This week on Womanity – Women in Unity, Dr. Amaleya Goneos-Malka talks to the Ambassador of Norway to South Africa, Zimbabwe, Namibia, Botswana, Madagascar and Lesotho – Dr. Astrid Emilie Helle.  We discuss some aspects of her work, and Norway’s focus on addressing global issues which become common agendas to advance both local and international efforts in various domains. Norway has some specific women empowerment programmes that it facilitates in Africa through a rights based approach, covering five key pillars: access to education; sexual and reproductive health; political empowerment of women; economic empowerment of women; and addressing gender based violence. Female political leadership is prominent in Norway. The current Prime Minister, Minister of Finance, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Speaker of Parliament are all women. Ambassador Helle shares some of the contributing factors that allowed pioneering women to lead, such as being a country where democracy and human rights are important and inequalities are limited. We talk about some mechanisms to equip women, such as education, being resilient, coping with setbacks, building confidence, stepping up to opportunities and not trying to be superwomen.  Tune in for more…

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: RSS