Participation of women vital for Africa's development
09 November 2007
Brenda Keino
(AXcess News) Washington - Poverty in Africa can only be eliminated when equal rights for women are achieved, a new report says.
"Gender Equality: at the Heart of Development" is a report by the Department for International Development, which is a part of the United Kingdom government that manages the country's aid to poor countries.
According to the report, research in central Africa has shown that, when women are involved, there is better governance and post-conflict reconstruction. This is because women adopt a more inclusive approach toward security and address social and economic issues that would otherwise be ignored.
"Increasing gender equality and women's participation in the workforce means that families will make more money, leading to greater well-being of the community," said Mayra Buvinic, the sector director of gender and development at the World Bank.
She was speaking on Wednesday at a conference on supporting leadership roles of women in Africa.
Buvinic said that for decades African women have had some of the highest labor force participation, which is a good contribution to development.
Empowerment of women can be achieved if African women have access to formal financial services. Commercial banks, good quality jobs, agricultural extension and technologies should be made available to the women, Buvinic said.
"Poverty in Africa has a woman's face," said Baroness Valerie Amos, the U.K.'s special representative to the African Union.
Women should be supported in capacity building. This involves putting in place legal and policy frameworks that will encourage community participation and skills development to increase productivity, Amos said.
Inonge Mbikusita-Lewanika, the ambassador of the Republic of Zambia, talked about the importance of educating girls. She paraphrased the famous saying: "If you educate a boy, you educate one person, but if you educate a woman, you educate the whole community."
"When girls go to school, they are more aware of hygiene and health of their children. When children are healthy and alive, then the women are free to do other productive things," Inonge said.
One challenge is that schools are often located a long distance from homes. This made it difficult for girls to go to school because of household chores.
This can be remedied by building schools closer to the villages and encouraging enrollment of girls.
There have been great strides in Africa over the years in terms of gender equality and women in leadership, most conference participants agreed.
Ruth Mufute, Africare's acting regional director of East/West Africa, said that her life was similar to those of the African girls seen in pictures walking to school barefoot, herding cattle and tilling the land.
Mufute told a story of how, when she was a young girl, every time she asked her grandfather for something she would always be told to wait until the next day. She knew he was going to consult her grandmother first.
She was picked from her village by Africare, a non-governmental organization that works with African countries to improve health and productivity. The group nurtured and educated her. She now holds a masters degree in public administration from the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.
"Now, I am a typical example of an empowered woman. I am in leadership, educated and make decisions," Mufute said. "That dream could have been shattered if I had not met the people in my life who helped me."
In Rwanda, a small East African country trying to rebuild itself after the 1994 genocide that left more than 800,000 people dead, women's involvement is key in the recovery process.
A whopping 49 percent of parliamentarians are women, thanks to the new constitution that reserves 24 out of 80 seats in the lower house and six out of 20 seats in the upper house for women.
Other African women in leadership include Africa's first female president, Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf of Liberia.
"Women in Africa are not asking for handouts, but opportunities. That is why we are gathered here today," said Chris Johns, editor in chief of the National Geographic magazine, a cosponsor of the event.
He gave an example of a picture in the magazine of the bridge across the Zambezi River and how it symbolized solutions to problems in Africa. "If we can build a bridge across the Zambezi, we can do anything in Africa," said Johns.
Source: Scripps Howard Foundation Wire
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