Yaoundé, 6 March 2023 (ECA) -On March 6, 2023, the sub regional Office for Central Africa of the UNECA (ECA/SRO-CA) held a webinar on Women and gender equality in the operationalization phase of the AfCFTA.
The opening ceremony was punctuated by two speeches by the ECA/SRO-CA Director a.i., Jean Luc Mastaki and Her Excellency Mrs. Kapinga Yvette NGANDU, Commissioner in charge of the department of gender promotion and human and social development of ECCAS.
The seminar marks an opportunity to promote more committed, active, and realistic actions of the SRO-CA on women's participation in trade in Central Africa, as highlighted by the ECA/SRO-CA Director a.i., Jean Luc Mastaki.
The webinar which gathered more than 90 stakeholders from the private sector, the public sector, civil society organizations, international organizations, and academia, aimed at providing a platform for discussion around the challenges women entrepreneurs and women engaged in intra African trade face, the opportunities of the AfCFTA, and expectations regarding UNECA’s support to ECCAS and its Member States in this regard.
The webinar consisted of a series of presentations by Sandrine Aïda Koissy-Kpein, Economic Affairs Officer, ECA/SRO-CA; Nadia Hasham, Trade Policy Expert, ATPC/ ECA; and Adama Ekberg Coulibaly, Head of Subregional Initiatives, ECA/SRO-CA.
Sandrine Aïda Koissy-Kpein, Economic Affairs Officer and gender expert for the ECA/SRO-CA, recalled the continuous and substantive support of the office to ECCAS Member States to strengthen the fundamentals of trade as a vehicle for inclusive growth and to support the operationalization of the AfCFTA agenda in Central African. Underlining the SRO’s efforts to promote gender equality and women’s empowerment (GEWE), she invited women representatives from the private sector and CSOs to express themselves freely during the webinar which is part of a series of activities to be undertaken by the ECA/SRO-CA on GEWE and the AfCFTA.
The presentations were followed by interventions of representatives from the private sector and CSOs and opened discussions in a warm, participative, and fruitful way.
Among the main recommendations: the need for capacity building and awareness raising on the objectives, opportunities, and challenges of the AfCFTA for women; the need to collect disaggregated data capturing intersecting inequalities as women are not a homogeneous group; and the relevance of working closely with existing platforms in the sub-region that support women in their efforts.
The workshop closed with the motion of thanks of Jean Luc Mastaki, who concluded that the ECA/SRO-CA will maintain this multi-stakeholder network active to ensure inclusivity in the office’s work and to expand the debate around gender equality and the AfCFTA in the subregion.
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