Source: Daily News
THE Deputy Minister for Community Development, Gender and Children Ummy Ally Mwalimu has urged youths to actively participate in the constitutional review process.

Ms Mwalimu said this when launching the 6th annual Femina Youth Conference on "Girl Power" and the "Girl Effect" in Dar es Salaam on Monday.

She said that views of young people were very important and are needed to be considered since they would be the ones to benefit most from the constitution. "It is through your views that you (youths) can decide what type of constitution you want, please use this opportunity effectively to give out your opinions because the constitution is yours," she said.

The deputy minister also called upon women across the country to be confident and work very hard to change the traditional perceptions that women are inferior to men. According to the deputy minister, girls and women who make up half of the population in the country have always been discriminated against and assigned lesser value jobs.

She decried the tradition where the society views them as limited to roles of child bearing and rearing. She also called for assistance from partners in supporting young people to become self-employed since there are very few opportunities for them to be employed in the formal sector.

"Millions of youths are eager to get jobs and income but only 50,000 get employment in the formal sector and this is because there is lack of job opportunities in the urban areas and underutilization of the majority of the labour force in rural areas," she said. Earlier, the Femina HIP Executive Director, Dr Minor Fuglesang said that it was important to invest in girls education, giving them opportunities to participate in society and become leaders.

"Girls have lots of potential and it is high time they are given equal opportunities to succeed through education and by doing so they will change their societies," she said. She said it was shocking that in a country where almost half of the female population get married at young age and start bearing children before they are 20 years old.

She said FEMINA would continue with its efforts in ensuring that girl issues were discussed to ensure the society is educated on the equality of girls and boys. The three-day conference brought together 150 participants including 100 students and 50 teachers from secondary schools in every region of the country.

• Tanzania