Deputy Minister of Transport, Dikeledi Magadzi, has emphasised the importance on removing structural distortions in economies to enable women and youth empowerment.<\/p>\n
This as many businesses, especially small businesses, continue to shed jobs to contain costs and stay afloat, with most of these job losses affecting women.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are asked to respond with urgency to the Southern African Development Community (SADC) Regional Indicative Strategic Development Plan by removing structural distortions in our economies and combat high-levels of unemployment and under-employment, especially among women and youth, address inequalities in the labour market and adequately mainstream gender concerns,\u201d Magadzi said.<\/p>\n
Addressing the virtual Southern African Transport Conference on the impact of COVID-19 on women and small business on Wednesday, Magadzi said there is an urgent need for economic improvement in the region that will curb a further negative impact on women.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe pandemic\u2019s disproportionate impact on women and girls\u2019 socio-economic welfare is threatening to reverse the hard-won gains in advancing gender equality and women’s empowerment,\u201d the Deputy Minister said.<\/p>\n
She noted that the pandemic had also exacerbated public debt vulnerabilities.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese have risen quite high according to research and will continue to rise in many countries, which raises questions about the ability of governments to implement the most basic developmental programmes.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn fact, it is clear from studies that the debt burden of many countries in the region will affect investments in education, health and infrastructure in the short to medium term.<\/p>\n
\u201cGiven the impact on education, health and infrastructure development, it will remain difficult to continue with the implementation of the necessary transformative actions planned by governments in the region to improve the condition of women and girls,\u201d the Deputy Minister said. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Source: South African Government News Agency<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Deputy Minister of Transport, Dikeledi Magadzi, has emphasised the importance on removing structural distortions in economies to enable women and youth empowerment.This as many businesses, especially small businesses, continue to shed jobs to contain c…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\n