8March 2011
TODAY, the 8th of March is the 100th anniversary of International Women’s Day - a day set aside globally to celebrate the progress made towards achieving equality for women. It is an opportunity for the world to reflect on the achievements of the past, evaluate where we currently are on women’s issues, and prepare to meet future challenges as we continue to strengthen our efforts to improve on the status of women.
Zonta International is worldwide organisation of business executves and professionals working together to advance the status of women through service and advocacy. Any executive in business or in a profession, irrespective of his/her religious affiliation or gender can belong to Zonta, so long as he/she believes in Zonta’s mission statement and objects which are:
To improve the legal, political, economic, educational, health and professional status of women at the global and local level through service and advocacy.
To work for the advancement of understanding, goodwill and peace through a world fellowship of executives in business and other professions.
To promote justice and universal respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms.
To be united internationally to foster high ethnical standard, to implement service programmes, and to provide mutual support and fellowship for members, who serve their communities, their nations and the world.
With some 33,000 members in the 65 countries, Zonta is working very closely with the United Nations and its various Agencies, to promote and support advancement of women by contributing to the development and implementation of the United Nations’ Committees’ work.
It is also disseminating information based on Zonta’s observer status with the United Nations in Geneva, New York, Paris and Vienna. Bendes, it utilises briefings, meetings and conferences such as the Commission on the Status of Women to engage more effectively in women’s rights globally, and support the United Nations’ efforts in areas such as the United Nations Convention on the elimination of all forms of discrimination against Women (CEDAW), Millennium Development Goals, and the Beijing Platform for Action.
Zonta is a “leading advocate” on status of women issues through its focus on advocacy which embraces CEDAW Articles 1-16.
Zonta International service programme for this biennium 2010 - 2012 is valued at $1,500,000; $500,000 USD to prevention of Mother-to-Child transmission of HIV and Gender-Based violence in Rwanda, a project in collaboration with UNICEF; $500,000 USD to the elimination of Obstetric Fistula and the reduction of maternal and newborn mortality and morbidity in Liberia, a project in co-operation with UNFPA; $500,000 USD to safe cities for women, project in Guatemala city, guatemala and San Salvador, El Salvador, a project in cooperation with UNIFEM.
In addition, Zonta International strategises to end Violence Against Women (ZISVAW) and will spend $630,000.00 as follows:
$430,000 will be spend on strategy to fight violence against women in Cambodia, Nepal and Uganda in conjunction with UNIFEM.
$200,000 on security and empowerment for women and their families in Haiti (in collaboration with UNIFEM).
Zonta Clubs in the 65 countries have programmes that promote the objects of Zonta. Nigeria has 4 clubs - two each in Lagos and Ibadan, and each of these clubs has over the last 40 years worked to advance the status of women in their various localities. The Zonta Club of Ibadan has training programmes for women to help them improve on their earning capacity. Such programmes include horticulture, vegetable gardening, computer literacy, bead work and tie-die. They are collaborating with another NGO to provide water in selected girls’ schools through ran water harvesting to ensure girls stay in school, rather than at home because of lack of water for their personal hygiene.
Zonta is preparing the next generation of advocates for women through one of its longest running programmes - Z Clubs and Golden Z Clubs which help high school, college and university students develop leadership skills, promote career exploration and encourage members to participate in community, school and international service projects, Jane M.Klausman Women in Business Scholarship Fund ($184,000) and Young Women in Public Affairs Fund ($94,000) will encourage young women in both spheres of endeavour.
The world still has a long way to go to ensure that every country accepts that women’s rights are human rights, and that a better world for women is a better world for all. No doubt, some progress have been made and there are many laws in the statute books advocating equality for all. Implementation is what is needed.
One hundred years ago, brave women stood up and changed the world for us.
Today, Zonta salutes those women, and affirms its determination to carry on the good work of making the world a better place for women.
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