ISSUE 48/DEC2022 - Flipbook - Page 48
Photo: David Yoder/Fortune Global Forum
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Africa’s Most Influential Women | EVERYDAY HEROES
Bineta Diop
SENEGAL
Special Envoy: African Union - WPS
Founder: Femmes Africa Solidarité
PUBLIC SERVICE
Women’s Rights & Peace Advocate
Bineta Diop is the African Union Commission
Special Envoy on Women, Peace, and Security
(WPS) — whose mandate is to “ensure that the
voices of women and the vulnerable are heard
much more clearly in peacebuilding and in
conflict resolution”. She has been the Special
Envoy since 2014.
In line with Aspiration 6 of the AU’s blueprint
Agenda 2063, the Peace and Security
Council of the African Union has integrated
the advancement of women and girls’ rights
and meaningful participation in peace and
development processes on the continent.
The African Union’s Women’s Peace and
Security agenda is key to the overall success
of its mandate, and therefore the role Bineta
holds is equally significant. With more than 35
years of experience in women’s rights issues, she
has led numerous peace-building programmes
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that enhance women’s participation in peace
processes and peacebuilding initiatives. And
this continues to be her day job as a Special
envoy. She travels regularly across the continent,
including to conflict zones to see first-hand
how peace and security affect women on
the continent, and how the African Union
can empower them to actively participate in
peacebuilding and peace management in their
communities.
In other areas, she has been instrumental in
helping achieve gender parity within the African
Union Commission. For example, in the adoption
of the Solemn Declaration on Gender Equality in
Africa and the adoption of the Protocol to the
African Charter on Human and People’s Rights
on the Rights of Women in Africa by the African
Union. She also led the setting up of the Gender
is My Agenda Campaign Network (GIMAC).
A regular and recognisable face and speaker on
women’s issues at many international forums,
Bineta is also the founder and Chair of the
Board of Femmes Africa Solidarité, an NGO
she created in 1996, to help foster, strengthen
and promote the leadership role of women in
conflict prevention, management and resolution
in Africa.
She also played an instrumental role in the
2017 formation of the African Women Leaders
Network (AWLN), which serves as a continental
platform to galvanise leadership among African
women, toward lasting peace and sustainable
development.
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