The African Women's Forum

Miriem Bensalah-Chaqroun, Présidente de la Confédération Générale des Entreprises du Maroc, décorée de la Croix de Grand Officier de l’ordre du Mérite civil du Royaume d’Espagne

Miriem Bensalah-Chaqroun décorée de la Croix de Grand Officier de l’ordre du Mérite civil du Royaume d’Espagne

 

 

La présidente de la Confédération Générale des Entreprises du Maroc (CGEM), Mme Miriem Bensalah-Chaqroun, a été décorée, lundi soir à Rabat, de la Croix de Grand Officier de l’ordre du Mérite civil du Royaume d’Espagne en reconnaissance à son action en faveur de la promotion des relations économiques entre le Maroc et l’Espagne.

 

L’ambassadeur d’Espagne au Maroc, M. Ricardo Diez-Hochleitner, a remis, au nom du Roi d’Espagne Felipe VI, cette distinction à Mme Bensalah-Chaqroun lors d’une cérémonie qui s’est déroulée en présence de plusieurs personnalités du monde de la politique, des affaires, de la diplomatie, de l’art et des médias.

Dans une allocution de circonstance, M. Diez-Hochleitner a souligné que cette décoration "amplement méritée" constitue un hommage aux efforts et au dévouement de la présidente de la CGEM pour développer davantage les liens commerciaux entre les deux pays.

"Mme Bensalah-Chaqroun est l’exemple de la place et de l’importance de la femme marocaine dans le développement du Royaume sous la conduite de Sa Majesté le Roi Mohammed VI", a dit le diplomate espagnol, faisant part des remerciements et de la gratitude de son pays à la présidente de la CGEM pour son "travail et sa contribution efficace à l’institutionnalisation de la coopération entre les patronats des deux pays".

Après avoir mis l’accent sur la "profondeur et l’excellence" des relations économiques et commerciales entre Rabat et Madrid, M. Diez-Hochleitnera indiqué que cette distinction constitue également un hommage au tissu entrepreneurial au Maroc qui se développe de manière permanente et contribue positivement à la consolidation des liens de partenariat entre les deux pays.

De son côté, le président de la Confédération espagnole des organisations entrepreneuriales (CEOE), Juan Rosell, a tenu à féliciter la présidente de la CGEM pour cette décoration, une récompense méritée pour son action en faveur de la promotion des rapports économiques entre le Maroc et l’Espagne, a-t-il affirmé.

S’exprimant à cette occasion, Mme Bensalah-Chaqroun a exprimé sa "profonde gratitude" à l’Espagne et au Souverain espagnol pour cette prestigieuse distinction, assurant que cette "décoration vient récompenser le travail accompli par les opérateurs économiques des deux pays afin de créer des valeurs ajoutées".

"Il s’agit d’une reconnaissance pour tous ceux qui oeuvrent pour la promotion et le renforcement des liens économiques entre le Maroc et l’Espagne" grâce à l’impulsion de SM le Roi Mohammed VI, a-t-elle affirmé, ajoutant que les secteurs privés marocain et espagnol ont franchi, ces dernières années, des pas importants vers la consolidation du partenariat bilatéral notamment à travers la mise en place du Conseil économique maroco-espagnol en 2013.

Les deux pays s’ouvrent sur de nouveaux horizons de coopération et sont appelés à travailler davantage pour fédérer leurs synergies et aller de l’avant dans leur coopération économique, a conclu Mme Bensalah-Chaqroun.

 

Article : Atlas Info

 

The Guardian : Fadumo Dayib, only Woman running for President in Somali

Somali refugee Fadumo Dayib runs for president 26 years after fleeing civil war

 

 

Dayib, who has lived in Finland since 1990, wants to return home to create stability and prosperity.

As Somalia slid into civil war almost 26 years ago, a family in Mogadishu sold everything to send a teenage girl to safety overseas. The 18-year-old arrived in northern Europe as a penniless and poorly educated asylum seeker. Now an expert in public health and an award-winning activist, Fadumo Dayib hopes to return to her homeland to end the killing and corruption and help lead Somalia towards prosperity and stability.

Dayib, who has lived in Finland since 1990, is standing in crucial presidential elections in Somalia scheduled for October. It is a move that has brought her daily death threats but also, she says, massive support in the country she left behind.

The poll has been billed by international backers, including the US and the UK, as the country’s first truly democratic election for decades. The reality is less inspiring, and much more complicated. A full election with a vote for all adults is considered impractical for security and institutional reasons, so Somalia’s next president will be selected by members of a bicameral national assembly picked by 14,000 delegates chosen by tribal elders.

At best, analysts say, the election can be described as a “stepping stone” towards universal suffrage, a goal optimists believe will be reached in 2020.

There are 18 candidates for the presidency, including the incumbent, Hassan Sheikh Mohamud, a former academic and activist who has been in power since 2012. Dayib is the only woman.

The 44-year-old recognises her chances of winning are zero. “Anyone who is competent and qualified … they are never going to win. If you are not corrupt you will not get into the system. I will never pay one cent to anyone so the likelihood of me winning is non-existent,” Dayib told the Guardian, speaking from her home near Helsinki.

But her campaign has already had an impact: raising her profile, prompting a broader discussion about women in Somalia, and, according to the candidate, showing the country’s 11 million inhabitants that there is an alternative to the existing political elite.

“In 2020 we will have democratic elections and then … we will win,” Dayib said. “A lot of Somalis are in shock because I appeared out of nowhere but managed to challenge all those in power … and [now] everyone inside the country knows who I am.”

After decades of conflict, Somalia was said to have turned a corner in 2012 with a new political settlement and major gains against the insurgency led by the al-Shabaab movement. However, hopes of rapid progress have been dashed and holding any polls at all poses immense difficulties.

Somalia’s infrastructure is in ruins and islands of economic activity are surrounded by vast swaths of deep poverty. Major towns have been partially secured by government forces and 22,000 troops from nearby countries stationed in Somalia, but al-Shabaab has proved resilient. The militants have sworn to disrupt the electoral process and have repeatedly bombed the capital, Mogadishu, in recent months.

“It is going to be a long, slow process for Somalia to overcome its enormous challenges, and its ability to do so is still in doubt. However, the country has one of its best chances in two decades to move toward stability,” wrote Joshua Meservey, an analyst at the conservative US thinktank the Heritage Foundation, in a recent report.

Other observers are sceptical that polls in Somalia will do much to alleviate the country’s deep problems.

“There are so many different actors in Somalia now. There is a need to tick boxes … Have elections concretely improved things on the ground, especially for those most vulnerable to abuse? I don’t know,” said Laetitia Bader, an expert in Somalia at Human Rights Watch, the international campaign group.

Some observers expect the elections to be postponed again, though this could trigger a constitutional crisis and will concern the major western donors who have poured aid into Somalia in recent years but are now looking to reduce their commitment. Officials in Kenya, where many diplomats and aid workers dealing with Somalia are based, talk of a “recalibration of objectives”.

Dayib was born in Kenya, the daughter of Somali parents. Her mother had travelled to the neighbouring country to seek better medical treatment after 11 siblings died of preventable disease. Dayib, the 12th, survived. Expelled from Kenya in 1989, the family tried to remake their lives in Mogadishu. Then came the collapse of the Siad Barre regime and civil war.

In Finland, Dayib studied as a critical care nurse, trained health specialists for the United Nations and gained a doctorate. She also works with the private sector on employment for refugees and won a fellowship to Harvard University to study public administration.

“I hit the ground running and never stopped … I did not want to assimilate and lose my culture or my religion but to integrate. I tried to combine the best from my culture and the best from Finnish culture. I didn’t want to be [in Finland] forever. I knew I was going to go back to Somalia. I tried to learn things that would be of use to my homeland,” Dayib, who is Muslim, said.

Her policy platform includes taking on the clan system and traditions such as female genital mutilation; zero tolerance for corruption; telling neighbouring countries to respect Somalia’s territorial integrity and a dialogue with al-Shabaab if the extremists lay down arms, stop killing Somalis and cut ties to international terrorist organisations.

Though few observers believe it is likely a woman with a progressive agenda will be able to overcome the vast obstacles to taking power in a traditional, conservative country, Dayib, a mother of four, is confident.

The death threats she receives daily are “a compliment”, she said.

“I come from a society where women are almost nothing, not taken seriously, just waved away. Certain men actually feel scared enough to make these threats because they recognise that I have the capability to instigate change.”

Article : The Guardian

Yvonne Chaka Chaka, Singer and Founder of Princess of Africa Foundation, highlights three main barriers to Women's Development : Education, Health and Sanitation

Get out of girls’ way

 

The world must break down the barriers to girls succeeding, argues Yvonne Chaka Chaka, singer and founder, Princess of Africa Foundation.

 

 

It isn’t easy being a girl, especially in Africa. I know this from first-hand experience: as a young woman, I lived through a turbulent time in South Africa’s history, seizing the few opportunities available to pursue my dreams of making music and having a family. I’m proud of what I have accomplished, but I encounter so many girls across Africa today who don’t have the same chances that I did. To help them, we need not do anything complicated: we just need to get out of their way.

Too many girls still hit barriers accessing fundamental rights. If the world is really committed to achieving the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) on security and prosperity, we must take advantage of the talents and energy of young women, by removing the barriers holding them back. 
Three areas strike me as particularly ready for change: education, health and sanitation. And change should start in 2017.

 

First, education. As a child, I had to fight to be educated in my own language. Since then, things have improved. More girls are being enrolled in school around the world than ever before. But despite major gains in primary education, girls attend secondary school and university in far fewer numbers than boys. In secondary education in sub-Saharan Africa, the ratio is 86 girls for 100 boys.

Why is that? Girls face barriers to learning that boys don’t often have to contend with. In places such as in Guinea and Niger, the richest boys are at least three times more likely to attend school than the poorest girls. Social and cultural norms such as early marriage and pregnancy, and parental bias towards sons, also often cause girls to drop out.

The OECD’s Social Institutions and Gender Index found that countries with higher levels of discrimination in general against women performed worse on development indicators, including education. Yet we know how to demolish these barriers: among other things, improve school infrastructure, promote gender-sensitive curricula, make the cost of attending school affordable and end child marriage. The coming year will bring new developments in higher education, including the opening of the University of Africa in Sagbama, Nigeria, the launch of a regional Virtual Institute for Higher Education and new battles over tuition fees in South Africa. Let’s focus the same amount of energy on promoting basic education for every girl everywhere.

 

Second, health. Infectious diseases like HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria, and conditions related to malnutrition, disproportionately affect girls and young women, either as sufferers or as caregivers. These make it far harder for them to attend school or work. The world has made tremendous gains in the fight against HIV/AIDS, but it remains one of the most deadly infectious diseases for women across middle- and low-income countries. In Africa 25% of all new infections among adults are in women aged 15-24. Bodies like the Global Fund to fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria are pushing for programmes that are designed to take account of women’s needs, and we need national and local responses to do the same.

The SDGs recognise how the hidden epidemic of poor nutrition undermines all aspects of women’s well-being, rendering them susceptible to illness, weakening their ability to survive childbirth and severely affecting their children’s health. But we have failed to invest in eradicating undernutrition. We should enthusiastically support “The Global Nutrition Report”, an international collaboration which provides a framework for this by setting—and funding—targets for cutting anaemia in women of reproductive age.

 

Ending a vicious spiral

Lastly, sanitation. An estimated 2.4bn people live without adequate sanitation. This poses enormous obstacles every day for young women across sub-Saharan Africa.

Lack of adequate facilities at school often forces girls from poor backgrounds to miss lessons every month during menstruation. This makes them more likely to struggle and eventually drop out. They become more susceptible to coercive sexual relationships in order to survive. They are more likely to marry or have children young, increasing the risk of complications. They are less likely to earn a wage, more likely to contract HIV and more likely to raise their own children in poverty. Boys suffer too from a lack of investment in sanitation, but for girls the challenges it creates are long-lasting.

 

International donors and NGOs can do far more. But with 12 legislative and presidential elections happening in sub-Saharan Africa in 2017, including in Kenya, Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo, politicians have an opportunity and responsibility to highlight these barriers to girls’ development.

Some of the obstacles I faced as a girl are now in the past. Yet today’s young women, who are hungry for the chance to build a better world, still face the looming barriers of inequality. Let’s give them wings to fly. 

Article : The Economist - The World in 2017

Depuis le 1er janvier 2017, une Femme est à la tête des 12 établissements culturels du Vatican

 

Barbara Jatta, première femme directrice

des musées du Vatican

 

 

Cette archiviste de formation succède à l'ex-ministre de la Culture italien, Antonio Paolucci. Nommée par le pape François, elle prend officiellement ses fonctions le 1er janvier.

Elle devient la nouvelle figure de proue de la culture du Vatican. Barbara Jatta, 54 ans, a été nommée par le pape François, nouvelle directrice des musées du Saint-Siège à Rome. Un poste capital, puisque ce ne sont pas moins de douze établissements prestigieux dont elle aura la responsabilité. Elle prendra ses nouvelles et prestigieuses fonctions dès le 1er janvier, et deviendra alors la première femme à occuper ce poste.

Cette nomination vient couronner une carrière exemplaire. Mère de trois enfants, diplômée en histoire du design, de la gravure et du graphisme, Barbara Jatta est une Romaine de naissance. Archiviste de formation, elle est diplômée de l'École Vaticane de paléographie. Nommée vice-directrice des musées en juin dernier par le pape François, elle remplace l'ex-ministre de la Culture italien Antonio Paolucci, 77 ans, qui était responsable des Musées du Vatican depuis 2007.

Avant d'accéder à ces nouvelles fonctions, Barbara Jatta a écrit de nombreux articles spécialisés, recensions et autres catalogues d'expositions. Sa collaboration avec le Vatican a débuté en 1996, lors de son entrée à la Bibliothèque apostolique vaticane. Elle n'a depuis cessé de grimper les échelons.

Barbara Jatta sera à la tête de douze établissements culturels dont la célébrissime chapelle Sixtine. Avec près de cinq millions de visiteurs par an, ils sont la principale source de revenus du Vatican.

Article : Le Figaro