Harare – Today, the International Organization for Migration (IOM), is joining the United Nations (UN) family and the whole world in celebrating the International Women’s Day. The day which is being commemorated under the theme “Think equal, build smart, innovate for change” recognizes women achievements from political to social, while calling for gender equality.

IOM has made deliberate efforts to promote gender equality, mainstreaming gender in all its programs. The organization has produced gender-sensitive tools for programming, including updated IOM Project Handbook, which contains stronger reference to gender as well as tip sheets on gender analysis and gender mainstreaming. IOM also developed gender based violence prevention and risk mitigation in emergency response programming.

To celebrate the International Women’s Day locally, IOM Zimbabwe will facilitate a discussion on property rights, involving fifteen of its Civil Society Organizations (CSO) partners in Harare. Through this discussion, IOM Zimbabwe will promote the notion of equality through encouraging women to acquire legitimate properties and follow due diligence with respect to property registration.

“As one of IOM partners, we are excited to be part of these commemorations. Women’s empowerment and gender equality are at the core of our programming and this event will give us opportunity to discuss property rights, an issue that affects equal participation of women in development. Being aware of property rights will empower women to purchase and secure their properties.” Said Blessing Gorejena, Director of the Zimbabwe Human Rights Forum.

Established in 1951, IOM is the UN agency in the field of migration and is committed to the principle that humane and orderly migration benefits migrants and society. IOM is committed to gender and in recent years, the organization has joined the UN System -Wide Action Plan (SWAP) for gender equality and empowerment of women. This is a system – wide accountability framework designed to accelerate progress towards gender equality and empowerment of women.

For more information please contact Varaidzo Mudombi at IOM Zimbabwe – telephone +263242704285 email: vmudombi@iom.int