Business & Professional Women African Regional Congress opens on Thursday

More than 150 African women leaders from 22 BPW African countries who are senior executives in their respective countries, including board members, directors and government representatives will attend. Countries represented include South Africa, Cameroon, Kenya, Nigeria, Côte d'Ivoire, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Sudan, DRC, Uganda, Zambia, Egypt and more.

Under the theme "Empowering African women for business leadership", the congress is an opportunity for African women to take stock of the progress made and to reiterate their commitment to address the many challenges in their path to gender equality and empowerment of women, specifically as it relates to women on boards, procurement and trade.

Launch of Commonwealth Businesswomen

The Congress will also be the South African launch pad for Commonwealth Businesswomen (CBW), a joint initiative of the Commonwealth Business Council (CBC) and the International Federation of Business and Professional Women (BPW International), initially launched at the Commonwealth Business Forum in Perth during the Commonwealth heads of government meeting and business forum in October 2011.

The CBW Agenda for Women's Economic Empowerment works to galvanise and strengthen the potential of female entrepreneurs and businesswomen through a threefold agenda:
1. Women on Commonwealth Boards and in senior decision-making roles;
2. Encourage the adoption of preferential procurement for women vendors;
3. Women and international trade.

The BPW South Africa's existing women on boards and women owned enterprises programmes are strengthened through this initiative giving our certified women opportunities on an international platform. These priority areas also align with and reinforce the UN Women Empowerment Principles (WEP) which were launched by Minister Rob Davies in July 2011 in South Africa, through a partnership between BPW South Africa and the dti.

The main aim of CBW is to advocate and increase the quantity, quality, impact and pipeline for women on commonwealth boards of major companies and government agencies and to build a community and network of supportive stakeholders. CBW aims to develop an international pipeline of female targets for national and international Board positions in Commonwealth companies moving towards a global Board database of female Non Executive Director candidates.

Congress speakers

Speakers at the Congress include:

There will be a panel discussion with senior businesswomen, facilitated by the Commission for Gender Equality regarding the slow pace of women on boards in Africa, as well as numerous international speakers.

Members of the media are invited to join the congress. A detailed programme is available at www.bpw-jhbsa.co.za - Events.