Source: Daily News
National Assembly Speaker, Ms Anne Makinda, has hailed the number of initiatives carried out by the government to promote gender equality in decisions making bodies, saying the country has become a model to Africa and the world.

Addressing African Women’s Day celebration in Dar es Salaam yesterday, Ms Makinda, said the national assembly stands at 21 out of 140 countries in the world for gender equality, saying the country stands at eight in Africa.

“The number of women legislators in constituencies has gone up from 12 in 2000 to 21 legislators now,” said the National Assembly Speaker during the event which also witnessed the launch of a research report on Tanzania Women’s Right Situation 2014.

The research was conducted by the Women in Law and Development in Africa (WiLDAF) Tanzania chapter to establish women situation in socio-economic and political aspects in the country.

Mr Clarence Kipobota, one of researchers in the study, said the study indicated that human trafficking was prevalent in the country with women as major victims, saying it was vital for more efforts to be undertaken to curb the problem. “Tanzania is one of the most affected countries around the world in human trafficking problem,” he observed.

WiLDAF National Coordinator, Dr Judith Odunga, saying one of the goals of WiLDAF was to raise awareness on women’s rights, saying the Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) uses symposiums as platform to implement the goal.

However, she said, women were still facing myriad of challenges including Gender Based Violence (GBV) adding that outdated cultures were also posing a serious challenge for women development.

African Women’s Day was declared by the African Union after the first Pan-African Women’s Conference in Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania, in 1962.

• Tanzania