The Gender Award Goes To...

Image Credit: AfricaGenderAward.org

Liberia!

Say what?! Gender Award? What does that mean? Who represented their gender the best?

I needed more information so I went hunting and this is what I found:

Every year the PanAfrican Center for Gender, Peace and Development (PAC) gives an award to a government, private organization or civil society that shows outstanding achievement in "gender mainstreaming", which basically means they promote Women's participation in Africa.

Some of the criteria include;

• Gender specific economic, social and legal measures on HIV/AIDS
• Systematic prohibition of the recruitment of child soldiers
• Systematic prohibition of the abuse of girl children as wives and sex slaves
• Promoting gender parity principle
• Education of women
• Enforcement of the Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa

To name a few.

The first award was given in 2005 to the Presidents of Senegal and South Africa and is awarded every two years. The other winners have been the presidents of Rwanda (2007) and Mozambique(2009).

It is not a very well known award, nor is it one which we find organizations and civil society winning. It does not seem that more people would work towards receiving this award to show it off or print it on their resume. I understand what the award is meant to do, but I wonder sometimes if these kinds of awards will hold our leaders to higher standards if we do not show those who have failed dismally.

Just thinking...