Each issue of Gender and Development focuses on a topic of key interest to all involved in promoting gender equality through development.

For any development to take place, there has to be gender equity.

Gender equality and women’s empowerment remain central tenets for development in the country, the continent and across the world. However, the nagging claws of gender inequality in the continent continue to impede women from contributing to the development agenda and lending their voice as they are precluded from many development-oriented conversations.

There is a standalone goal, which is goal number two, on the empowerment of girls and women and achieving gender equality. With regards to violence against women, the panel addresses it at length and in an inclusive way ... We’re hoping that this goal and set of targets will put an end into violence and discrimination against women, empower women, and achieve gender equality and justice and for the better development of our world.

Gender equality is a prerequisite for making sustainable development a reality. As young people, we have to inform ourselves and passionately advocate and work to address the barriers hindering equality for all

she is bringing vast experience in empowering women through initiation of income generating activities, gender related policy elaboration on issues such as gender-based violence, early childhood development, and sexual, adolescent and reproductive health.

...that gender equality is not just a phenomenon, but a reality that we all have to embrace if we are to achieve international, continental, regional and national sustainable development.

Gender equality is critical for the development and peace of every nation.

Achieving gender equality is more than 50-50 representation; it is also about recognizing and respecting women’s rights as human rights, treating women with dignity, offering them equal opportunities to participate fully in the socioeconomic and political development of their individual countries

The Gender and Equal Opportunities Bill serves as a legislative vehicle to drive the agenda for a more inclusive society. Gender inequality is a major hindrance to our progress, affecting not only democracy but also our socioeconomic growth, which should be the ultimate goal of any democratic system.

Increasingly there is recognition that full gender equity will ensure a stronger economy, a more developed nation, a more peaceful nation. And that is why we must continue to work.

Our country has taken a number of steps to mainstream gender perspectives in poverty-reduction strategies. These have led to the implementation of various income support programmes including development initiatives for rural women

As we continue to advocate and push for gender parity and equality, it's also important that we do that through the lens of Diversity and Unity.

However, gender parity is at the top of the agenda in the United Nations and everybody buys into gender parity in terms of aspiration. But the realities of how you move men out of positions in order to make room for women to get gender parity is a tough discourse and it has to start at the entry point – into parliament, into jobs, into institutions.