Malabo March 8, 2024. International Women's Day was celebrated in 2024 under the theme "Investing in Women: Accelerating Progress". Achieving gender equality and women's well-being in all aspects of life is more crucial than ever if we are to create prosperous economies and a healthy planet. UNFPA Equatorial Guinea Country Office carried out various activities to mark this day, among which supporting its Youth Advisory Group to organize a sensitization session at the Equatoguinean Cultural Center, targeting adolescents and youth from the Malabo Epir school. The focus was on providing quality information on SRHR, raising awareness on gender equality, and providing quality information on Sexual and Reproductive Health, Family Planning, Gender Based Violence/ PSEA and HIV-AIDS and last but not least, having fun!

This activity was opened by Mrs. Hind. JALAL, EG UNFPA Resident Representative, who provided overall rational of this celebration and the importance to target adolescent and youth as agents of change. She also stressed the importance of education as a key pillar to promote gender equality and to empower women and girls. The event was attended by Mrs. Graciosa Kuma Bindang, as a special guest and a role model for adolescent girls. Mrs Bingang is working in Hydrocarbons industry. She shared her reflections with the adolescent and youth on gender equality and she stressed education as well as a mean to empower women and girls and break the glass ceiling. As an engineer, she encouraged young and teenage girls to enroll in Science, Technology, engineering and mathematics studies as we are lacking female representation in these areas.

Members of the Youth Advisory Group facilitated sessions on unpaid care work and its role in hindering women and girls’s education and participation to the labor market to earn a living and to reach their full potential. The sessions took place in an interactive environment with a high degree of participation from adolescent and youth and all participants received information on the topics addressed and awareness material such as brochures, t-shirts, agendas, pens, etc…