Earlier this month, the twelfth meeting of the ministers responsible for women’s affairs in COMESA from the member states took place, with the participation of Dr. Maya Morsi, President of the National Council for Women.
The event introduced many recommendations, including approval of the system for managing women’s empowerment issues in COMESA and directing the General Secretariat to develop a special road map for building women’s capacities and setting budgets that take into account women’s empowerment and gender equality, in addition to approving the evaluation report on the impact of Covid-19 on women in COMESA member states.
Furthermore, the meeting urged all COMESA Member States to support the national branches of the COMESA Businesswomen’s Federation to collect data in order to conduct a survey aimed at identifying the characteristics of small and medium-sized enterprises owned by women and youth to allow the creation of a database on small and medium-sized enterprises owned by women and youth in the fields of Agriculture, leather, leather products, and agricultural processing, as well as allowing targeted support and urging member states to identify small and medium-sized companies for women and youth that are considered role models in these areas.
The meeting also recommended urging member states to implement initiatives and projects for women to enhance their economic empowerment, in addition to continuing education and awareness of cross-border trade opportunities and overcoming violence against women and other challenges facing women working in this trade to enhance their participation, as well as urging member states to Involve the body responsible for the social sector in their countries to accelerate the signing and ratification of the COMESA Social Charter and urge the Secretariat to include digital financial inclusion and other economic indicators in the bulletin to promote regional integration. They also discussed supporting and promoting the digital platform “The Voice of 50 Million African Women www.womenconnect.org” and enabling women to use the platform to access information, capacity-building services, financing, guidance, markets, and access to a greater number of beneficiaries from Member States.
Dr. Maya Morsi, Ms. Jan M. Sendiza, Minister of Women, Community Development and Social Welfare of Malawi, and Ms. Soafilera Prencia, Minister of Population, Social Protection and Advancement of Women of Madagascar, reviewed good practices related to the promotion of gender equality and the empowerment of women.
Dr. Maya Morsi, President of the National Council for Women, had recently participated in the twelfth meeting of ministers responsible for women’s affairs in COMESA from member states, under the title “Economic integration for the prosperity of COMESA based on green investment, value addition, and tourism”. During the meeting, a committee was elected. On the part of Zambia, the current chairperson of COMESA and the member states, Egypt was elected to chair the meeting and Dr. Maya Morsi chaired the meeting. Ethiopia was elected as vice-chairman of the meeting, represented by Ms. Alemitu Umut, Minister of State for Women and Children Affairs, and Rwanda was elected, represented by Ms. Mireille Batamulisa, Permanent Secretary at the Ministry. Gender and the strengthening of the family as a decision for the meeting.
It is worth mentioning that representatives of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Djibouti, Egypt, Ethiopia, Kenya, Madagascar, Malawi, Mauritius, Rwanda, Uganda, and Zambia participated in the meeting. Ambassador Moataz Anwar, the Egyptian ambassador to Zambia, also participated in the meeting, joined by representatives from NCW and the Small, Medium, and Micro Enterprises Development Authority.
