International Women’s Day is an annual event celebrated globally on the 08 th March, to
acknowledge and celebrate the significant contribution of all women in the world in every
development.
Under the Theme “Women in Leadership: Achieving an equal future in a COVID-19 World”
the Ministry of Women Community and Social Development is celebrating International
Women’s Day this year with a forum in Savaii.
This will complement the Nation Wide Ending Violence Awareness program led by
MWCSD already underway which focuses on violence against women and girls & the
linkage to Sexual Reproductive Health Rights, violence against children, People living with
Disabilities and all other vulnerable groups
IWD 2021 focusses a significant emphasis on the role of Village Women Committees in
maintaining social stability in the communities.
The objectives for this program are:
To strengthen the role of Women’s Committees in maintaining social stability of
communities in response to Covid 19 impacts
To recognize the main challenges faced by women as barriers to gender equality
and claiming leadership roles – Gender Based Violence and Disabilities.
To raise more awareness on gender based violence affecting women and girls, with
more emphasis on women living with disabilities as being more vulnerable to GBV
during times of crisis.
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The celebration program will include speeches from women community and faith based
organization leaders in the hope to foster discussions about women in leadership, ending
violence against women, and achieving gender equality in a Covid impacted world.
In addition, there will also be performances provided by selected Koimiti a Tina to further
articulate the theme of this year’s International Women’s Day which has been shortened to
‘Choose to Challenge’ or hashtagged – #ChooseToChallenge
The participants will be inclusive of representatives from Women’s committees from all
villages in Savaii, women with disabilities, development partners, MWCSD staff as well as
International Womens Day Program 8 th March 2021
Division for Social Development/ MWCSD Page 2 of 2
the key partners who are involved in the current roll out program such as the Faataua o le
Ola, Ministry of Police, Ministry of Commerce Industry and Labour and Ministry of Justice
and others.
The International Women’s Day commemoration this year is funded by UNWomen and
UNFPA through the Spotlight Initiative program.