Ms. Lyka Mtambo, Religions for Peace International Youth Committee Member, speaks at the Women Deliver Conference in Kigali, Rwanda

Religions for Peace International Youth Committee Member, Ms. Lyka Rashida Asauka Mtambo, represented Religions for Peace at the Women Deliver Conference, held in Kigali, Rwanda from 17-21 July 2023. With the theme, Spaces, Solidarity and Solutions, Lyka was invited to attend this special gathering by The Network for Religious and Traditional Peacemakers.

Lyka spoke in two sessions, Transformative Partnerships with Faith Actors to advance Gender Equality and Peace for Gender Equality.

The session Transformative Partnerships with Faith Actors to Advance Gender Equality, was organised by The Network for Religions and Traditional Peacemakers in collaboration with the Faith to Action Network, Amplify change, The Berlin Institute for Population and Development, and Alliance of Inclusive Muslims. Lyka’s key message was that we need to promote equal partnerships between the faith-based organisations and secular organisations to advance gender equality. She further emphasised working toward understanding each other and collaborating more to better partnerships overall.

The other session, Peace for Gender Equality, was a collaborative effort of NGO Committee on the status of Women, the UN foundation, Women’s Refugee Commission, Soka Gakkai International, and Red Dot Foundation. The goal of this event was to develop and launch advocacy strategy for uplifting the Women, Peace, and Security (WPS) AND Youth, Peace and Security and broader intersectional peace and security efforts into the UN Commission on the Status of Women processes to bolster support and awareness.

The Religions for Peace International Youth Committee (IYC) leads our Global Interfaith Youth Network. It is comprised of 15 young leaders, representing the world’s faith traditions from Asia, Africa, the Middle East, Europe, North America, and Latin America and the Caribbean.

The IYC will be participating in three of their own sessions at the Parliament of the World’s Religions in Chicago, IL., next week.