Women’s Rights and Gender Equality (WRGE) Report from a Seminar for Norwegian Embassies

Introduction

The Regional seminar on women’s rights and gender equality is an opportunity for embassies to
exchange information and experience and be updated technically on important policy issues. It
serves as a platform for close interaction between staff at the embassies and relevant sections within
MFA and Norad. The regional seminars take place bi‐annually.

The first regional seminar in 2010 took place in Lilongwe, Malawi with participants from the
embassies in Angola, Tanzania, Mozambique, Uganda, Zambia, Ethiopia, Malawi, and South Africa
and from Nepal and the Regional HIV/AIDS team based in Lusaka. Technically the seminar was
organized under the auspices of the Peace, Gender and Democracy Department (Norad) with the
Embassy in Lilongwe as a logistical partner. The WRGE seminar could piggy back on a seminar for
Malawian female parliamentarians that was organized in partnership between the Norwegian
Embassy and the Norwegian Association of Local and Regional Authorities. Experiences from that
seminar could be brought forward to the WRGE seminar.