Women entrepreneurship is critical to the success of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), Director of programmes at the New Partnership for Africa Development (Nepad) Estherine Lisinge-Fotabong has said.
Speaking at the on-going Women Entrepreneurship in Agribusiness currently happening in Durban, South Africa, Fatabong said women have the potential to accelerate and contribute more to Africa’s economy through businesses.
“Women starting up in business tend to provide a more immediate contribution to the economy, around one in five women come into self-employment from unemployment compared with around one in fifteen for men,” she said.
Speaking during the commemoration of the Africa Day Food and Nutrition Security in Uganda recently, African Union Commissioner for Agriculture and Rural development, Tumusiime Rhoda Peace said Africa’s leaders declared 2015 the “Year of Women Empowerment and Development towards Agenda 2063” which talks of ending hunger.
“Under its commitment to reduce poverty by half by the year 2025, the Malawi Declaration [agreed upon by African Presidents in 2013], categorically calls for supporting and facilitating women and youth in gainful and attractive agribusiness opportunities.
“This point obviously comes in the realisation that opportunities must either be created or exploited and that’s the task of all of us, leaders, programme managers and grassroots organisations,” she said.
