to promote equality; from 2020 to 2030.
EE is an initiative built in partnership with seven (7) robust Graça Machel Trust Networks. They share our ambition to power a Pan-African agenda for social justice. The Networks also serve to add their actions towards women’s economic advancement and the building of agency among young girls, as women leaders of the future Africa. A four (4) -part Webinar series will be hosted by the Trust to celebrate and showcase the impact journey at national, regional, continental and global levels, providing inspiration and engaging on solutions and thought leadership for the COVID-19 reconstruction agenda.
The 4-part webinar series’ theme will be “From 50 to 1 million: Expanding Equality.” The specific theme leverages off both Mrs. Machel’s March 2020 Forbes cover which profiled 50 of Africa’s most influential & impactful women as well as the EE initiative’s life-course approach to the holistic development of the African girl child.
The specific objectives of the webinar series are to:
- Amplify the Trust’s impact journey and build a Pan African knowledge pool on gendered strategies that have worked to drive policy outcomes for the advancement of women and girls in Africa;
- Foster intergenerational and multi-sectoral engagements and commitments towards addressing structural inequalities exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic;
- Build a foundation for catalytic partnerships towards expanding equality for the Decade of Action towards Agenda 2030.
The webinars will focus on the following themes:
To learn more about the Expanding Equality Initiative, please visit EE.
We are grateful to our Networks, strategic partners, collaborators and donors for their continued support that has driven the agenda of the Trust in putting women and children at the centre of development, and made it possible to reach and celebrate its 10 year anniversary as we look forward to the next 10 to 2030!
For further information, contact:
Sarah Mpata: Communications Officer Sarahm@gracamacheltrust.org
Neo Mofokeng: Programmes Officer Neom@gracamacheltrust.org
The Trust supports and mobilises civil society networks on issues of ending child marriage, ending violence against children, ending female genital mutilation and promoting children’s rights, to carry out advocacy and action across Africa. Special focus is placed on Malawi, Mozambique, Tanzania and Zambia where child marriage continues to be a problem largely driven by poverty, gender inequality, harmful traditional practices, conflict, low levels of literacy, limited opportunities for girls and weak or non-existent protective and preventive legal frameworks.
Education is a fundamental right for all children, which is also a vehicle for social, economic and political transformation in communities, countries and the African continent at large. Recent studies indicate a lack of progress in some of the critical commitments aimed at improving education quality, access, retention and achievement, particularly for girls. In most African countries, girls may face barriers to learning, especially when they reach post-primary levels of education. By implementing multi-dimensional approaches to education which includes core education, personal development, life skills and economic competencies, the Trust partners with funding partners, governments, civil societies and the private sector to improve education access.
The Nutrition and Reproductive, Maternal, New-born, Child and Adolescent Health and Nutrition, (RMNCAH+N) of the Children’s Rights and Development Programme aims at promoting the Global Strategy for women, children and adolescents’ health within the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) agenda. The strategy emphasises on the importance of effective country leadership as a common factor across countries making progress in improving the health of women, children and adolescents.
Through its Early Childhood Development (ECD) plan, The Trust will seek to put into action the new science and evidence Report that was presented by Lancet Series on Good and early development – the right of every child. This will be achieved by mobilising like-minded partners to contribute in the new science and evidence to reach all young children with ECD. The Trust’s goal is to be a catalyst for doing things differently, in particular, to rid fragmentation and lack of coordination across ECD sectors. In response to evidence showing the importance of political will in turning the tide against the current poor access and quality of ECD. Even before conception, starting with a mother’s health and social economic conditions, the early years of a child’s life form a fundamental foundation that determines whether a child will survive and thrive optimally.