16th – 18th SEPTEMBER, 2024 WOMEN LEADERSHIP CONFERENCE

The conference was hold at skills vocational training center for three days, over 100 people attendant the event. Women having the highest number at the conference which was at 90% thought the target was 80% of the total number and that of the men was only 10%.

Women leadership conference objectives:                      

• To build on last year support women inclusion across community and local authority on leadership levels workshop.
• To bring women together from different levels of experiences to discuss issues affecting women in Nuba Mountains.
• To offer a platform for women to discuss and build their self-awareness and self-confidence.
• To avail an opportunity for women to speak out and share their concerns.
• To create women forum that allow them to share their ideas and initiatives.
• To support women efforts in playing their role towards positive social change.
• To bring women together in unity to build a strong women solidarity and unify their strategies and activities that promote women rights and dignity in the society.

Facilitator said: If women are given chance to express themselves, that freedom is very important because it help them explore, gain experience, share initiatives, this can significantly help them to have positive contribution wherever they found themselves. As women come together, they will interact among

themselves, know their rights.

Topics discussed

• Women self-awareness
• Violation of women rights and dignity by customary laws and societal norms and the role of new Sudan civic laws.
• Women Unity and acceptance of their leadership.
• Participation of women at all levels of leadership and decision making based on 30% as positive discrimination.
• Poverty and women economic empowerment.
• Early marriage and pregnancy of girls.

CONFERENCE RECOMMENDATIONS

1. Women Protocols laws to be enacted.
2. Reactivating the issues of female students’ special courts.
3. NGOs to support intensive and massive community awareness initiatives
4. Supporting girl child education through girls’ scholarships.
5. Ownership and inheritance of women for wealth, materials and land must be recognized and protected by all the laws.
6. Issues of force or choosing a husband must be court cases. Girls must be given freedom of choice like any other human rights.
7. There is need for reviewing the women’s history. We must form a body that is responsible of women’s history.
8. There must be clear criteria for women appointment in leadership positions.
9. Each INGO operating in the Nuba mountains must support Arabic language women in their recruitment and not focusing on those of English language only, to strengthen and lift women in the Nuba Mountains.
10. There must be equal participation of both the wife and husband in parenting of the children.
11. There is need to simplify the ambiguous in the constitution to break down into understandable units.
12. Women must cooperate and be supportive to their leaders.
13. Women must be humble, Value one another, have respect to one another, Love each other and reduced negative competition
14. There must be clear well-known channels and mechanisms for women complains and suggestions handling to correct one another and leaders should always accept the corrections.
15. Form annual women forum to share the knowledge, share our ideas and create unity and work together.
16. Forming handcrafts, vegetables, poultry and husbandry associations for the women.
17. Training of women associations on exploration and utilization of local economic resources, because Women lack skills to deal with our local resources.
18. NGOs to support women initiatives and projects initiated with local resources.
19. government and NGOs to support and encourage growing of cash crops such as dry okra, hibiscus, housing and fencing grass, cotton and harvest of green grass and keep them as fodder for animals feeding during dry season to reduce death of the animals due to hunger.
20. Educating a woman on business management, financial literacy and marketing skills.
21. Opening of commercial agricultural schemes for supporting women business.
22. The secretariat of finance and economic planning to have strategic plans of investment to support women businesses and avail some loans to support women microbusinesses.
23. Teachers are the key plays to girls’ pregnancy. Such teacher must be stopped and prevented from teaching profession.
24. Having early marriage and pregnancy risks and disadvantages awareness to all stakeholders in the communities (community leaders, PTA, SOE, youth, women, religious leaders etc.)
25. Specify marriage age and reduction of dowries by the community leaders.
26. Allowing girls to continue their education after pregnancy and marriage.
27. Set a by-law which is enacted in the traditional law in the communities to criminalized and prevent early marriage.
28. Initiate conferences that discuss issues affecting girls or women, trainings or workshops to capacity build youth, students and women in our societies.
29. SOE to employ female and male students’ mentors to support and guide students in the schools to make sure that they are able to make positive life choices.
30. There must be farther serious discussion on the use of protective or family planning measures to reduce early pregnancy, which is avoided by communities in the Nuba Mountains.
31. Support and enco
32. urage the students by the provision of school and learning materials based on their basic needs.
33. Engage and encourage the students in various curricular activities in schools to discover early leadership skills.
34. Acting governor to call for a joint meeting of education partners and secretariats to discuss and come up with resolutions towards girls’ pregnancies and dropped outs.
35. SNM to support a workshop for us women at leadership positions to discuss our leadership issues.
36. Support the pre-unit (kindergarten) schools by supporting a girl when she is still at very young age. Girls are sent to school when they are big, when they already know about love and at secondary school level, they think of getting married.

CONFERENCES IMMEDIATE IMPACT AND FEEDBACK

One of the participants said that: “this has been a wonderful conference please next time please give a proposal that take more than these days and should be extended to other areas or counties”.

Fadila “I approach you (facilitator) (appreciation in tears) thank you for considering me and inviting me to attend this conference because nobody considers my contribution”.

A catholic nun sister Anita A catholic Comboni sister from Mother of mercy hospital “I appreciate you and request for the same conference to be conducted for women groups I am supporting in Kumbor Payam at the hospital because this a powerful conference with a great topic shared”

The daily increased of the participants proves the impact of this conference.

Many participants from both men and women approached after the conference to appreciate and thank SNM and facilitator for organizing this conference.

All women were general happy to have got opportunity to share their ideas and challenges in leadership.