The barriers to progress for women often seem insurmountable. Women are disproportionately affected by poverty, discrimination and exploitation. With this in mind Groupment des Femmes Entrepreneurs de Madagascar (GFEM), the COMFWB chapter in Madagascar in collaboration with the Government of Madagascar and in Partnership with Axian Group, UNDP held its 1st SAFE trade fair in Antananarivo Madagascar from 17 to 19th March 2023.
The 3 days’ trade fair attracted more than 100 exhibitors from Madagascar Djibouti, Seychelles, Mauritius and Comoros.
Dignitaries in attendance included, high-level representatives from partners including the world Bank, African union and other international organisations representative among others.
With this year’s theme being from resilience to opportunity: women entrepreneurs in action climate change issues., Dignitaries took turn to emphasize the importance of women empowerment and appealed to partners to support the transformation of women from SMEs to MSMEs, citing its untapped potential to create economic opportunities for women and youth. The speakers at the event unanimously agreed that undertaking significant platform feature enhancements would be key to unlocking this potential.
Speaking during the official launch of the event Madagascar’s Minister of Finance Madam Rindra Hasimbola Rabarinirinarison who presided over the opening of the event, made a passionate appeal to the government of Madagascar to Continue championing gender equality. “Women’s empowerment has recently become a priority for Madagascar, and we have made a significant step in that we have a new law that protects women and children against sexual, social, and economic violence.”
On his part the Axian group CEO, affirmed the group commitment to gender equality.” There is still a long way to go in reducing gender inequalities in the business realm but new highways are being opened in ICT, Agri—food industry and particularly , sustainable development . Be Bold!
Acting CEO COMFWB Chikakula Miti, appealed to development partners to extend a hand of support to women entrepreneurs to launch them into the next critical phase post COVID recovery .“female entrepreneurship is associated with greater gender parity both at individual level i.e. more women owning their own businesses, as well as at the organization level, more women leading high –performance companies and at the regional level.” He said
Source: comfwb.org
