Tunis — The African Development Bank (ADB) has voiced strong support for gender equality in Africa and outlined its work in this area to a meeting of government representatives attending the 49th session of the Commission on the Status of Women taking place at UN headquarters in New York.
The purpose of the Commission meeting is to evaluate progress on the implementation of the Beijing Platform of Action ten years on. Participants have:
Re-affirmed the goal and objectives of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action
Welcomedthe progress made so far towards achieving gender equality and stressed the challenges and obstacles that remain in the implementation of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action and pledge to undertake further action to ensure their full and accelerated implementation
The Bank told the session that its activities in support of gender equality encompass a wide spectrum of projects and programmes that have had a major impact on the lives of African women. "Due emphasis has been placed on women's economic empowerment," Alice Hammer, head of the Bank's delegation, told session participants. "In the ADB's gender policy, women's economic empowerment is considered as key to attaining poverty reduction and sustainable development. Measures have been taken, therefore to support Regional Member Country initiatives that target women producers and entrepreneurs and which adopt innovative lending approaches," she added.
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The last ten years have been very significant in the treatment of gender issues at the Bank. Its activities can be visualized at many levels: strengthening its own internal capacity to provide effective support to its regional member states; creating a solid financial base and stepping up the level of its operations; addressing emerging issues and challenges and championing, in the process, a change of policy for poor countries with a per capita income of below 360 to receive up their allocation in the form not of loans but of grants.
The Bank's Interim Vice President for Operations, Mrs. Zeinab El Bakri, underlined the special importance of this year International Women's Day which, she noted, coincides with two major events for Africa and the world at large: the New York Session and the Millenium Summit taking place later this year to review international progress on the Millenium Development Goals (MDGs).
Vice President El Bakri pointed out that both events will undoubtedly reveal the problems Africa faces in efforts to achieve gender equality and the MDG, both of which represented a real challenge for the ADB. "This challenge can only be met with the appropriate mix of financial resources, policy advise and strategic partnerships," she concluded.
Media contact :
Sabrina Hadjadj Aoul- Tel : +216 71 10 36 98 - E-mail : s.hadjadjaoul@afdb.org
