The Sunrise Democratic Party believes in gender equality and diversity across all sectors of our society such as politics, sports, the arts, media and more

Compared to their male counterparts, the women in South Sudan face a lot of challenges including gender based violence, domestic violence, forced marriage, early marriage and early pregnancy, illiteracy, health during pregnancy and birth, poverty and more. The Sunrise Democratic Party believes that gender equality is not only a fundamental human right, but a necessary foundation for a peaceful, prosperous and sustainable society.

The Sunrise Democratic Party believes in gender equality and diversity across all sectors of our society such as politics, sports, the arts, media and more. We believe that men and women should be equally represented in the decision-making processes that impact their lives. We all have the right to be seen, heard and recognised for our contributions to society, as stipulated in our constitution’s Bill of Rights and other international documents such as Universal Declaration of Human Rights and Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action.

In appreciating, that women empowerment is an important strategy for overcoming poverty, marginalisation and all other ills that disadvantage women, the SDP Government shall:

• Adopt affirmative action to ensure that there is equitable representation of women in Parliament, Councils, Boards of Private Companies/Enterprises and on all boards of government commissions;
• Promote equal participation of men and women in all structures of governance and the economy;
• Work towards achieving gender parity in pay and participation in the workforce ;
• Make it easy for women to access low interest loans at local banks to fund women businesses;
• Provide sanitation and hygiene materials for school girls to absenteeism;
• Build more Boarding Schools for girls in rural areas, to promote the girl-child’s education;
• Establish programs that promote maternal and child health;
• Enactment of legislations on rights of women and children, such as the Child Protection Act, Marriage Act, Sexual Abuse Act, Gender-based Violence Act, and Divorce Act, etc.
• Domesticate Regional and International Conventions that promote gender equality.
• Design programs that aim to improve the overall education system by encouraging gender sensitivity and taking measures to prevent gender-based violence in a classroom setting.
• Build girls-only schools in the most disadvantaged regions with the purpose of benefiting girls.

Therefore urgent steps need to be taken so that more girls are going to school, fewer girls are forced into early marriage, more women are serving in parliament and positions of leadership, and laws are being reformed to advance gender equality.