By Hon. Maina Kamanda, Egh MP., Minister for Gender, Sports, Culture and Social services

Hon. Mary Robinson, former President Ireland and former UN High Commissioner for Human Rights
Ms Monica Zetzsche, YWCA President,
Dr Musimbi Kanyoro, World YWCA General Secretary,
Executive Committee Members of World YWCA Board,
Mrs Zipporah Baya, Chairperson YWCA-Kenya,
Executive Committee Members,
All YWCA members,
Invited Dignitaries,
Distinguished Guests,
Ladies and Gentlemen,

It gives me great pleasure to join you this morning for the extraordinary World Council meeting of YWCA here in our beautiful city of Nairobi.

I would like first of all to welcome all our visitors coming from various parts of the world to feel at home in our beautiful country, Kenya.

Indeed we feel proud and greatly honoured to host a meeting of this magnititude, which aims at empowering women and girls to change their lives and those of their communities.

I am aware that this is one of the largest organisations for women and girls in the world, which has a long experience of working with local communities in contributing to sustainable development.

Non-profit making body, it has over time gone across the religious boundaries and assisted in uplifting the living conditions of women and girls all over the world.

In order to empower women in areas of cultural, economic political and social justice, governments across the world need to focus on strategic goals that will help to develop and sustain the wellbeing of their citizens.

It is worth nothing that there are some global advocacy priorities being undertaken by various organisations, which aim at improving women affairs. Some of them have particular emphasis on HIV and AIDS, women’s economic justice, environment, Human Rights among other things.

It would be satisfying to have a world where justice, peace, health, freedom, human dignity and care for the environment are promoted and sustained through women leadership.

However, this is an ideal situation in the world that we are living in where injustice, war, human indignity and poverty are widespread. The YWCA has through this forum created an atmosphere to bring young women from diverse cultures, and backgrounds to identify solutions and skills as effective agents of change.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

In an effort to change the widespread gender imbalance and to empower women in Kenya, our government has made bold steps that will help improve their welfare.

The Government through my Ministry established a Gender unit within the department of social services, which was charged with responsibility of addressing issues relating to gender disparities through gender mainstreaming.

Gender mainstreaming is a continuous process, which must be periodically reviewed, and in this direction the Kenya Government through an all-inclusive consultation has moved to address the disparity, by implementing a 30% affirmative action in recruitment of women in the public service.

This will gradually increase to 50% as clearly stated by the head of State his Excellency the President.

We are proud that the Kenya Government through the new style of leadership has created an enabling environment earlier unknown to its citizens. Partnerships with the private sector have been created with the first being the establishment of a women enterprise fund with an initial capital of Ksh 1 billion.

This bold move which is the first of its kind in the Eastern Africa region was made possible through the initiative of His Excellency President Mwai Kibaki, who has often indicated the when women are empowered, they would make great contribution to the economic development of our nation, as they are the backbone of the family units.

Further to this private sector led financial arrangement, the Government in its budget for the financial year 2007/2008, has set aside Ksh 1billion through my Ministry, which will be loaned out to individual and women groups across the country.

This will be done on the basis of the ability of the beneficiaries to engage in progressive economic activities. The money will be disbursed through micro-finance institutions and viable non-governmental institutions.

I wish to call upon individual women and groups that will benefit from this enterprise fund, to draw their business proposals that will attract economic value, and avoid duplication that is likely to expose the financial loans to wastage. It would for example not make much economic sense for individual women of groups in one region to engage in similar activities. It pays to diversify the activities.

This financial empowerment to women does not mean that the role of men as breadwinners in the family is being undermined in any way. In fact their long held role as breadwinners is being complemented through these efforts.

Ladies and Gentlemen,
As you sit here in this historic moment to deliberate on issues affecting women leadership especially in regards to HIV and AIDS, be rest assured that your are in the right place, in which the Government in power respects the rights of its citizens irrespective of gender.

Finally I note with appreciation that a day has benne set aside in this conference for you to experience Kenya and our dynamic and diverse culture. However one day is not enough for you to experience all our attractions, so take more time after the event to visit our tourist sites.

Karibuni Kenya and thank you