The Government of Zambia has said it attaches great importance to gender and social and cultural issues because there cannot be meaningful social and economic development without putting the human actor at the centre of the programmes and policies.
Speaking at the official opening of the 8th meeting of the COMESA Technical Committee on Gender at Pamodzi Hotel in Lusaka, the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Gender, Ms Edwidge Mutale said government continues to stand in solidarity with the COMESA ideals of promoting the regional integration agenda.
“Zambia is a strong supporter of gender equality and equity and the economic empowerment of women at all levels in order for our region to achieve sustainable socio-economic development, as we move towards 2015 target for achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs),” Ms Mutale said.
Ms Mutale said that despite the efforts of governments in the COMESA region in the promotion of gender related activities, gender and social affairs issues tend to be relegated to the bottom of regional and national priorities yet such issues bring to light the human face.
She however commended COMESA for coming up with initiatives that promote development like the cluster programmes in the various sectors like leather and footwear, cassava production and processing and textile and cotton production that are being rolled out in all the Member States.
“We have noted from the agenda of the meeting that COMESA is in the process of fostering cluster development initiatives in the sectors of leather and footwear, textile and cotton, and cassavaproduction and processing. This is a very welcome initiative because most the women and youth Micro-Small-Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) are in these sectors,” she said.
Ms Mutale in a speech read for her by the Director for Child Development at the Ministry of Gender said the Secretariat should be applauded because this initiative will significantly contribute to the attainment of MDG No. 1 of halving poverty by 2015, once properly executed.
Speaking at the same function, Assistant Secretary-General, Ambassador Nagla El-Hussainy said the Secretariat is also working on the Industrial SME Cluster Development Initiative Programme whose objective is to promote value addition by supporting the formation of national and regional clusters in agro processing, clothing and footwear subsectors as a mechanism of boosting job creation, intra trade and poverty alleviation.
“As you may be aware, the MSME sector is dominated by women and youths in our region and it is the Secretariat’s belief that the cluster development programme will contribute towards industrialisation and the attainment of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) that call for halving poverty by 2015,” Ambassador El-Hussainy said.
She added that gender is being mainstreamed in all the interventions of the cluster programme.
“It has been determined that gender mainstreaming is crucial in ensuring that the intended benefits of the interventions have an immediate impact to the vulnerable groups of society such as women and children. Therefore, the cluster initiative has ensured that a gendered approach is threaded through all designed interventions. The Secretariat has since conducted profiling studies in Malawi, Democratic Republic of Congo, Kenya, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Uganda, Swaziland, Sudan, Zambia and Zimbabwe in the three focus areas.
She said business and skills trainings have been conducted and have involved the participation of women entrepreneurs with the final output of the cluster initiative planned to come up with pilot clusters in at least 10 Member States of COMESA. The meeting was held on 17 September 2012.
