Welcome to the event: Fatimah (second from right) arriving for the International Women’s Day conference in Kuching. — ZULAZHAR SHEBLEE/The Star
KUCHING: Efforts to improve gender equity in Sarawak will be strengthened through a new dedicated unit in the state Women and Family Department, says Datuk Seri Fatimah Abdullah.
The state Women, Childhood and Community Well-being Development Minister said the gender equity unit was set up earlier this year as part of the department’s strategic planning.
“The way forward is to have a formal unit as we did not have one before.
“We were already advocating for gender equity but it was not in a formalised form. So now it’s a formal unit with a proper structure and manpower,” she said after launching an International Women’s Day conference here yesterday.
Fatimah said the unit would look at gender equity in various fields, including education and politics, from various perspectives.
She said it would benchmark the best practices from Malaysia and internationally to come up with guidelines and strategies on gender equity.
“The first thing we need to do is collaborate. We need not reinvent the wheel because there are many others who are doing this,” she said.
She added that a head had been appointed for the unit and its operational details were being worked out.
Fatimah also said the state government approved a women’s leadership chair to be established at the Swinburne University of Technology Sarawak Campus last year.
“This is also in place now and we are fine-tuning its operations and programmes, including research which is very important to see where our baseline is and how we go forward,” she said.
