International Women's Day celebrated through Microsoft's Teams in Tanzania
In the zeal to make effective use of digital technologies NCA Tanzania organized an online event on 8th March 2021 through Teams with the campaign theme #ChooseToChallenge Faith actors call out gender bias and choose to seek out and celebrate women's achievements to commemorate International Women’s Day.
The event brought together more than 150 people in different parts of Tanzania and Europe on Teams, while 23 participants joined through the Facebook live stream.
The virtual dialogue brought together experts, partners, project beneficiaries – particularly women from all the districts where we implement our programs – faith actors, local structures such as IR VICOBA, Paralegal, interfaith committees, producer groups, agronomists and other civil society organizations, including ACT Alliance members. The aim was to raise awareness on gender equality and rights, also to reflect on different opportunities for women economic empowerment.
The digital meeting enabled participants to celebrate tremendous efforts done by women through our Climate Smart Economic Empowerment program, and women shared their experience on how the micro and next level investment in vegetable and poultry production has changed their lives and enabled many women and girls to lift themselves out of poverty.
Key take away points from the meeting:
- Women and girls need to be mobilised into groups for collective action
- Availability of and access to extension information and services is key to improved agriculture productivity
- Proper linkages with commercial players are necessary for women’s access to agricultural technologies and markets
- Establishment of agricultural loans and products within Inter-religious VICOBA groups is crucial for increased women investment in agriculture