On December 18, 2023, Ms. Majoni Blessings, GRIPS student from Zimbabwe, gave a talk titled "Zimbabwe Women's Socio-economic Life," in which she discussed the current difficulties of living for women in Zimbabwe. She explained issues such as gender disparities, violence against women, and child marriage, as well as social and cultural backgrounds such as the patriarchy, religious ideology, urban-rural disparities, and political connections. The discussion part included high-quality discussions on women's leadership (women politicians, women entrepreneurs, etc.), domestic violence, and microfinance.

Speaker, Ms. Majoni Blessings (left)

This was the first session of the talk series and was held as its trial in a semi-closed and there were 26 participants from 8 countries including Hokkaido University, National Dong Hwa University in Taiwan, Japanese private companies and people from various institutions who are involved in industry-university collaboration projects in addition to GRIPS students.

Participants from 8 different countries: Zimbabwe, Ghana, Vietnam, Kenya, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, and Japan

Online participants from universities and NPOs in Hokkaido, Osaka and Taiwan