Women Economic Empowerment Jubilee Expo in Zambia

LUSAKA/ADDIS ABABA (ILO News) – Aeneas Chapinga Chuma, ILO Regional Director for Africa, officially opened the National Women Economic Jubilee Expo of Zambia at the Mulungushi International Conference Centre to promote women’s economic empowerment as a key policy for sustainable development.

Under the theme “Women as Change Agents for National Development and Prosperity”, the national expo aimed at promoting the economic empowerment of women in Zambia by providing a platform for engagement between policy makers, regulators, cooperating partners, implementing institutions, financial and lending institutions and the women entrepreneurs on challenges and opportunities for accelerating financial inclusion of women, specifically access to finance.

More than 200 women entrepreneurs, mostly from rural areas are going through an interactive training session on value addition and business management. They are showcasing different articles from the 10 provinces of Zambia.

The Senior Representative of the International Labour Office (ILO) is attending the event organized by the Ministry of Gender and Child Development in partnership with the United Nations System in Zambia and the Bank of Zambia.

The objective is also to offer women with business management skills in order for them to grow their businesses from micro to medium and large scale and to provide linkages with markets and financial institutions for women entrepreneurs to access new products and services.

This National Expo Conference preceded the third edition of the African Women’s Economic Summit (AWES) whose theme is “African Women: Realising Africa’s Economic Potential” slated for 24th – 26th July, 2014.

During his official visit to Zambia, Mr Chuma met with representatives of the Zambian government including Hon Fackson Shamenda, Minister of Labour and Social Security and Hon Inonge Wina, Minister of Gender and Child Development.