Luanda - The Vice-President of Angola, Esperança da Costa, said Friday in Luanda that achieving gender equality in Africa requires a review of the deeply rooted cultural norms and systemic barriers that perpetuate the problem.
Speaking at the opening of the Regional Conference of the Women’s International Democratic Federation (WIDF), Esperança da Costa said a frank and objective approach to the paths that need to be followed to better value women on the continent.
The Vice-President stressed that inequality reinforces poverty, exacerbates malnutrition, limits women's productivity and contribution to food security and threatens the construction of sustainability.
Esperança da Costa spoke of the need to address frankly and objectively which paths to follow, in a continent that has made timid progress in the field of respect and valuing women, whose representation in public life is still minimal.
In this perspective, the Vice-President said, changing social norms, women's empowerment, legal reforms, access to information and cultural changes have played an important role in positively changing the picture, in line with the African Union Strategy on Gender Equality and Women's Empowerment, which is based on an inclusive approach.
"We need to remove barriers to access to education and technical vocational training, technologies and innovation, encouraging entrepreneurship, while strengthening the institutional capacity of structures linked to the defense of the family and women's rights," said the Vice-President.
In Africa, Esperança da Costa said, empowerment has greater results in a context of peace and stability, in the meantime, the weight of armed conflicts, climate change, poverty, fight against HIV-AIDS, lack of access to land and food insecurity hinder women's empowerment.
The Vice-President underlined that Angola is a country of peace that continually seeks sustainable development, industrial and digital transformation to achieve the national targets and the Sustainable Development Goals and, in whose process, Angolan women have played a central role.
Situation in Africa
Africa's performance in increasing the proportion of women in politics and decision-making has been remarkable, making the continent the third most advanced in terms of women's participation in national parliaments and political decision-making bodies.
Analysis of the figures indicates improvements in the ratios between men and women in both politics and decision-making at parliamentary and ministerial level.
However, despite the African Union's 50:50 parity campaign, only Rwanda has reached and exceeded this target.
South Africa is in second place with 41.5% of parliamentary seats held by women, with a similar share in ministerial positions.
The regional average for the quota of seats in parliament is 22.4% for women and 77.6% for men, with a slightly lower average for the quota of ministerial positions held by women.
Angola ranks eighth among the African countries with the highest number of women in parliament, below Rwanda, Senegal, South Africa, Namibia, Mozambique, Ethiopia and Cape Verde, according to data from the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU).
The number of women with seats in Angola's National Assembly grew from 26 percent to 37 percent.
The Inter-Parliamentary Union also highlights the fact that the Angola National Assembly is led by a woman, Carolina Cerqueira, the first in the history of the House of Laws in the country.
As well as occupying eighth place in the African ranking, Angola is 32nd placed in the global ranking.
WIDF was founded in Paris, France, on 1 December 1945, with the fundamental objectives of bringing together women's and feminist organizations from all over the world, without distinction of nationality, religious affiliation, ethnicity or political opinion, with a view to achieving and defending equal rights for women, combating all forms of discrimination against women and defending the rights of the child, as well as peace, democracy, social justice, freedom and self-determination.
In April 2022, the WIDF held its 17th Congress, where Joana Tomás, from Angola, was elected as 1st Vice-President and Fransine Ndateelela Kahungu, from Namibia, as 2nd Vice-President.
The Southern African Development Community (SADC) is made up of 16 member states, namely Angola, Botswana, Comoros, Democratic Republic of Congo, eSwatini, Lesotho, Madagascar, Malawi, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, Seychelles, South Africa, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe. FMA/ART/TED/AMP
