Senegalese Women and Youth Prepare for Summit
For more than a year, experts and members of Senegalese Civil Society have been rallying together to plan the topics for the 15th Francophonie Summit program to be held soon, which will focus on the themes from the previous summit in Kinshasa.
“Francophonie’s Women and Young People: vectors for peace, actors for development.”
According to the organizers of the summit, the aim is to offer concrete initiatives that respond to the social, economic, and political challenges faced by young people and women, who together represent of 70 percent of the population of Francophonie Member States.
The different meetings organized during the year by the Scientific Committee, chaired by El Hadj Hamidou Kassé, special advisor to the president of the Republic, enabled the formalization of strategic recommendations that will be available for the Head of States and Governments.
They start from the necessity to better inform and train women and young people in accordance with local needs but also, and especially, through supporting their entrepreneurial initiatives at a local, national, and international level.
They also call for concerted action by stakeholders in the Francophonie states and governments, institutions, funding agencies, local authorities, and businesses.
Among the strategic and operational recommendations are the constitutionalization of socio-economic and cultural rights of women and young people (access to good quality land and capital, markets and factors of production) and the creation of a Francophonie Forum for scientific, technical, cultural, and agricultural innovation to strengthen female entrepreneurship.
Other recommendations are the establishment of innovative support and finance mechanisms with, for example, a Francophonie Bank for entrepreneurial projects of women and young people and the improvement of scientific and cultural mobility within the French-speaking community by facilitating visa obtention for limited stays.
The reinforcement of prevention by promoting physical activity and sports in education systems through support of the Francophone Games and the use of digital technology, which not only offers unprecedented opportunities for training and learning, but is also an area in which many new initiatives are being developed as recommended.