The AllAfrica Global Media Group (editor of www.allafrica.com ) will give the AllAfrica African Women Leadership Award to four brave African women.

It will take place on the sidelines of the High Level Panel organized by AllAfrica on March 8, 2016 at King Fahd Palace Hotel in Dakar. This event’s theme will be: “Achieving Gender Equality and Empowering Women and Girls in Africa”. Honoring female role models, is part of AllAfrica Dakar‘s Office CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) policy, characterized by its innovative approach,  and promoted by Ms. Mariama B. SY, the West Africa Director.

For the 2016 edition, 4 African women, who have been lauded for their willpower and commitment in their professional areas, will receive the AllAfrica Female Leadership Prize. That’s how the media group has chosen to honor them, share their experiences and also make of them role models for  African girls, motivate them to make great achievements. The following recipients were selected:

– Ms Ellen Johnson Sirleaf: The first woman elected by universal suffrage at the head of an African state (Liberia).
– Ms Irène Koki MUTUNGI: The first African female Flight Captain and is now captain of a Boeing 787 (Dreamliner) for Kenya Airways (Kenya).
– Ms Angélique KIDJO: This female artist was an award-winner for the best world music album for “Sings”, a compilation of her songs performed with the Philharmonic Orchestra of Luxembourg. Kidjo already won the same Award for the album “Eve”, a tribute to African Women (Benin).
– GIE Xaritou Xaleyii ‘Women’s Economic interest group): Winner of the Grand Prix Chef de l’Etat (Grand Prize awarded by the Senegalese President) for promoting Handcrafts in Senegal.

This initiative to reward female African leaders is part of the events organized by AllAfrica Global Media in the framework of the International Women’s Day. Among other innovations planned, AllAfrica will organize a workshop on women in technology in collaboration with Jjigguene Tech Hub. This activity will take place in the afternoon and will be focused on how ICT’s can contribute to women’s empowerment.

Following the great success of the event organized last year in honor of African women, this Pan-African Media convenes thinking about a hot topic of the moment ” Achieving Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Girls and Women ” which is one of the seventeen ( 17 ) Objectives for Sustainable Development ( ODD ) adopted in September 2015 by the United Nations General Assembly. This topic is quite a good choice for Africa, where poverty is increasingly affecting women, even if they are very dynamic economic agents. African women are mainly active in agriculture and processing of derivatives. They represent up to 70% of employees in those sectors in some countries.

Through this panel, AllAfrica Global Media Group wants to give participants an opportunity to raise key issues and possibly identify concrete solutions to current challenges. This will be an opportunity for key stakeholders, known for their commitment to women’s causes, to reply to the following questions: What is Gender Equality? What about the Empowerment of Girls and Women? How would gender equality make it possible to empower women and girls?

AllAfrica is planning to take advantage of the fact that its co-founder, Mr. Amadou Mahtar BA, has been appointed as a member of the first high-level UN Working Group on Women’s Economic Empowerment. This Advisory Group has the responsibility to highlight the interactions between economic growth and gender. The objective is to consolidate a leadership to be established in order to achieve sustainable development. It will also aim to highlight the interactions between economic growth and gender. This Task Force, established by the UN Secretary General, Ban Ki Moon, is composed of distinguished experts and will submit its initial findings in September, 2016.