{{First ladies in Africa have the opportunity to speak to their husbands and help formulate strategies that will empower women across the continent, US First Lady Michelle Obama said yesterday.}}
Speaking during the African First Ladies Summit in Dar es Salaam, Mrs Obama said the continent’s economic development would get new impetus if first ladies in Africa used their positions to lobby for formulation of best strategies that will help women.
“Women participate in all activities from family level to community activities, if properly empowered women will spur the economic development of the continent,” she said.
Opening the summit earlier, President Jakaya Kikwete said that despite their significant contribution, women were still poor and do not control the wealth they produce. He added that women also did not have equal access to education and faced difficulties in accessing health services.
“Women perform most of the work. They fully participate in agricultural activities but at the end middlemen buy cheaply their crops and sell at profitable prices. This is a hindrance to women’s development,” President Kikwete said.
He said that if African women had full access to education, health services and credit, they would be active members of society, which, in turn, would spur the continent’s economic growth and boost poverty alleviation efforts. “In Africa, women work more and harder than men, so investing in them will assure the continent with food security and stable income.”
Former US First Lady Laura Bush said that women put back 90 per cent of their income into their families and that they stood at the forefront of championing changes. A country with well-educated and healthy women was more likely to prosper, Mrs Bush said. The two-day summit brings together seven first ladies from across the continent, and was also attended by, among others, former US President George Bush and Mrs Cherie Blair, wife of former British Prime Minister Tony Blair.
Mrs Blair announced the expansion of mobile services to Tanzania’s businesswomen as part of a multi-year initiative to provide tailored business information.
She said the Cherie Blair Foundation for Women in collaboration with ExxonMobil would also provide face-to-face skills development and training to women entrepreneurs.
The service was developed based on groundbreaking research conducted by the Cherie Blair Foundation for Women and Booz and Company on the challenges women entrepreneurs face and how mobile technology can be used to address them.
The research which was also supported by ExxonMobil Foundation concluded that the extensive and ever-increasing penetration of mobile phones in developing and emerging markets presents opportunity to women entrepreneurs who want to develop their micro businesses.
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