National Women's Conference: Female Solidarity in Ethiopia

FES in partnership with the NGO Setaweet held a two-days National Women's Conference in Addis Ababa on 6 and 7 April 2023. Participants from feminist NGOs all over the country came together to discuss problems that are affecting the lives of Ethiopian women and propose solutions.

The conference started with welcoming remarks from FES Resident Representative, Susanne Stollreiter, and Setaweet's director, Dr. Sehin Teferra, and was followed by the screening of ‘Misikir’ film, a documentary about the stories of women in various parts of Ethiopia that have been affected from conflicts and displaced by war. The first day of the conference focused on the work that is being done for the upcoming National Dialogue by the Women’s Coalition and the effective participation of women in the discussions on peace building, while the feminist network NEWA and NGO ELiDA shared their experience of the current gendered humanitarian work in conflicted affected areas. What issues should be raised in the national dialogue process? This was also discussed among the participants highlighting challenges they considered imminent.

The second day of the conference had the theme ‘feminist solidarity’ with presentations and facilitated discussions on African feminism, the history of Ethiopian feminism, and a discussion why we need feminist movements, digital feminist movement building, young feminist networking and finally how solidarity and movement building could look like in Ethiopia.

The conference also featured music and an art exhibition by female artists, crafts made by women and vendors working for the promotion of women’s rights.