MILLENUIM DEVELOPMENT GOALS AND AFRICAN MILLENUIM DEVELOPMENT GOALS AND AFRICAN WOMEN ENTREPRENEURS IN AFRICAWOMEN ENTREPRENEURS IN AFRICA

(The African Studies centre public Discussions)(The African Studies centre public Discussions)

LUCIA QUACHEY (MRS)LUCIA QUACHEY (MRS)

Keynote Address at a public meeting of African and international Experts Keynote Address at a public meeting of African and international Experts meeting with Dutch audience to discuss the millennium Goals.meeting with Dutch audience to discuss the millennium Goals.

Leiden, NetherlandsLeiden, Netherlands8-12 November, 20058-12 November, 2005

Millennium Development Goals and African Women Millennium Development Goals and African Women Entrepreneurs in Africa: The Role of AFWE and GAWEEntrepreneurs in Africa: The Role of AFWE and GAWE

• INTRODUCTION

• The inability of African’s economy to turn the tide of underdevelopment –low food production levels, balance of payment difficulties, inflation, rapid population growth, low or negative GDP growth rates, high cost of borrowing declines in social services and standards, etc, have brought to the fore discussions on the role of women entrepreneurs and the development of the informal productive sector in Africa.

• Lately, attention has begun to fall on the use and benefits of alternative approaches’ to development. It is this new policy setting that brings about the need to explore the potential contribution of women entrepreneurs in the informal and small scale industrial sector to Africa’s economic recovery and development.

• Entrepreneurship in all its diversity in Africa provides a dynamic and potentially efficient means of meeting many of the emerging challenges of the development and debt crisis in Africa.

• However Entrepreneurship in the African context remains concerned with the graduation of informal sector ventures with a realistic business prospectus to better established and endowed enterprise, as well as promotion of economic diversification, export to niche market, future growth and higher living standards.

Millennium Development Goals and African Women Millennium Development Goals and African Women Entrepreneurs in Africa: The Role of AFWE and GAWE Entrepreneurs in Africa: The Role of AFWE and GAWE CONT.CONT.

• A number of United Nations Resolutions have stressed the importance of developing indigenous entrepreneurial capabilities as a means of accelerating recovery and sustaining development. The Arusha and Nairobi Forward-looking Strategies for the Advancement of Women as well as the Abuja Declaration of Participatory Development (which defined the role of women in Africa in the ‘90s), have also emphasized the importance of enhancing the capacities of women entrepreneurs as means of increasing their contribution to economic recovery and development.

• These strategies urgently demand that concrete efforts be made by African women entrepreneurs to develop stronger links between women entrepreneurs in all African countries at all levels to strengthen women’s capabilities to deal and cope with the increasing challenges of the global market in order to increase market share and eradicate acute poverty amongst women.

• It is against this back ground, the GAWE initiated and organized the first Global Women Entrepreneurs Trade Fair and Investment Forum- the first of its kind to be initiated and organized by women themselves.

ENTREPRISING WOMEN: THE BUSINESS OF ENTREPRISING WOMEN: THE BUSINESS OF

BUILDING WOMENS ECONOMIC NETWORKSBUILDING WOMENS ECONOMIC NETWORKS • The First Global Women Entrepreneurs Trade Fair and investment Forum held in Accra on the

June 1996 was a clear evidence of women building their own capacity when given the necessary support from the UN- Specialized Agencies and System and other donor agencies and governments are available.

• The main theme for the First Global Women Entrepreneurs Trade Fair and Investment Forum was “Foreign Private Direct Investment in Women Businesses for Economic Recovery and Development in Africa” the objectives was to sensitized members of AFWE of the need to adopt an attitude change and set aside individualism in order to face the challenger of under-development of women in particular and the development of Africa in general.

ENTREPRISING WOMEN: THE BUSINESS OF ENTREPRISING WOMEN: THE BUSINESS OF BUILDING WOMENS ECONOMIC NETWORKS CONT.BUILDING WOMENS ECONOMIC NETWORKS CONT.

• The other objectives were:

• To create a unique opportunities for women entrepreneurs from all over the world to network economically

• To provide new growth opportunities for women entrepreneurs to emerges in the national global economy

• To expose products made by women to potential buyers and investors.• To test quality of products against internationally acceptable standard• To encourage women entrepreneurs to pull their resources together

maximize their output and improve competitiveness in a liberalized and globalized market.

• To review the Beijing Platform for Action in relation to the economic empowerment of women.

• To promote non-traditional export products and services etc

• Let me share some of the experiences of the Global Fair and Investment Fora with you.

ENTREPRISING WOMEN: THE BUSINESS OF ENTREPRISING WOMEN: THE BUSINESS OF BUILDING WOMENS ECONOMIC NETWORKS CONT.BUILDING WOMENS ECONOMIC NETWORKS CONT.

• AFWE and GAWE realized there are opportunities for the development of the informal sector and took advantage of the available opportunities and make use of it, by making use of available micro and macro policies and lobby for more policies that will hasten the growth of the sector.

• For example, after the Beijing Platform for Action in 1995, GAWE took the initiative to practicalize the empowerment of women by organizing the First Global Women Entrepreneurs Trade Fair and Investment Forum.

• The idea of Africa trading with itself in addition to inter-continental trade is very famous among African Women in the informal cross boarder trade sector and had been visualized in Arusha, Tanzania by Mrs. Ruth Engo in February, 1990 during the Popular Participation Program. She had visualized in a poem, the day a truck load of goods would arrive Burkina Faso from Accra in Ghana with Kente cloths and head back home with mud cloth and other Burkina Faso popular products.

• The First Global Women Entrepreneurs Trade Fair and Investment Forum is a realization of that vision which brought together diplomats, ministers, public servants, government, chiefs and religious leaders. It brought existing interrelations amongst the various national associations of women entrepreneurs grouped under the umbrella of African Federation of Women Entrepreneurs (AFWE). It showed power in numbers and what women can do when given the opportunity to do so.

ENTREPRISING WOMEN: THE BUSINESS OF ENTREPRISING WOMEN: THE BUSINESS OF BUILDING WOMENS ECONOMIC NETWORKS CONT.BUILDING WOMENS ECONOMIC NETWORKS CONT.

• The Trade Fair and Investment Forum held in Accra June 26-3July, was a boom. This boom has been paramount in the clothing and textile sectors where batik products and tie and dye are in high demand in Zambia, Tanzania, Sierra Leone, Zimbabwe, South Africa and the United State of America. Large orders of these products are keeping employers and their employees in Ghana busy.

• Equally, on the fast track of demand is the hair braiding style of Ghana for which Joyce Arts has got a contract to establish a salon in Namibia, Akos Engineering services, makers of agricultural machinery in Ghana are meeting the needs of the Nigeria agricultural sector, agricultural machinery are also now serving the needs of Ghanaian small farmers.

• The effectiveness of coming together of women entrepreneurs in Africa and the rest of the world to deliberate on how they can effectively work together to build their capacities and enhance the economy of their various countries was quite evident during the above forum. It created a platform for women to network economically, most of all it provide the rest of the world the opportunity to see Africa at one spot.

• The Forum also provided opportunity for women entrepreneurs all over the world to share practical real experiences with each other. The Investment Forum was held simultaneously with the trade fair to expose women entrepreneurs to ways of enhancing their current businesses or creating new ones. Topics discussed during the workshops ranged from the role of women entrepreneurs in the growth of the informal sector; the use of technology to aid women’s’ businesses.

ENTREPRISING WOMEN: THE BUSINESS OF ENTREPRISING WOMEN: THE BUSINESS OF BUILDING WOMENS ECONOMIC NETWORKS CONT.BUILDING WOMENS ECONOMIC NETWORKS CONT.

• 650 women participated from 38 African Countries, and from Pakistan, Canada, India, England, Germany, Malaysia, Trinidad and Tobago, Australia, and USA.

• The conference recognized that the world economy is moving towards what have been termed ‘global village’ where boundaries are nonexistent. Already, trading partners such as the EEC, NAFTA, ASEAN, CARICOM and others are being formed to facilitate trade between nations. However, Africa has 53 boundaries, even though there are regional economic groups like ECOWAS, COMESA, SADC etc, there are yet to make any meaningful impact in terms of regional trade.

• Therefore AFWE/GAWE have been advocating for one currency for trade purposes in Africa, in order to make trading comfortable for informal cross boarders traders. ECOWAS has started preparation for the use of the ECO across West African countries but only the Anglophone countries including Senegal, and Corte de lviore has joined Ghana, Nigeria, Gambia and Sierra Leone to use the ECO when it comes into force.

• There are conditions these countries need to meet before the take off the monetary system i.e. inflation rate, interest rate, per capital income, GDP growth rate should be 12% per annum to qualify these countries start the use of the ECO as a legal tender currency in all the West African States.

ENTREPRISING WOMEN: THE BUSINESS OF ENTREPRISING WOMEN: THE BUSINESS OF BUILDING WOMENS ECONOMIC NETWORKS CONT.BUILDING WOMENS ECONOMIC NETWORKS CONT.

• Globalization also means that products from everywhere are being measured by the same standards. Moreover, the rapid development in information technology such as the internet has meant that those who already have better access to lucrative markets are poised to strengthen their hold on such markets by sheer speed of communication. This makes it more difficult for women who are less fortunate than their male counter part as far as education and access to technology and other resources are concern.

• The recommendations from the forum was given to Ms.Gertrude Mongela to present to the OAU heads of States meeting that took place in Yaoundé, Cameroon, 1996. We did not stop there; we did a fellow up to the 1st Global in 1997, to address some of the concerns raised with regards to ICT and Technology for women and followed up with the 2nd Global in Addis Ababa in 1998.

• We always come out with realistic and achievable recommendations based on the needs of our members and our ability to implement these programs around government policies and priority for development in Ghana. We however draws government attention on issues that prevents us from moving forward with our goals and make recommendations to government and other international institutions based on our experience on the ground and continued with the 3rd Global in Miami Dade County in 2000.

• We have managed to work in collaboration with governments corporate private sector and the international communities to work on the modality for the establishment of AFWE and GAWE and to implement some of our vision, the first, second and third Global Women Entrepreneurs Trade Fairs and Investment Fora organized some exchange programs for women in the food processing sector, African Women entrepreneurs trip to Bangkok and to India for a practical hands on training in how to use appropriate and affordable technology to increase production to meet acceptable quality standards.

TECHNOLOGY AND COMMUNICATION: IMPACT ON TECHNOLOGY AND COMMUNICATION: IMPACT ON WOMEN ENTREPRENEURSWOMEN ENTREPRENEURS

• These are tremendous opportunities for the development of export within the globalized world economy; however, Africa aiming to enter the market would first have to tackle the technological gap that exists between them and developed nations, to facilitate entry of their products into the globalized market in the 21st century and beyond. Women entrepreneurs with no knowledge of ICT have additional challenge to enter the global market.

• In the case of intra-African trade, we are so disadvantage because, every African country has its own currency which is not legal tender in other African countries, with the exception of the francophone zone in west Africa that has the CFA France used in all the 12 countries the ECOWAS region including some Central African countries like Cameroon and Central African Republic, cross boarder trading in Africa is very complex.

• In order to enhance the market potential of members, GAWE has sort for support from the government of Ghana to establish an ICT centre to train women to move away from the traditional marketing and production methods, which often result in low productivity, and substandard quality and adopt new technologies which will enable them compete effectively in a well structured market. These were some of the recommendations from the follow ups to the first Global. – Build the capacity of women in the use of technology.

• GAWE saw traditional methods that are labor intensive as a result, they often generate low returns. Food surpluses are often wasted because women do not have access to technologies that would allow them to process and store them for the lean seasons

TECHNOLOGY AND COMMUNICATION: TECHNOLOGY AND COMMUNICATION: IMPACT ON WOMEN ENTREPRENEURS CONT.IMPACT ON WOMEN ENTREPRENEURS CONT.

• We see almost 30% of food crops go waste during each harvest season due to lack of technology storage and market information as a result, women food producers are often displaced by big firms using latest technologies, and responding faster to request due to the use of internet services.

• GAWE saw the need for rapid technological advancement in the various stages of the export business from production, processing, packaging and handling using ICT. The use of ICT for marketing purpose is particularly important because in the new global market place, products from everywhere are measured by the same quality standards and are expected to meet datelines for delivery. We try in order our small way to implement some of the strategies of the UN, AU, NEPAD, MDGs based on our set up vision to meet the needs of our members.

• For example, it is important to respond to request as quickly as it is received which means the use of the internet is increasingly required and that products carry the eco-label certifying that their production was not ecologically harmful.—GAWE put women in contact with the scientific institutions responsible for measuring these standards.

TECHNOLOGY AND COMMUNICATION: TECHNOLOGY AND COMMUNICATION: IMPACT ON WOMEN ENTREPRENEURS CONT.IMPACT ON WOMEN ENTREPRENEURS CONT.

• We are encouraging successful women entrepreneurs to mentor other women emerging into the formal sector, support research for the development of the informal productive sector. We continent carry out training to enhance the skills of members to respond positively to market demands. Put research information in usable form at the disposal of members.

• Women who participated in AFWE/GAWE’s activities, at local and international level, have moved from informal to formal small enterprises and some moved from small formal enterprise to a limited liability companies over five years. We have on going training on entrepreneurial and financial management for members as well as the use of ICT for e-commerce to expand their businesses and markets.

• GAWE’s strategies are always focused on entrepreneurial approaches to build the capacities of women entrepreneurs, which enable them to do things for themselves, build their self esteem and gain automatic right in their families and the society.

ENTREPRENEURSHIP: THE IMPACT ON WOMEN AND ENTREPRENEURSHIP: THE IMPACT ON WOMEN AND POVERTY REDUCTION ON MY OWN LIFE EXPERIENCEPOVERTY REDUCTION ON MY OWN LIFE EXPERIENCE

• How entrepreneurship changed my life and that of my children and my family. I was forced by circumstances beyond my control to break my education when I was in the high school at the age of 17, because I was pregnant and got married. Within 3 years, I gave birth to 3 children. My father was not happy and kept reminding me that I can still do something to continue with my education.

• As I was saddled with 3 children at the age 20 and a house wife, with no income of my own, the only thing I could do at home at that moment was to learn how to sew. I registered with Singer Sewing School after a long discussions and persuasion with my husband who did allow me to go through the training to become a designer and dressmaker.

• At that tender age, I managed my home, my husband and children as well as my new career with enthusiasm. The idea that, I was doing something that was going to make me earn an income without falling on anybody for assistance was the driving force behind the amount of zeal I put into all that I did at the time.

• My hours were very long, sometimes 14hrs, because my day start at 4.00Am hours, I prepared meals for the day, get the children ready before I leave the house at 7.00Am, return home at 6pm, attend to the children, my husband and when everybody is a sleep by 11.00pm I went through my home work because I could not close late as others do but did extra work at night after attending to my family, Most of the time I have only 3 hours of sleep.

ENTREPRENEURSHIP: THE IMPACT ON WOMEN AND ENTREPRENEURSHIP: THE IMPACT ON WOMEN AND POVERTY REDUCTION ON MY OWN LIFE EXPERIENCE POVERTY REDUCTION ON MY OWN LIFE EXPERIENCE

CONT.CONT.

• After 3 years with singer sewing school, I was made to sew a shirt. We were told that when you can sew a shirt with a collar and the entire seems must be french seem. I used my husband size to make the shirt and presented it to him on his birthday. He could not believe what he saw, he thought a brought it from the shop. In appreciation he bought me my first sewing machine. I made all my children dresses; I stated sewing for friends –the beginning of my sewing career at home.

• This humble beginning led to the establishment of Lucia Fashion Spot, a very informal non-registered company, in 1969, employing 2 people without knowing how I was going to pay them. In 1974 the company was registered as Lucia Manufacturing Industry as a Sole Proprietorship Company and gazzetted by government, employing 12 people. In 1981 the company became a limited liability company employing 40 people running two shifts. 20 people 7am – 3pm another 20 4pm- 8pm.

• I can use my own experience to demonstrate how entrepreneurship can move you from poverty to prosperity, how it can build the self esteem of women and give them automatic right as human being and equality before your family and the society.

• By 1981 it became a limited liability company with share holders. I was able to go through self-education in from 1974 to date, joined Ghana manufactures Association as it was then called and rose to become a council member of Association of Ghana Industries (AGI) as it is known now.

ENTREPRENEURSHIP: THE IMPACT ON WOMEN AND ENTREPRENEURSHIP: THE IMPACT ON WOMEN AND POVERTY REDUCTION ON MY OWN LIFE EXPERIENCE POVERTY REDUCTION ON MY OWN LIFE EXPERIENCE CONT.CONT.

• Teenage pregnancy and early marriage did not stop me from building an informal company employing three people including myself. By 1979 I was employing 40 people running two shifts a day. Supplying our products to leading commercial companies in Ghana and currently we export in a very informal small scale. The excitement is how I managed an informal enterprise with 2 employer people to a formal company employing 20 people.

• I am very proud to relate my entrepreneurial experience from 1974 to date, I have attended many short courses in entrepreneurship , management the way it influence my empowerment as an Africa women in leadership program, and help others start their own businesses and also relate my experience to develop rural enterprises. I am very much respected and consulted by my husband, children my family and the community, at large.

• I made a significant contribution to the education of my children, who have all past through the university, and I serve on church and government boards and commissions and own a consultancy company; I facilitate the growth of informal subsistence enterprises to formal small registered companies.

• Most of all, I am empowered and have automatic right unlike, when I had to beg my husband to allow me to go though the training. If I can make it through the circumstances I mentioned above without any formal bank support every other women can make it. Most of all I paid to participate in short courses that has enhanced my capacity to relate well to what I do.

MILLENIUM DEVELOPMENT GOALS AND AFRICAN MILLENIUM DEVELOPMENT GOALS AND AFRICAN ENTREPRENEURSENTREPRENEURS

• The international community made a huge step forward when it identified its own goals through the millennium Declaration which was adopted by the General Assembly of the United Nations on 8th September 2000.

• There have been declarations before and goals set for development in the 1990s. But l believe the MDGs are different. It was an event in the history of the United Nations. It constituted an unprecedented promise by world leaders to address, as a single package, peace, security, development, human rights and fundamental freedoms. Yes it is different for two reasons:

• First the MDGs seem to have gained attention in the minds of governments, development agencies and the rest of the international community in a way that few efforts before have done.

• Secondly, rather than single out one aspect of the problem, the MDGs have linked set of objectives-a portfolio of targets- that represent a coherent assault on the problem of development. And these goals have made the development practitioners and other specialists’ job easier.

• We now have something clear to aim at. We can now ask in a more focused way “What can women entrepreneurs in Africa do to make the MDGs meet the set target in Africa? What is the role of women entrepreneurs as part of the private sector in the implementation of the MDGs?

• For the purpose of this discussion, l will like to numerate the eight goals that were adopted at the summit of heads of governments in September, 2000.

MILLENIUM DEVELOPMENT GOALS AND MILLENIUM DEVELOPMENT GOALS AND AFRICAN ENTREPRENEURS CONT.AFRICAN ENTREPRENEURS CONT.

• The eight goals are:

• Eradicate Extreme Poverty and Hunger• Achieve Universal Primary Education • Promote Gender Equality and empower women • Reduce Child Mortality • Improve Maternal Health • Combat HIV/AIDS, Malaria and other diseases• Ensure Environmental Sustainability • Develop a Global Partnership for Development.

• Because of Africa’s scarce resources, I will like to recommend that, we focus attention on three of the MDGs - 1, 3 & 8 for five years.

• I will continue with my recommendation on how Africa should use its scarce resources to meet the MDGs before 2015. I will further suggest that African countries to focus their attention on three of the eight goals and integrate its activities for the next five years, in order to make significant progress on the issue of development to reduce poverty.

• I will go on to illustrate for you to see that, when we focus on the 3 goals, with its integrated activities, it will make concrete and direct impact on the lives of millions of people as stated below, we will reduce poverty in the shortest possible time.

MILLENIUM DEVELOPMENT GOALS AND MILLENIUM DEVELOPMENT GOALS AND AFRICAN ENTREPRENEURS CONT.AFRICAN ENTREPRENEURS CONT.• These three goals when properly addressed, with all the seriousness it deserves, it will cut across the

five other goals. Our leaders should have the political and moral will to get focused for once and invest heavily in the three areas in other to mobilize internal resources to achieve quick results which will have linkages to the other five goals.

• Poverty can be eradicated by strong leadership in Africa, supported by much closer teamwork from donor countries, development agencies, African entrepreneurs in the Diasporas, private sector and civil society organizations. Africa’s priority is to ensure government and its leaders produce tangible results in its efforts to support the poor and vulnerable in the society.

• At the heart of the MDGs is the understanding that, fighting poverty is a collective undertaking and that all countries have a stake in the results. The primary responsibility of achieving the Goals (MDGs), rest with developing countries in general and sub-Sahara African countries in particular where extreme poverty is on the increase instead of declining.

• Private Foreign direct investment in agro-business will rapidly increase growth of the informal sector to formal sector. We appeal to African entrepreneurs in the diasporas to take the lead for others to follow by investing in Africa. Private sector development, including the development of the financial sector to deliver wide access to services like credit and loans, is an important aspect of the joint international efforts to support African women entrepreneurs and those operating in the micro, small and medium enterprises.

• Finally I will like see more Regional Economic Communities as well private sector and civil society and all stakeholders, have to work together as a team to develop a plan of action that will offer a framework for support and expending regional and national initiatives that will be monitored constantly to achieve real program and produce truly African success stories as far as the MDGs is concern.

CONCLUSIONCONCLUSION

• I challenge African leaders to make the required move to encourage Africans in the diaspora to make the necessary investments needed for the take off of the informal sector and the empowerment of women through entrepreneurship for self-employment activities, harmonizing of policies for effective regional economic activities and sea and air to facilitate regional trade and integration.

• Let me emphasis that without adequate infrastructure to facilitate the easy movement of people and goods and services, and long term investment loans at reduced interest rate, we in the private sector would not be able to take advantage of the vast investment opportunities in our respective sub regions. Also, I wish to state that the viability of the African Union (AU) and its program NEPAD will depend on the following:

• -African governments to formulate policies that would place value as science and technology (S&T) and research and development encourage their development of the continent.

• The link between science and society in Africa is presently weak, with only a few citizens able to appreciate the value that they can derive from science enterprise. There are disconnections between activities of scientific communities and the overall development aspirations of most African countries with the net result being the absence of a strong science culture and constituencies that demanded and prompted scientific and technological development.

• Extend to which the private sector are allowed to grow and create jobs.• Degree to which new improved physical infrastructure and telecommunications will reduce the cost of

doing business and • Willingness of government and public institutions to transform themselves to business facilitators

rather than barriers to private sector development.

CONCLUSION CONT.CONCLUSION CONT.

• Distinguished organizers of this forum, speakers and discussants, let me highlight that, in spite of the trade protocols signed in the region, our nations are being de-industrialized as our manufacturing sectors die under the yoke of high transactions cost, institutional failures and increasing bureaucratic red tape.

• It is our hope that MDGs, which is a big challenge to African leaders and its people, will encourage us to meet the MDGs before 2015. We need to learn from the mistakes of similar efforts made in the past and focus on the practical issues of building entrepreneurial capacity of informal sector to grow and create jobs and alleviate poverty.

• It has been a great pleasure and privilege to talk on behalf of the African Women entrepreneurs here today to set the tone for further discussions on how Africa leaders and the private sector will catch up with the rest of the world in achieving the MDGs.

• Wearing another hat as the Executive President of Ghana Association of Women Entrepreneurs (GAWE), it is also a great privilege to be part of this genuinely African Studies Centre led process.

• In conclusion, I would like to leave you with this thought. Some one said, “if you look at the current situation you could argue that Africa missed the Green Revolution”. Let those of us gathered here today make sure, we do not miss the Blue one before us now.