Three of the universities in eastern Ethiopia, Haramaya, Dire Dawa and Jigjiga, signed memorandum of understanding to establish a framework of co-operation to gender equality.The MOU was signed on Oct. 25, 2018 in a ceremony held at Haramaya University’s Resource Center.
In the workshop participants and delegates invited from Federal Ministry of Women, Children and Youth; Ministry of Education; Jimma, Meda Welabu, Semera, Dire Dawa, and Jigjiga universities; and Harari Region; Dire Dawa City Administration; and Haramaya District Women and Children Office heads, as well as Haramaya University staff and other stakeholders participated.
Mrs. Mulu Birhanu said,“The purpose of the workshop and agreement is to maintain a sustainable and efficient co-operation among these three universities, and the agreement helps us to guide what, why, where, and how to work towards gender equality, so it is a roadmap on how to work on Gender Equality in the Eastern Ethiopian Universities, by the financial support gained from the Netherland government.”
During the opening ceremony Professor JeylanWoliyie, Vice-president for Students and Administration Affairs, said that, “Women are systematically marginalized through various cultural, attitudinal, and social psychological processes. Cultural based social stereotypes about women perceive them as weak, irrational, dependent, emotional, shortsighted, and incompetent; and these are negative energies toward women, which we have to fight in order to insure gender empowerment.”
There was a captivating discussion about gender equality among the participants.The participants said that recent times show that women, particularly, are getting recognition and ‘we should prove how women are competent and capable like men,and such progress toward gender equality should be disseminated everywhere in the country’
