By Mary Mwendwa
Addis Ababa, Ethiopia: Leading African women and girl specialists gather in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia to interrogate the status of gender equality and inclusion in the envisaged African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA). The meeting comes on the sidelines of the African Union Summit of heads of Government and State.
The side event, dubbed the 39th Gender Is My Agenda (GIMAC) Youth Summit spotlights women and youth in all their diversities in the trade discussions taking into account that they have been marginalized. Their voices were seldom included in the continental free trade conversations.
“We need to operationalize AfCFTA, make it practical by removing the systemic and structural barriers, and start challenging the trade regimes that make it impossible to navigate the borders. Our focus as women in trade should not be just on cross-border trade but also on the macro level systems we need to engage central banks, customs unions, and the office of the registration among other partner stakeholders.
ACFTA shouldn’t just be looked at in one economic dimension but the social, political, and environmental aspects matter as well,” said Memory Kachambwa, the Executive Director, of The African Women’s Development and Communications Network.
Her Excellency Madame Bineta Diop, the African Union Commission’s Special Envoy on Women, Peace and Security however called upon the African leaders to ensure peace within and between countries. She said the youth, particularly girls would want to take advantage free trade area pact would bring, but without peace and security, this won’t happen.
“The youth are the leaders of today and can transform Africa if engaged in the trade discussions. AfCFT won’t’ neither makes sense for women, girls, and the youth nor be beneficial to the African people without peace and stability for trade,” she said.
Speaking with the same tone, the African Union Youth Envoy Chido Cleo Mpemba said, “the success of AFCTA will depend on the inclusion of the youth because they constitute over 60% of the continent’s populations” She reiterated that, “The youth are not passive recipients but they are also agents of change and are critical actors in the AfCFTA discussions”.
In addition, Jill Anami, from the African Women’s Development and Communication Network (FEMNET) said that “We should strive to support a gender-inclusive economic development by strengthening the mobility of women across the African continent,”
“Meaningfully engaging youths in the AfCFTA includes giving skills, resources, and an opportunity to participate in trade beyond borders. The GIMAC space is important as it is in itself a solution to the high unemployment rates,” Karen Ondwasi, Chairperson, GIMAC Young Women Network
Sam Norgah, Plan International urged the young people to use their skills and expertise to engage in continental agreements. He said the youth will make the most of the free trade area if they go out of their way to create cross-border networks of peers and challenged the youth to review and feedback on the continental pacts at any given opportunity.
“Make use of the internet and turn social media into a tool for creating and seizing opportunities,” he said.
Their views come at a time when African youth are facing numerous challenges; including but not limited to unemployment. Whereas the AfCFTA proposes free access to commodities, goods, and services among all 55 African Union nations the extent to which this will impact the youth needs to be reviewed, perhaps through the feminist lenses of feminists like Fatimah Kelleher an independent women’s rights, social justice professional, activist and author of a report on AfCFTA that FEMNET published.
Kelleher views equalities between nations will be felt within nations by the least privileged in disproportionate numbers and by women in particular. She also emphasizes that “The question of what goods and services will be fully liberalized, phased, or restricted by each country is the critical factor within the negotiations. Agriculture presents a challenge for women across the continent as competition is opened up on many similar crops between nations.”
Kelleher noted that in Nigeria for example, rice, groundnuts, and palm fruits are all key crops that women process and trade in as finished or semi-finished products.
Competition from a stronger producing country in these products would have a detrimental impact on women’s livelihoods and could warrant being declared sensitive based on gendered considerations.
Similarly, the competition that affects key subsistence crops farmed by women – from plantains and tubers in Uganda to beans and other pulses in Tanzania – could also have gendered impacts given that women also supplement their incomes by selling any surplus they have either at the farm gate or local market
The gender activists particularly will demand the African Union to give special attention to Article 6 of the Pact that urges Member States to commit to “ensuring the active promotion and protection of all human rights for women and girls including the right to development by raising awareness or by legislation where necessary.
The 39th GIMAC event in Addis Ababa is organized around six thematic clusters reflecting the main themes addressed in the Solemn Declaration on Gender Equality in Africa (SDGEA) SDGE.
Each of these clusters has one to three organizations designated as focal points depending on the organizations’ area of interest and/or expertise including Youth, Women, and Girls Living in Rural Areas and the Elders. GIMAC also has regional focal points to ensure that the interests of all the areas in Africa are represented.
