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Cape Town – Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, undersecretary general and executive director of the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women, has called for the plight of women to be one of the focus points of this year’s World Economic Forum on Africa.
She is one of the co-chairs of the forum, which takes place in Cape Town this week.
“Women are part of the missing story in Africa. I want to encourage (the WEF to look) at the situation of most of the women in Africa, which can only be described as ‘sustained poverty’,” she said on Thursday.
“Women should not be a charity case in Africa. Yet most work at home or in the informal sector. In Africa women earn 30% less than their male counterparts.”
She believes intervention is needed on the issue of respect for women in both the private and public sector in Africa. The right skills and the right policies should be created to address the issue, said Mlambo-Ngcuka.
Two of her co-chairs at WEF, group CEO of Barclays UK Antony Jenkins and Michael Rake, chair of the BT Group in the UK, agreed on the need for skills development in Africa in general, and not just for women.
To Jenkins skills such as engineering and high tech carry great significance for the continent, as well as a focus on entrepreneurship.
“People forget that entrepreneurship is a skill that can be taught. There must not only be basic skills development, but also upskilling taking place,” said Jenkins.
Rake added that education and skills development are needed to meet investment needs on the continent, and in this regard he said technology has a key role to play.
