Women for Africa celebrates its tenth anniversary in 2022, and as a central event of this birthday, on 19 and 20 May we held in Madrid the international conference Women’s Bridges. Proposals from the South for Global Change, which brought together around 70 African political leaders and an important group of Latin American politicians and activists, as well as numerous heads of international organisations.
The conference was chaired by our honorary president, Queen Letizia of Spain, who made a much applauded intervention at the opening session of the event.
The women of the south wanted their arguments, their demands, their objectives to be heard. Objectives that were not only addressed to women, but to the international community, to global citizenship.
And of course, the women were listened to by the highest Spanish personalities. In addition to the Queen, the opening of the conference was attended by the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, the First Vice-President, Nadia Calviño, and the Ministers of Foreign Affairs, Interior, Health, Equality, Science, as well as the President of Congress, Meritxell Batet, and the President of the Senate, Ander Gil.
But among the participants themselves were some of the most important leaders on the international scene: Michelle Bachelet, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights; Monique Nsanzabaganwa, Vice-President of the African Union Commission; the great African leader, widow of President Mandela, Graça Machel; Rebeca Grynspan, Secretary General of UNCTAD; Winnie Byanyima, Executive Director of UNAIDS; Emmanuela del Re, EU Special Envoy for the Sahel; Miguel Ángel Moratinos, UN High Commissioner for the Alliance of Civilisations, and many more.
The entire conference could be followed on video streaming and the different sessions can now be viewed on our YouTube channel. Among other materials, the Women of the South Declaration, which this foundation has begun to send to all African governments and international organisations, and the summary of the main conclusions reached in the thematic debates, are also available on these pages. These, by the way, were shared with great harmony by all the participants, regardless of their continent of origin.
This conference has consolidated the bridges that women build with their solidarity, with their shared visions and objectives, working together. Bridges that this time have united women from the South: Africans, Latin Americans and the European women from the South; the Spanish women.
In addition, around this conference, Women for Africa is going to produce its second feature-length documentary, after Apples, Chickens and Chimeras. It will be entitled Women, Bridges of the South.