The Alioune Blondin BEYE Peacekeeping School (EMP-ABB) served as the setting for the closing ceremony of the 5-day high-level international seminar on “innovative policies and projects in Africa for the empowerment of women and young people, the fight against gender-based violence and reform of the security sector: new approaches, challenges and perspectives”. It was Friday February 3, 2023, in the EMP-ABB conference room in the presence of the Director General of the School, Colonel Souleymane SANGARE. He had at his side, the Minister of Reconciliation, Peace and National Cohesion, in charge of the Agreement for Peace and National Reconciliation, Colonel-Major Ismaël WAGUE and the Minister for the Advancement of Women, of the child and the Family, Mrs. Wadjidje Founè COULIBABY.
After 5 days of training, discussion and sharing of experience, Mrs. SIDIBE Adja Ténindjè SAMAKE, General Coordinator of the RECAFEVEC project, said that she had identified 54 good practices and innovative initiatives in Africa. They are among others: the school for husbands, the school for my age, agri-food processing, the solidarity and assistance group at the BVG, etc.
The Director of the Peacekeeping School Alioune Blondin BEYE, at the start of his speech, expressed his gratitude to the distinguished guests of the day. He thanked the former ministers of the sub-region for having postponed important activities in their agenda in order to give pride of place to this ceremony, certainly sober but how important. For him, the scope and richness of the discussions made it possible to exhaust all the scheduled themes and to make strong proposals which will be recorded in a document to be shared with all those who have a parcel of power allowing to advance the cause of young people, girls and women. The Director of the school has certified that this seminar has achieved all the academic objectives assigned. The inventory of national and regional policies on the empowerment of women and young people and the fight against GBV was done brilliantly. Good practices in this area have been identified. Finally, realistic recommendations that can be implemented have been formulated, said the Director of the School.
For her part, the Minister for the Promotion of Women, Children and the Family, Ms. Wadjidje Founè COULIBALY, testified that this activity is perfectly in line with both the spirit of the global goals initiative of the millennium which offer a vision of development which maintains that it is by involving all women and men that we will advance the other development objectives. She reaffirmed the commitment of her department to follow up on the results of this seminar, in particular the implementation of the recommendations. I would spare no effort so that it is executed with the sustained collaboration between my department and the coordination team of the RECAFEVEC project hammered the Minister.
A total of 68 women and 55 men from Mali, Senegal, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Kenya, Guinea Conakry, Benin, Sweden and Norway took part in this 5-day seminar. At the end of the closing ceremony, several participants received certificates of participation and gifts offered by the Director of the Alioune Blondin BEYE Peacekeeping School, Colonel Souleymane SANGARE.
At the end of this seminar, a capitalization document including the recommendations of the seminar will be prepared by the team of capitalization and production of final documents of the RECAFEVEC project. After consolidation and printing, this document of compilation of good practices will be widely shared with national and international partners.
Source: MALIAN ARMED FORCES