Women tops conference list
2008-08-14 20:35
Maputo - Maputo will on Friday host the second of five conferences organised by the African Commission aimed at developing new ideas and opportunities for women's employment in Africa.
"While gender issues have been on the international agenda for various decades, the inequality between men and women still constitute major set backs in development in Africa," read a statement from the African Commission, an initiative of the Danish government.
The one-day conference aimed to get recommendations to be used by the commission in its work on gender-related issues.
The commission added that only 10% of salaries in Africa were paid to women who worked about 10 to 15 hours more per week than men.
"African women own less than 10% of the economic values of the whole continent," noted the commission.
The conference would be officially opened by Mozambican President Armando Guebuza. Other key speakers would include South African deputy president Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka and Mozambican Prime Minister Luisa Diogo.
Academics, members of international civil society organisations, representatives of the AU and the UN are expected to attend.
The African Commission was launched by the government of Denmark in April 2008 to help strengthen international co-operation for the development of Africa.
- SAPA