Preps for Women’s economic summit launched

Government has launched preparations for the third African Women’s economic summit which will be hosted by Zambia in July this year.

Gender and Child Development Minister Inonge Wina said the summit was aimed at increasing women’s access to finance and financial services at all levels of society.

Mrs. Wina said the high profile conference will further seek to improve women enterprise development and the finance sector so that they are part of creating jobs, wealth and prosperity at national level.

The Minister was speaking at a media breakfast for the upcoming summit in Lusaka today.

The summit will take place in Lusaka from 24^th to 26^th July this year under the theme “African Women: Realising Africa’s Economic Potential”.

Mrs. Wina said the conference was also aimed at strengthening skills and capacity of women as entrepreneurs, leaders and investors.

She added that the conference would also seek to increase the number and visibility of African women as practitioners, leaders and decision makers at management and board levels within the banking and finance sector.

Mrs. Wina said the conference was a developmental event which was aimed at changing the platform for women before, during and after the summit.

Speaking at the same function, International Labour Organisation (ILO) Senior Regional Gender Specialist Mwila Chigaga said ILO considers the summit as a vital means of transforming the prevailing gender dynamics.

Mrs. Chigaga said economic empowerment of women improves the agency of women themselves and enables them to become agents of change.

She said economic empowerment of women gives them the voice, enhances their decision making power and gives them greater negotiating power in the home and the public sphere.

She said ILO has devised tools such as gender and entrepreneurs in order to improve business exhibition and skills targeting different levels of women entrepreneurship.