on um in commemoration of um uh the international
women's day um we realize that uh gender diversity um in political leadership is critical for
promoting Equity inclusion and economic benefits not just for women uh but also for
men however we also recognize that the are genda disparities in political par particularly
in Africa um and we also recognize that digital Technologies and tools can assist in solving this
disparity um because they do give urgency to to to the voice um but also to di
fferent actors uh
especially women when it comes to uh increasing their space for political engagements um we know
that the sustainable Development Goal five on gender equal equality specifically talks about
uh the role of Technologies and the potential they do have in increasing women's inclusion uh
participation and engagement in politics because these Technologies do provide a platform for our
voices as women but also all other genders um but mainly for women for you know in politics um
to be
able to have their voices heard um however we've seen quite a number of um uh women in politics
taking advantage of these digital Platforms in um in increasing you know connecting with their
PL with their constituencies uh but also for campaigning and the like nonetheless we've seen
there's been um an an emerging Trend uh whereby there's uh an increase in violence and threats and
abuse through these platforms and mainly this uh period these attacks or these violence and threats
are h
eightened around election periods and uh you know um generally around election periods which
has a negative impact when it comes to women uh engaging in politics um we've all heard about um
the online the the current Trend online and online and un technology facilitated violence against
women in elections or and politics which indeed has become a per a perversive global problem
that is impeding women's women's Equitable and meaningful participation in public life and their
willingness to en
gage in life there's been quite a number of studies um for instance a study in
2021 that was conducted by the interparliamentary uh Union and the Africa parliamentary
Union found out that 42% of women uh women parliamentarians have received death threats rape
threats all threats of beating all abduction and usually these threats are coming through online
so there is a problem and today like we've already um read and we know that this violence that is
technology facilitated is indeed you kno
w impeding the quest the impact can be um to a negative
you know it may the impact is negative and we may see that even now that women are joining
politics this may impede their participation so with this background as part of our commemoration
of this year's uh International women's day which was celebrated um earlier this this month last
week to be precise we are hosting this webinar Inspire inclusion um African women in politics
are pushing back against take facilitated gender based viol
ence our aim is to highlight the
importance of increased political inclusion of women in politics but most most importantly
we hope that this webinar will help us cast a spotlight um on how women in active politics
in various African countries are pushing back against violence and uh violence online but also
um offline and also what negative narratives are existing online and what if any are the current Le
all regul Frameworks that can help in addressing uh this problem with me today um we
have uh we are
joined by um women in politics um we are joined by um actors who are working around addressing these
issues and um also we are working we joined with also um representatives from some of the social
media platform that are working around you know addressing these issues but also the ones that are
you know um where most of these conversations are happening so I'll give a a quick uh introduction
to our panelists uh we have honorable Nea rangera who is a member of parliament from
Tanzania
she has an extensive experience and a track in championing policy and legislative FR uh
reforms um for improved investment uh investment enabling environment in uh several sectors um
including Health um mining Agriculture and ICT uh honorable nma is also a member of um she's
a founding member of the Africa parliamentary Network on internet governance and she's also
the chair of the Parliamentary Network on world B and international IMF international monetary
fund the Tanzania cha
pter she has quite an um an extensive experience you know when it comes
to you know uh talking about uh gender related issues and Technology um also with us is Honorable
Susan dosi who is a member of parliament uh from Malawi she's also a chairperson um for The Med
for media information communication Committee in the Parliamentary in the Malawi Parliament and
also a member of the Africa Parliament um on internet governance um and also she's a member of
the legal Affairs committee and Malawi
Parliament women caucus uh welcome honorable DOI um we have
very much most welcome honorable uh perhaps if you're comfortable you could switch on your videos
so that um maybe when you're speaking so that uh our our our our our viewers or our attendees are
able to see your video if it does allow um also joining us is uh Miss Evelyn uh Doo apologies
if if I mispronounce your name but um iin is a policy Analyst at The teive Advisory she's
also a fellow at the internet law and policy Foundry a
nd uh she has particular interest in
technology uh technology Law data protection and several rights and the intersection of
you know business and technology and law um last but not least is Miss svia mangani
who is the head of safety and safety Poli and safety policy at meta where she's looking
at tackling issues around children's rights safety wellbeing and wellbeing women's safety
and uh societ pre prevention um before before Sylvia's joining um meta she was working as a
Social Developm
ent professional at Tios and she really has a deep interest in the inter section
of Technology uh creativity data for Change and she really she's very passionate at developing
strategies to combat online violence against women um in Africa and lastly we'll be joined by
honorable moas um amus um again apologies if I'm uh if I'm mispronouncing your name who is who
has just recently been appointed deput minister of ICT uh in Namibia but also he's a member of
the National Assembly uh in uh Nami
bia and he has quite extensive uh experience previously um
through his role as a journalist so he has he comes on with media experience so with this
um you can see that we have quite a diverse you know uh representative of of individual in
politics but also actors so starting with you uh honorable Nima and honorable DOI um as women
engaged in political discussions online and offline what has been your experience you know
um while you're at that have you experienced or uh have you seen any g
ender disparity in how
online content related to women in politics um do you have examples where there's been uh you
know this disparity that you can share with and also how does this affect you know conversations
when it comes to you know um women in politics but also your conversations online and how can we
you know navigate such such you know scenarios or instances quite a number of uh questions
but um I'm I'm I'm so sure that you're able to share with us some of your experience so
to y
ou honorable Nea um thank you very much I think I'll need assistance to um put on the
video because I'm not able to do that on my end um I think the host um has disabled that option or maybe I'll continue then when it
comes on it will come on um so to respond to your question um what I can say is yes and
I'll just share very quickly yes um as a member of parliament as a female Member of Parliament
I've experienced um online abuse actually it's almost it's a daily Affair and when we're
talki
ng about online abuse it's not just on the social media platforms where you don't know
the people who are doing the abuse or you don't have the numbers it's from Facebook Twitter
Instagram all the way to the WhatsApp groups where you actually know the people who are who
are um doing their abuse uh you may not know them in person but at least you know their
number because you're in the same WhatsApp groups um it is not an easy it is not an easy
situation to be in but what I found is often ti
mes people tend to hide under the blanket of
saying they're using their freedom of expression oh okay there we are um people tend to use the
blankets that they say that we're using their freedom of expression um to to kind of critique
our work but in actual facts they're not using their freedom of expression to critique our work
they're using their freedom of expression to limit us from using our own freedom of expression so
there's a difference and that difference needs needs to be clearly
defined and the negative
impact that it has you just asked when you're concluding your question is how does it affect
our online conversations basically a lot of women parliamentarians choose not to be online therefore
they're choosing to self-censor they're choosing to self- censor because of this incredible
amount of abuse that is subjected to us people don't focus on the agenda rather they focus on the
gender and it's great that we have Meta Meta here um and such conversations actually
need to happen
with all social media platforms because I believe social media platforms have a responsibility why
why am I saying they have a responsibility number one there is an issue of language barrier if I
report an abuse if it's written in kiswahili the translation that if it's AI or if it's whoever on
the other side is translating they always tend to say that this doesn't violate rules this is not
abuse meanwhile in the context of my language it is abuse so there's an ISS so there is
an issue
there um of their abuse but then second there is also there is also the issue of ensuring
that um such posts are taken down and there is actually a way of putting these people to a
to a to a account or the accounts um put to to to use that's that's number two number three
I think it's very important for social media platforms to find ways in which in which they can
um verify women parliamentarians Pages because we all know that pages that are verified when they
report issues they
escalated faster but it's also protecting the pages because we get a lot of
fake uh fake post made in the in in in in in in by using our names Etc so to conclude um so that I
can let also honorable Susan talk about um also contribute the issue of online abuse on women
in politics is actually diminishing democracy it is actually taking us back in um on efforts of
democracy and it is it is decreasing the number of women and young girls who want to get into
politics and those who are in polit
ics wanting to rerun I think I can end there for now thank you
um thank you so much honorable nma uh I think are very interesting points um and thank you that
you've raised you know your their kind of you know targeted recommendations to some of the platforms
and I'm sure uh Sylvia will be responding to that shortly but uh um moving on to honorable see uh
what are you seeing that is happening online and uh what are the consequences how can we navigate
these you know um tough times that we a
re seeing as honorable NE has mentioned um we are seeing
people connecting women you know uh in politics some of them are avoiding coming on online are
there any other issues that you you've identified from your you know your your your current you know
um practice or your current um you being active in politics thank you uh thank you very much Lillian
and thank you to my chair honorable Nema for um uh making the boring on this issue uh as women uh
we indeed face a lot of online abuse and uh
it's really unfortunate that whatever is happening now
may hinder uh they would want to be uh politicians especially women at the moment Give an example
in Malawi we are working on strategies on how we can make sure that we have a lot of women
in Parliament but because uh of these online abuses most of the women uh will not want to join
politics because they are afraid of putting their life on the public they are afraid to they they
see how as women parliamentarians we are being tortured f
rom one side to the other whenever you
post something on the on the internet about the achievement that you're making people come there
and maybe talk badly because you are a woman it's it's totally different with men whereby when men
maybe post something the comments and everything they are totally different but for us women we
wonder and and uh most of the times you see that those online abuses they come also from our fellow
um female MP female uh uh females um partly maybe uh the the mal
es would also uh do the same but
mostly you would wonder why as women we normally uh comment badly on on on female MPS so um this
V vicious attacks and threats will automatically make women not to join politics and it's really
bad because we really need a lot of women to be to be in politics so on my side I think there's
a lot that we have to do as policy makers as uh law makers so that we should make sure that
we collaborate with the those who owns this social media for instance Facebook w
e have to
collaborate so that they can moderate on some of the uh comments that are are said on on um
uh women uh whenever women MPS post something maybe on on on social media and uh the same
will hinder women to come out maybe to speak out online because they afraid what will be the
comments if I do this who what would be said if I do this so honestly speaking uh online abuse
is really detering women to uh come up come out to to stand as a members of parliament and um as
lawmakers we real
ly need uh to uh talk about these issues we really need to uh put up our fight
against these issues so that maybe we can come up with legal uh Frameworks which uh at the end
of the day whoever perpetrates violence against women on on on online they should face the law
otherwise if we don't do that then we will uh hinder most of the women to join politics because
some will not um they are not ready to to accept to to listen or maybe to accept when someone uh
abuses them on online I think for
now that's what I can comment but it is really something that we
really need to work on in Mala we will be having our elections in 2025 September at the moment a
lot of issues are coming up we the campaign when it holds up in next year I know that uh there
will be a lot of attacks but we really need to do something and that's that something has to be
done now thank you very much let me stop there for now um thank you so much honorable honorable DOI
um I think this is really quite a Waring
picture now that we are seeing um we are seeing many
young young women joining politics and also you know hearing from you that their attacks they're
not just coming from you know other entities but also fellow women and fellow politicians that
is really very um very worrying but I hope that uh we are working towards a solution and
also that first of that is you know this very conversation and and many others that are
happening can give us some sort of you know a starting point in how to ad
dress this um basing
on this uh welcome honorable uh amamos um welcome to this conversation and uh to you sir um I would
like to pose a question to you that you know you could also perhaps give us your experience on
what is happening from Namibia um you are in a very interesting position you know being uh in
charge of the ministry of ICT in Namibia and uh congratulations on this new appointment and uh
as um as a policy maker as a you at the top you know of the of the tire in you know implem
enting
laws informing freedom of expression access to information and the like um is there anything you
can share with us on um what has your ministry or what is your ministry we currently doing to
increase participation of women in politics or maybe are there any other you know what can
other countries learn from Namibia for the case of Namibia in addressing you know this current
issue that we are talking about you know online participation of women in politics or even any
of the dangers
that honorable nma and uh do have identified over to you honorable uh thank you very
much and uh much appreciation for for the congrat wishes uh indeed in Namibia we have different
policies that uh some of them are politically based genuinely because they are probably driven
by political organizations but we also have policies that are driven by the government itself
in which we want to see especially women heading institutions uh uh of strategic positions so for
example an is also one of t
he countries where we have a 5050 gender balance when it comes to
selecting members to to go to Parliament and that is of course based on uh uh the political
different political parties for instance the party that I represent in Parliament is strictly working
on 5050 representation meaning that if we have 100 people who are to be sent to Parliament whether
by votes another genda have obtained say minimum or little uh number of votes H by virtue of uh
the standards that we have set for ourse
lves uh definitely we have to accommodate another agenda
so meaning that if we have 100 people 50 will be women and 50 will be men so the priority this was
initiated actually to support our fellow women uh to to obtain positions of leadership because in
the past there was this Gap not only online but now we we are talking about generality there was
this gap of uh men more men obtaining positions of authority and our fellow women left out maybe
a a little percentage that represented other wo
men in positions of authority but at the moment uh
we we we we are over 40% when it comes to the representation in Parliament because of course
we are combined different political parties but now coming back also to the ministry that I'm
leading because the question was more directed to to that I would say I'm one of the fortunate
men uh being a deputy Minister and the minister is a female and she's not only a female but
a very very young female in fact the youngest female minister in Afric
a as per the data that
we are currently having so and I don't see the difference between being led by a woman or a man
in fact I think and I have observed that we have quite a number of women who have been doing quite
well an example of honorable name of and honorable doy and yourself H the job and the work that you
have portrayed definitely and precisely indicate to us that uh there are instances and and and
largely so that women can do much better and can provide the type of leadership th
at we definitely
want now in terms of policy formulation uh I think most African countries have still to come up with
policies that have content a specific content to protect gender based violence especially online
because we have policies that are directing uh the use of internet forance or Internet governance
for instance or data protection or maybe cyber security policies but these are not specifically
targeting a specific gender in many cases they are just there to protect perhaps the s
ecurity of
everyone on an equal basis but I would have loved to see policies that have uh Provisions targeting
the protection of women so that they are free when they use internet because internet supposed
to be open and accessible to all the people in respective of the agenda but then when we do
not identify that as a gap that need to be filled to come up with provisions in our ICT policy or
online policies that give uh confidence to our women to use internet without fear uh then I think
we have something that that is not fulfilled and that need to be fulfilled uh of course uh we
it is true um maybe by Nature I would say uh our women experience a of targeted um uh violence
online based on sometimes just the way a person is wearing and and and it doesn't need to be bad or
to be good because at the end of the day a person has a choice and to make a choice as a right
vested in that individual to decide what to wear today because perhaps of the environment or a
condition where
the person is is going to but but then you find uh that people would make negative
comments online look at how she's dressing look at how she's walking and look look at the makeups
these type of things are really common uh in our societies and they need to be discouraged
especially when we engage at different platforms these are the messages that we have to send out
so that we can make the environment of the use of Internet condusive to everybody and especially our
girls and women so uh in
natur that is what I have observed and um I also want to to to comment a bit
to say of course when you are in leadership and especially women maybe I want to say maybe people
were not used to these environments of our women are heading positions of uh strategic standing
so they they would probably receive more comments some them even just feel why a women there and not
a men and you question yourself why a but not a women because when it comes to uh Capac capacities
and um capabilities inst
ances and and have shown us that we we have many women who are more
capable than men for instance and I'm a men and I'm comfortable to say this because I don't want
to be defensive but I also have to point out the reality at the end of the day but as politicians
and as lawmakers I believe we still have much to do especially on the African continent when it
comes to the protection of women on the internet and that's why you find that in most African
countries uh the percentage of women who g
o online compared to men is likely to be lower in
Namibia for instance we the data is showing us that only slightly about 40% uh of women that have
access or that access the internet not necessarily because they cannot afford cell cellular phones
for instance or devices to access the network but in many cases in fear of being abused online and
uh these are the anomalies that we have to address in lawmaking and also in advocating the right of
women on the internet to be protected for now I y
es sorry thank you honorable and um I'm glad
to we are glad to hear the namibian experience I think uh the 50 50% representation of you know
women in uh in Parliament is something that we can U other other African countries can emulate from
but also what I picked is the emphasis of the need to um get uh formulate policies that are really
targeting this particular issue the you know the te the te facilitated violence uh gender based
violence online um also I think you threw in some figures h
ere around uh 40% of you know women in
Namibia having access to the internet and uh this is something you know that needs to be looked into
but also I think other African countries may have even U wor experiences so uh we are really happy
to see that Namibia is leading this having um the youngest uh African you know uh a member rather
Minister who is uh you know uh representing who is a female is also something we can look forward
to but again I think you raised important issues that um we
can always learn from as you know
Africans and also other other countries so um thank you so much for those points and um I'll
move on to uh ad Lambo even um we've heard about you know these cases from um from honorable neas
and honorable DOI uh you know sharing some of the experiences you know um what is happening for
instance in Tanzania in um in Malawi also heard from U the minister you know happening in Namibia
I'm sure the case may be the same in Nigeria or it may be different so um we
want to hear from
you you know uh from your perspective you know in the case of Nigeria are there any existing
legal measures that are in place to address uh violence against women um if they are there are
they is there you know are they doing what they're supposed to be doing these you know measures
you know um is there something we can learn from Nigeria especially you know being one of the
most active countries you know on the internet um is there anything that we can learn you know fro
m
from you know the political landscape from Nigeria and also the online space um over to you Evelyn to
share your Insight on this thank you so much um I mean I'm always excited to share experiences and
struggles of women when it because I'm speaking as a woman right so nobody has the first firstand
experience except me right so I mean um the cases are not so different from Nigeria and I dare say
they might even be worse off so I'll explain right I think um or I from um data you see that Ni
geria
has one of the lowest representations in Africa with respect to women being in Parliament or
holding po IAL positions and um I would say this for a lack um for this is for a number of reasons
right um stereotypes um you know when one of the honorables said that um you know you find that
even sometimes when um Min ministers or female ministers go online to say this is our achievement
you also you find that it's not just men bashing them it's also the women I say this is because
you kn
ow the stereotype against women um holding political positions I you know politics being
a men's game and you know it's for the men it's not just a stereotype that is held by men it's
a stereotype that is held um within the society generally right so both we men and women believe
that women shouldn't be in politics so for women in politics or who do make it to the men's room so
to speak right they are being seen as the odd ones out and you know the people believe that oh you
shouldn't be th
ere and then it's now also you know it's the issue is not probably exacerbated when
you know there's probably a mistake or there's something that happens in that office you know
and you know if men would get maybe 10% bashing the women will get maybe 200 200% bashing for that
same thing right it just shows that what you the problem you have is not a problem with probably
the wrong that was occurred or the issue that has occurred what you do have a problem is with women
right and this happen
s um a lot right um but with regards to you know having laws having um legal
conation I would say there are quite a number um but what we see is that what the question
really is are these laws being implemented um I'll start with the Cyber Crimes Act right so the
Cyber Crimes Act um has Provisions that you know sort of um protect women from you know online
bullying their news being shared online um and that provision has been there for quite a while I
mean for a really long time however the
first time it really received um definition or interpretation
from the courts was about maybe four years ago or five years ago right where the court I think find
and imprisoned um a particular man for sharing a woman's new online rights and ever since that
period we've seen a reduced I mean reduced um reduced Avenue for these things to happen right
and because you see less because of that um one um interpretation of the law one implementation of
what the law says right there's been a signi
ficant drop in women coming to say oh this was done to me
and blah blah blah not that there are not threats to do it but it's harder to do it now because
people are scared of punishment right so there's now the law being implemented but that I think
that's been like the only one or the major one we've had but before then trust me every other
time was oh This Woman's new was posted online this person is being harassed and things like
that there are a couple of other laws right but you see is
sues around so for example the VAP act
um violence against um persons um um persons act it really talks about um it makes extra Provisions
for women um expanding the um definitions of rape and things like that however you see that it's
not been domesticated in a lot of states which brings us back to ground zero right because a
lot of states do not recognize this law take it as your law rights it's not been um adopted by a
lot of States um you also see the child Rights Act where um you know
that talks about um um children
girl children um getting married at what age they supposed to get married um sort of setting the
boundaries at 18 or adulthood right and you know this is sort of frowned upon in some Northern
regions which allow children to get married for I mean from as as 13 12 very funny ages right
and things protect against things around female genital mutilation but again this law is not being
adopted in a lot of in a in a lot of states right so the issue just keeps goin
g on and on the
Electoral act you know talks about protecting not not protecting generally sort of assisting
women during elections to vote however this is not really being practiced right I've not seen
anywhere where women are being assisted to vote or being Tau and I think the makers of this law would
put that kind of um provision there because um you want to think around the level of dig um digital
literacy for women right however this is not being done I mean Provisions around you know
um sort
of um protecting women during election proed um proceedings um you know just enforcing like um
um The Honorable from Namibia talked about gender parity laws right we have nothing of that sort
I know because the skin have been so imbalanced against women especially with regards to their
the role they play in politics it's important to sort of practice positive discrimination um
by implementing gender parity laws to say oh I mean this elections or going forward we're
going to have th
is percentage of women um in um in parliamentary positions or in the house or
things like that it sort of helps and encourages women you know there's a quot being given to
women and women have to occupy our rights and you know it sort of brings an awareness to the
minds of women and people generate that women should actually play a role in politics women have
a right to play have a role to play rights and a very important one as that because they're part
of the population right so I think a
ll of these things right I mean there are a couple of laws but
the real question is have they been implemented are they been adopted are they being you know
is there really awareness about these laws so I think I'll just wrap up there right but I think
that there's a lot um there's a lot that Nigeria still needs to do with regards to um policy and
support for women um thank you Evelyn uh quite you know interesting examples from Nigeria I think
uh many not so many countries have for instance
targeted uh laws especially on say children
rights um maybe there are some the Cyber crimes or cyber laws or me a little bit you know on a
on say also women you know women safety online and happy to hear those you know examples from
Nigeria but also um the the minister honorable modu I think also mentioned you know the Gap in
the policy legislation so not just in Nigeria when it comes to implementation you know even when if
a polic is is present implementation at times is uh something else
to think about so thank you for
sharing those experiences from uh from Nigeria and uh I would also um before I call on our next uh
speaker syvia hi um I would like to encourage uh our participants to use the Q&A session uh rather
section to type in any questions you may have for our our speakers uh so that we are able to do
a live you know Q&A session from there as we go on all will be able to address that just after
you know Sylvia comes on board so thank you very much Sylvia a lot has be
en mentioned I think meta
always comes you know when we talk about online you know when you talk about anything to do with
internet participation meta holds that flag you've had you know several you know uh scenarios and
cases um meta being you know looked at you know as one of you know um those platforms that is widely
you know used you know the Facebooks the whatsapps and all these other you know the instance um
there's been quite you know a push back you know um in some cases around how
the different you know
platforms that meta is uh meta operates you know how they are handling certain abuses but we would
like to share to hear it from to hear from you what efforts have been put or what efforts have
been put uh in place to address these concerns especially for women in Africa you know African
women but also um have there been any uh content moderation practices that have been you know put
in place to increase participation by women you know by women in politics but overall
you know
overall you know not just limiting to in politics but overall you know increasing participation for
women um in Africa would be nice to hear some of those practices and perhaps you know share there
could be something that is cooking that has not yet come out so the floor is uh is to you Sylvia
well thank you so much uh lilan and you know for your team for extending us this invite and also
for the honorable you know members of parliament and government offical who are sharing their
experiences I know it's not easy to come and share experiences especially when you've been the
victim of harm so I I really acknowledge that and thank you for availing yourselves to share what
is not working and also what is working so it's really um great to hear the examples coming
off from Namibia in terms of what they're doing to achieve more gender parity and also the
examples coming in from Nigeria in terms of the work that is ongoing in the legislative front to
offer more protectio
ns for women which is very important uh when we want to attain number one
more um participation of women online at meta we do believe that you know women have a right to
participate you know in online Pro in the online environment they have a right for to find the
economic um opportunities social opportunities and even political opportunities and we do
recognize the place that our platforms play in um enhancing uh women's participation online
but as has been shared by my colleagues here we
also recognize that as more women participate
they also tend to be at the center of abuses and what we are constantly seeing is the attacks and
harassments that were previously only happening on offline environments are now coming on online
environments and um as you mentioned we are a big platform we serve over 3 billion users so when
B actors are coming they also take advantage of being able to scale their attacks and that's
something that we are seeing and we are actively working on um a
ddressing the issue um and so at
a high level when it comes to our approach to women's safety number one safety is a priority for
us and especially the safety of vulnerable groups that are using our platforms and we do understand
that women are disproportionately uh impacted when it comes to online violence um against women and
especially if you are a woman who is vying for a political position as my colleagues have shared
here and so we have different efforts that we put in place um first
and foremost is working
in collaboration with Partners to ensure that we understand these Trends we have experts within
the organization um who are working on this issues but that is not enough we are not the experts in
everything so it's important for us to also engage externally with experts on human rights experts
on women in politics is ose um experts on also political participation so how how do we ensure
that you know as much as we are safeguarding the experiences but we are also expa
nding the
opportunities for women to participate uh politically on our platforms and this Partnerships
and collaborations are very important to us at a global level we have what we call a women's safety
Advisory Board um with representation from Africa so policy is one of our uh uh advisory me members
within the women uh Advisory Group um and it's important for us to do this in that we get to
hear from our partners on what is happened the experiences of women in Africa and they share this
with us so as we're developing our policies tools and resources we also take into account those
experiences um we currently work with over 850 safety Partners across different safety issues
and um including women's safety issues and I know we've engaged with some of you on some of
this and especially during election periods we do hold specific engagements that are focused on
women um um and especially women in politics or women public figures because we do understand when
it comes to these
sorts of attacks they don't only affect women in politics but anyone who's pretty
much being loud about women participating online so You' see your journalists your activists also
being at the center of attacks and what we do is offer programmatic effort where we do trainings
um on how to stay safe on our platforms trainings around our policies to give a better understanding
on how our policies can off more more protections than exactly what you can do uh when you are faced
with um online a
ttacks on our platforms we also uh do we're also working on improving our detection
I had uh honorable nma sharing her experiences on you know languages and and we do acknowledge that
that is issue and we have reviewers who are from the continent and they look into this uh into this
the different reports that are sent our way but we also understand that that is not enough in terms
of addressing the issue so it's important for us to also work collaboratively with Partners
who better understa
nd these issues when we're talking about the issues that honorable nma was
Shing sharing around hate speech around bullying and harassment it tends to be very contextual
in nature so it's not just about understanding the language or speaking the language it's about
understanding the context in which that was shared and um self-reporting helps with that and also
the information that we get from our partners so it's very important for us to have those sort of
Partnerships that also help us un
derstand these Trends and improve on our detection tools uh for
this um in terms uh then also we have tools that enable you to report content enable you to deal
with this harmful content on our platforms and so anytime you come across harmful content or even a
harmful contact you can report this to us um and we U for uh specifically for political leaders
we have what we call Facebook protect that um also offers more protections for public figures so
and especially during elections it's a vo
luntary enrollment process that is available on our
websites and when you are enrolled into Facebook protect you will have more security features
um that are extended into your account um to ensure and we will also be working proactively
to prevent you know some of these impersonation um attacks that come and some of the you know
other attacks that are uh that are targeted against um the public figures um and also finally
are the resources so it's very important to also have Health Resource
s where you can learn more
about being safe online and we've worked with Partners to develop guides that walk you through
the different safety tools that we have and also expert driven information on you know how do
you ensure that as you are growing your audience online you also um staying safe so this is at
a high level uh what we are doing to uh ensure that women and especially women in politics have
a safer experience on our platform I don't if you want me to tackle the content moderati
on question
now or I can uh yes just before you can tackle it but I think there was something um that honorable
Nea mentioned on the issue of um verifying you know uh Parliament you know parliamentarian Pages
or you know people in politics you know especially women in politics the ease you know of having
that blue tick on the platforms because then there I think when content when there's some sort
of misuse or abuse or harm then there's a way that Can it can be you know either escalated to
have
this abuse down maybe uh I may have missed it but uh is there is there such a feature uh with
a with the meta platforms yes so you can verify your account and you don't just have to be a
politician to do this um and so verification works for individuals who have not charity meaning
that they tend to be public figures who are well known in the society and the reason for this is
because we see a lot of impersonation atempts for people who tend to have that celebrity um kind
of nature as
sociated with them so this would be individuals who are in uh media so there a lot of
media written on them and so uh we do offer that service and anyone can apply for it if you meet
the criteria there's a criteria that has been put in place to ensure that you know we're offering
it to the right people um and so it does help with impersonation but it doesn't necessarily help with
all the abuse types you know um and so and that's why we uh insist on reporting any type of content
I think also
enrolling on Facebook protect also offers you extra security or safety protections
for your account so in addition if you are not able to get the verification then you can also
look at the uh Facebook protect but we also have other mechanisms um to ensure that you're having
a safer experience on our platform um sorry can I just quickly come in here yes the reason why I
I said this I understand the entire process and that the verification there's a process for
people to apply I understand a
ll of that but we're talking about women parliamentarians and
I can tell you for a fact I know several women MPS women parliamentarians who are using their
accounts for work um both within Tanzania and across Africa because we do this work through
the African parliamentary Network on internet governance and I can tell you for a fact they're
not getting their verification so then it comes down to the question is you mentioned criteria
there are members of parliament there are women members o
f parliament they can prove that they're
members of parliament you can go on the official parliamentary website and you can see that
now on the contrary whenever I meet women members of parliament from Out of Africa let's
say the global North you find an MP has maybe 20 or 30 followers and they are verified and they
actually get shocked as to why you know most of my colleagues are not so I think there is something
this is this is an honest feedback yeah coming from our standpoint so it's it
's not a negative
critique but on the basis of the topic today it is it is an honest feedback that I I believe with
you Sylvia being in the position you're in you can carefully look at this because I can tell you the
representation of women parliamentarians online is extremely low and I don't think that's what
we are all aspiring to so that's just something something to work on thank you yes thank you
so much um honorable nma and I do acknowledge your concerns and you know I'm not trying to
say
that we're perfect and we always get it right and definitely it's from what you're sharing there's
some gaps that we need to address and very happy to have further conversations to see how this can
be done um yeah so happy to take this conversation forward yeah thank you syia thank you honorable
for um that I I think s the content moderation question comes in now because you see there's the
issue of if I fear coming online and you know the online participation you know using through th
ese
platforms may be a little bit you know uh impacted so what what are you doing around this you know
away from the verification um what are what is the practice when it comes to content moderation
um you know targeting increased participation of women and uh women in politics in general yeah on
content moderation this is where our policies are very important and for those who are not familiar
with our policies this is what we commonly refer to as our community standards and they set out
the Rules of Engagement um across Facebook and Instagram uh on WhatsApp we have terms of service
and also a privacy policy that sets out you know what you can share online you know how you should
um uh interact with other people on our platforms and our community standards cover a range of
issues but particularly for this conversation I think what is important is our policies around
bullying and harassment and our policies around hate speech because this is a abuse type um that
tends to be
um or focused when we are looking at women in politics and our policies are only as
good as how we enforce on them so we can have a set of policies and you know being an African
and coming from an African country where we have great laws but a lot of the times they're sheld
we don't see how they are applied it's the same for us we have to ensure that whatever policies
we put in place can actually be enforced and the enforcement practices would what would you know
really matter in um in this
aspect when it comes to our enforcement we number one have to have
a mechanism in where we are able to identify the violating content or violations against
our community standards and the one way of um identifying these violations is the report so
anytime someone reports content then we know um there's a violation of our community standards
and so what will happen is when you re when you report content um it will be reviewed by our human
reviews our human reviewers or a team of reviewers u
m against our community standards and if it's
in violation of our community standard it will be taken down um this also an appeal process
because sometimes even in the review process we might not get it right and especially when
it comes to very contextual issues for instance bullying and harassment and hate speech there
is an appeal process where you can appeal a decision that has been made um with reference to
content that you reported and then we also have an oversight board which is an
independent body
that also takes in cases that maybe we um ruled in a way that um is not deemed to be the right
way according to the person who who reported so you can also report this to our oversight board
we also when when it comes to those complex cases we also uh report them ourselves to the overside
board just to help us understand the situation better and come up with better uh policies um
and so the policies are also as good as how they are evolving um because we know these H types
are
evolving uh in 2017 we were not seeing a lot of uh we were we were you know we were just starting to
act on issues around intimate images abuse but as we continue to as more people continue using the
internet these abuse types are also expanding and so what we in we do is expand on our policies to
respond to this for instance in 2021 we expanded our bullying harassment and hate spech policies
to offer more protections for um public figures and especially women in politics because what w
e
were seeing is that they are were at the front lines of receiving targeted harassment Mass
harassment and very sexualized um harassment uh when they were sharing and so we expanded our
protections for public figures to ensure that as much as we want to allow that dialogue to take
place allow the criticism but we are also not exposing them to harmful content and so this
is a continuous process and we also use such opportunities to gather that feedback because we
know everything is not not
everything is working and we are we want to keep on improving so when it
comes to content moderation and and one last thing there's also proactive detection when it comes
to hate speech we use artificial intelligence and machine learning to also identify violating
content um we train our machine learning on you know content that is reported to us helps to train
the machine learning better but also engagements that we have with our partners to understand if
it's a matter of terminology what
terminology should we be aware of should we also train our
machine learning and artificial intelligence in to also take down pieces of content that may
be violating so that is the other way that uh uh that's how we work around content moderation I
wish I had more time because it's uh it's more but that's at a high level what we do thank you
so much syvia I think you've shared of course time we can uh you know even if we had the whole
day um there will still be more to come but it is okay i
f you can share more I'm sure there many
people are eaching to find out really um how meta is addressing this concern or this issue but I
I think uh we are glad that you're able to share some of this um these you know practical ways on
how you handling that issue um I'd requested uh if there any q&as but probably there's nothing um I
would like to pause go back to our our honorable members uh because what I've heard is or what we
are hearing is you know there's this so much you know hatred
or violence going on and it may have a
negative impact on you know um on young women all other women women of all ages joining politics so
like I remember I said I have a bonus question um what message would you give to women who are
considering uh living politics or are being discouraged from engaging in public life because
of this you know this violence that we are seeing that is being manifested online I'll go to uh
honorable DOI if you're still around uh on call and and then I'll give i
t to honorable nma and
then uh to the minister as we see if there are any questions coming up in the chat in the Q&A section
rather DOI thank you very much um from my side I would encourage uh my fellow women not to give up
not to be afraid they have to come we really need a lot of um a lot of women to join politics and we
shouldn't look down on ourselves that we cannot uh we cannot do it so I would do request women a lot
of women to come and join politics this is not a man's um uh job it's
for all of us I I remember
one of the a colleague a male colleague sent me a document which said uh let me read it said avoid
women who are in politics no matter what position she hold majority of female politicians are SLS
they acquire Power by sleeping around you don't want to be dealing with a woman in such a cha a
chaotic environment honestly uh these are some of the things that go around on social media that
goes around on when people read when the women uh fellow girls women read uh
something like this
they wouldn't want to join politics because they to them they we will be called slots we be called
whatever uh we can be called but for me I would say uh we are politicians we manage to to to win
Even in our constituent it's not easy to win in a constituency where there a lot of men you are
competing with men I competed with six men but I won so I would encourage women to grow a thick
skin let's stand up let's let um do it let's be in politics no one should put us down n
o one should
push us down we have to to wake up and and do it so um what I would also maybe mention is that as
Pol uh women politicians we should not we should also work with our fellow colleagues our fellow
male counterparts so that we make sure that this uh online abuse is uh is a thing of the past we
shouldn't uh just say we are women so we can do it on our own we should hold hands with the male
counterparts so that we can fight this uh this online uh abuse and maybe also just to mention
that we as I mentioned that we really need to do a lot uh especially on the digital gender gap we
really need to make sure that uh uh most of the women uh they are digital they have the skills
on digital literacy and they are able to know that uh uh whatever even if I'm I'm I'm I'm called
names on on social media I shouldn't be stressed I shouldn't be uh demotivated that I cannot do
it let's do it to matter I think sometimes we wonder that uh maybe some people don't know how
they can do t
he reporting uh to to you especially when they are abused maybe it's it's good that we
should make sure that we uh you you do a lot of um sensitization on your on your on your platforms
so that you disclose uh some of the ways that people can can um can maybe complain or maybe can
also share their Grieves to you so that maybe you can be able to delete whatever uh bad things are
being written about women in politics otherwise U being a politician for me I've learned a lot
just have to grow a
thick skin you just have to do it and you just have to stand up and say I can
do it otherwise if we just leave this Podium for men then we will not achieve whatever we want to
achieve I'll give an example in my constituents at the moment people will say we want you to to stand
again in 2025 we have seen the good things that you have done for us we had a lot of men in our
constituents as members of parliament but we have not seen what you have done in our constituency
that gives me more uh
power and more energy to do it more so as female MPS we really need to talk to
our women fellow women to encourage them that they shouldn't uh give up but they should rise up and
uh uh join politics thank you very much I think I can stop there thank you honorable dosi I think uh
digital literacy you know platforms such as meta you know addressing you know these things as they
come and being transparent and how they hand that is one of the key takeaways and also to be strong
you know uh we a
re learning from strong women like you and you know and honorable NE so we hope that
we are looking at a positive World um honorable um Minister I'll give you the mic um what can you
what can we you know what would be your your recommendations when it comes to you know to women
who are considering joining you know or living rather living politics because of you know all
this violence that is happening or online do you have any key messages you would give to people
like myself I may want to
join politics but I may fear that offline I'm being already targeted
as a as a the woman uh online to may be worse uh given the cases that we've heard from uh you know
the different speakers uh thank you very much I would like to appreciate the conversation um it's
educative and it's also motivating out right we say no don't quit um you see I believe that apart
from being equality because most you find that most of our constitutions on the continent Africa
would uh uh talk about equality bu
t they will also talk about Equity so Equity I think is where we
have now to concentrate so that we can balance the participation of our being uh between women and
men so at the moment you find that the percentage of the participation of women in politic is is is
lower compared to that of their male counterparts so I would encourage women wherever they find
themselves to participate because it has proven through those that have participated in politics
that they can and in fact they they do
n't just do but they do it even much better than some of
their male counterparts so for instance in Namibia uh we are now advocating on a female president
and our prime minister is already a female our vice president of the country as I'm speaking
is a female know so and they are doing they are doing great and I think everybody can do what they
are doing and uh I want to encourage women not to be to be discouraged by men who are targeting
them online because also men who are targeting women
really uh I have no way better words to
describe them but I think men too deserve and should actually support their their female
counterparts as a man by Nature I believe we have a duty too to protect women in general so it
will just be gentle enough so that we can support women to continuously participate in politic and
in other leadership positions H by giving them all the support and the protection so we shouldn't
abuse them when we see their participation online describing how they sho
uld wear how they should
uh talk online that's that's not our baby our baby is to ensure that there's equal participation
and accessibility to the use of ICT and like I say even our judicial system I believe um they
should have or develop a mechanism where when they are when cases are brought before them involving
gender based violence online so maybe there should be a way of uh adjudicating that would at the
end of the day discourage those who Target women I don't want to say men who Targe
t women because
we have learned that even female counterpart do Target other females who are holding positions
of authority uh whoever is doing it is wrong so let's let's carry each other let's support women
because I know they can do best if the opportunity is Avail to them never quit and I say never quit
let's proceed I have seen now women who were participating on this platform the way they are
narrating the way they they expressing themselves the the amount of knowledge that they posses
s
including yourself the moderator you are doing so great so please join politic if you haven't and
if you have just push you will reach there and and we will support you very inspirational honorable
Minister very inspiration will sure Joy with time but uh in the meantime let's try we are trying to
get around you know that extra push that we are getting from you that we hearing from you you know
and others I'd seen honorable ne's hand uh up but I think we've lost her we have about 9 Minutes
uh
on this but but we started slightly late so we'll give it another 10 minutes but what I hear from
you is um gender Equity you know representation um accessibility and uh participation in ICT and
in politics so these are some of the things that we are taking note of and we hope that you know
as you and our some of our panelists who are in the PO making um space can you know uh further
push that we have at least policies that are you know targeting this particular you know uh issue
but a
lso um we also have you know actors like um meta uh that are addressing you know things that
are happening on the platform that are detering you know um women and More soen in politics
in participating and also we have you know practitioners you know lawyers like IFL on cour
um yeah so we we are moving there slowly but I'm sure in the next 10 years the conversation may
be different the conversation will be how can we have more stronger women you know more stronger
voices about you know uh t
hese issues but um on that uh Sylvia there's a question for you in the
Q&A um what progress has met made in using AI in identifying Hast spech in local hres uh will met
increase the number of moderators in Africa you can answer at this you can point us if there's any
content around this that you know we can further share and go read about but yes maybe you can
um give a response to this if you can yes um so the use of AI has been very impactful in terms of
taking down hate speech um on our
platform that we have more information on this that is available
um on our website and I'm happy to quickly link to the I'm happy to quickly link to the site so
that you can read more on how we are actioning for hate speech you can also read our uh uh
access our transparency report to see um how we are fairing on when it comes to enforcement of
hate speech um on our platform and so it will give you more information um on what is happening uh
to this extent um the question uh the the other q
uestion was on content moderators in Africa so we
we um we are uh working to ensure that we have you know good language representation when it comes
to addressing different um uh uh uh sorry to our content review teams um ensuring that we are um
uh employing people who understand the context not just the languages but also the context in
which these violations are taking place so we continue to work to increase these teams um and
their efficacy and also increase the technology that we are u
sing so as we you know are looking
at AI we're seeing great impact that AI has in resolving some of these concerns because we are
dealing with content at scale and sometimes just having human reviewers is not enough so we're also
looking at technological solutions for this so in addition to seeing what we can do on the human
review side we're also work on our AI to improve on its detection and enforcement of violating
content thank you Sylvia um I think Victor this question has been answere
d you can look more into
the resources I think through the meta Pages um honorable nma I think uh we kept losing you but
your hand is up thank you thank you very much I'm sorry I'm having network issues uh but what
I wanted to also just quickly chip in in terms of um some of the things that we're addressing is
number one for everything that civil society and organizations like cpes are thriving to do I think
it's very important to join efforts in increasing and strengthening the participati
on of women in
politics and by doing that we need to also look at and review the existing laws so taking from
what my brother um honorable modestus mentioned that even in Tanzania we are seeing firsthand the
potential and the impact that women in leadership make with Her Excellency president Dr Samir sasan
being the first female president in Tanzania and only current female president and Head of State
in Africa but we also have a female speaker um Dr Tulia axon and we can see that the great
work
that they have been doing now very quickly I I would just like to to end by proposing the
following things that cessa meta and others may take forward number one is to is to look at
the existing election and political party related laws to see how can the issue of gender-based
violence including online be integrated in those laws because one of the biggest issues that
hinders women participation in politics is gender based violence and just recently in Tanzania
um just last month we
were able to Advocate and successfully include um gbv in elections in the
election law so right now Tanzania is the first country in Africa to have recognized gender-based
violence in election as an electoral offense so this is something that you know others others
can emulate and we'll be more than happy to to to work towards to support then the other issue
with regarding to artificial intelligence the it it is intensifying the Imp of online abuse
on women and currently I'm the co-rapporte
ur of the interparliamentary Union the ipu which is
which brings together National parliaments from 180 countries we're currently working on the
ipu artificial intelligence resolution which once once it's endorsed at the ipu it means that
um 180 National parliaments from 180 countries will work to having of their legislation so I
also welcome all of you um to collaborate with us finally um please engage members of parliament
uh through the African parliamentary Network on internet governanc
e so that we can see how best to
strengthen um the online space and for more women to get into politics and for more women to retain
the political seats we need to be visible so if we are not online it limits our visibility thank you
so much and apologies for dropping um in and out thank you um thank you so much honorable nma I I
think uh yes um these engagements are very useful and helpful and also happy to hear what Tanzania
is doing in regard to addressing gender based violence especiall
y in elections and I'm sure
so many of our countries are going to be soon making trips to to Tanzania to Benchmark you know
that particular you know um law or legal aspect um since we don't have any further um questions or
uh in the Q&A I would like to EVN uh perhaps uh before we go into closing this um do you
have any other recommendations that you could give other actors you know um for
instance uh you know um actors other than the policy makers and the platform that we
have today in how
they can address this issue um thank you so much I think just last words for
me is that um when it comes to women's right it's everybody's concern right um we need to sort
of adopt a multi-stakeholder approach where all actors are being involved in you know putting
together the policies the procedures how we want to go about it what we think are best practices
what has worked in other jurisdiction what is not working sort of discuss it in line with the
um nuances of each region right so it
's not just a copy and paste policy it's not just an adopt
let's adopt What's Happening Here we need to sort of each stakeholder within each region needs to
sit down right and I I think it's it's also not a period to to be laid back right women need to
be more active in also you know pursuing and you know pushing forward these policies and creating
awareness right so I think everybody has a role to play and um we all need to we all need to do
to amplify um voices of women and the Nuance exp
eriences they face in each region uh thank you
so much um before I call um everyone to say one or two words um as our departing remarks I would
like to uh pass on the mic to uh my colleague Juliet nauka to um say a word or two uh about
a more detailed aspect on this uh how speci is working around this issue plus remember when I uh
when we were starting the webinar we I mentioned that um this is you know um this webinar is
part of a series of conversations that we're having around you know u
m um the issue of uh tech
technology uh F uh what is it technology uh gender facilited violence uh quite a number of so many
things but yes Juliet if you could say a word or two about what CA is uh doing around this as
we come to the conclusion of this webinar thank you great thank you for that Lillian and good
day good afternoon to all the participants and panelists it's has been quite an insightful
discussion and it sets the tone for why we do this type types of engagement on a regular
b
asis um we is seeing some familiar names and some new names and that is all part of
suess's long-standing efforts into navigating the terrain that is technology facilitated
gender-based violence otherwise also known as online violence and um how over the years um
especially as us numbers grow especially as uh behaviors of individuals change in response
to Technologies um so these are all uh resp sponsors that we keep track of and behaviors that
we try to understand and navigate but also try
to upscale the communities affected by the um changes
uh best we can so over the years we've done work with some politicians women politicians have done
work with women journalists have done work with a vast spectrum of users who get affected by the
various form of Technology gender based violence um and we'll continue doing that so the Insight
shared here give us a direction in which to take this type of work including current work that we
have going in Kenya Tanzania Uganda and Ethiopia
former shared earlier to together a bit more
insight on how best we can respond to that in the case of journalists we like to understand how
journalists are addressing or reporting on some of these concerns um pertaining to um the dynamic
Space by women politicians are the reporting on them correctly are they reporting them at all and
if they are doing so how are they doing so that is part of a longstanding effort that sesta has
been involved in and will continue to be involved in for as lo
ng as these um Dynamics remain as we
have seen in the discussion there's a constant shift there's a constant movement while meta is
involved in proactive detection users are also involved in proactive changing of their behaviors
as the Technologies evolved so we are trying to keep a finger on the PSE of all these issues
alongside you the community that we work with the community that we call the internet Freedom
Africa community we implore you and invite you to share your thoughts online di
rectly with us
as well on what you have listened or heard this afternoon um if you do share online please use the
internet Freedom Africa hashtag but also follow us um Etsy PESA ug um please be please be on the
lookout for more information and they especially if you are in Kenya Uganda Tanzania or Ethiopia
um please do feel free to drop us an email can drop me an email at Juliet ca. this is also open
to the Pol the honorables in the room we invite you to also be a part of the conversation o
r to
share this information with individuals whom you think might need uh to have a discussion about the
digital Security in online spaces who might want to have a conversation about how to navigate um
digital spaces amidst um some of the challenges that they fac in those spaces we are here to
address that as part of of our digital security Hub efforts um and we'd like to extend that to
everybody in the room um but um know that it's just not limited to this day but is an ongoing
effort so
I'll share my email in the address in the in the chat but please do feel free to drop an
email with any queries that you may have to this discussion and to the practice of digital security
for communities and online spaces I'll hand back to lilan thank you everybody for participating
in this discussion thank you so much Juliet um I think um you've um quite some it well what
we are doing around this but also you know um some of the efforts in increasing or improving
digital security so dear
participants use the way the chat I think um you can reach out to Julie
in case you've not seen the form fill it in and then uh we will see how we can work together in
addressing this uh big that we are talking about um I think we've run out of time but um to um
maybe in in in less than a minute I would like to give it to my panelist to say one or two three
words uh in less than a minute your departing remarks on um improving um women participation
online but also women participation in pol
itics in Africa what are your departing words in
um in less than a minute so I'll start with syvia yes um thanks Lilian um and thank you so
much for this opportunity just come and speak to our efforts when it comes to safeguarding the
experiences of women online particularly women in politics um I look forward to more engagements
like this and especially you know engaging with um honorable n's um African parliamentary in
initiative because I think it's very important for us to have conversa
tions um directly um
with organizations that are working in this space and see how can we share ideas on how
to improve this so I'm open to collaborating I know as meta we as I mentioned before
partnership is very important to us and these collaborations are very important to
us so I'm I'm I'm already in contact with honorable n and I'm looking forward to seeing
what more we can do we're in contact with Ceta if you're working in this area let's talk and
see how we can improve on this we wa
nt to see more women using our platforms for political
participation and other um areas where they can develop um and so whatever we can do to
support um this we're opening to have we're open to having those conversations uh thank you
again um to cesa and all my fellow panelists for the insightful um remarks and conversations I
have learned a lot thank you thank you Sylvia uh iinn if you're still here you departing great
Mar okay thank you so much every can you hear me yes yes please go ahe
ad okay so I just want
to say thank you um to everyone thank you from writing me um I think just last words is to
I'm very excited to keep the um conversations going to drive awareness um to drive um policy
development for to empower and um support and promote women participation in election
and protect them from online violence as well thank you Evelyn uh honorable dosi uh thank you very much um I think in
my concluding remarks let me thank you cesa for coming up with this discussion it ha
s it has
been an eye opener as well as it has been a very good session we have learned uh at least we have
known some of the uh plans that MAA or maybe the the strategies that MAA is putting in place so
that maybe they can make sure that this online abuse is minimized just to my uh fellow women out
there who are listening to us let's face uh this together let's face it head on challenges will be
there we shouldn't just say because we are women we should expect a platform which where will no
t
face any challenges the challenges will be there but we just have to wake up and uh make sure
that we take up the this these positions these political position are there for us and we should
never give up at any point in time we have to be encouraged uh we have as the my chair mentioned
lady speakers if we did not contest if those ladies did not contest not uh um they didn't
have the energy to stand then we couldn't have those ladies in that in those positions so we just
have to wake up
and have the energy to say we can do it and we have to do it uh and uh make sure
that we have we are as women taking over these positions thank you very much thank you honorable
Dy and uh lastly because I see honorable name has dropped off uh honorable Minister as the only
man in this panel what are your departing you know remarks how can we encourage more women
to participate and of course we we always look forward to your support you've already given us a
few words um what are your depart
ing remarks to on this thank you very much in few than in less than
a minute I could say it's a reality that within our communities women are 50% less likely than men
to be online and 30 to 50% less likely to use the internet for economic and political this is not
the picture we want to Contin see our work going forward is to to work towards eliminating whatever
barrier exist in in their ways to realize their dreams in politic and in all forms of economic
empowerment so I would therefore sa
y um if it's policy let's work on them but if it's just uh
cultural uh beliefs or let's also address them so that at the end of the day we support the
participation of women in politic and I thank you very mucha for this opportunity thank you so
much honorable Minister um ladies and gentlemen we've had it all um as we started we we we aim to
cast light on U how women in politics um in active politics from the countries like uh Tanzania
uh Namibia Nigeria um and ma um pushing back against um
we've had what um platforms such
as meta are doing and you know other actors in from civil society and uh we aimed to inspire
inclusion you know not just the other the other agenda into you know running things but we aim to
you know in as part of the international women's day inspiring inclusion we we had we've had
it all and now it is up to us to to listen to pick a leaf and see what we can do in our
respective uh constituencies and communities so with that thank you so much for joining
this webinar and um if you did register we will keep you um we'll keep you in um in we'll
keep in touch with some of the materials that have been shared in the chat and we also be
look out for some of the communications uh that Juliet has shared on how we can continue
um engaging and finding solutions to this uh issue so with that um and from the rest of
the the team I would like to thank you so much for being part of this conversation and look
forward to Future engagements with you all tha
nk you
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