FIM

FIM and SARIAC (Togo Musicians’ Union) held a capac­i­ty build­ing work­shop in Lomé (Togo) from the 16 to 19 May 2013, in the pres­ence of Ministers for the Arts & Culture and Employment. In par­tic­u­lar, the meet­ing addressed the issue of union organ­i­sa­tion and the role of women on its exec­u­tive bodies.

The work­shop ben­e­fit­ted from the par­tic­i­pa­tion of the General Secretary of Togo’s Union Confederation for Workers (CSTT), as well as two spe­cial­ists from the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC), who pre­sent­ed a mutu­al health­care insur­ance mod­el which was cur­rent­ly being devel­oped in sev­er­al coun­tries in the region. CSTT and SARIAC are set­ing up a “musi­cians’” branch which could rely on CSTT’s oper­a­tional structure.

The work of dis­cus­sion groups on gen­der equal­i­ty final­ly adoptd an action plan aimed at enhanc­ing the sit­u­a­tion of women who want to go on stage and com­bat­ting the gender-​based behav­iour of which they are vic­tims when exer­cis­ing their pro­fes­sion. The issue of sex­u­al harass­ment was also addressed at length.

SARIAC has under­tak­en to con­tin­ue with its efforts to increase the num­ber of women on its bod­ies. The per­cent­age of women mem­bers has already risen from 5 to 12% and 9 to 18% on the exec­u­tive board. SARIAC is now aim­ing to reach 20% of women mem­bers and 33% on its exec­u­tive bodies.