Women Deliver 2016 Concludes

May 26, 2016 8:04 am

Women Deliver 2016 the world’s largest global conference on the health, rights, and well being of girls and women in the last decade, concluded today, which means our Team from Girls’ Education South Sudan (GESS) will close down the booth and head back to Juba.

Women Deliver 2016 Copenhagen

GESS Team Members and New Friends Leave Conference


This 4th Global Conference was a successful first time visit to the visit for Girls’ Education South Sudan and provided an opportunity to introduce, not only our program but also the education issues and challenges in the world’s newest nation.
The conference provided the opportunity for the GESS Team to interact and exchange ideas with a broad range of experts, researchers, youth leaders and advocates from around the world; some of
whom had already heard about the GESS programme.
Over the 4 days more than 400 visitors stopped by the GESS booth, including visitors from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands, British Embassy, South Sudan and UK aid/DFID India who were highly supportive and pleased to see the GESS programme presented at WD 2016. Some visitors had heard about the programme through previous work in South Sudan and all left with a better understanding, not only of the challenges that girls meet in trying to get an education in South Sudan but also how the funding and partnership between UK aid and the South Sudan Ministry of Education, Science and Technology, is helping to overcome some these challenges.
Visitors to our booth were introduced to the GESS programme innovative initiatives in Quality Education; School Attendance and Monitoring (SSSAMS.org); Capitation Grants to Schools; direct Cash Transfers to Girls, Behavioural Change Communication and Community Mobilization.
On the media side, the Communications Team in Juba working with UNMISS “Radio Miraya brought the conference to South Sudan’s radio listeners through two “Live” telephone interviews with members of the GESS Team during the 4 day event. The second interview on Wednesday was part of the Radio Miraya, hour long “Working Together” program which connected the GESS Team Leader, Akuja de Garang in the Juba studio with Yolanda Ille, GESS Education Advisor in Copenhagen and allowed callers in South Sudan to participate in the conversation.
GESS members in Denmark also presented at a breakfast event hosted by BBC Media Action and shared a brief overview of the programme’s objectives, innovative design and key results to an audience from around the world.
Over the 4 days, the GESS Team members attended sessions on topics such as:
Investing in women and girls key to delivering the SDGs
M&E and Research
Education in Emergencies
Education for children with disabilities
Women Economic Empowerment
The last Women Deliver conference in 2013 brought together over 4,500 participants from 149 countries. More than 800 speeches and presentations were given at the six plenaries and 120 breakout sessions. We expect when this year’s numbers will build on 2013 and we’re all proud of the work of all the GESS Team both in Denmark and around South Sudan that helped make this week a big success.

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