This year, the Graça Machel Trust (GMT) convened a high-level Expert Group of African Women Leaders (ELG) in the finance sector as a group of strong actors to drive systemic action to advance women’s active participation in digital economy. The expert leaders have been hard at work addressing structural barriers to gender equality faced by women and girls, particularly when trying to access finance.Â
Dr Tukiya Kankasa-Mabula, represented the Trust’s ELG in a high-level dialogue hosted by Development Centre’s Social Institutions and Gender Index (SIGI), the African Development Bank’s Africa Gender Index (AGI) and the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (ECA). This prestigious dialogue highlighted facts and figures on where we are when it comes to achieving gender equality and women’s empowerment. While the SIGI sheds light on the structural barriers to gender equality faced by women and girls throughout their lifetime, the AGI offers a comprehensive picture of gender equality in Africa.Â
During a session themed “Women’s economic empowerment and access to productive and financial resources”, Dr Kansasa-Mabala spoke about how social norms limit women’s economic empowerment and access to productive and financial resources and prioritise priority policy options to improve women’s lives. She touched on what she thinks are some of the challenges constraining women’s access to assets and hindering women’s entrepreneurship. “Apart from productive assets, women still lack access to appropriate finance and existing traditional business models for financing their businesses. Moreover, limited availability of women-focused financial products and services fail to take into account the needs of women.”
“Lack of access to appropriate finance. Existing traditional business models for financing womenâs entrepreneurship and limited availability of women focused financial products and services which fail to take into account the needs of women. Providing only financial services without complimentary non-financial services such as business management skills, market linkages and business development support services hinders womenâs enterprises from growing”–Â Dr Kansasa-Mabala.
According to Tukiya, providing only financial services without complementary non-financial benefits such as business management skills, market linkages, and business development support services hinders women’s enterprises from growing. Â
A TAKE ON SOME PROMISING OPPORTUNITIES TO IMPROVE WOMEN’S LIVESÂ
Women are natural savers. Groups such as rural savings groups should be harnessed and given financial literacy and their resources channelled into production, not consumption spending. Efforts should also be made to coordinate the rural savings groups from local to district and national levels.Â
The use of digital financial services is improving across countries, primarily through the widespread use of mobile money and new payment mechanisms. These can be used extensively to drive financial inclusion and access to finance, to improve women’s lives. Other digital transactions such as e-commerce and online shops also transform the challenge of low geographical reach and physical presence.
Legal reforms are in progress to give women the right to own land in their own titles and enter into contracts on their own. However, this must be accompanied by removing the cultural obstacles and practices regarding land ownership, including working with traditional chiefs and civil society.
Government programmes for women’s empowerment in key economic sectors such as agriculture, manufacturing, mining and tourism. Through these programmes:
- Provision of economic opportunities such as out-grower schemes that enable women to be incorporated in large agriculture or manufacturing value chains;Â
- Women are provided with expert advice, equipment, innovative technologies, training, and grants to improve their productive capacity;Â
- Women are linked to either value chains or other market networks to have stable markets and income for their output. Some of these programmes integrate financial institutions to provide working capital to meet retail orders in the value chain.
Strengthening of women’s trade associations and increase the participation of women in cross-border trade. Trade associations are training their members to improve the quality of their products and obtain product certifications that comply with international standards to expand into cross-border trade and exports. Â
Access to informal finance through Community Based Savings and Lending Groups. Community based savings and lending groups, savings groups and cooperatives have emerged as a reliable source of credit for women to finance their businesses and support other livelihood expenses. Financial institutions have begun connecting with these community groups by providing agents, savings and other digital financial services.Â
The Need for Enabling Policies for the Digital Economy and Mobile technology, digital financial services, and e-commerce are helping to empower women by providing platforms for safe payment transactions with suppliers and customers, thus enabling timely delivery of goods and services.Â
“The Fourth Industrial Revolution is upon us as ably demonstrated by the COVID 19 pandemic’s resultant changes in how we do business. Granted that the digital economy comes with its own risks and challenges, with appropriate interventions, the digital economy, including digital financial services, presents us with the opportunity to leapfrog women into the future” –Â Dr Kansasa-Mabala.
The Expert Leaders Group (ELG) on Women’s Financial Inclusion in Africa
Under the leadership of the Graça Machel Trust’s Founder, Mrs. Graça Machel, the Expert Leaders Groups was initiated to seize the urgency of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and to advocate for gender inclusiveness in relief and recovery responses and the reconstruction agenda. The ELG is an advocacy group consisting of the Trust’s New Faces New Voices Champions, current Expert Women leaders and those serving in leadership positions as Governors, Deputy Governors of Central or Reserve Banks across the African continent. The group is using evidence-based advocacy to influence transformative policy actions that promote opportunities to advance the growth of women’s businesses as the pillar to the post-COVID economic recovery and reconstruction, particularly around women’s financial inclusion, entrepreneurship and unlocking resources to investment.
The Trust supports and mobilises civil society networks on issues of ending child marriage, ending violence against children, ending female genital mutilation and promoting childrenâs rights, to carry out advocacy and action across Africa. Special focus is placed on Malawi, Mozambique, Tanzania and Zambia where child marriage continues to be a problem largely driven by poverty, gender inequality, harmful traditional practices, conflict, low levels of literacy, limited opportunities for girls and weak or non-existent protective and preventive legal frameworks.
Education is a fundamental right for all children, which is also a vehicle for social, economic and political transformation in communities, countries and the African continent at large. Recent studies indicate a lack of progress in some of the critical commitments aimed at improving education quality, access, retention and achievement, particularly for girls. In most African countries, girls may face barriers to learning, especially when they reach post-primary levels of education. By implementing multi-dimensional approaches to education which includes core education, personal development, life skills and economic competencies, the Trust partners with funding partners, governments, civil societies and the private sector to improve education access.
The Nutrition and Reproductive, Maternal, New-born, Child and Adolescent Health and Nutrition, (RMNCAH+N) of the Childrenâs Rights and Development Programme aims at promoting the Global Strategy for women, children and adolescentsâ health within the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) agenda. The strategy emphasises on the importance of effective country leadership as a common factor across countries making progress in improving the health of women, children and adolescents.
Through its Early Childhood Development (ECD) plan, The Trust will seek to put into action the new science and evidence Report that was presented by Lancet Series on Good and early development – the right of every child. This will be achieved by mobilising like-minded partners to contribute in the new science and evidence to reach all young children with ECD. The Trustâs goal is to be a catalyst for doing things differently, in particular, to rid fragmentation and lack of coordination across ECD sectors. In response to evidence showing the importance of political will in turning the tide against the current poor access and quality of ECD. Even before conception, starting with a motherâs health and social economic conditions, the early years of a childâs life form a fundamental foundation that determines whether a child will survive and thrive optimally.