Souadou diabaté Koné

Souadou Diabaté Koné is helping root out gender discrimination by guiding and coaching adolescent girls to take charge of their own concerns, develop confidence in themselves, and establish their own representative structures.

The needs of adolescent girls in Mali are not being addressed through existing social programs, which tend to focus on women and children. Through her organization, the Malian Association for the Promotion of Young Girls and Women, Souadou encourages the formation of local girls groups to help young women escape social isolation and to give them a voice in their communities. The groups become support networks for their members and entry points into Souadou's organization. The youth work together on income generation projects that provide a sense of responsibility and help illustrate their potential as a group. The organization conducts trainings on various topics and helps to organize informal discussions on themes of concern to the young women, like reproductive health. Souadou is also partnering with another organization to pilot a similar program for boys, which helps them to build confidence, develop a sense of responsibility, and work toward changing the gender perspectives and behavior of these future husbands and fathers.

In Mali, development programs in both rural and urban areas have focused on specific populations like children, women, and mothers. Unfortunately, most have not adequately taken into account the unique needs of adolescent girls, especially in the areas of self-esteem preservation, healthcare advice, and skills development. This absence translates into a lack of information, guidance, and education for young girls regarding how they can protect and defend their rights. It also results in the omission of female concerns in policies affecting youth, as their interests are not represented in decision-making processes.
In the past few decades, numerous development programs have operated on the principle that a change in gender relations depends on the economic independence of women. In Mali, adolescent girls are often a valuable source of financial support for their families and at an early age, become active in small businesses and other revenue-generating activities for the benefit of the family. Unfortunately, these efforts provide them neither personal economic independence nor increased social visibility.

Souadou works to boost the confidence of young women and girls, helps give them a sense of agency, and demonstrates what they can achieve by working together. By forming organized groups and positively shaping young women's attitudes, Souadou hopes to help them better represent their own interests in society and simultaneously work toward the elimination of the gender discrimination that most Mali women encounter.
Soudou's organization forms groups of females between the ages of 10 and 25 that begin as a new support network and grow into a force for making adolescent girls' voices heard. The groups focus on a number of activities to help develop the girls' self-confidence and promote their achievement. The organization also encourages group income generation activities and conducts training on literacy, organizational management, and various production techniques.
The organization instills a sense of shared community needs and interests that foster networking and solidarity. This approach empowers the young women to use their different skills, needs, and opportunities to plan activities in an entrepreneurial spirit. For example, certain groups weave cloth, while others specialize in the dyeing process or focus on sales and distribution opportunities. Similar networks are created that relate to agricultural goods, soap production, arts and crafts, and child daycare services. Furthermore, in response to their own needs, each group organizes informal discussions on themes like reproductive health and female circumcision.
Souadou also uses sports to make the groups more visible and to increase dialogue regarding their work. There are currently 10 girls soccer teams that are helping the adolescent groups gain exposure both in the media and among the wider public, while promoting confidence, competition, and performance. Informational sessions on reproductive health are organized in conjunction with games, allowing recruitment of new members and the formation of new groups.
Souadou is applying a similar process, though on a lesser scale, to engage adolescent boys in a discussion of their rights and duties in their own communities. The end goal is to alter the behavior and perceptions of these future husbands and fathers regarding gender relations, thus effecting change in the long term. The participation of these youth in soccer leagues and in the logistical planning of conferences has served to boost their confidence and self-esteem, and to reinforce partnerships with the groups working on the rights of young women.
Souadou aims to widen the scope of her organization by exposing and integrating the members into the activities of the Network of Village Women, an association she helped form with seven other countries. Additionally, she hopes to foster adolescent participation in national workshops hosted by various United Nations agencies, so that their contributions may be highlighted and their needs voiced. Souadou established a pilot phase of her project in Bamako and has since extended its activities to other areas of Mali. Currently, her projects help close to 600 young women and 250 young men.

Souadou first began working with women's organizations while teaching preschool in the 1980s. She became aware of the problem of domestic violence against women and urged the establishment to create a counseling center to assist victims and to provide educational opportunities for their children.
Souadou pursued her interests by collaborating with a large number of local associations, clubs, and regional and international civil society organizations in an effort to develop extracurricular activities regarding the environment, the fight against circumcision, microcredit, income-generation, and various activities focusing on women and adolescents. Throughout her work, she witnessed the exclusion of adolescent girls and single and divorced women in programs narrowly focused on children and mothers. Going beyond official structures, Souadou informally worked to include these populations. In 1995 Souadou and a group of female colleagues decided to create an association in Burkina Faso to focus on adolescents. Three years later, she established the Malian Association for the Promotion of Young Girls and Women, choosing to devote herself full-time to the plight of adolescent girls.