Jun 6, 2020
In 1995, a visionary agenda for the
Parliament of Women and Girls, called the Beijing Declaration and
Platform for Action, was adopted at the fourth World Conference on
Women. The action was adopted by 198 countries, all of whom were
committed to taking strategic, bold action to remove the systemic
barriers that hold women back from equal participation in all areas
of life. 2020 marks 25 years since the Beijing Platform for Action,
and yet today not a single country can claim to have achieved
gender equality. Goal number 5 of the 2030
agenda for sustainable development is to achieve gender equality
and empower all women and girls. Multiple obstacles remain
unchanged, however, in law and in culture, and as a result, women
remain undervalued, they continue to work more, earn less, have
fewer choices, and experience multiple forms of violence at home
and in public spaces. Chidiogo
Akunyili, is working to fulfill the promises of the Beijing
Declaration and goal number five of the UN sustainability goals.
And she is doing so with a focus on Africa, a continent so wealthy
that for over five centuries, other nations have stooped to the
most vile, inhumane, and repungent instruments to plunder its
natural resources and human capital to enrich themselves, a
continent which, while bearing the psychological and physical scars
of such long and thorough exploitation, is stubborn and steadfast
in its determination to define itself and wrest back its own power
and destiny. A continent which, by 2050, will have birthed one in
every four people on the globe.