Regional Sharefair on Gender and Resilience in Africa 2016 Report

This is a convening report for the Regional Sharefair on Gender and Resilience in Africa held by UN Women in collaboration with key partners in November 9th –10th 2016 at Safari Park Hotel, Nairobi, Kenya. Focusing on the main theme of “Strengthening Resilience by Empowering Women”, the Sharefair provided a platform for sharing and learning, availed an opportunity to further explore the role of women in building and strengthening resilience and promoted dialogue and sharing of experiences on gender responsive resilience related programmes and policies in Africa. This is expected to accelerate development and humanitarian response and the overall achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The Sharefair also endeavor to facilitate long term collaboration amongst regional stakeholders with the aim of identifying problems, using data and predictive methods and mobilizing support and resources to incubate, accelerate and scale effective solutions. The outcome of the two-day event was the creation of a strong regional network to amplify resilience solutions, sustaining change in policy and practice within relevant macroeconomic frameworks. Hundreds of participants gathered at the Sharefair to discuss interventions, innovations, good practices, evidence from research and documented data, legal frameworks and policies. They including policymakers, development agencies, United Nations agencies, the African Union, civil society organizations, private sector representatives and experts in various sectors. A series of plenary and interactive parallel sessions identified challenges, solutions and recommendations for empowering women towards strengthening their resilience. The exhibition booth featured eight innovations and/ or good practices showcasing diverse interventions that seek to empower women and girls while increasing their capacities towards resilience. Through high level policy dialogues, panel interventions and parallel sessions, day one of the Sharefair focused on establishing ways to ensure that resilience policies and programmes are gender responsive. It also sought to identify solutions and innovations in sustainable energy and climate change to strengthen rural women’s resilience and increase their capacity to mitigate and adapt to effects of climate change. It provided an opportunity to identify challenges, share good practices and identify solutions to address the gender gap in climate financing and creating awareness on existing frameworks and tools for resilience analysis.