It is an undeniable fact that women are the basis for everything and the successive generational path. Apart from firmly supporting social, economic, and even political changes, women can also play a crucial role in National Dialogues by ensuring inclusive and representative discussions, particularly important in contexts like Ethiopia, where their voices are left unnoticed.
Undeniably, Ethiopia has been grappling with a multitude of historical, political, social, economic, constitutional, and structural problems. These problems, as many have believed, should be addressed through honest National Dialogue, consultation, negotiation, and reconciliation.
A truly inclusive dialogue requires the participation of diverse women from various backgrounds, ages, and regions, reflecting the national population. This includes addressing gender-specific issues and ensuring that women’s agendas are heard and addressed.
Lemlem Mulaw, a sociologist working at the Women and Children Office in Bole Sub City, stated that the involvement of women in national dialogue is of paramount importance for ensuring inclusive representation. This means that women’s participation is vital to ensure that National Dialogues reflect the diverse perspectives and experiences of the population.
They are also working hard to address gender-specific issues. True, National Dialogues should address gender-related issues and concerns, such as violence against women, harmful traditional practices, and the impact of political instability on women.
Women play a key role in developing and advocating for their agendas within National Dialogues. They can also serve as powerful agents for promoting inclusive peace, given their unique potential to engage with the general public, especially the youth, she said.
Without any doubt, women’s participation in peace processes and national dialogues contribute to more sustainable and just peace outcomes.
Women can lead and advocate for change within National Dialogues, challenging traditional power structures and promoting gender equality. Women’s associations, amalgamations and organizations and networks can play a crucial role in building coalitions and mobilizing support for women’s participation in National Dialogues, she added.
“Women’s agendas can be brought into the National Dialogue to address issues such as gender-based violence, harmful traditional practices, lack of access to justice, and the impacts of political instability. Inclusive approaches, such as engaging all segments of the society, have been proven effective, particularly through collaboration women’s rights organizations and networks to strengthen women’s engagement and influence in the national dialogue process.”
Idris Muktar (PhD), a gender specialist and working private consultant for different NGOs working on youth correction centers stated that women need to be given due emphasis to be empowered.
“We share insights from our ongoing support efforts in Ethiopia, which include collaboration with women’s rights organizations and networks to increase women’s representation and influence in the national dialogue process,” he said.
The government has to work closely with an emerging coalition of women’s rights organizations and networks in Ethiopia and has to take all possible actions to push and shape women’s engagement and influence in the forthcoming National Dialogue process.
He said that the Dialogue indeed aims at facilitating and supporting the meaningful inclusion of women in Ethiopia’s National Dialogue process. It supports the strategic positioning of representatives to engage and mainstream women’s participation in the process, while sensitizing power holders about the strategic value of women’s inclusion in this national process.
According to Idris, since the Ethiopian National Dialogue Commission was established, there should be a surge of interest from across Ethiopian civil society to better understand and engage in the process. Yes, different groups of women should be active within civil society and seek to mobilize and influence the design of the Dialogue. For example, they can contribute a lot to the nomination process for appointing members of the Commission. If this is so, he added the desired change can be brought about.
The process of building on their contribution to the process, a broader set of women’s organizations and networks have to be set up and come together to develop a women’s agenda that outlines a set of common positions towards supporting National Dialogue process.
The actions of the Dialogue Commission can boost the prospects of achieving sustained engagement and influence in National Dialogue processes. In Yemen, for example, advocacy efforts by Yemeni women activists and women-led organizations contributed to the adoption of a progressive inclusion formula, which guaranteed significant participation of women, youth and other groups in the different structures of the National Dialogue, said Idris.
As to the National Dialogue Commission, the activities undertaken by the commission so far has been remarkable, and the Commission has been carrying out preparations to enable the national dialogue to be participatory. Hence, the Commission has carried out discussions with various sections of the society; he said here women can contribute a lot to the effort geared towards the success of the dialogue.
According to Idris (PhD) it is quite indispensable that women’s associations and movements can often consolidate the efforts of the National Dialogue, and it is possible to work towards a stable and peaceful nation by developing a culture of consensus. Beyond having a potentially greater influence in the process itself, women are also able to connect to wider segments of society, which can be kernel in ensuring public awareness and support.
Yes, for an inclusive national dialogue, the role of women is really untold; he said adding that Ethiopian women have to actively participate in the process as they are instrumental in influencing the National Dialogue process.
In Addis Ababa, women are actively participating in and influencing the Ethiopian National Dialogue process. This includes advocating for the inclusion of women’s agendas and addressing critical issues like violence, harmful traditional practices, and the impact of political instability. Organizations like the Coalition for Women’s Voices in the National Dialogue are playing a key role in collecting and presenting women’s perspectives.
“Throughout history, the meaningful participation of women has, due to socio-cultural reasons, largely been restricted to the traditional sphere, as community influencers of course. Moreover, even in the traditional peacemaking sphere, the contributions made by women in the country for the most part have gone unrecognized,” he said.
He further elaborated that inter and intra-sector coordination to solicit trust, gain public legitimacy and, thus achieve successful strategic outcomes. As part of this, women from all walks of life should be supported in mobilization efforts aimed at challenging the socio-cultural norms preventing them from staking a claim as capable peacemakers in formal processes.
He said, negotiation processes that can potentially provide for the inclusion of additional actors such as civil society, political hardliners, women’s groups, religious organizations, among others, aside from the primary political—often armed—parties has to be a culture and become more common across the nation as nothing could solve Ethiopia’s problems except common understating and agreement.
He said, “National Dialogue, sometimes called National Conference, is a highly inclusive negotiation format, involving large segments of civil society, politicians, and experts, even armed forces in the bush are usually convened in order to negotiate major political reforms or peace in complex and fragmented conflict environments, or to draft a new constitution.”
He further elucidated the importance of thinking holistically about process design and context in political transitions. A transitional arrangement which includes most constituencies as well as political elites would help transform the country from war torn to basket of bread.
In sum, in the context of Ethiopia’s National Dialogue, women are actively participating and influencing the process, advocating for their rights and ensuring their voices are heard. This includes organizing themselves into coalitions, submitting key agendas to the National Dialogue Commission, and advocating for modifications to the dialogue process to ensure gender inclusivity. Most definitely, since women’s participation in political processes and decision-making roles remains far below the desired levels in Ethiopia, highlighting a significant gap in gender equality and letting women have ample opportunity in partaking peace process and decision making trajectories have to be well underscored
BY MENGESHA AMARE
THE ETHIOPIAN HERALD THURSDAY 26 JUNE 2025
