About the Summit
The Global Gender Summit is a biennial event organised by Multilateral Development Banks (MDBs), bringing leaders from government, development institutions, private sector, civil society and academia together. The first Global Gender Summit was held in 2012 in Istanbul, the second in 2014 in Manila, and the third in 2016 in Washington DC. Previous to that, the Working Group organised smaller workshops between MDBs to share best practices and lessons learnt.
This year, the African Development Bank is organising the Global Gender Summit, in close collaboration with other Multilateral Development Banks, and the event is co-hosted by the Government of Rwanda. The Summit will be held in Kigali, Rwanda, from 25 to 27 November 2019.
Under the theme of “Unpacking constraints to gender equality”, the 2019 Global Gender Summit will be attended by over 800 participants, including leaders and representatives of government, public institutions, development organizations, private sector, civil society and academia. The Summit’s delegates will seize this unique platform to share best practices and drive innovation to accelerate progress on gender equality and women’s empowerment in Africa and around the world.
Highlights of the 2019 Global Gender Summit
Pre-summit field visits, co-organised by the African Development Bank and partners, will take place on 24 November 2019 in identified sites in Rwanda, highlighting partners’ work and impact to ensure gender equality and women’s empowerment.
The Summit will include high-level panels with Heads of State, plenary and panel sessions, interactive sessions and collaborative workshops.
In the side-lines of the Global Gender Summit, a particular emphasis will be put on African cultural and creative industries, through dedicated side events and activities, including a pop-up market to showcase the creativity and talent of African designers, a live food show during evening events to promote African culinary arts, and exhibitions to showcase African designs, art, particularly photography, films, paintings etc.
A press point will be set up where interviews and press conferences will be organised to ensure all partners have the opportunity to make appropriate announcements to the media covering the Summit.
A knowledge hub will also be set up in order to encourage knowledge-sharing and present relevant publications and reports from the multilateral development banks, sponsors and selected partners.
The guarantee programme of AFAWA (Affirmative Finance Action for Women in Africa) will launch its risk-sharing facility at the Global Gender Summit. AFAWA is a $300 million risk sharing instrument to unlock $3 billion in credit for women businesses and enterprises in Africa.
The 2019 Africa Gender Index (AGI) report will also be launched at the Summit. It is jointly published by UNECA and AfDB, and is the most comprehensive measurement of the state of gender equality across 51 out of 54 African countries. It presents suggestions for policy measures and investments that can change the status quo and generate gains for all Africans.
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