EOW of IWD Event

End of Week Report

International Women’s Day Event

Date : 8^th Mar 2023 Location : Virtual and in person

HIV/TB Agency, Information and Service Activity (AIS) organized the International Women’s Day virtual and in person event with the purpose to support for achieving objective for International Women’s Day to all people living with, at risk of and affected by HIV in all sectors especially in health, education and work place via online zoom platform. This event was held with more than (In person-62 and virtual-182) participants including representatives of UNAIDS, USAID and other stakeholders, Leaders of Key Population and members of Self-Help Groups and Key Population networks from States and Regions across Myanmar

The objective of the event is as follow:

This year, 2023, International Women’s Day was celebrated under the theme “DigitALL: Innovation and technology for gender equality,” highlighting gender gaps in STEM education and careers — and calling attention to the online harassment many women face. And, this is also the recognition of the contribution of women and girls around the world who are championing the advancement of transformative technology and digital education. The purpose of the day is to uphold women’s achievements, recognize challenges, and focus greater attention on women’s rights and gender equality. To create an equal digital future, IWD 2023 made four calls: to remove all barriers to access the digital world, educate and train women and girls in STEM, enable women to create tech that meets their needs and eliminate online gender-based violence respectively.

So What:

In the event “International Women’s Day”, Dr Rangaiyan Gurumurthy, Country Director

from UNAIDS (Myanmar), delivered the opening speech. To highlight the opening remarks, women and girls are more likely to be targets of online violence, such as physical threats, sexual harassment, bullying, stalking, sex trolling and exploitation and there is an urgent need to address this online abuse. Nowadays, there are numerous ways to use technology as a force to end gender-based violence and promote gender equality: technology for prevention, technology as a

peer, technology as a safe space, technology as a safeguard, technology as a guide and technology as a response to manage GBV. Moreover, there are many opportunities for technology to improve protection, mitigate risks and respond to GBV. In addition, COVID-19 pandemic and ongoing challenges worsened digital gender inequalities and shifted digital platforms from an amenity to a necessity to access information and wide range of services. Thus, to reach the scale of change needed, the tech industry must be engaged, held to account, and encouraged to

improve accessibility and incorporate violence prevention and response strategies. Furthermore, the society needs to keep girls and women at the center of the development process, invest in

safe technology and keep searching for innovative ways to end gender-based violence, keep learning and improving as tech evolves.

Thingaha Gender Organization joined the event and Programme Manager presented about the history of International Women’s Day. Continuously, gender discrimination issues at all levels and various sectors were explained, which include women right violation such as domestic violence, discrimination in employment setting and various cultures of different countries which violate women’s rights. In continuation with that, the gender awareness video clip was displayed to deliver key messages of gender discrimination. In this event, woman champions joined and shared their own experiences of gender-based violence and ways to cope with that to encourage the peers and colleagues in their surroundings. Young people from Thingaha Gender Organization contributed their effort in International Women’s Day Event by reciting the poem of Mg Saung Kha “Why are we silent?” regarding GBV issues.

MPG also presented about the cases of CFM project collected during 2022 and highlighted the GBV cases and their situations for community awareness of gender-based violence in the surroundings, where 57% of cases were females, 21% were MSM and 22% were males suffering from sexual abuse, bullying, extortion and legal threatening. MPG also asked for community’s effort and legal protection to promote women’s rights in this event.

Then, International Women’s Day Event was successfully closed after delivering grateful remarks

by the chairperson of MPG.

Gender inequalities and gender-based violence have been standing as the prioritized issue all over the world, including Myanmar. Also, MPG has been running to promote gender equality in all parts of project/programs and core activities as well. As the highlighting remarks of International Women’s Day, WHO pointed out that multiple forms of discrimination against women and girls rooted in gender inequality harm their health and well-being, and women and girls in many parts of the world have been facing the risks of unintended pregnancies and sextually transmitted infections. According to UN Women, the underrepresentation of women in STEM education and careers remains a major barrier to their participation in tech design and governance. And the pervasive threat of online gender-based violence—coupled with a lack of legal recourse—too often forces women out of the digital spaces they do occupy. UN states that women’s rights are being “abused, threatened and violated” around the world and gender equality won’t be achieved for 300 years without urgent action.

On 8^th March 2023, MPG celebrated International Women’s Day Event at Zealax Hotel, Yangon, in cooperation with Thingaha Gender Organization. Participants from UN Agencies, INGO/NGO and community network representatives attended the event and participants (staff and beneficiaries) from 12 MPG branch offices of Pyay, Lashio, Monywa, Magway, Sittwe, Kengtung, Dawei, Mawlamyine, Myitkyina, Mandalay, Pathein and Yangon joined via online.