International Women's Day, celebrated on March 8th every year, is a day to recognize the social, economic, cultural, and political achievements of women and to call for gender equality. This year, the theme for IWD 2023 is "DigitALL: Innovation and Technology for Gender Equality".

Unlike commercial radio, community radio works with local communities and helps in catering their specific needs and necessities and works as an innovative tool in bringing social change. Community radios can cover a wide range of topics, including literacy, numeracy, health, farm production, housing improvements, family and personal relationships, sport and leisure. 

Because of women’s unique biological characteristics and unequal cultural and social status, they are exposed to various reproductive and maternal health problems. In the past decades, the health situation of Sub-Saharan African women has improved significantly but it still lags behind that of other countries. For example, during the period from 2000 to 2017, Sub-Saharan Africa achieved a reduction of 39 percent of maternal mortality (from 870 to 533 maternal deaths per 100,000 live births). However, it still accounts for 68 percent of all maternal deaths per year worldwide (Unicef Data 2020).

Gender-based violence in Sub-Saharan Africa is a large issue that has not yet been adequately addressed. According to the UN, women in sub-Saharan Africa are at greater risk of intimate partner violence than in most other regions of the world.

Female empowerment is often thought of as a critical aspect of achieving gender equality. Gender equality has been one of the UN’s greatest priorities for a few decades now: the organization has given it strong consideration in the Sustainable Development 2030 Agenda, in the Millennium Development Goals established in the year 2000, and in the still relevant Beijing Platform for Action from 1995. Worldwide, progress has been made, but Sub-Saharan Africa still remains one of the regions further behind in terms of gender equality and related issues affecting women.

Women’s empowerment can be defined in simple terms as “the process of increasing women’s access to control over the strategic life choices that affect them and access to the opportunities that allow them fully to realize their capacities” (Chen and Tanaka 2014). Because of its positive connotations, the word “empowerment” has become a comfortable and indisputable term, which has led to a wide range of institutions, organizations, and governments to adopt it as something they aspire to work towards (Papart, Rai, and Staudt 2003, 3).

What would you consider the most significant parts to create a healthier planet and to help reverse climate change? Recycling of plastic waste? Increasing our reliance on sustainable energies? Reducing the impact of industrial agriculture? All well and good, but don’t miss one of the most important keys to effective change: women!