KwaZulu-Natal Premier, Nomusa Dube-Ncube, says policies within BRICS must aim high to reflect gender parity across all sectors of society and drive revolutionary change in the economy, as this leads the development of a multipolar world.
Speaking at the BRICS Gender Dividend Debate, held at Inkosi Albert Luthuli International Convention Centre (ICC) in Durban, Dube-Ncube said to achieve gender equality and women’s empowerment under the 2030 Agenda and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), women must be empowered to participate fully in economic life.
“This is based on simple logic that the exclusion of women robs the world of 50% of its potential. Add the energy and brains of women and suddenly all the indexes shoot up with poverty down, employment down, and economic growth and families secure.
“To achieve sustainable stability and balance, our policies at BRICS level must be sensitive to achieving internationally agreed goals for development, sustainability, and human rights. Our policies must seek to improve the quality of life for women, men, families, and communities at a faster, more equitable pace promoting gender equality and women’s empowerment,” Dube-Ncube said.
The Premier said, the process of moving from a unipolar to multipolar should not be allowed to leave women behind.
Defining private sector’s role
While government can lead, Dube-Ncube said the private sector should be brought into a multi-stakeholder partnership to drive women empowerment.
“To do so, the private sector should recognise this first as an act of redress, but also as part of business logic to engage the other 50% of the gender divide into the centre of the economy. Freedom cannot be achieved unless women have been emancipated from all forms of oppression,” she said.
She highlighted that the provincial programme responds to “Economic Transformation, Entrepreneurship and Job Creation” pillar targeting unemployed youth and previously disadvantaged groups, including women.
The Premier also warned that unless the role of women in the economy is fixed, the member States we will not be able to push the critical work that remains to be done to address poverty, education, health, violence against women, armed conflict, women in power and decision-making, as well as human rights, media, environment, and the place of the-girl child in the Economy.
“In the context, the political economy of gender in a multipolar world matters more than ever as we can’t let this revolution pass women by,” Dube-Ncube said.
Held under the theme, “Tomorrow’s Multipolar World, Through a Gender Lens”, the debate aimed to explore the political economy of gender in a multipolar world, framing for women by women in BRICS and African nations.
The main topics of discussion included the impact of the evolving BRICS and African political and economic landscape on transforming industries to become gender-neutral and inclusive.
The BRICS Gender Dividend Debate was held as a precursor to the 15th BRICS Summit that will take place in August.
Source: South African Government News Agency