Source: Business Day
She is a renowned international advocate for women and children’s rights and has been a social and political activist for many decades. She is also the president of the Foundation for Community Development (FDC), a not-for-profit organisation she founded in 1994, which gives grants to civil society organisations to strengthen communities, facilitate social and economic justice, and assist in the reconstruction and development of post-war Mozambique. And her name? She is the vibrant and highly industrious woman of substance, Graça Machel, the amiable wife of Nelson Mandela.

Graça has served on the boards of numerous international organisations, including the UN Foundation, the Forum of African Women Educationalists, the African Leadership Forum, and the International Crisis Group. But what is on her front burner is the African Women’s Economic Forum (AWEF) coming up in July.

The focus of the summit will be on the women SME market, which has been identified as a key growth area in emerging markets. Despite the social benefits of female-led SME’s, research has shown that these grow slower than their male-run counterparts. Accordingly, this year’s summit will look at ways to unlock the growth of female-led businesses “With all that is going on globally, I realised that when nations were being mentioned and their great achievements, it was void of women,” said Machel.

“Aside Nigeria, if we talk about Africa, how many women are involved in financial matters? There are few women who occupy the place of power financially. When we come to social stability, feeding the nation and the likes, women are preferred to be at the forefront but when it comes to lending a voice financially, there is a gap. So, for us, we saw it as a good opportunity for women to take centre stage in the financial sector and gradually take centre stage in rulership of our various countries.

“What Thabo Mbeki said a few years back when people thought he was crazy is now becoming a reality. He said ‘this is the African century’, and now it is becoming a reality. It is now an opportunity for young women to claim their rightful place in defining how we want to help develop our country. If the informal sector is run well by women who are the majority, then they can run the formal economy. It is up to us to change this situation because it is not a favour, it is a right.”

As a founding member of the African Women’s Foresight Network, Machel established Multiplying Faces Amplifying Voices, which is committed to the empowerment of African women across sectors such as finance, agriculture, media and science. New Faces New Voices is the first pillar of Multiplying Faces Amplifying Voices to be established and it builds on Machel’s already substantial legacy.

Hear Machel tell more about New Faces New Voices. “It is a pan-African network of women in the financial and business sectors. We recognise that women have the potential to deliver a significant contribution to economic growth in Africa. Our role is to advocate for investment so that this potential can be realised. In particular, we focus on increasing women’s access to finance and financial services, improving women’s skills as entrepreneurs and business leaders, and growing the number and visibility of African women in leadership and decision-making positions in the financial sector. We do this in order to reduce inequalities, improve the economic well-being of women and their families, and strengthen African economies and societies at large. The time is now to finance women-owned businesses. The time is now to ensure women have access to affordable and appropriate financial services. The time is now to groom women for leadership in the financial sector.”

The stage is set for Nigeria to host the second AWES from July 13-14, 2012, and Machel disclosed that women comprise 52 percent of the population, yet they are responsible for only 10 percent of total income and 1 percent of assets. “July summit will provide an avenue through which decision-makers in the financial sector – policy-makers, regulators, commercial banks – and prominent women entrepreneurs would be engaged to find innovative ways to accelerate the inclusion of women in Africa’s growth story. No fewer than 150 individuals and corporate bodies will attend the summit from different parts of the continent and they will all have a common purpose of advocating for innovative investment in African women, ensuring they add value and influence to the financial sector and the aggregate economy,” she said.

NFNV’s inaugural conference was held in Nairobi, Kenya in 2010 and created a platform to begin a serious dialogue with key stakeholders in the financial sector on how society can invest differently in women. The two-day conference covered various topics and identified key obstacles that are faced by women in their quest to drive their entrepreneurial and career goals.

This year’s summit – African Women: Financing the Future” – will look back to 2010 and track progress made since the inaugural conference by various institutions that made pledges. The summit will highlight innovations in finance and different initiatives that can be scaled up to encourage decision makers to strengthen the enabling environment for women.

She added, “The global financial crisis has provided an opportunity for women to become more involved in reshaping financial systems internationally. Our South African chapter is already working with the Business Women’s Association and Business Unity South Africa to look at ways to promote the role of women in shaping the country’s National Growth Plan.”

The African Development Bank was a co-host of the inaugural summit in 2010 and will be again in 2012. Its president, Donald Kaberuka, will be in attendance to unveil the bank’s new gender strategy. Participants, including the managing director of the Bank of Industry, Evelyn Oputu, will hear of the organisation’s past and planned activities, including a research report to be conducted by NFNV and its various partners. The research will focus on inclusive financing for women-owned SMEs and the extent to which women have benefitted from government intervention programmes aimed at increasing women’s access to finance.

“We want to acknowledge that progress in taking place here in Nigeria and the government of Central Bank is doing well. This is what we want to expose to other African countries to learn from. Nigeria is considered a country which will lead the economic terms in the continent; it will become the biggest economy shortly. We need to know the positive dynamics happening in Nigeria; it is good to know this and also be able to share with other countries. These and many more will be what the summit will be about,” said Machel.

“Nigeria has contributed greatly in terms of giving exposure to the face of the continent and the world will always remember that the first faces of Africa to occupy the global institution (World Bank), two were from Nigeria and one from South Africa. It is unchangeable! We are in support of Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala. It is our time and we hope she takes the position at World Bank,” she concluded.