Several high-profile speakers at Infrastructure Africa have highlighted woman empowerment as a key to unlocking Africa’s potential.

Speaking at the event, The African Development Bank Group’s Special Envoy on Gender, Geraldine Fraser-Moleketi, emphasised the necessity of addressing inequalities, whether gender-related or otherwise for sustainable development on the continent.

Similar views were echoed by other female panellists including Dr Elham Mahmood Ahmed Ibrahim of the AU Commission for Infrastructure and Energy, and Tas Anvaripour for Global Partner for Energy Infrastructure (Abraaj Group).

The trio were speaking at the launch of the African Inclusive Infrastructure Forum (AIIF), a side event of the main Infrastructure Africa Business Forum held at the Sandton Convention Centre yesterday afternoon.

The speakers dedicated the conference to gender issues and women empowerment in infrastructure, aiming to address the unconscious biases in the workplace.

 

Conference a platform for women’s needs

The inclusive infrastructure event addressed the role of women in overcoming Africa’s infrastructure deficit and sought to highlight the needs women have from cultural pressure, gender role norms, resources and rights.

The general tone of the presentations was that women should not only be found on the micro level in energy projects, but elevated in order to see where they fit in the role of regional integration for infrastructure development and gender equality in Africa.

Emphasis was made on driving inclusivity, greater equality and equity, access to information and opportunities, and implementation of these to drive inclusive growth among young women so that they are able to see their role as contributing to the infrastructure growth story in transforming our continent.

 

Event in brief

The two-day high-level conference has provided a platform for informative and interactive sessions with the prime movers of infrastructure sector across various spheres like government, policy makers, industrial leaders, academia and potential investors.

As the African continent welcomes strategies to unlock infrastructure development in sub-Saharan Africa, gender equality and inclusivity in the work space are increasingly topical. In the growing and robust sub-Saharan economy there is a need to deviate from inadvertently limiting the sector to men/males and actively pursuing untapped spaces in order to give rise to women empowerment and leadership in historically male dominated industries.