By Millicent Kgeledi

International Women’s Day has assumed a new global dimension for women in developed and developing countries alike. The growing international women’s movement has helped make the commemoration a rallying point to build support for women’s empowerment. Sadly, in spite of our benefaction in freeing the society from the chains of oppression and segregation, most women are still marginalized socially, politically and economically.

Despite the prevailing circumstances, women are more active as actors of economic development in Africa than anywhere else. We perform the majority of agricultural activities, own a third of all firms and, in some countries, make up some 70% of employees. Over and above our income-earning activities, we are central to the household economy and the welfare of our families, and we play a vital — if sometimes unacknowledged — a leadership role in our communities and nations.

In light of this historic day, I held a one-on-one interview with the Research Fellow, Ms Mercedes Leburu, on issues related to the empowerment of young women, the economic potential of these women and youth, and the role that senior women can play in empowering junior women in the development space and the potential of young women in realising Africa’s Agenda 2063 vision.

This is what she had to say:

Question: Mercedes, a lot has been said and done to address gender inequality in the political, economic and social landscape in Africa, but has this ‘movement’ or ‘activism’ reached the small-scale woman farmer or marginalised woman in the rural areas of Africa? How has she benefitted from this global mass movement?

Indeed a lot has been said and done to address gender inequality, however, as of 2019, it has only been in six countries that women have attained equal rights to men. In addition, not a single country to date has achieved economic equality between women and men.

I think that people around the globe are in agreement that formalised and institutionalised equality are inadequate in the absence of substantive equality. Currently, most of Sub-Saharan Africa assesses gender equality on the basis of statistics and numbers. We ought to pause and ask ourselves whether that’s the right approach. Is there truly gender equality if we have the right percentage of women in leadership or at management level? Who is to say that we are not just filling quotas in order to appear progressive? In my view, the real measure of gender equality should be found in the accessibility of opportunities- regardless of gender. It is when we no longer need to speak on feminism that we will have achieved gender quality. It is when we no longer have to define and categorize statistics that measure fairness and equal opportunity. It is when a girl in the village where my mother was born and a girl born in a country like Denmark has an opportunity for a similar education, not only to their male counterparts but with boys born hundreds of miles away. Where a girl born to a housekeeper can easily become an Oprah Winfrey. Not just influential in her own country, but influential in the world.

When equal opportunities are afforded, the decisions made have a ripple effect and can help break the cycle of generational poverty. The evidence from FAO reflects that in developing countries, women make up 45% of the agricultural workforce and when more opportunities are available to them, natural resources are better managed, and nutrition is consequently improved. Furthermore, women in rural areas play a key part in the efforts to achieve the SDGs especially Goal 2 on eliminating hunger and malnutrition worldwide and various programmes such as CAADP ensure that the global mass movement benefits them too. However, there is still more to do in closing the gender gaps in agriculture. Empowering rural women is undeniably empowering humanity and communities as women are incubators.

Question: What should be done differently to realise Agenda 2063’s Aspiration 6?

In order to realise the above-mentioned aspiration, it is pivotal that all forms of discrimination and violence against women and girls be eradicated. Women, youth and children should be adequately empowered to make informed decisions and to appropriately exercise their rights. In addition, they should also be empowered to rightly utilise the resources and opportunities made available to them.

Creating opportunities for Africa’s youth for the purpose of attaining self-realisation, access to health, education and jobs; ensuring safety and security for Africa’s children and providing for early childhood development are all unequivocally essential.

Question: Woman to woman mentorship programmes in the development space, how can they be effectively implemented?

In order for one to be able to empower others, they themselves must be empowered. It is important to have an enabling environment to promote woman to woman mentorship in the developmental space through accessing tools to empower youth in Africa to be their utmost best.

Alignment is crucial in mentorship and as such, a criteria for symbiotic matchmaking is important. The above is so because leadership is, in my view, cultivated on a daily basis thus we need to add to our companies’ values by cultivating the positives in the two different genders in order to contribute holistically to the bottom line or, in essence, the end result.

Mentors are undoubtedly a consistent testament to what Africa is capable of NOW. They are a testament to what the youth are capable of NOW. They are a testament of what that young, seemingly unimportant, little girl in the most rural of all villages in Africa is capable of NOW. They bare testament of how investing in an individual can ultimately ignite a whole community.