African Union calls for strong women empowerment policies

The 24th Session of the Summit of the African Union held from 30-31 January 2015 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia called Member States to better focus on women empowerment strategies to bring about sustainable development in Africa.

The newly elected Chairperson of the AU, President Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe, reiterated that women and youth are the greatest asset for Africa.

“They need better access to secondary education, decent work and economic opportunities”, emphasized the UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon as the African Union declared 2015 Year of Women’s Empowerment

The summit’s theme served to highlight the crucial issue of improving women’s economic, political and social participation across the continent—a core priority of the AU’s 2063 Development Agenda.

Moreover, the AU heads of state summit focused on women’s empowerment as an entry point to achieve Africa’s Agenda 2063 vision of socioeconomic transformation. Leaders agreed that gender equality underpinned Africa’s sustainable development.

According to the ILO, despite some concrete affirmative action measures, African women are still under-represented in top decision-making roles in the continent. Therefore, getting more women to grow their businesses is not only critical for equality but also for national development, underlines the ILO.

The AU Summit adopted the Quagadougou + 10 Declaration and Plan of Action. It also adopted the AUC/ILO/IOM/ECA Joint Labour Migration Programme.

The 25th Ordinary Session of the Assembly of the African Union in June/July 2015 will be held in the Republic of South Africa.

For more detailed information, please contact the ILO Communication team in Addis Ababa: [email protected]; [email protected] - : +251 911218113/5