African Ministers of Gender call for women economic empowerment through decent work

ADDIS ABABA (ILO News) – African Ministers for Gender and Women’s Affairs gathered at the Regional Conference on Women (Beijing+20) have called for gender equality and women’s economic empowerment through decent work, productive employment creation and social protection.

“Africa’s priority in post-Beijing is now on women’s economic empowerment and ILO’s Decent Work Agenda is key to women’s economic empowerment,” said Mwila Chigaga, Senior Gender Specialist for Africa representing the International Labour Office (ILO) at the Conference.

The Addis Ababa Declaration calls governments to systematically integrate gender and women’s issues into macroeconomic policies and to bolster innovative initiatives to give women more access and control over land, labour, finance, credit and markets.

It also urges more support for female entrepreneurship, especially among youth and in agribusiness and extractive industries and to enhance women’s productivity in the rural and informal economy through skills development.

“The ILO is geared to be at the forefront of this important Africa-wide initiative,” said Mwila Chigaga.

The Declaration is also focused on establishing and strengthening social protection mechanisms and reinforcing social safety net services to vulnerable women -- with the message that Africa’s economic transformation agenda has to be gender-sensitive across the key sectors of the continent’s economy.

The Regional Declaration was reviewed by some 200 delegates, technical experts and government representatives from across the African continent gathered in Addis Ababa to reflect on 20 years of the Beijing Platform for Action (BPfA).

The conference takes place amid current global debates around the post-2015 development agenda and regional consultations around Agenda 2063 of the African Union, shaping Africa’s development for the next 50 years.

From commitments to actions

Participants highlighted strong commitment to gender equality and women’s empowerment with 51 African countries submitting Beijing+20 national review reports.

However, “despite the social progress made over the last 20 years and most notably between 2009 and 2014, there has been little progress made in lifting women out of poverty,” said Thokozile Ruzvidzo, Chief of the African centre for Gender, during her keynote address to the delegates.

Gender inequality remains one of the biggest challenges in Africa. Access to and ownership of resources, the high prevalence of violence against women (VAW) and girls, the lack of investment in social protection, and the limited financing for gender equality and women’s empowerment are some of the key gaps shared by observers from women’s groups, civil society organizations, academic institutions, and experts from international organizations.

“We need effective implementation; we need accelerated implementation,” emphasized Lakshmi Puri, Assistant Secretary-General for Intergovernmental Support and Strategic Partnerships at the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women.

“We are not victims”

The Addis Ababa Declaration urges governments to allocate adequate resources to fill the remaining gaps from the Beijing Platform for Action but it also calls on international partners to provide technical and financial support as well.

The outcome of the regional meeting will now feed into the global review scheduled to take place during the 59th Commission on the Status of Women in New York, USA in March 2015.
“We are not victims. African women have contributed to the debate,“ concluded Gertrude Mongella from Tanzania, who was the Secretary-General of the Fourth World Conference on Women held in Beijing, China in 1995 and later the first Chairperson of the Pan-African Parliament.

The Conference and its Declaration will inform the African Union Heads of States and Government Summit which has declared 2015 as the “Year of Women’s Empowerment and Development towards Africa’s Agenda 2063.”

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