Women's role in trade needs more recognition

The role of women as an engine for trade and development in Southern Africa needs better recognition, Mauritian Minister for Women's Rights Arianne Navarre-Marie told NGOs on Monday meeting to discuss US-African trade cooperation.

In her opening address to the NGO conference, which will discuss progress under the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) which facilitates trade between the United States and sub-Saharan Africa, Navarre-Marie said that women were keen to know what AGOA could do to help build their trade capacity.

A report released earlier this year by the International Food Policy Research Institute said that women in sub-Saharan Africa supply over 70 percent of agricultural labour, were agricultural innovators and providers of family care and nutrition, but their needs had been neglected.

"Women have always contributed to human development but this contribution has remained invisible and underrated because of prejudice and discriminatory policies and sexist mentalities," Navarre-Marie said.

She said that in the Mauritian textile sector, almost two-thirds of workers were women and the success of the sector was based on their contribution. The spinoff was that more girls were going to school, more women were gaining information and "given the right signals and appropriate framework, women can rise up to the challenge of playing more [important] roles in the economic and social spheres".

She added: "It is high time that we give serious thoughts to the setting up of a regional network for gender issues."

A private sector session, attended by business leaders, is running alongside the NGO forum. The main conference opens on Wednesday.