The Gambia First Lady Fatoumatta Bah- Barrow and her colleague African First Ladies of the Organisation of African First Ladies – OAFLAD has renewed their calls for Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment in Africa.
OAFLAD made the call in resolution adopted at a side event by members at 74th United Nations General Assembly in New York made available to The Voice Thursday in Banjul.
According to the statement, OAFLAD concluded that investing in women and girls will yield high returns for poverty eradication, economic growth, and quite key to realizing a future of sustainable development.
The resolution pointed out that OAFLD recognized that women in Africa remain the majority of the poor, the dispossessed, the landless, the unemployed, and those working in the informal sector.
The African First Ladies also expressed concerned that, whilst gender parity at the primary education level is closed to being achieved, at the secondary level, the gap is wider, stating that “African women and girls participation in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) subjects at secondary and tertiary level remains minimal.”
The OAFLAD called upon all member-states of the African Union, the Heads of State, leaders at community and institutional levels and all stakeholders to honour the commitments made at the Global, Continental and national levels to ensure Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment a reality in our communities.