Young Feminists Key to Strong Women’s Movement in Zambia- Ms. Mwaka Mulenga

NGOCC recognizes the importance of fostering a young feminist initiative to strengthen the women’s movement in Zambia, says NGOCC Board Vice-Chairperson Mwaka Mulenga.

Speaking during the Bridging the Gap Conference for Young Women at Mika Chamba Valley Exotic Hotel in Lusaka this morning, Ms. Mulenga said there was a need to ensure that young women and girls had strong platforms to voice out concerns and demand their rights.

“NGOCC recognizes the importance of fostering a young feminist movement to strengthen the women’s movement in Zambia. Consequently, NGOCC commenced a series of intergenerational conferences across Zambia’s Provinces in 2024. These conferences aim to connect you the younger women to the eminent women or older generations within the women’s movement to collaboratively advance women and girls’ empowerment and gender equality,” Ms. Mulenga said.

“The objective is to create spaces for young women to express themselves, highlight issues that concern them and form part of their lived experiences. It’s from these conversations that discussions at this event will cover matters such as the influence of cultural norms and harmful practices, power relations and building confidence. Also critical is the need to harness significant contribution of you the young women to NGOCC and the broader women’s movement.”

The specific objectives of the conference are to create a platform for young women to discuss the current gender issues that affect them, brainstorm on the legal and policy reforms on gender and their relevance to the current gender discourse and how these could inform the young women’s advocacy work and create a space for interaction between the selected eminent women and young women on the importance of women’s empowerment in general among others.

Ms. Mulenga encouraged young women to come up with actions that will support and sustain their activism on the gender discourse in their operational areas and the nation as a whole.