Gender Empowerment

NEWS: 05.18.2023

The News and Events category publishes the latest News and Events relating to International Economic Law relating to Africa and the Global South. Every week, Afronomicslaw.org receive the News and Events in their e-mail accounts. The News and Events published every week include conferences, major developments in the field of International Economic Law in Africa at the national, sub-regional and regional levels as well as relevant case law. News and Events with a Global South focus are also often included.

A Review of the Role of Women Leadership in Facilitating Regional Integration in Africa: The Way Forward

An efficient and effective regional integration in Africa is impossible without the inclusion of women.” Since time immemorial, African women have engaged in trade and are agents of development in formal and informal sectors. Women constitute half of the world’s population, with more than 70 percent of cross-border trade being conducted by women. These women are not a homogenous group and have different experiences. Therefore, it is essential that women, as the subject of policy, spearhead regional integration in Africa. This paper asserts that one of the reasons for the stagnated pace of regional integration in Africa is due to the failure to include women in the regional integration process.

COVID-19, Climate and Clean Fuel: Charting a path for Africa’s Inclusive Green Economic Recovery

As the TCP clean fuel case study demonstrates, an intersectional approach is needed in order to address the pre-existing issues of climate change and income and gender inequality and the manifold impacts of the pandemic on health, wealth and stability of nations across the African continent. One approach with a lot of potential is to support private sector development by encouraging collaboration between the public, NGOs and private sectors as demonstrated by TCP’s clean fuel initiative.

Gender Mainstreaming and Empowerment under Agreement for the Establishment of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA)

Gender empowerment and trade liberalisation are mutually exclusive, and to think they form an antipodal nexus defeats the purpose of regional trade as envisaged under WTO altogether. I hope that subsequent discussions around AfCFTA will seek to promote and stimulate gender mainstreaming in the carrying out of trade facilitation amongst African countries. Indeed, infrastructural deficit will hinder the realization of AfCFTA. To obtain the benefits under AfCFTA, African countries must aggressively develop their infrastructural capabilities. Most goods are transported through roads. Good road and rail networks facilitate trade within borders and regional areas.