Women at the heart of the eleventh session of the Africa Regional Forum on Sustainable Development (ARFSD 11)

There are many reasons to stay committed and with determination to push forward for all women and girls rights and to keep championing for gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls. One such reason was this year’s Eleventh Session of the Africa Regional Forum on Sustainable Development where over 1800 political leaders, technical experts, and stakeholders convened to discuss the session’s theme: "Driving job creation and economic growth through sustainable, inclusive, science-and evidence-based solutions for the 2030 Agenda and Agenda 2063" The forum served as a critical platform for inspiring and emphasizing the need for bold action, strong leadership, innovative solutions, and robust partnerships to drive sustainable development across Africa. UN Women played a significant role in the forum by hosting two side events and a high-level evening engagement with women leaders and partners. The engagements aimed to reinforce the importance of gender equality and women's leadership in achieving sustainable development.

‘Charity begins at home’: The Gender Forum Pre-event

The first side event was a Gender Forum organized alongside UNFPA and the Office of the Prime Minister of Uganda. This session convened stakeholders to foster dialogue and consensus on strategic actions that accelerate equitable, gender-responsive job creation and economic growth for sustainable development. Anchored in the principles of the Beijing Platform and Declaration for Action, and commemorating its 30th anniversary, the forum reflected on the journey toward achieving its goals, identified existing challenges, and defined urgent measures required to drive transformative progress in implementing gender equality commitments.

Speaking at the opening sessions, UN Women East and Southern Africa Regional Director, Anna Mutavati shed light on the need to turn discussions into purposeful actions, unlocking the immense potential of women as agents of inclusive growth, economic resilience, and sustainable prosperity. Now is the time to reaffirm our shared determination and deliver on the promise of a transformed and equitable Africa.

“We stand at a vital opportunity to align our efforts and drive transformative change through decisive policies, strategic alliances, and robust accountability frameworks. Today’s deliberations, following the rest of the week, pave the way to fast-track progress toward gender equality by 2030. I encourage each of you to champion bold commitments and take concrete actions that ensure no woman or girl is left behind. Together, we must shape impactful outcomes in the Kampala Declaration that will amplify Africa’s unified voice at the High-Level Political Forum later this year, as well as the Second World Summit for Social Development” Reflected Anna Mutavati as she concluded.

Positive strides by women championing women’s engagement from the ground up

The second event, a High-Level Women Leaders' Strategic Forum, highlighted the importance of women's leadership and reinforced commitment and momentum at all levels. The engagement brought forth networking and collaboration opportunities for women leaders to connect, exchange experiences, and establish partnerships for future initiatives. UN Women, while championing advocacy for women empowerment has hosted numerous testimonials of women leading programmes that have completely transformed the lives of women and girls across the region, had an inspiring woman leader working with women in Uganda under one of the Women’s Economic Empowerment programmes in Climate Smart Agriculture lending her voice to demonstrate how the impact of working with women transforms lives and contributes greatly to a country’s economy.

In her remarks, Dr. Julian Adyeri Omalla, Founder and Managing Director, Delight Limited Uganda shed light on various initiatives that have seen more than 50,000 women through gender-smart investments, inclusive value chain and an innovative model from their core work dubbed Adyeri Model.

Endless possibilities through mainstreaming gender perspectives

On the parallel sessions’ day, UN Women was part of a powerful meeting for an in-depth review of progress made, peer-to-peer learning and acceleration measures regarding the sub-themes of the Forum – on SDG 5 specifically, agenda item 8. This platform was critical as it brought forth reflections on mainstreaming gender perspectives into planning, budgeting, and resource allocation to address systemic barriers faced by women and girls. Participants were moved by speakers sharing on critical topics such as eliminating discriminatory laws and practices while enforcing gender equality statutes and policies.  One of UN Women’s interests is ensuring expanding access to science and technology for young women and girls through digital learning and literacy programs, while addressing emerging risks in technology. One such programme is the Africa Girls Can Code initiative present in several countries in the region including Kenya and Rwanda.

Through these discussions, it was evident that there are glaring opportunities for promoting women's economic empowerment through access to credit, entrepreneurship, financial literacy, and rights at work, supported by cooperation with relevant stakeholders. One of our mandates on women’s economic empowerment is to address unpaid care and domestic work by advocating for the redistribution of responsibilities through public investment in integrated care systems, promoting work-life balance, and recognizing care workers. It is important to spark conversations that inspire action from policy makers all the way to the women and girls directly affected by unpaid care.

While there are challenges and setbacks on key issues affecting women and girls, we must forge ahead with the hope that the endless opportunities in the future. Through innovation, collaboration and leading with women at the forefront, we will achieve equitable development through gender-responsive policies and women's leadership.