Gender inequality costs sub-Saharan Africa $95 million each year, the African Development Bank (AfDB) and its partners have said.
They made this known at a Finance in Common summit hosted virtually by Agence Française de Développement (AFD) on 12 November.
At the summit, the AfDB Director for Gender, Women and Civil Society, Vanessa Moungar, representatives from global financial institutions, Green Climate Fund (GCF), and UN Women signed a joint declaration on gender equality to strengthen their commitment at all levels.
It was learnt that Moungar and other panelists addressed the critical role and impact of public-private development banks in achieving gender equality for inclusive economic growth.
Moungar said to change the status quo, the AfDB was taking the lead in accelerating efforts to address gender inequality and drive inclusive economic transformation for women across Africa.
‘If women can participate in the continent’s economic growth and transform their livelihoods, Africa’s economies will be transformed’, Moungar said.
AfDB, according to Moungar, is investing in empowering women entrepreneurs through its Affirmative Finance Action for Women in Africa (AFAWA) programme.
The AFAWA programme was designed to tackle the challenges women in business face, from access to finance and training to the lack of an enabling environment.
Also speaking, Gender and Social Specialist at GCF, Seblewongel Deneke Negussie, said the organisation only considers funding proposals that include consistent gender analysis, assessment, action plan, and gender-responsive policies in project design and implementation.
The summit recognised that the Covid-19 pandemic’s impact on women had widened gender inequality around the world.
Some panelists noted that women must be represented in decision-making to accelerate gender equality and implement innovative and sustainable responses to environmental challenges.
To address these and other pandemic-related challenges, the AfDB launched a $10 billion Covid-19 Rapid Response Facility (CRF) in April 2020.
Source: Africanews
Photo source: UN Women
