On May 10, the Delegation of the European Union to Morocco organized a meeting in Rabat between Ms. Amina Byouz, President of the Anaouat Association and Ms. Irène Mingasson, Head of Unit of EU’s "Regional Programmes Neighbourhood South". Anaouat is one of the 36 associations actively involved in the CSO WINS project that supports civil society organizations to increase their impact on the gender equality policy agenda in the Euro-Mediterranean region.

The purpose of this meeting was to highlight the results of the Anaouat campaign in the Chichaoua province on female child marriage and to review the issues and challenges at a regional level. 

"Participating in training and learning exchanges with other associations working on the same themes as ours has had a positive impact on our work strategy to combat violence against women. During my stay at the Association for Development and Enhancement of Women in Cairo, I saw that feminist organizations are fighting for the same causes and we have a lot to learn from each other", said Ms. Byouz. 

Ms. Mingasson and Ms. Byouz discussed, among other themes, the role of sex education in schools, the social integration of single mothers and the recommendations issued at the Euro-Mediterranean Dialogue on Advocacy for Gender Equality in Casablanca which encouraged effective networking between the participating associations. 

In connection with the 4th Ministerial Conference of the Union for the Mediterranean – UfM on the role of women held in November 2017, Ms. Byouz explained that they follow up on wedding proposals alongside judges, their decisions and cases of school dropout in the province of Chichaoua. This is a way to check at a local level whether the commitments made by Morocco in the field of violence against women and female child marriage are effective on the ground.

We are really happy to have contributed in making this meeting happen. Anaouat seized it as a concrete opportunity for advocacy with a senior political official of the European Union!