The latest Africa’s Pulse report presented by the World Bank Group for the year 2019 has indicated that in order to eradicate poverty and archive sustainable economic growth in Africa, the equal contributions of Women and Men is crucial.
According to the World Bank’s 20th edition of Africa’s pulse, the Sub-Saharan Africa’s economic performance has remained sluggish due to persistent uncertainty in the global economy and the slow pace of reforms to enhance domestic resilience.
Women empowerment is a programme that African countries have been advocating for as it a pursuit of national development. Zambia has in the same line vowed to invest in women economic empowerment through facilitation of access to and control of land and other resources and enhance credit to small and medium size businesses.
Experts in gender analysis issues have stipulated that despite Zambian women being offered empowerment schemes, there is less effort in facilitating skill development and capacity building. With Zambia signing up to the African Continental Free Trade Area – AfCFTA, Financial experts have indicated that despite the agreement being beneficial to Zambian traders and entrepreneurs, less engagements have been made with SME’s to ensure they are adequately equipped with what they agreement offers or what will need to be offered.
The 20th edition World bank Report presented by Chief Economist for Africa Albert Zeufack further indicates that African women contribute a large share of 40% of agriculture labor across the continent while Africa’s success story of women’s representation in the labor force is stifled by large gender disparities in earnings.
Zeufack has since stated that to seize the greatest benefits from African Women’s participation at work, policy makers must confront the constraints that women excessively face and enact policies to help them boost growth.
Women’s economic empowerment is fundamental to strengthening Women’s rights and it is a powerful way to accelerate development in a country. Investing in women is another way of accelerating poverty reduction in the country because women contribute to a large share of agriculture labor across the continent. However, the focus on work and earnings should not undermine the other dimensions of empowerment.
