Women Rebuilding Africa

Introduction
The Beijing conference that took place in 1995 stressed the empowerment of women as one of the central development goals of the 21st century. It adopted a Platform for Action which called for the mainstreaming of a gender perspective in the design, implementation and monitoring of all policies and programmes, including development programmes. It committed countries to design their own specific programmes and activities in consultation with women's groups and other NGOs to implement the Beijing Platform for Action.

Commission on Status of women would urge governments to take all necessary measures to empower women and strengthen their economic independence and to protect and promote their full enjoyment of all human rights and fundamental freedoms.

Furthermore, in the Millennium declaration of September 2000, Government commit to promote gender equality and empowerment of women as one of the effective ways to combat poverty, hunger and diseases and to stimulate developments that is truly sustainable.

The World Bank also emphasizes the developmental costs of ignoring women and denying them access to key resources, and urges countries to draw up gender action plans.
Despite such positive moves, there has been insufficient political will and sustained commitment to meeting the needs and interests of women by local authorities and governments.

However, the severe economic constraints that African countries face tend to undercut these new emphases and shifts in approach. The continuing poverty of the majority of African countries, declining terms of trade and the burden of external debt create an unfavourable environment for development. Of the limited resources available, little is directly allocated to women.

In addition, structural adjustment policies pursued for nearly two decades by African governments in conjunction with the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) have had important gender consequences. Governments' macroeconomic policies do not incorporate gender perspectives in their design and ignore the structure of households in Africa and the social relations that influence women's roles in production.

Given all that above, Mrs Madelein Mkunu has found it necessary to create the Leading Women of Africa in order to monitor advancement of empowerment of women on the Continent.

Vision
Leading Women of Africa is a pan-African movement uniting Women leaders in order to find ways and means to contribute to the maintenance of peace and stability in the continent through the unity and Economic empowerment of Women of Africa in the 21st century.

Objectives
The Objectives of Leading Women of Africa are as follows:
• To promote unity among all women of Africa
• To promote the economic empowerment of women in the Continent and in each particular country
• Develop strategies to unblock solutions to the challenges of socio-politico-economic confronting the Continent
• Advocate for women with Developmental Partners in order to find strategies to engage women in the Millennium development goals
• To promote the exchange of economic opportunities among women
• Highlight contributions of First Ladies on to the maintenance of peace and stability on the continent and the empowerment of women in Africa
• Create strong networking process amongst women of Africa