By Raphael Mweninguwe
Women in Africa face a lot of discrimination from men in many sectors and the Women Achievers Award 2024 (WAA2024) Business Shower aims at addressing that gender divide.
The WAA2024 Business Shower is a Women Economic Empowerment Concept that was recently launched in Botswana.
Founder of the WAA2024-Botswana, Dr Gaolapelwe Badumedi Matsetse-Mpete, said in a recent interview that the WAA2024 Business Shower Cohort which she has just launched aims at “encouraging women to reclaim their power and to leverage that power for their advancement in the economic space”.
“The truth is Women’s participation in the economic activities seems predominant only at the consumer stage, their participation at the production and distribution stages is low. Our Vision aims to change that narrative through this concept,” she said, adding, “The goal here is to launch eight women owned and led businesses across Africa before the end of 2024. The end result would be economic independence for women”.
Matsetse-Mpete said there are a number of challenges that women face in Africa and they are struggling to overcome.
She said women are mostly only seen as consumers in the economic activity and that makes them highly dependant on their male counterparts, which she said makes them susceptible to gender based violence (GBV).
“We are committed to changing that norms. The WAA Business Shower aims to address women’s economic dependance through setting up of their own businesses,” she said.
She said this was designed to be the impetus behind Women Economic Empowerment which she said would and “ultimately address poverty, financial dependence on male partners, gender based violence, limited access to opportunities, lack of access to decision making platforms and all other forms of inequalities women are subjected to daily”.
She said when women are empowered economically, they become equal, active and effective players in the economy subsequently changing their status in the society and their overall self worth.
“Greater gender equality boosts economic growth, it also counteracts exploitation and disregard of women’s fundamental rights,” she said.
There are a number of factors that lead to women facing such challenges and Matsetse-Mpete believes that in Africa, the issues of slavery and colonialism are to blame.
“One could blame slavery and colonialism as the genesis of erosion of traditions and rights that initially granted women esteem and equality. I strongly believe it all stems from subjugation of women due to practices of gender differences and constricted life opportunities,” she said.
On climate change which has also impacted women heavily in Africa, Matsetse-Mpete, said women are more vulnerable to the impact of climate change such as food insecurity, heat waves and floods because they represent the majority of the world’s poor that is proportionally dependant on threatened natural resources.
“Through the WAA Business Shower Concept we are trying to improve women’s adaptability to climate change. Inspite of their vulnerability, we would like women to not only be seen as victims of climate change but also as active, effective promoters and agents of mitigation and adaptation,” she said.
She said when women are economically empowered they will be in a better position to acquire knowledge, skills and resources related to mitigating the effects of climate change.
