First Lady calls on African governments to financially, socially empower women

PSCU

First Lady Margaret Kenyatta has termed lack of access to credit, low representation in decision making positions, lack of control over productive land and lack of financial control to make spending decisions on education and health as some of the impediments to gender equality. 

To address some of those challenges, she said the government took pro-women affirmative actions, including the establishment of the Women’s Enterprise Fund that has enhanced women’s access to capital to run businesses.

The government, she said, has established the Access to Government Procurement Opportunities (AGPO) programme where 30 per cent of all government procurement opportunities are set aside for women owned enterprises, the youth and persons with disability.

Decision making

“Economic empowerment allows women to participate in decision making at household levels,” she said. Alongside the empowerment programmes, the First Lady said Kenya had put in place national policies for the elimination of obstetric fistula and eradication of female genital mutilation by 2022.

She spoke yesterday at the high-level segment of the ongoing 2019 Global Gender Summit in Kigali.