UNAIDS (New York) - March 28, 2002
Strategic Partnerships for Women's Empowerment in Africa will help African businesswomen through a programme combining entrepreneur development and business skills training with HIV/AIDS education. This is the first Africa initiative linking entrepreneurship and financial independence for women with HIV/AIDS education and prevention.
There are more then 10 million women with small business interests across Africa. They can play a critical role in encouraging more women to start new enterprises and also leading the charge against the HIV/AIDS pandemic as role models for women and educators in their own business initiatives.
Discussion at the partnership's launch at the Sony Club in New York City focused on opportunities available through the US African Growth and Opportunity Act and how women entrepreneurs can support HIV/AIDS education for their employees and communities.
"This strategic partnership can help move the world forward towards the goal of eradicating poverty, giving Africa's women the economic tools that can enable them to turn crises into opportunities," said UNDP Associate Administrator Z phirin Diabr .
At the event, African women entrepreneurs described how UNDP support helped them expand their businesses. For example, after a UNDP-sponsored study tour to Malaysia and Thailand last May, businesswomen formed the African Women Entrepreneur Textile Council (AWETEC), which assists them in networking and identifying trade opportunities. Within nine months, every AWETEC member has expanded business operations to at least three countries in Africa, with some members exporting to Asia and Europe.
Women head 40 per cent of all households in many African countries. In some sub-Saharan countries torn by civil strife and ravaged by the AIDS pandemic, this figure rises almost to 60 per cent. As heads of households, Africa's women are responsible for making many economic decisions. They grow and process as much as 80 per cent of the food, and in many sub-Saharan countries, women's food processing has turned into enterprises that generate jobs, income and exports.
Participants in the launch, hosted by Sony Music Entertainment, Inc., included the private sector, African ambassadors from Washington and United Nations missions in New York, and delegates attending the 46th Session of the UN Commission on the Status of Women.
BWN, a Washington, DC based organization, is one of the most comprehensive sources of information and programme links to business markets for women around the world. BWN works with over 7,000 associations, 100 Fortune 500 corporations, 20 US government agencies, and over 300 members of Congress, as well as all 50 states in the U.S. and many foreign countries. BWN was acquired in 2001 by a New York based media company, iVillage.
For further information, please contact Viola Morgan UNDP Regional Bureau for Africa.
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