Your Excellency, Chairperson of the AU Commission, Dr Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma;

Excellencies, Ministers of Gender and Women’s Affairs;

AU Commissioners;

Excellencies, Members of the AU Permanent Representative Committee;

Representatives of the Diplomatic corps and International Organizations;

Distinguished Delegates and Panellists;

Ladies and Gentlemen

It is a great honour to welcome you to South Africa and to Sandton the financial hub of South Africa. You are sitted in the most richest piece of land in the continent. Once more Africa has shown confidence in South Africa by allowing us to host the 25th AU Summit of the Heads of State under the theme: “2015 the Year of Women’s Empowerment and Development towards Africa’s Agenda 2063”. The adoption of this theme shows the commitment of AU Heads of State to gender equality and women’s empowerment.

We are also humbled by the opportunity to host this AU 2nd High Level Panel on gender equality and women’s empowerment under the theme: “Make it Happen with Financial inclusion of Women in the Agribusiness”

The importance of the 25th AU Summit during the year of women’s empowerment and development towards Africa Agenda 2063 cannot be over-emphasized. This summit is thus expected to take decisions that will take issues of gender equality and women’s empowerment to new heights.

We are meeting here mid-Decade of African Women, 2010-2020. For us the upcoming Summit presents an opportunity to review progress, as well as barriers that continue to militate against women empowerment half-way through the Decade of African Women.

This HLP must go back-to-basics and appreciate that the African Women’s Decade was initiated to implement yearly one of the ten theme identified for the decade as well as re-invigorate the implementation of other agreed global and regional commitments for women empowerment and gender equality (GEWE). We must move from a premise that women’s rights are human rights. As early as 1841 one of the earliest socialists, Charles Fourier wrote:

“The change in a historical epoch can always be determined by the progress of women towards freedom, because in the relation of woman to man, of the weak to the strong, the victory of human nature over brutality is most evident. The degree of emancipation of women is the natural measure of general emancipation.”

Africa Agenda 2063 represents the change in a historic epoch and will be judged by its commitment to gender equality and women’s empowerment. It therefore represents renewed hope for women of our continent because it goes beyond the rhetoric on gender issues and focuses on implementation of concrete actions with visible and measurable outcomes of women’s socio-economic and political empowerment.

South Africa welcomes the decision of Executive Council in 2013 to operationalize the Specialized Technical Committees (STCs) in line with the AU Constitutive Act of 2002.

Recalling that the AU Ministers in Charge of Gender and Women’s Affairs at their meeting held on the 14th May 2013 adopted the STC for gender equality and women’s empowerment. We are further reminded of the seven pillars of the gender architecture of AUC of which the HLP is one of them.

Arising out of this decision, the Minister of Cote d’Ivoire offered to host the first HLP on Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment in July 2014 as part of the AU 50th anniversary. Based on the spirit of commemorating the 50th anniversary of the AU it was proposed that the HLP could be an annual event hosted in a willing AU Member State.

We welcome this innovation and thank the Minister of Cote d’ Ivore for hosting the first HLP, and we once again thank the AUC for giving us this opportunity to host the second HLP.

South Africa would like to encourage the AUC to expedite the operationalization of the other 6 pillars of the STC. We therefore welcome the first STC for AU Ministers in Charge of Gender and Women’s Affairs to be held in South Sudan in October.

Programme Director, this second HLP is coming at a critical moment in the history of women’s empowerment and gender equality as we move towards the adoption in September of a Post 2015 Development Framework, the adoption of the common African position on the SDG as well as the adoption of the 10 years implementation plan of the African Agenda 2063.

The HLP as one of the pillars of the STC for Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment was established to create space for women scholars, researchers, academia, and gender experts to discuss selected themes from an intellectual, practical, scientific and contextual respect to tease out emerging issues, trends and challenges facing the continent in that particular thematic area.

The outcomes of the HLP meetings will empower the AU Ministers in Charge of Gender and Women’s Affairs to adopt sound decisions based on the technical expertise of the HLP participants that we as Ministers will recommend to the Heads of State. This will facilitate the mainstreaming of gender across the AU Agenda 2063 and the work of all the STCs of the AU.

Programme Director, I emphasize that the HLP proposals like the proposed call for action plan on Women’s Financial Inclusion in Agribusiness and communiqué  that will emerge from this HLP, should be presented to the Minister’s meeting on the 12th for adoption by Ministers and be recommended to the Heads of States Summit,

We regard this call for action as a very critical outcome for the continent to help drive the financial support to women in the agricultural sector for their development, empowerment and contribution to the economic growth on the continent. Flowing from last year’s theme which was the year of agriculture, this call for action is a tangible expression of the commitment of the Heads of State.

In line with Agenda 2063 on accelerated agricultural growth in the continent, this call for action will facilitate the implementation of the Post 2015 Development Agenda, Sustainable Development Goal 5 on Achieving Gender Equality and Empowerment of women and girl-child. The success of achieving goal 5 is by mainstreaming it in all other goals.  The theme today talks about women’s financial inclusion in agribusiness, therefore Goal 2 on food security, agriculture and fighting hunger cannot be achieved if women are not included in order for as well as goal 2.

This goal requires member states to among others:

·         Double the agricultural productivity and incomes of small-scale food producers, in particular women, indigenous peoples, family farmers, pastoralists and fishers, including  through secure and equal access to land, other productive resources and inputs, knowledge, financial services, access to markets and opportunities for value addition and non-farm employment by 2030. Therefore member states are urged to look at the financial inclusion of women in their country’s agricultural plans. Commercial farming is critical and big therefore women must be included.

·         Ensure sustainable food production systems and implement resilient agricultural practices in line with AU Commission’s call for innovative and advance technology for women in agribusiness. We therefore support the call for the hoe, the grinding stone and the machete to be relegated to the agricultural museums.

We need to move women out of informal trading, SMMEs and small projects into the mainstream economic activities. The reality is that a more diverse business has a better understanding of markets that are themselves diverse in terms of gender. According to the PWC report on gender diversified boards the private sector is realizing that gender diversity in companies is not only about numbers but also about improved performance. The private sector is also becoming more conscious of the spin-offs that are brought by a gender diverse board in decision-making processes as compared to a more homogeneous board.

This brings to mind an Ethiopian proverb that says “Where a woman rules, streams run uphill”. A Catalyst report in 2013 on Why Diversity Matters mentioned four key pillars for the business case to have more women in senior positions and onto boards;

• Improved financial performance,
• Increased ability to leverage talent,
• Reflecting the market place and building reputation (better corporate governance) and
• Increased innovation and group performance.

Therefore this requires the inclusion of women in the broader economy and effective support by the mainstream financial inclusions including Development Financial Institutions (DFIs) rather than create separate and specialized funds for women. Historically, women specific funds remain small scale resulting in women SMMEs and women’s cooperatives being supported.

We are calling for women’s entrepreneurship development in the mainstream economy. Members States are encouraged to ensure that there are gender responsive indicators and that measurable and time bound targets are determined in all the SDG goals for a post 2015 development agenda.

Programme Director, at this point I wish the HLP meeting to be fruitful and enriching of women’s pursuit for economic empowerment and development towards the achievement of Agenda 2063 and the AU Declaration that calls for parity by 2020. The achievement of parity is no longer a dream but a reality that we we must achieve as Africa, it is a fact, let it happen.

I wish you a productive stay and please enjoy the hospitality of our sunny South Africa.

I therefore declare this meeting open.