Addis Ababa — ECA - AU Delegates attending The Annual Conference of Speakers of African Parliaments held on 6-7 August 2015, at the Pan African Parliament (PAP) in Midrand, South Africa said national parliaments should help improve women's economic status and political participation through providing an enabling environment with effective policies.

With the theme of the conference as "2015 The Year of Women's Empowerment and Development towards Africa's Agenda 2063", participants noted the difficulty for women in accessing finances and in attaining permanent and legal land tenure. Women also experience restricted participation in politics, development and conflict prevention and resolution, the conference pointed out.

Those attending determined African legislators can expedite the process of women's economic empowerment through pushing for policies on inclusive finances that facilitate women's to resources. This can be done by promoting a transparent, effective and enabling economic environment that supports women's Small, Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in the informal sector, especially for the rural women and help them to move into bigger businesses.

Absence of legal ownership of land leaves women with economic stagnation, food insecurity and social inequity. Accordingly, national governments are urged to support the call for a 30% target for women with regard to new land allocations and documentation of land rights as well as employment in institutions of land administration and management.

The conference participants encouraged national parliaments to have entrenched policies for gender equality and support women's participation in the development process at the local level.

Women's full participation cannot happen without the necessary analytical skills and the presence of gender champions who can mobilise their parliaments and communities. The conference recommended the Pan African Parliament Women Caucus to mobilise resources to build the gender analysis skills of regional and national parliamentarians, caucuses and select committees, to promote women's equal representation.

The participants also noted the devastating aftermath of conflict on women thus they called upon stakeholders to protect women and children during armed conflicts. The conference suggested that the importance of women's equal and full participation in the prevention and resolution of conflicts, peace building and peace keeping should be promoted.

The conference participants urged the speakers of parliaments to provide an enabling environment to the PAP and African parliaments to popularise and promote the implementation of AU legal instruments, programmes and policies, in the Member States.

They also called upon the speakers of parliaments to support African delegations at the COP21 and help create an African Parliamentary Task Group that will develop a joint statement on sustainable economic transformation and investment in science, innovation and technology.