BUJUMBURA March 9th (ABP) – After a statement made on the occasion of International Women’s Day, Burundi Minister of Human Rights, Social Affairs and Gender, Mr. Martin Nivyabandi, told the press on Thursday March 7, 2019 that his message to the 63rd session of the Commission on the Status of Women in New York from March 11 to 22 will focus on global solidarity.
According to reports produced by Forbes, 26 people hold a fortune that exceeds the fortune of half of humanity. International solidarity can change the world, Mr. Nivyabandi said. “Socio-economic and cultural rights should be the basis of any transformation of life on this planet. We must focus all our energy during this decade, during this century, on socio-economic transformations,” he added.
He noted that Burundi is in a continent that is still presented as having challenges, especially at the socio-economic level. He said the Burundi persons high in authority have focused on women’s economic self-empowerment. “When there is poverty, we cannot pretend to be free. We will not be a partner but someone as an object. We want to make the woman not an object in the family but a partner of the man where she is entitled to deciding on all the subjects which concern the family,” he said.
“In the household, when the husband contributes to the economic life of the family alone, it seems that the woman is a simple tool, she is useless as if she were there to make children, as a beggar. “When she starts to produce, to have an income, she has value.” “In this case, we move towards building a partnership at the household level instead of saying that there is a dominant and a dominated. Gradually, she has value in the family and the man begins to realize that her presence at the household level is essential and unavoidable. ”
In addition to national empowerment programs for the vulnerable, especially women, a platform for the exchange of information on business opportunities has emerged to promote businesswomen, including small business women, according to Minister Nivyabandi.
The women of EAC, COMESA and ECOWAS will have the opportunity to exchange information and business opportunities. In each country, there will be a team that will be responsible for receiving the messages, relaying them and sharing them with the women’s associations, especially the associations that are involved in the business.
A woman from those communities will be able to launch, via her phone, what she would like to import. For example a Burundi woman who would like to import Bazin fabrics is informed about where she could find the good quality fabrics. That kind of information will help without the woman being forced to go to China while the desired product is nearby in Uganda or Kenya.
