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Change Your Life! |
Women's conference focuses on economic empowerment |
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October 7, 2000
JOHANNESBURG, OCT 6 (AP) - When women are in charge, there's less corruption, more transparency and resources are better used, former President Nelson Mandela said Thursday during the opening ceremony of the Global Summit of Women 2000. Mandela made a surprise appearance at the conference along with his wife, former Mozambican first lady Graca Machel, who delivered the keynote address. "It has been proven that where the income is given to a woman of the family, the nutritional value to the family increases eight times more than when the money is given to the man," Mandela told the 400 women from 40 countries participating in the three-day conference. "We must ask the question, why is it that it is men who are on the forefront of society today?" he said, adding that putting women on the forefront would promote justice, peace and stability. Machel said it was important that men not be excluded from the struggle to empower women and improve life for all. "We have to go beyond what we can call women's struggle and make it become a societal struggle - in which they, the men, also recognize that it's in their interest," she said, adding that more women are needed in top positions. "We want women to be more and more successful but we want women to humanize political life and to humanize the struggle for power," she said. "We don't want women to be there to imitate what men have been doing as oppressors." The Johannesburg meeting is the tenth annual Global Summit of Women. This year, the summit focuses on women's economic leadership and business achievements, and it aims to promote entrepreneurship among women. South Africa was chosen to host the country as a tribute to the large number of female ministers, organizers said. Eight of South Africa's 27 ministers are women. In a pre-conference meeting Wednesday, African delegates decided to form a committee that would work to create financial and insurance institutions to help African women get access to finance, Ugandan Vice President Speciosa Wandira-Kazibwe said in her speech during the opening ceremony. "Here in Africa, the majority of women are facilitated with micro-loans to make pancakes and things like that. How do I get out of the pancake?" she said. The African women would meet once a year to monitor the committee's progress, she said. She asked Mandela to help the women raise money, and she also turned to delegates from developed countries. "We are looking at our American sisters. Because you have too much," she said. "In fact, we want to share some of that money."
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