MILLENUIM DEVELOPMENT GOALS AND AFRICAN WOMEN ENTREPRENEURS IN AFRICA (The African Studies centre public Discussions) LUCIA QUACHEY (MRS) Keynote Address at a public meeting of African and international Experts meeting with Dutch audience to

1
MILLENUIM DEVELOPMENT GOALS AND AFRICAN WOMEN
ENTREPRENEURS IN AFRICA(The African Studies
centre public Discussions)LUCIA QUACHEY
(MRS)Keynote Address at a public meeting of
African and international Experts meeting with
Dutch audience to discuss the millennium
Goals.Leiden, Netherlands8-12 November,
2005
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Millennium Development Goals and African Women
Entrepreneurs in Africa The Role of AFWE and GAWE

• INTRODUCTION
• The inability of Africans economy to turn the
  tide of underdevelopment low food production
  levels, balance of payment difficulties,
  inflation, rapid population growth, low or
  negative GDP growth rates, high cost of borrowing
  declines in social services and standards, etc,
  have brought to the fore discussions on the role
  of women entrepreneurs and the development of the
  informal productive sector in Africa.
• Lately, attention has begun to fall on the use
  and benefits of alternative approaches to
  development. It is this new policy setting that
  brings about the need to explore the potential
  contribution of women entrepreneurs in the
  informal and small scale industrial sector to
  Africas economic recovery and development.
• Entrepreneurship in all its diversity in Africa
  provides a dynamic and potentially efficient
  means of meeting many of the emerging challenges
  of the development and debt crisis in Africa.
• However Entrepreneurship in the African context
  remains concerned with the graduation of informal
  sector ventures with a realistic business
  prospectus to better established and endowed
  enterprise, as well as promotion of economic
  diversification, export to niche market, future
  growth and higher living standards.

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Millennium Development Goals and African Women
Entrepreneurs in Africa The Role of AFWE and
GAWE CONT.

• A number of United Nations Resolutions have
  stressed the importance of developing indigenous
  entrepreneurial capabilities as a means of
  accelerating recovery and sustaining development.
  The Arusha and Nairobi Forward-looking Strategies
  for the Advancement of Women as well as the Abuja
  Declaration of Participatory Development (which
  defined the role of women in Africa in the 90s),
  have also emphasized the importance of enhancing
  the capacities of women entrepreneurs as means of
  increasing their contribution to economic
  recovery and development.
• These strategies urgently demand that concrete
  efforts be made by African women entrepreneurs to
  develop stronger links between women
  entrepreneurs in all African countries at all
  levels to strengthen womens capabilities to deal
  and cope with the increasing challenges of the
  global market in order to increase market share
  and eradicate acute poverty amongst women.
• It is against this back ground, the GAWE
  initiated and organized the first Global Women
  Entrepreneurs Trade Fair and Investment Forum-
  the first of its kind to be initiated and
  organized by women themselves.

4
ENTREPRISING WOMEN THE BUSINESS OF BUILDING
WOMENS ECONOMIC NETWORKS

• The First Global Women Entrepreneurs Trade Fair
  and investment Forum held in Accra on the June
  1996 was a clear evidence of women building their
  own capacity when given the necessary support
  from the UN- Specialized Agencies and System and
  other donor agencies and governments are
  available.
• The main theme for the First Global Women
  Entrepreneurs Trade Fair and Investment Forum was
  Foreign Private Direct Investment in Women
  Businesses for Economic Recovery and Development
  in Africa the objectives was to sensitized
  members of AFWE of the need to adopt an attitude
  change and set aside individualism in order to
  face the challenger of under-development of women
  in particular and the development of Africa in
  general.

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ENTREPRISING WOMEN THE BUSINESS OF BUILDING
WOMENS ECONOMIC NETWORKS CONT.

• The other objectives were
• To create a unique opportunities for women
  entrepreneurs from all over the world to network
  economically
• To provide new growth opportunities for women
  entrepreneurs to emerges in the national global
  economy
• To expose products made by women to potential
  buyers and investors.
• To test quality of products against
  internationally acceptable standard
• To encourage women entrepreneurs to pull their
  resources together maximize their output and
  improve competitiveness in a liberalized and
  globalized market.
• To review the Beijing Platform for Action in
  relation to the economic empowerment of women.
• To promote non-traditional export products and
  services etc
• Let me share some of the experiences of the
  Global Fair and Investment Fora with you.

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ENTREPRISING WOMEN THE BUSINESS OF BUILDING
WOMENS ECONOMIC NETWORKS CONT.

• AFWE and GAWE realized there are opportunities
  for the development of the informal sector and
  took advantage of the available opportunities and
  make use of it, by making use of available micro
  and macro policies and lobby for more policies
  that will hasten the growth of the sector.
• For example, after the Beijing Platform for
  Action in 1995, GAWE took the initiative to
  practicalize the empowerment of women by
  organizing the First Global Women Entrepreneurs
  Trade Fair and Investment Forum.
• The idea of Africa trading with itself in
  addition to inter-continental trade is very
  famous among African Women in the informal cross
  boarder trade sector and had been visualized in
  Arusha, Tanzania by Mrs. Ruth Engo in February,
  1990 during the Popular Participation Program.
  She had visualized in a poem, the day a truck
  load of goods would arrive Burkina Faso from
  Accra in Ghana with Kente cloths and head back
  home with mud cloth and other Burkina Faso
  popular products.
• The First Global Women Entrepreneurs Trade Fair
  and Investment Forum is a realization of that
  vision which brought together diplomats,
  ministers, public servants, government, chiefs
  and religious leaders. It brought existing
  interrelations amongst the various national
  associations of women entrepreneurs grouped under
  the umbrella of African Federation of Women
  Entrepreneurs (AFWE). It showed power in numbers
  and what women can do when given the opportunity
  to do so.

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ENTREPRISING WOMEN THE BUSINESS OF BUILDING
WOMENS ECONOMIC NETWORKS CONT.

• The Trade Fair and Investment Forum held in Accra
  June 26-3July, was a boom. This boom has been
  paramount in the clothing and textile sectors
  where batik products and tie and dye are in high
  demand in Zambia, Tanzania, Sierra Leone,
  Zimbabwe, South Africa and the United State of
  America. Large orders of these products are
  keeping employers and their employees in Ghana
  busy.
• Equally, on the fast track of demand is the hair
  braiding style of Ghana for which Joyce Arts has
  got a contract to establish a salon in Namibia,
  Akos Engineering services, makers of agricultural
  machinery in Ghana are meeting the needs of the
  Nigeria agricultural sector, agricultural
  machinery are also now serving the needs of
  Ghanaian small farmers.
• The effectiveness of coming together of women
  entrepreneurs in Africa and the rest of the world
  to deliberate on how they can effectively work
  together to build their capacities and enhance
  the economy of their various countries was quite
  evident during the above forum. It created a
  platform for women to network economically, most
  of all it provide the rest of the world the
  opportunity to see Africa at one spot.
• The Forum also provided opportunity for women
  entrepreneurs all over the world to share
  practical real experiences with each other. The
  Investment Forum was held simultaneously with the
  trade fair to expose women entrepreneurs to ways
  of enhancing their current businesses or creating
  new ones. Topics discussed during the workshops
  ranged from the role of women entrepreneurs in
  the growth of the informal sector the use of
  technology to aid womens businesses.

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ENTREPRISING WOMEN THE BUSINESS OF BUILDING
WOMENS ECONOMIC NETWORKS CONT.

• 650 women participated from 38 African Countries,
  and from Pakistan, Canada, India, England,
  Germany, Malaysia, Trinidad and Tobago,
  Australia, and USA.
• The conference recognized that the world economy
  is moving towards what have been termed global
  village where boundaries are nonexistent.
  Already, trading partners such as the EEC, NAFTA,
  ASEAN, CARICOM and others are being formed to
  facilitate trade between nations. However, Africa
  has 53 boundaries, even though there are regional
  economic groups like ECOWAS, COMESA, SADC etc,
  there are yet to make any meaningful impact in
  terms of regional trade.
• Therefore AFWE/GAWE have been advocating for one
  currency for trade purposes in Africa, in order
  to make trading comfortable for informal cross
  boarders traders. ECOWAS has started preparation
  for the use of the ECO across West African
  countries but only the Anglophone countries
  including Senegal, and Corte de lviore has joined
  Ghana, Nigeria, Gambia and Sierra Leone to use
  the ECO when it comes into force.
• There are conditions these countries need to meet
  before the take off the monetary system i.e.
  inflation rate, interest rate, per capital
  income, GDP growth rate should be 12 per annum
  to qualify these countries start the use of the
  ECO as a legal tender currency in all the West
  African States.

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ENTREPRISING WOMEN THE BUSINESS OF BUILDING
WOMENS ECONOMIC NETWORKS CONT.

• Globalization also means that products from
  everywhere are being measured by the same
  standards. Moreover, the rapid development in
  information technology such as the internet has
  meant that those who already have better access
  to lucrative markets are poised to strengthen
  their hold on such markets by sheer speed of
  communication. This makes it more difficult for
  women who are less fortunate than their male
  counter part as far as education and access to
  technology and other resources are concern.
• The recommendations from the forum was given to
  Ms.Gertrude Mongela to present to the OAU heads
  of States meeting that took place in Yaoundé,
  Cameroon, 1996. We did not stop there we did a
  fellow up to the 1st Global in 1997, to address
  some of the concerns raised with regards to ICT
  and Technology for women and followed up with the
  2nd Global in Addis Ababa in 1998.
• We always come out with realistic and achievable
  recommendations based on the needs of our members
  and our ability to implement these programs
  around government policies and priority for
  development in Ghana. We however draws government
  attention on issues that prevents us from moving
  forward with our goals and make recommendations
  to government and other international
  institutions based on our experience on the
  ground and continued with the 3rd Global in Miami
  Dade County in 2000.
• We have managed to work in collaboration with
  governments corporate private sector and the
  international communities to work on the modality
  for the establishment of AFWE and GAWE and to
  implement some of our vision, the first, second
  and third Global Women Entrepreneurs Trade Fairs
  and Investment Fora organized some exchange
  programs for women in the food processing sector,
  African Women entrepreneurs trip to Bangkok and
  to India for a practical hands on training in how
  to use appropriate and affordable technology to
  increase production to meet acceptable quality
  standards.

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TECHNOLOGY AND COMMUNICATION IMPACT ON WOMEN
ENTREPRENEURS

• These are tremendous opportunities for the
  development of export within the globalized world
  economy however, Africa aiming to enter the
  market would first have to tackle the
  technological gap that exists between them and
  developed nations, to facilitate entry of their
  products into the globalized market in the 21st
  century and beyond. Women entrepreneurs with no
  knowledge of ICT have additional challenge to
  enter the global market.
• In the case of intra-African trade, we are so
  disadvantage because, every African country has
  its own currency which is not legal tender in
  other African countries, with the exception of
  the francophone zone in west Africa that has the
  CFA France used in all the 12 countries the
  ECOWAS region including some Central African
  countries like Cameroon and Central African
  Republic, cross boarder trading in Africa is very
  complex.
• In order to enhance the market potential of
  members, GAWE has sort for support from the
  government of Ghana to establish an ICT centre to
  train women to move away from the traditional
  marketing and production methods, which often
  result in low productivity, and substandard
  quality and adopt new technologies which will
  enable them compete effectively in a well
  structured market. These were some of the
  recommendations from the follow ups to the first
  Global. Build the capacity of women in the use
  of technology.
• GAWE saw traditional methods that are labor
  intensive as a result, they often generate low
  returns. Food surpluses are often wasted because
  women do not have access to technologies that
  would allow them to process and store them for
  the lean seasons

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TECHNOLOGY AND COMMUNICATION IMPACT ON WOMEN
ENTREPRENEURS CONT.

• We see almost 30 of food crops go waste during
  each harvest season due to lack of technology
  storage and market information as a result, women
  food producers are often displaced by big firms
  using latest technologies, and responding faster
  to request due to the use of internet services.
• GAWE saw the need for rapid technological
  advancement in the various stages of the export
  business from production, processing, packaging
  and handling using ICT. The use of ICT for
  marketing purpose is particularly important
  because in the new global market place, products
  from everywhere are measured by the same quality
  standards and are expected to meet datelines for
  delivery. We try in order our small way to
  implement some of the strategies of the UN, AU,
  NEPAD, MDGs based on our set up vision to meet
  the needs of our members.
• For example, it is important to respond to
  request as quickly as it is received which means
  the use of the internet is increasingly required
  and that products carry the eco-label certifying
  that their production was not ecologically
  harmful.GAWE put women in contact with the
  scientific institutions responsible for measuring
  these standards.

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TECHNOLOGY AND COMMUNICATION IMPACT ON WOMEN
ENTREPRENEURS CONT.

• We are encouraging successful women entrepreneurs
  to mentor other women emerging into the formal
  sector, support research for the development of
  the informal productive sector. We continent
  carry out training to enhance the skills of
  members to respond positively to market demands.
  Put research information in usable form at the
  disposal of members.
• Women who participated in AFWE/GAWEs activities,
  at local and international level, have moved from
  informal to formal small enterprises and some
  moved from small formal enterprise to a limited
  liability companies over five years. We have on
  going training on entrepreneurial and financial
  management for members as well as the use of ICT
  for e-commerce to expand their businesses and
  markets.
• GAWEs strategies are always focused on
  entrepreneurial approaches to build the
  capacities of women entrepreneurs, which enable
  them to do things for themselves, build their
  self esteem and gain automatic right in their
  families and the society.

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ENTREPRENEURSHIP THE IMPACT ON WOMEN AND POVERTY
REDUCTION ON MY OWN LIFE EXPERIENCE

• How entrepreneurship changed my life and that of
  my children and my family. I was forced by
  circumstances beyond my control to break my
  education when I was in the high school at the
  age of 17, because I was pregnant and got
  married. Within 3 years, I gave birth to 3
  children. My father was not happy and kept
  reminding me that I can still do something to
  continue with my education.
• As I was saddled with 3 children at the age 20
  and a house wife, with no income of my own, the
  only thing I could do at home at that moment was
  to learn how to sew. I registered with Singer
  Sewing School after a long discussions and
  persuasion with my husband who did allow me to go
  through the training to become a designer and
  dressmaker.
• At that tender age, I managed my home, my husband
  and children as well as my new career with
  enthusiasm. The idea that, I was doing something
  that was going to make me earn an income without
  falling on anybody for assistance was the driving
  force behind the amount of zeal I put into all
  that I did at the time.
• My hours were very long, sometimes 14hrs, because
  my day start at 4.00Am hours, I prepared meals
  for the day, get the children ready before I
  leave the house at 7.00Am, return home at 6pm,
  attend to the children, my husband and when
  everybody is a sleep by 11.00pm I went through my
  home work because I could not close late as
  others do but did extra work at night after
  attending to my family, Most of the time I have
  only 3 hours of sleep.

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ENTREPRENEURSHIP THE IMPACT ON WOMEN AND POVERTY
REDUCTION ON MY OWN LIFE EXPERIENCE CONT.

• After 3 years with singer sewing school, I was
  made to sew a shirt. We were told that when you
  can sew a shirt with a collar and the entire
  seems must be french seem. I used my husband size
  to make the shirt and presented it to him on his
  birthday. He could not believe what he saw, he
  thought a brought it from the shop. In
  appreciation he bought me my first sewing
  machine. I made all my children dresses I stated
  sewing for friends the beginning of my sewing
  career at home.
• This humble beginning led to the establishment of
  Lucia Fashion Spot, a very informal
  non-registered company, in 1969, employing 2
  people without knowing how I was going to pay
  them. In 1974 the company was registered as
  Lucia Manufacturing Industry as a Sole
  Proprietorship Company and gazzetted by
  government, employing 12 people. In 1981 the
  company became a limited liability company
  employing 40 people running two shifts. 20 people
  7am 3pm another 20 4pm- 8pm.
• I can use my own experience to demonstrate how
  entrepreneurship can move you from poverty to
  prosperity, how it can build the self esteem of
  women and give them automatic right as human
  being and equality before your family and the
  society.
• By 1981 it became a limited liability company
  with share holders. I was able to go through
  self-education in from 1974 to date, joined Ghana
  manufactures Association as it was then called
  and rose to become a council member of
  Association of Ghana Industries (AGI) as it is
  known now.

15
ENTREPRENEURSHIP THE IMPACT ON WOMEN AND POVERTY
REDUCTION ON MY OWN LIFE EXPERIENCE CONT.

• Teenage pregnancy and early marriage did not stop
  me from building an informal company employing
  three people including myself. By 1979 I was
  employing 40 people running two shifts a day.
  Supplying our products to leading commercial
  companies in Ghana and currently we export in a
  very informal small scale. The excitement is how
  I managed an informal enterprise with 2 employer
  people to a formal company employing 20 people.
• I am very proud to relate my entrepreneurial
  experience from 1974 to date, I have attended
  many short courses in entrepreneurship ,
  management the way it influence my empowerment as
  an Africa women in leadership program, and help
  others start their own businesses and also relate
  my experience to develop rural enterprises. I am
  very much respected and consulted by my husband,
  children my family and the community, at large.
• I made a significant contribution to the
  education of my children, who have all past
  through the university, and I serve on church and
  government boards and commissions and own a
  consultancy company I facilitate the growth of
  informal subsistence enterprises to formal small
  registered companies.
• Most of all, I am empowered and have automatic
  right unlike, when I had to beg my husband to
  allow me to go though the training. If I can make
  it through the circumstances I mentioned above
  without any formal bank support every other women
  can make it. Most of all I paid to participate in
  short courses that has enhanced my capacity to
  relate well to what I do.

16
MILLENIUM DEVELOPMENT GOALS AND AFRICAN
ENTREPRENEURS

• The international community made a huge step
  forward when it identified its own goals through
  the millennium Declaration which was adopted by
  the General Assembly of the United Nations on 8th
  September 2000.
• There have been declarations before and goals set
  for development in the 1990s. But l believe the
  MDGs are different. It was an event in the
  history of the United Nations. It constituted an
  unprecedented promise by world leaders to
  address, as a single package, peace, security,
  development, human rights and fundamental
  freedoms. Yes it is different for two reasons
• First the MDGs seem to have gained attention in
  the minds of governments, development agencies
  and the rest of the international community in a
  way that few efforts before have done.
• Secondly, rather than single out one aspect of
  the problem, the MDGs have linked set of
  objectives-a portfolio of targets- that represent
  a coherent assault on the problem of development.
  And these goals have made the development
  practitioners and other specialists job easier.
• We now have something clear to aim at. We can now
  ask in a more focused way What can women
  entrepreneurs in Africa do to make the MDGs meet
  the set target in Africa? What is the role of
  women entrepreneurs as part of the private sector
  in the implementation of the MDGs?
• For the purpose of this discussion, l will like
  to numerate the eight goals that were adopted at
  the summit of heads of governments in September,
  2000.

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MILLENIUM DEVELOPMENT GOALS AND AFRICAN
ENTREPRENEURS CONT.

• The eight goals are
• Eradicate Extreme Poverty and Hunger
• Achieve Universal Primary Education
• Promote Gender Equality and empower women
• Reduce Child Mortality
• Improve Maternal Health
• Combat HIV/AIDS, Malaria and other diseases
• Ensure Environmental Sustainability
• Develop a Global Partnership for Development.
• Because of Africas scarce resources, I will like
  to recommend that, we focus attention on three of
  the MDGs - 1, 3 8 for five years.
• I will continue with my recommendation on how
  Africa should use its scarce resources to meet
  the MDGs before 2015. I will further suggest that
  African countries to focus their attention on
  three of the eight goals and integrate its
  activities for the next five years, in order to
  make significant progress on the issue of
  development to reduce poverty.
• I will go on to illustrate for you to see that,
  when we focus on the 3 goals, with its integrated
  activities, it will make concrete and direct
  impact on the lives of millions of people as
  stated below, we will reduce poverty in the
  shortest possible time.

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MILLENIUM DEVELOPMENT GOALS AND AFRICAN
ENTREPRENEURS CONT.

• These three goals when properly addressed, with
  all the seriousness it deserves, it will cut
  across the five other goals. Our leaders should
  have the political and moral will to get focused
  for once and invest heavily in the three areas in
  other to mobilize internal resources to achieve
  quick results which will have linkages to the
  other five goals.
• Poverty can be eradicated by strong leadership in
  Africa, supported by much closer teamwork from
  donor countries, development agencies, African
  entrepreneurs in the Diasporas, private sector
  and civil society organizations. Africas
  priority is to ensure government and its leaders
  produce tangible results in its efforts to
  support the poor and vulnerable in the society.
• At the heart of the MDGs is the understanding
  that, fighting poverty is a collective
  undertaking and that all countries have a stake
  in the results. The primary responsibility of
  achieving the Goals (MDGs), rest with developing
  countries in general and sub-Sahara African
  countries in particular where extreme poverty is
  on the increase instead of declining.
• Private Foreign direct investment in
  agro-business will rapidly increase growth of the
  informal sector to formal sector. We appeal to
  African entrepreneurs in the diasporas to take
  the lead for others to follow by investing in
  Africa. Private sector development, including the
  development of the financial sector to deliver
  wide access to services like credit and loans, is
  an important aspect of the joint international
  efforts to support African women entrepreneurs
  and those operating in the micro, small and
  medium enterprises.
• Finally I will like see more Regional Economic
  Communities as well private sector and civil
  society and all stakeholders, have to work
  together as a team to develop a plan of action
  that will offer a framework for support and
  expending regional and national initiatives that
  will be monitored constantly to achieve real
  program and produce truly African success stories
  as far as the MDGs is concern.

19
CONCLUSION

• I challenge African leaders to make the required
  move to encourage Africans in the diaspora to
  make the necessary investments needed for the
  take off of the informal sector and the
  empowerment of women through entrepreneurship for
  self-employment activities, harmonizing of
  policies for effective regional economic
  activities and sea and air to facilitate regional
  trade and integration.
• Let me emphasis that without adequate
  infrastructure to facilitate the easy movement of
  people and goods and services, and long term
  investment loans at reduced interest rate, we in
  the private sector would not be able to take
  advantage of the vast investment opportunities in
  our respective sub regions. Also, I wish to state
  that the viability of the African Union (AU) and
  its program NEPAD will depend on the following
• -African governments to formulate policies that
  would place value as science and technology (ST)
  and research and development encourage their
  development of the continent.
• The link between science and society in Africa is
  presently weak, with only a few citizens able to
  appreciate the value that they can derive from
  science enterprise. There are disconnections
  between activities of scientific communities and
  the overall development aspirations of most
  African countries with the net result being the
  absence of a strong science culture and
  constituencies that demanded and prompted
  scientific and technological development.
• Extend to which the private sector are allowed to
  grow and create jobs.
• Degree to which new improved physical
  infrastructure and telecommunications will reduce
  the cost of doing business and
• Willingness of government and public institutions
  to transform themselves to business facilitators
  rather than barriers to private sector
  development.

20
CONCLUSION CONT.

• Distinguished organizers of this forum, speakers
  and discussants, let me highlight that, in spite
  of the trade protocols signed in the region, our
  nations are being de-industrialized as our
  manufacturing sectors die under the yoke of high
  transactions cost, institutional failures and
  increasing bureaucratic red tape.
• It is our hope that MDGs, which is a big
  challenge to African leaders and its people, will
  encourage us to meet the MDGs before 2015. We
  need to learn from the mistakes of similar
  efforts made in the past and focus on the
  practical issues of building entrepreneurial
  capacity of informal sector to grow and create
  jobs and alleviate poverty.
• It has been a great pleasure and privilege to
  talk on behalf of the African Women entrepreneurs
  here today to set the tone for further
  discussions on how Africa leaders and the private
  sector will catch up with the rest of the world
  in achieving the MDGs.
• Wearing another hat as the Executive President of
  Ghana Association of Women Entrepreneurs (GAWE),
  it is also a great privilege to be part of this
  genuinely African Studies Centre led process.
• In conclusion, I would like to leave you with
  this thought. Some one said, if you look at the
  current situation you could argue that Africa
  missed the Green Revolution. Let those of us
  gathered here today make sure, we do not miss the
  Blue one before us now.