2024 International Women’s Day (IWD) @ ICRITR, UNIZIK, Awka

The 2024 edition of the IWD has come and gone, but at the Prof. Ngozi Egbuna International Center for Regional Integration and Trade Research (ICRITR), we are still savoring the event, which we celebrated on Thursday, 28th March 2024 with a Symposium. ?Globally, the International Women’s Day (IWD) for 2024 was celebrated on Friday, 8 March. It offered an opportunity to reflect on progress made, to call for change, and to celebrate acts of courage and determination by ordinary women who have played an extraordinary role in the history of their countries and communities. ICRITR @ Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka, Anambra State, Nigeria, celebrated with the theme ‘Count Her In Accelerating AfCFTA Through Inspired Inclusion’. The center provides intellectual, technical, and professional inputs through capacity building and research in Africa at the Master’s degree level, Diplomas, and short Certificate levels. The theme recognized that, despite progress, women face significant obstacles to achieving equal participation in the economy and calls for ensuring equal opportunity for women and girls to build their capabilities and strengthen their capacity to learn, earn, and lead.

In attendance at the hybrid event were about 67 participants from the governments, academia, industry, NGOs research institutions within and outside Nigeria. ICRITR assembled informed and leading speakers to deal with the topic. The event was chaired by Madam Hauwa Mustapha, Vice President/ National Coordinator of the African Women Network on AfCFTA (AWNA). In her opening remarks, she passionately spoke on the inextricable link between achieving the AfCFTA goals and women's inclusion, which cannot be underestimated, as women play a significant role in the productive sectors of the African Economy. Besides the major contribution they play in informal cross-border trade and as guardians of indigenous knowledge and path to nutrition and education outcomes (intra and inter-generational impacts for children and youth) cannot be possible without the role of women. Welcoming guests, the Director, International Linkages at UNIZIK, Prof Uche Collins Nwogwugwu called on the AfCFTA Secretariat to review some of the protocols that are not gender inclusive. ?

Also, the Director, of the International Center for Regional Integration and Trade Research, Prof. Ngozi Egbuna expressed appreciation to all participants, stressing that the objective of the event was to highlight the urgent need to highlight women's issues to build the capacity to empower the present and future generation of African women traders to face the challenges, prospects and opportunities in shared prosperity in the continent. ?

The keynote Speaker is Nwiabu, Legborsi Nuka Esq., Trade Lawyer & Executive Director at the Nigeria Private Sector Alliance (NiPSA), who eloquently spoke on the theme “COUNT HER IN: ACCELERATING AfCFTA THROUGH INSPIRED INCLUSION”. He stressed the fact that inspired inclusion is only possible through investing in women, investing for women, and investing by women. He is an International Trade and Investment Lawyer, Private Sector Specialist, Trade Policy Adviser & Analyst with considerable experience in WTO Law, Regional Integration, customs and trade facilitation, investment, Trade in Services, intellectual property rights, E-commerce & Digital Trade, Logistics and Transport Policy. ?Also, the discussant is Mrs. Audrey Binay. She gave insights and highlighted the areas in policy where women's issues in trade should be the priority.?? Mrs. Binay, is the director of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and Environmental and Social Governance (ESGs) for AfCFTA Policy Network (APN), an NGO whose work is centered around advocacy of AfCFTA and its successful implementation.

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The key outcomes from the event are the following:

1. The AfCFTA Agreement goes beyond simple trade liberalization – its components are directed at boosting and strengthening Africa’s capacities and encouraging economic and social development through cooperation.

2. The benefits for women and youth are not automatic thus, there must be a better understanding of what is required at the national and regional levels to enhance economic opportunities for women

3. Trade can catalyze to promote greater gender equality; it is not gender neutral.

4. Women and men are impacted differently due to differences in economic representation and various social inequalities.

5. Women and youth traders need to be equipped with the appropriate skills, technology, and resources that would enable them to benefit from trade and trade liberalization.

6. Women continue to suffer from invisibility, stigmatization, violence, harassment, poor working conditions, and a lack of recognition for their economic contribution.

Consequently, Gender Lens Investing, which is the deliberate integration of gender analysis, investment analysis, and decision-making, where investments are made in more women-owned or led enterprises and investments are made in enterprises that promote gender equality at the workplace, as well as in products or services that substantially improve the lives of women and girls, building strong, resilient economies of the future.

Therefore, the value proposition of the AfCFTA has to recognize other measures of impact and success that are inclusive of the priorities and needs of women. In other words, a strong social development lens is required. Women in Africa focus on longer-lasting impacts which have intra and inter-generational effects such as nutrition, poverty reduction, health, and investments in education.?

In the words of several women and participants, it is not a question of accelerating the AfCFTA implementation, it is a question of understanding that it is about the developmental outcomes and the quality of the impacts.?Hence, the need for re-framing the very definition of speed around the implementation of AfCFTA itself, and how the outcomes and impacts are counted.?

In conclusion, underscoring it all the event ended with everyone acknowledging that AfCFTA should leave no one behind.

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