Sixth African Regional conference on Catholic Women ends.

Accra, Sept. 25, GNA - Mrs Ernestina Naadu Mills, wife of the Vice President on Saturday explained that the empowerment of women was not a challenge to men but rather the multiplication of available energy, initiative and competence to build a better society.

"It is essentially an internal process based on self-confidence, which can be nurtured and developed effectively with the partnership and support of others," she said.

Mrs Naadu Mills was speaking at the closing ceremony of the six-day international conference of the sixth Africa Regional Conference on the World Union of Catholic Women Organisations (WUCWO) in Accra. The conference, under the theme, "Empowerment of African Women in the Decision-Making Process - Hope for the third Millennium", aimed among others, at addressing issues that affect African women and hinder their progress.

About 200 delegations from 15 Anglophone and Francophone African countries, the Haiti, Canada and Mexico attended the conference. The African countries are Ghana, Senegal, Cameroon, Congo, Kenya, Liberia, Madagascar, Mauritius, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, South Africa, Swaziland, Togo and Zambia.

Mrs Naadu Mills noted that despite women's traditional role, the average African woman is still excluded from many aspects of decision-making in the home, community and the work place.

She said that even though much remains to be done to fully realise the enormous potential of African women, there is the hope for the next millennium as very significant strides had been made internationally and on the continent of Africa within the last decade on women issues.

In Ghana, Mrs Naadu Mills said, a major focus of the government's efforts has been to ensure that every girl completes basic education, and that a good number of women are now in executives positions, demonstrating immense competence.

She said this had been made possible due to the government's affirmative action policy to increase to 40 per cent the proportion of women in governance, commissions and boards. The policy has also led to a break through of women's participation in the private sector, she added.

Madam Maria Eugenia Diaz de Pfennich, President of WUCWO said some issues affecting the advancement of women have been identified, and hoped that they would help address the problems that especially African women, are facing.

She commended Ghana for hosting the conference and hoped that the outcome of the discussions would be translated into concrete action. Mrs Eleanor Arthur, President of the National Council of Catholic Women (NCCW) said participants had an educative and fruitful week of discussions, sharing experiences and exchanging of ideas.

She hoped that the delegates would use the acquired knowledge to plan and promote the emancipation of women in Africa. Dr Charlotte Abaka, a council member of the National Council on Women and Development, who presided, called on the Catholic Church to give equal opportunities to women to pursue degree courses in theology.

She said such opportunities would help women to fight against all forms of discrimination, customary and traditional practices that hinder their progress. WUCWO was founded in 1910 by the Vatican as an international organisation, and has 90 member-organisations world-wide,