8th Womesa Conference - Africa’s maritime women celebrate milestone |27 September 2017
Women in the Maritime Sector in Eastern and Southern Africa (Womesa) are meeting in Seychelles for their annual conference.
The international event, being held at the Berjaya Beau Vallon Hotel and Casino, also coincides with the 10th anniversary of the association created under the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) in an effort to empower women in the maritime sector.
The event is being held under the theme ‘A decade of empowering maritime women – What does the future hold for Africa's Blue Economy’.
The conference was officially opened yesterday by the Designated minister and the Minister for Home Affairs and Local Government Macsuzy Mondon.
The head of secretariat made a general welcoming remarks followed by a message from IMO from the IMO focal point for women in maritime Helen Buni and short remarks from the head of IMO technical section for Africa William Azuh.
The chairperson of Womesa Seychelles, Veronica Bristol, also addressed the audience followed by the chairperson of Womesa Meenaksi Bhirugnath-Bhookhun.
Womesa is made up of countries such as Angola, Botswana, Burundi, Comoros, Djibouti, DRC, Ethiopia, Kenya, Eritrea, Madagascar, Malawi, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, Rwanda, Sudan, South Africa, Swaziland, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, Zimbabwe.
In regards to this year’s theme Minister Mondon said the Blue Economy concept acts as a mechanism to enable us to realise sustainable economic development based around an ocean-based economy.
“The roadmap for the Blue Economy has defined short, medium and long-term actions for Seychelles across a broad range of sectors and this will require fundamental changes to the traditional institutional arrangements that exist to support the management of marine sectors and resources in Seychelles,” she said.
She said equality between men and women as always been one of the country’s core values which is enshrined in our Constitution and in our everyday actions and the maritime world is no exception.
“However we do recognise that in this sector we can do better, we can do more to empower our women so that they may confidently take up key positions,” she said.
She said we are extremely fortunate to have had the setting up of the Womesa Seychelles as a registered association recently, with its main objective being to integrate women in the mainstream of maritime.
“Initiatives such as these are highly welcomed and supported by Seychelles, as our country values and advocate for gender equality in all sectors of our society,” she said.
Ms Bhirugnath-Bhookhun said Womesa was launched in Kenya in 2007.
“Since its conception Womesa has made great strides in establishing itself as a professional association to spearhead the advancement of women as a key resource in the maritime sector,” she said.
She said that they will mark the celebration of the 10th anniversary at the end of the four-day conference when the national chapter of Womesa will be officially launched.
“The establishment of national chapters is critical for Womesa in ensuring that policies applied at regional level cascades down to the national level so that they are not only effectively implemented but also reach out to empower as many women as possible through networking and management,” she said.
She said this conference provides Womesa with a platform to fledge its way ahead in alignment with the newly decreed sustainable development goals (SDGs).
Ms Buni said one of the success stories of Womesa is the eight-strong national chapters that have been established under your auspices.
“These national chapters feed into Womesa's regional governance, in line with the UN bottom-up approach, and they give a voice to the women involved at the grass-roots level a message which is then reflected through the policy decisions taken at the political level. We look forward to hearing the debates on the issues of concern to the region’s maritime industry, the achievements, challenges, opportunities and lessons learnt over the last decade, as well as the recommendations proposed by Womesa on how to establish a national chapter,” she said.
She said IMO will assist Womesa in the introduction of the SDGs, in particular, SDG 5: “Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls”, including identification of the relevant SDG indicators for implementation through Womesa's Work Programme for 2018.
“Womesa is well-placed to develop collaborative modalities with maritime authorities and entities of the region. The multiplier effect of forging such links will enable Womesa to become embedded as a valuable resource for the maritime industry, and IMO commends you for the partnership established with the African Ship-Owners Association and for the new agreement to be concluded this Friday, between Womesa and the port management association of eastern and southern Africa (PMAESA),” she said.
Present during the opening ceremony was the principal secretary for civil aviation, ports and marine Garry Albert, Ambassador for Women and Children Erna Athanasius, principal secretaries, chief executives, African Union members and Womesa executive members.