Empower women to contribute towards welfare of families, communities - First Lady

The First Lady, Mrs Rebecca Akufo-Addo, has called for the economic empowerment of women to enable them to contribute more to the welfare of families and communities.

She said women empowerment was very significant for the growth of societies and nations and, therefore, should not be downplayed.

The First Lady made the call at a side event organised by the Organisation of African First Ladies for Development (OAFLAD) at the ongoing UN General Assembly meeting in New York.

The event was on the theme: “Renewing commitment towards enhancing gender equality and women’s empowerment in Africa”.
Participants included African First Ladies, development partners and policy makers from Africa.

Improving access

Mrs Akufo-Addo, who spoke on: “How to improve girls and women’s access to quality education in Africa”, said income generated by women through economic empowerment would “help girls, some of whom are mothers, to keep their children in school”.

Citing the Rebecca Foundation, of which she is the Executive Director, as an example, she said through its ‘Because I Want to Be’ initiative, a number of girls who were unable to go to school for various reasons had been provided with income-generating skills.

She recommended “community engagement” as one of the tools that her peers could use to get more people to accept initiatives in their respective communities.

According to her, before the ‘Because I Want to Be’ programme started, “we carried out research in our target communities to determine the local hindrances to the education of girls and the communities’ role and recommendations for improving girls’ education”.

“We also held community durbars to dialogue on how the people could be involved in the project.

The result was a high community turnout at the various launches, high endorsement of communities and high patronage of the initiative by both in-school and out-of-school girls.” she added.

The First Lady entreated her colleague First Ladies to work at building partnerships, saying that through her initiative, “we have built a multi-disciplinary collaboration with the UNFPA, various ministries and individuals”.

That, she said, had ensured access to funding and technical support from the partners, adding: “It will also ensure sustainability and the mainstreaming of the initiative, even after my term of office.”

Promoting free education

The First Lady of Sierra Leone, Mrs Fatima Naada-Bio, urged African countries to promote free education at all levels to ensure that boys and girls had equal access to education.

According to her, poverty had denied many children, including girls, of education on the continent, and that with free education, that barrier could be removed.

Economic empowerment

For her part, the First Lady of Niger, Mrs Aissata Issoufou Mahamadou, advocated the promotion of girls’ education.

She said empowering women would make them self-reliant.

Writer's email-rebecca.quaicoe-duho@graphic.com.gh