Annan Makes Case For Gender Equality In Africa

United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan has called for an end to violence, conflict and discrimination against women, so they could play an equal role with men in building a new Africa. It can no longer come as a surprise to anyone, including the men of Africa, that gender equality is more than a goal in itself, he said. It is a precondition for meeting the challenges of reducing poverty, promoting sustainable development and building good governance.

He described discrimination against women as having often disfigured our societies.

Annan was the keynote speaker at the conference on African Women And Economic Development, which started Tuesday in Addis Ababa. The meeting is the focal point of the 40th anniversary of the U.N. Economic Commission for Africa being celebrated here.

He said: Experience throughout the ages has shown that when we engage the minds and means of women, in any society, in any country, in any continent, everyone gains.

The challenge of today, he said, was to ensure the wisdom, energies and creativity of women were fully harnessed for everyone's benefit.

In other words, women are involved at every stage, at every level and at all times, in the process of building the new Africa, he said.

Nearly 60 percent of Africa's population comprises people under 25 years old. More than half of them are girls and young women.

He called on African governments, the international community and the United Nations and its agencies and programmes to work together so that today's youth do not become a lost generation.

Annan said that Africa, at present, was recording overall positive economic growth for the first time in more than a decade. It is rediscovering stability. Investment is returning to many African countries.

However, he said violence and turmoil threaten this renaissance.

Unless the world acts swiftly to help stem the forces which feed those African conflicts, our African future will not be bright, he said.

Some 600 guests and delegates, including ministers and policy-makers from all 53 ECA member states, are taking part in the four-day conference which ends Friday.

Present during Annan's speech were Ethiopian President Negasso Gidada, Prime Minister Meles Zenawi; visiting presidents Festus Mogae of Botswana and Blaise Compaore of Burkina Faso and Vice Presidents John Atta-Mills of Ghana and Specioza Kazibwe of Uganda.