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Women empowerment post Covid-19
The economic empowerment of women is central to sustainable development and poverty eradication
Dr Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka
Johannesburg - During the recent Africa’s Webinar on Informing, Empowering Women and Enhancing Gender Equality, former United Nations (UN) Women director Dr Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka said the Covid-19 pandemic has brought new challenges in empowerment of women. The webinar brought together women from all parts of the African continent to exchange information on the empowerment of women and achievement of gender equality. Mlambo-Ngcuka said the current challenges of gender inequality faced by women must be addressed together with the challenges brought by the Covid-19 pandemic. “Women have been disproportionately affected by the pandemic; two thirds of jobs lost during the pandemic were lost by women, who were also flooded by unpaid care work. Women have no digital literacy so they lost jobs and experienced higher levels of gender-based violence. As we rebuild after the pandemic we have to address all these issues,” she said. Mlambo-Ngcuka added that the UN led Generation Equality campaign is making inroads into empowering women while fighting gender inequality. “Generation Equality wants to accelerate the implementation of the 1995 Beijing Platform for the empowerment of wom-
en and girls everywhere. It also wants to be intergenerational and co-create with young people so that we have a future that takes into account younger people. We want greater investments in the women’s agenda; and make sure that when we arrive on the other side in five years when we have finished implementing Generation Equality; we have taken a huge leap forward. The situation is not what it should be, but we have options and things we can do to address the situation; if we do not do it, women will suffer. Men need to be part of this process as they are an important part of the answers we seek in Gender Equality,” she said. According to the UN the Generation Equality campaign demands equal pay, equal sharing of unpaid care and domestic work, an end to sexual harassment and all forms of violence against women and girls, healthcare services that respond to their needs, and their equal participation in political life and decision-making in all areas of life. During the webinar Southern African Development Community (SADC) secretary Dr Stergomena Tax said women face serious barriers to economic emancipation in the region. “While women play a key role in the economy, more than 50% of poor populations in the SADC are women. This is due
to reasons that include high illiteracy, restrictive and discriminatory laws and limited access to and control of productive resources. The economic empowerment of women is central to sustainable development and poverty eradication; which can be addressed through programmes that target women and facilitate their economic independence and reduction of exploitation,” she said. Tax added that the SADC is taking steps to address the issue. “In 2019 the SADC adopted a regional multi-dimensional women’s economic empowerment programme to promote women’s economic empowerment and gender responsive development, and a lot has been achieved,” she said. Government Communication and Information System (GCIS) director Phumla Williams said women learning from each other on how to address issues they face accelerates their empowerment. “Challenges South African women face are still huge and we have to learn from each other. We seek to make sure that those who come after us don’t have to face challenges of safety, justice and inequalities. This webinar has afforded us an opportunity to learn from others in the continent. This journey of empowering women is for all of us as women and citizens of this continent,” Williams said.