Chinese, African women strengthen ties to fight poverty, global crisis
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Chinese women delegates and their 110 counterparts from 29 African countries expressed confidence in collaborated efforts to fight poverty and cope with global challenges on Wednesday at a forum in Cairo.
They declared that they will help more women out of poverty while facilitating each other to deal with the financial crisis, at the closing ceremony of Forum on China-Africa Cooperation -- Women's Forum 2009, which closed on Wednesday.
China is keeping a stable economic development despite the global economic downturn, with a growth rate expected at about eight percent this year.
African participants of the forum believed that their countries can draw lessons from China in terms of sustainable growth. They hoped that they could collaborate with Chinese women's organizations to improve women's living standards in their countries.
Women play a significant role in the economic and social development, and should continue to bring their talent into full play to cope with the global crisis. China and Africa, with largest numbers of female populations in the world, should cooperate to help women make more contribution to the progress of the human society.
Meanwhile, women also fall vulnerable to negative impact of the crisis, including reduced job opportunities and payment. Governments of all countries should keep gender equality on their agenda while applying measures to revive the economy. They should also provide more professional training to women, and help them to do better to promote development.
Reports from the United Nations showed that the global crisis has affected the realization of the UN Millennium Goals, which aimed to reduce the poverty population by half in 2015, as against the poverty level in 1990.
Statistics indicated that population stricken by extreme poverty might increase by 55 to 90 million in 2009, while the number of poor population kept declining before 2008.
To deal with the problem, participants of the forum suggested that China and African countries should strengthen the exchanges between women entrepreneurs, and provide more opportunities for African countries to get new technology and investment from China.
All-China Women's Federation (ACWF), which was founded in 1949, has already established ties with women's organizations in 51 African countries.
ACWF has helped women in 45 African countries with small amounts of aid and sent technology training groups to four African countries.
Some African women leaders said that their countries could learn from China advanced grain production and storage technology and send more female students to study in China. They also hoped that China could set up more training centers in their countries to provide professional training to local women.
President of ACWF Chen Zhili said that China will continue to encourage more dialogues between Chinese and African women leaders, to share their experience in gender equality and development.
She said that ACWF will also further its support in sponsoring more African women students to study in China and help promote the development of women and children in Africa.
Facing the challenges of both poverty elimination and global crisis, Chinese and African women should join hands to improve their living standards, upgrade their education and step up their political involvement, in order to create a better future.
