In commemoration of 2021 International women’s Day, Udora Orizu writes that the Federal Government should ensure inclusion of more women in leadership positions, towards attainment of the 35 percent affirmative action
Yearly on March 8, the International Women’s Day is celebrated globally and this year is no different. The annual celebration is marked today, Monday March 8, with the theme, ‘Women in leadership: Achieving an equal future in a COVID-19 world.’
The theme for this year is apt and timely as it shines the spotlight on the barriers women are often faced with numerous challenges from sexism to prejudice, stereotype, bias and discrimination, when it comes to occupying leadership positions.
The programme targets GBVH in four Lesotho garment factories producing jeans for the global market
Levi Strauss & Co, The Children s Place and Kontoor Brands are funding a programme that targets gender-based violence and harassment (GBVH) in four Lesotho jeans factories employing up to 10,000 workers.
The project, which is unique in that it is binding and worker-led, will empower Lesotho unions, human and women s rights groups to effectively address GBVH.
To combat widespread abuse, the programme is providing garment workers with GBVH awareness training, a confidential reporting system, and enforcement processes administered by an entity independent of employer influence.
It comes after Levi Strauss, The Children s Place, and Kontoor Brands launched a comprehensive pilot programme to prevent GBVH in garment factories in Lesotho last summer after an investigation documented a deeply concerning pattern of abuse and harassment at a key supplier s factories in the country.
In Kenya, women bear the brunt as mechanisation wipes out tea sector jobs
Workers pick tea leaves on a Unilever tea plantation in Kericho, Kenya.
(Alamy/Jake Lyell
)
(Alamy/Jake Lyell
)
On a cool Tuesday evening in Kapkugerwet village in Kenya’s Kericho County, Lucy Cheres puts a tea basket on her hunched back and heads out to the small tea farm in front of her house. There, she starts plucking tea leaves for the next day’s sale. It is an art she has perfected after 15 years of working as a casual labourer at a nearby tea plantation owned by the British-Dutch consumer goods conglomerate Unilever. But in 2015, Cheres was among the thousands of workers who lost their jobs after the company introduced tea picking machines.
Monitoring and Evaluation Consultancy in Kenya about Protection and Human Rights, requiring 10+ years of experience, from FIDA Kenya; closing on 19 Feb 2021