Commonwealth secretary-general Kamalesh Sharma on Monday said a state should ensure gender equality in context of resources and services. “Good economy means investing in women entrepreneurs and providing them with access to finance and markets. Women leadership helps to maintain a stable and sustainable economy,” Sharma told reporters at a city hotel. He added that Commonwealth’s new charter also recognises that women’s empowerment was fundamental to development.
Sharma was in Dhaka to attend the inaugural session of the 10th Commonwealth Women Affairs Ministers’ Meeting (CWAMM), which began on Monday.All the 54 Commonwealth member states are participating in the three-day meeting, which will discuss the importance of women leaders in social, political and economic sectors.
“The meeting will focus on introduction of gender-sensitive investment by encouraging governments as well as the private sector,” said Sharma.
The Commonwealth secretary-general praised Bangladesh for achieving the Millennium Development Goals in poverty reduction and said the country had recently received a prestigious UN award for this.
“We recognise the importance of creating a policy environment that enables women, through political and corporate leadership, to contribute to the advancement of their communities and countries,” he said.
Over 40 per cent of the world’s agriculturists were women and in a sense they were feeding the world, but
they were yet to get their due recognition. “Our development goals and progress will not be realized if half of the population is left out,” he noted.
“From Africa to Asia, we work with a set frame. There are also other forums like SAARC to address regional issues where as local issues can be taken up by the respective governments, civil society and NGOs,” he added.
Women affairs ministers from more than 10 countries will share their ideas with women entrepreneurs, policymakers and activists from around the world, so as to get a better understanding about their problems.
State minister for women and children affairs Meher Afroze Chumki said, “Every aspect of gender equality as well barriers to women entrepreneurship will come up for discussion during the three-day meeting.”She said Bangladesh has made tremendous progress in the field of women empowerment and the country was now on the path of achieving the MDG.Mentioning CWAMM’s salient features, she said commonwealth member states will discuss ways to boost women’s entrepreneurship.
Sharma said issues on trade, administration, border demarcation, democracy and culture will also be discussed at the meeting.
-With The Independent input
