By Gabriel Olawale

As the discourse on women’s empowerment continues to generate interest in the drive towards sustainable development, stakeholders have called for more support for African women to promote inclusive and equitable opportunities.

The call was made at #Herversations, a series of live Twitter Spaces based conversations focused on important topics around Gender Equality and Empowerment for women in the millennial age range. Powered by WRTHY which is a global impact company (supported by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation) alongside BellaNaija Style.

The topic was Advocacy and Economic Empowerment for African Women and panelists included Mrs. Ifeoma Monye- President of the International Women’s Society, Media Personality and award winning Journalist, Latasha Ngwube, CEO  Ceceyara Foundation- Detutu Ajibodu, and Executive Director, Hacey Health Initiative, Robinson Rhoda.  The session was hosted by BellaNaija and proffered ways to improve women’s positions despite social and economic challenges.

Speaking from both an economic and humanitarian perspective, President of the International Women’s Society, Ifeoma Monye emphasized on the essence of education as a tool to empower women. She also elaborated on the importance of collaboration and the need for more support amongst women to enable them understand their rights in order to light  the torches for their respective communities.

‘’Women face various issues that border on domestic, communal, and societal occurrences but with adequate information steered at knowledge, they are empowered to make good decisions that affect their lives positively. This is part of our drive at the International Women’s Society. With more NGOs and platforms that can assist women, we can support communities and foster growth. Women have continued to show potential and capacity, especially in areas like entrepreneurship where they own a high number of micro-businesses, a valuable contributor to economic growth.

Under my tenure as Madam President of the IWS, we have a special focus on educating the girl child and women which for us meant  prioritizing the STEAM program (science, tech, engineering, arts & mathematics), chess and scholarships for some of the disadvantaged girls”..

The International Women society was established in 1957 to support women for growth across various areas of empowerment. The organisation owns a Skills and Acquisition Center where it trains and empowers women preparing them to live effectively and make impact. The center has graduated thousands of women through the years.