Morocco Joins the Network of African Women Leaders

The launch of the national chapter of the African Women Leaders Network recently took place in Casablanca, with the participation of many active women from different sectors and fields, thus putting the issue of women’s leadership on the network’s agenda.

The launch of the African Women Leadership Network (AWLN) in Morocco marked the participation of women leaders from the political world, the public and private sectors, civil society, the business world, as well as famous personalities, including Jamila Mosali, Minister of Solidarity, Social Development, Equality and the Family, and Leila Rhiwi, UN Women representative in Morocco, and Awa Ndiaye Seck, UN Women representative in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Thomas Reilly, UK Ambassador to Morocco, as well as Nabila Freidji, head of the African Women Leadership Network in Morocco and CGEM Vice-President responsible for international cooperation.

The event provided an opportunity to introduce the network and discuss the role of women in the transformation of the economy and the importance of women’s financial inclusion in the country’s development.

For its first mandate, Morocco committed itself to respect the network’s action plan at the continental level and put among its priorities the economic empowerment of Moroccan women, as Nabila Freidji, head of the network, underlined in her speech to the media present.

The members of the network will develop an action plan through which the members commit to “establish and maintain an inclusive network,” which will be active in all areas, from economic empowerment of rural women, to leadership of young women, to financial inclusion and exchanges at the continental level through projects.

The African Union Commission, UN Women and the Government of Germany organized a high-level forum on Women’s Leadership for Change in Africa from 31 May to 2 June 2017 at the United Nations headquarters in New York. The forum set itself the goal of stimulating the women’s leadership movement across Africa to play an influential role in transforming the continent through the “Agenda 2063 for Africa” and the “Global Goals for Sustainable Development 2030”.

More than 80 influential women from politics, the public sector, business, civil society and the media took part in the forum, which led to the launch of the African Women Leadership Network, a new initiative that aims to strengthen women’s leadership in transforming Africa through peace and stability.