KMC to participate in 'Inform Women, Transform Lives' campaign

By A Staff Reporter,Kathmandu, Sept. 30: The Kathmandu Metropolitan City (KMC) has been selected to participate in the 'Inform Women, Transform Lives' campaign. 

Kathmandu is one of a dozen cities nominated for the third year of this campaign, a global effort to ensure that women can seek and receive beneficial information from their local governments, launched by the not-for-profit organisation Carter Center. 

The other cities are Accra (Ghana), Baltimore (the USA), Dar es Salaam (Tanzania), Glasgow, (the UK), Lagos (Nigeria), Mérida (Mexico), Quezon City (the Philippines), Quito (Ecuador), Rio de Janeiro (Brazil), Rotterdam (the UK) and Santiago (Chile).

As per a press statement issued by the Center on Thursday, city governments applied to be part of the campaign, and the finalists were selected based on their commitment to transparency and gender equity.

The goals of the 'Inform Women, Transform Lives' campaign are to enhance awareness of women’s right to information, increase the number of women accessing information about municipal and social services, and assist local governments in reaching women with meaningful information and services. It includes traditional and social media marketing materials, programming for both government agencies and citizen groups designed to help connect women to information, and virtual exchanges among the participant cities to share ideas and best practices.

As per the Carter Center, 23 cities are already part of the campaign and with the addition of 12 this year, the number of participating city-level governments has reached 35. Together, they have a combined population of 215 million.