LEADERSHIP AND GOVERNANCE AREA

Promoting women’s empowerment through leadership and governance training is a very effective way to achieve development in all its aspects. Women produce between 60% and 80% of the food in developing countries and half of the world’s food (FAO). However, in sub-Saharan Africa, for example, women have very little control over resources for production such as capital and land (85% of landowners are men). Women often spend most of their time in informal and undervalued activities, and their access to key institutions such as courts or markets is very limited.

Great efforts have been made at different levels (continental, regional, state, etc…) to advance women’s empowerment:

On October 25, 2018, the Ethiopian Parliament elected for the first time as head of state a woman, Sahle-Work Zewde: “If you thought I spoke a lot about women, know that I am just getting started.” Overall, of the 20 countries with the most women in parliament, six are African: Rwanda, Namibia, South Africa, Senegal, Mozambique and Ethiopia. The number of African women in ministerial positions has tripled in the last decade and they now account for 22.5% of parliamentary seats, a percentage similar to the one in Europe (23.5%) and higher than in the USA (18%).

Women from all 54 African countries attended the Women Deliver 2019 Conference in Canada, the world’s largest conference on gender equality, health, rights and well-being of girls and women. At the conference, led by President Sahle-Work Zewde, women spoke countless times about the importance of gender equity.

In the full text of the final declaration of the G20 in Osaka, held this year, which annexes 20 documents, we find a document that mentions the empowerment of women and specifies the importance of achieving gender equality to achieve sustainable and inclusive economic growth. What is important to note is the commitment to the continued implementation of the Women in Finance for Women Entrepreneurs initiative (We-Fi) in support of women’s entrepreneurship in developing countries such as those in Africa.

The Nobel Peace Prize was awarded in October 2018 to Denis Mukwege, a gynaecologist and activist from the Democratic Republic of Congo, giving a boost to the fight against sexual violence.

In 2010, the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) introduced in its Human Development Report the Gender Inequality Index, which has been formally included since 2014. Africa, like other continents, is a land of contrasts, but also of patterns: Amid all its complexity and diversity, sub-Saharan Africa is at the bottom of the Gender Inequality Index, with an average of 0.569 in 2017 (the global average is 0.441).

Nevertheless, it remains a challenge to get female representation to generate positive impacts on women’s daily lives.

Projects