In his column published on March 8, International Women's Rights Day, Gilles Yabi, founder and executive director of West Africa Think Tank (WATHI), (www.WATHI.org/) reminds us that the issue of women's rights, equal opportunities and equal rights between girls and boys, between men and women, is raised in much the same terms all over the planet. It warns that everywhere, reversals in public opinion, in the positions of influential political, economic and social actors, in practices and in laws are possible at any time: there is no irreversible progress. There are no final achievements.

Violence against girls and women, inequalities in girls' access to and retention in school, early marriages and pregnancies that often lead to girls' permanent exclusion from education and empowerment opportunities, prohibitions on married women from working outside the home or other restrictions on their freedom of choice of occupation, the selective and opportunistic mobilization of religious texts, customs and traditions to justify discrimination against women, the challenge of women's effective participation in decision-making bodies, are all issues that remain priorities in West African countries and far beyond.

Thirty years after the 1995 World Conference on Women in Beijing, China, and the adoption of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action by 189 countries, West African countries have made sometimes spectacular progress in reducing discrimination against girls and women and gender inequalities. However, the progress made is still insufficient and fragile.

The key messages of the networks of organizations defending and promoting women's rights, to which WATHI fully subscribes, are clear: we must maintain mobilization, work with progressive men and accept debate with those, both women and men, who openly or not defend the inequality of rights between women and men in our societies.

Education, culture, research, awareness-raising and public debate based on facts, analysis and arguments are at the heart of WATHI's mission. This March, we are sharing on all our platforms the dozens of interviews, reference documents and videos of virtual roundtables that WATHI has conducted over the past years on different aspects of gender inequality, women's rights and the well-being of girls and women.

Read the full column by Gilles Yabi in French: Link to the column

Read the full column by Gilles Yabi in English:Link to the column

Listen to the full column by Gilles Yabi in French: Link to the audio (https://apo-opa.co/3XXc0pM)

Further Reading:

• Citizen Debates on Women's Participation in Political, Economic, and Social Life in Senegal
• WATHI’s Special Booklet Published on March 8, 2022
• “La parité n’est pas l’égalité…”, Ndioro Ndiaye, ancienne ministre
• Progress, Challenges, and Threats to Human Rights Protection by African Institutions
• Interview with Soyata Maiga, Special Rapporteur on Women's Rights in Africa (https://apo-opa.co/4ig5fri)
• Tamaro Touré, First Female Labor Inspector and Founder of SOS Children's Villages Senegal
• Interview with Isis Noor Yalagi: In Daily Life in Africa, Women Are the Foundation of Society
• Interview with Dior Fall Sow, Senegal’s First Female Prosecutor
• STEM Education and Gender Equality in West Africa: Challenges and Opportunities (https://apo-opa.co/4bCWK7a)
• Interviews with 20 Senegalese Women – WATHI Recap Video (https://apo-opa.co/4203rM6)