Source: African Press Organization
The Italian Cooperation is working with over 30 local authorities and hundreds of personalities from the Italian and international institutional, cultural and entertainment worlds and civil society on the campaign to promote the group candidacy of African women for the Nobel Peace Prize.

The NOPPAW (Nobel Peace Prize for African Women) campaign sponsored by Solidarietà e Cooperazione Cipsi and ChiAma l’Africa with the support of the foreign ministry’s DGCS and Minister Franco Frattini, is organising dozens of events around Italy to spotlight African women’s growing role in the continent’s daily life.

“African women are the continent’s compelling leaders, both in daily life and in social and political activities” – asserted Guido Barbera, President of Solidarietà e Cooperazione Cipsi. “Africa stands on their feet! Female entrepreneurs, politicians, promoters of rights, health, peace and co-existence; it is impossible to imagine the future of Africa without picturing the many ordinary women who carry the weight of this land every day, taking on its tragedies and bearing its hopes”.

Initiatives will be sponsored over the coming months, following the campaign’s relaunch on International Women’s Day on 8 March, in various regions of Senegal, Mali, Burkina Faso and other African countries. It will also be presented officially at the European Parliament in Brussels on 23 May and at the Italian Foreign Ministry on 25 May, along with countless events throughout the year. The NOPPAW will then persevere with a collection of signatures that already stands at more than 25,000.

“Today – continued Eugenio Melandri, spokeesperson for ChiAma l’Africa – “it is no longer enough to say or write that African women are wonderful, if their daily efforts to redeem the fate of their peoples are not met with the national and international political will to recognise them. The Nobel Peace Prize is one small attempt at letting each of them know that Africa is going to win this wager only thanks to them”.