By Bida Elly David
The national Ministry of Gender Child and Social Welfare said that South Sudanese women lack full representation in the public and private sectors because they have not been granted full rights.
This concern arose yesterday during the announcement of the forthcoming international women’s leadership conference in Juba under the theme (Guwa ta Mara) which means “strength of a woman”.
Speaking during the event, Esther Ikere, the undersecretary of the ministry said that South Sudan has an enabling policy, legal constitutional environment for women advancement and promotion of gender equality.
“Country like South Sudan faces additional challenges and due to these challenges, the gestures and journey to gender equality is complicated. As a Country, we need to look into issues of women representation within different structures of governance,” she said.
She said that despite the enabling policies seen in their existences, women still remain underrated towards participation in each segment.
“Despite all these gapes from the legislative policies and legal environment, we are still challenged in terms of women representation at all levels and within different institutions,” she said.
Furthermore, Ikere underscored that women have also been cheated against full participation in the national security sectors, justice institutions within private sectors and the judiciary.
She added that there will be a comprehensive women conference in Juba where there will be brainstorming session and moment for sharing experiences with women from Africa and at the international level concerning rights of women.
“This should bring us into the discussion on how best can we talk about women representation in governance. We will continue opening gates for women in Africa as the international women will be visiting us soon,” he said.
She said that women have got full mandate to stand for their rights due to the fact that they are much capability to deliver services in both political and economic dimensions in promotion of the Country.