Dr. Paulina Chiwangu stated in her welcoming remarks that “partners are the backbone of the community and their strength also translates into strong and sustainable implementation of urgent projects for women and girls in need.” UN Women has also held a series of consultative sessions with implementing partners and NGO’s to learn from the application of their expertise in a local context. The groups present in the workshop included Directorate for Violence Against Women (DVAW), International Rescue Committee (IRC), Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs (MOLSA), Women’s Empowerment Organization (WEO), Oxfam, and a number of UN Women project staff.

Through these workshops, UN Women continues to fortify collaboration with international, local NGO, and government partners for protection and empowerment of women and girls through its Women, Peace and Security Program (WPS) and the Leadership, Empowerment, Access and Protection (LEAP) program which addresses protection concerns of women through advocacy, awareness, prevention of sexual violence and psychosocial and legal support. LEAP focuses on economic empowerment of women through provision of grants to women for small businesses. This program tackles protection from economic and social angles while WPS ensures that empowered women actively participate in the decision making processes particularly in national reconciliation and being active agents of transformative change.

UN Women looks forward to continuing these workshops with our partners as we forge ahead with supporting empowerment, protection, and equality for women and girls.

For media inquiries, please contact Dr. Bernice B. Rumala at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.