Inonge Mutukwa-Wina hosts 3rd AWES

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ZAMBIA’s Gender and Child Development (GCD) Minister Inonge Mutukwa-Wina will host the 3rd African Women’s Economic Summit (AWES) on the theme: “African Women: Realising Africa’s Economic Potential” from July 24-26th 2014 in Lusaka reports Derrick Sinjela and Favourite Kalando for the Rainbow Newspaper and the Zambian Developmental Media Alliance (ZADEMA).

Speaking during a Thursday 27th March 2014 Media Breakfast at the Taj Pamodzi Hotel in Lusaka, Ms Mutukwa-Wina confirmed that President Michael Chilufya Sata’s Patriotic Front (PF) Government had endorsed the 3rd AWES Indaba.

From the outset, Ms Mutukwa-Wina indicated that her ministry viewed the 3rd AWES interaction as a platform on which an average woman will be inspired to grow from selling a tray of eggs at the roadside to becoming an entrepreneur capable of marshalling resources to export to regional and international markets.

“President Sata’s PF Government has endorsed the forthcoming 3rd AWES meeting which my ministry sees as bearing fruit beyond 2014 and believe that it will inspire an average women to grow from selling a tray of eggs to becoming a regional and international entrepreneur,” stated Ms Mutukwa-Wina.

Ms Mutukwa-Wina recalled that in 2012, she presided over the ‘Month of the Woman Entrepreneur (MOWE) Award Ceremony organized by the Zambia Federation of Associations for Women in Business (ZFAWIB) and the   International Labour Organisation (ILO) during which event a Ms. Sikufele was honoured for being an outstanding female entrepreneur.

“This story came about because there was a bank besides Ms Sikufele’s side willing to finance and support the business idea while ZFAWIB provided training. There are many such women with their own unique stories to tell, which I believe require platforms on which to be nurtured,” observed Ms Mutukwa-Wina during an event witnessed by Bank of Zambia (BoZ) Deputy Governor-Administration Dr Tukiya Kankasa-Mabula.

Ms. Mutukwa-Wina reiterated the need to increase women’s access to finance and services, strengthening entrepreneurial skills and increasing the number and visibility of African women as practitioners, leaders and decision makers at management and board level within the banking and financial sector.

“This is what the 3rd African women’s Economic Summit is all about! It is about making the connection between women enterprise development and the finance sector so that women are part of creating jobs, wealth and prosperity not just at micro but at national, regional, continental and global levels too. For this to happen, we need a new and fresh thinking in the way the banking and finance sectors operate across Africa and Zambia in particular. We need to create new models for engaging and assisting women to become entrepreneurs, investors, leaders and indeed decision makers,” noted Ms Mutukwa-Wina.

“As we engage with media houses and personnel today, we want to be part of this new breaking story about how best to economically empower the African Woman. This empowerment process starts with packaging information into knowledge which in turn becomes a powerful tool in the hands of an ordinary woman. This is what you do best and this is where you come in as experts in journalism, media relations and knowledge creation as well as mobilizing the public countrywide to rally around the upcoming 3rd African Women’s Economic Summit including pre-event activities, ” Ms Mutukwa-Wina thankfully urged the media to continue informing the public on developmental matters.

Ms Mutukwa-Wina emphasized that she saw the 3rd AWES meeting as a life-changing platform for women as citizens and the media seek positive engagement and socio-economic progress for women, children  and young people.

“My ministry is hosting the 3rd AWES Secretariat and contact point for information through the Publicity sub-committee. I urge writers and media houses top research interrogate and engage the respective partners beyond the financial and banking sector so that the public will be better informed. I look ahead to inspiring stories that will encourage and bring about positive change among women and men for a better and prosperous Zambia and  Africa,” a confident Mutukwa-Wina admonished.

New Voices, New Faces founding patron Gracia Machel is unhappy following empirical evidence which indicate that there is an estimated United States (US) $20 billion funding gap in financing women-owned small-scale businesses.

Mrs Machel, a founder member of the African Women’s Foresight is an international advocate for women’s and children’s rights, which is committed to the empowerment of African women across sectors such as finance, agriculture, media and science.

New Voices New faces-a Pan African advocacy group is the first pillar  of Multiplying Faces Amplifying Voices to be established and it builds on Mrs Machel’s already substantial legacy as a social and political activities.

“The empowerment of women is not only a developmental issue; it is very much an economic issue. Those institutions that recognize the changes that are happening globally AND take steps to make certain that they are participating in the next emerging markets, will more fully reap the economic benefits of their investment,” acknowledges an optimistic Mrs Machel.

Mrs Machel believes that women have the potential to contribute
significantly to economic growth in Africa, thus the imperative need to harness female strengths as society engages with decision-makers at national, regional, continental and global level.

The African Women’s Economic Summit (AWES) bi-annual indaba is held every two years and comprises a series work sessions underpinned by data an research in partnership with the African Development Bank (ADB).

The AWES head office is in South Africa, with Chapter offices in
Cameroon, Cote D’Ivoire, Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Egypt, Ethiopia, Kenya, Mozambique, Niger, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia.
According to information accessed by Rainbow Newspaper Limited and the Zambian Developmental Media Alliance (ZADEMA) partners and drivers of change in the New Faces News Voices initiative include ABSA, African Development Bank (AfDB) Bank of Botswana, Bank of Industry-Nigeria, Bank of Zambia (BoZ), Central Bank of Kenya, Deutsche Gesellschaft fur Internationale Zuzammenarbeit (GIZ) on behalf of the German Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) and Global Banking Alliance for Women (GBAW).

Others that are collaborating with Mrs Machel in empowering
women consist of the Global Partnership for Financial Inclusion (GPFI), International Council of Women Business Leaders (ICWBL), International Labour Organization (ILO), Kenya Post Office Savings Bank (KPOSB), Making Finance Work for Africa (MFWA), Open Society Initiative of Southern Africa (OSISA, United Nations (UN) Women and UN Global Compact and last but definitely not least of all the Women in Sovereign Entities (WSE).

The Global Partnership for Financial Inclusion (GPFI)is an inclusive  platform for all G20 countries, interested non-G20 countries and endorsed at the G relevant stakeholders to carry forward work on financial inclusion, including implementation of the G20 Financial Inclusion Action Plan 20 Summit in Soul in 2011. www.nfnv.org

A successful conclusion to the 3rd African Women’s Economic Summit (“AWES”) held in Lusaka, Zambia under the theme African Women: Realising Africa’s Economic Potential and hosted by Pan African advocacy group New Faces New Voices (“NFNV”) and the African Development Bank (“AfDB”) — with @New Faces New Voices. 

“Women have different categories and backgrounds, women are not a homogeneous group, a woman in construction will be different from a woman in agriculture, in finance and so forth” – Graça Machel