Setaweet, in collaboration with NEWA, CARD, and Timiran organized two debates for the 6th national election. Setaweet was chosen by the National Election Board of Ethiopia to organize two debates focused on gender. The aim of these debates was to get well-renowned parties to present their gender policy and strategy and show the public that gender is a serious policy matter that deserves national attention.
The first debate was held on May 20, 2021, with participants Hibir Ethiopia, Prosperity party, Freedom and Equality Party, Enat Party, and Ethiopian Citizens for Social Justice. These are parties running at the national level and required widespread attention.
A campaign called #ጠይቂ was launched in 5 local languages (Tigrigna, Afaan Oromo, Afar, Somali, and Amharic) to collect questions from women all over the country and was advertised with the assistance of CARD. It received coverage on Sheger radio and the Voice of America Amharic program.
These collected questions were presented to the parties by well-known moderator Beza Tegafaw. The Setaweet team worked with Beza by giving her the research needed and going as far as preparing a mock debate with the moderator. These efforts proved to be fruitful in the end because it was a successful debate.
The second debate was organized in collaboration with Timran, CARD, and NEWA Jun 10, 2021. The aim of the second debate was to give women from less-recognized parties a chance to represent the policies of their party. This debate focused on Human Rights and three parties participated in the debate: Benishangul People’s Freedom Movement, Raya Rayuma Democratic Party, and Kucha People’s Democratic Party, all of which were represented by women in their first national debate.