Women, education and development. With Italy in the front line in supporting and protecting women\u2019s rights in Africa. These were the principal issues addressed by the 4th Conference organised by the Rita Levi-Montalcini Foundation and hosted by the Farnesina, entitled \u201cEducation for African Women: a question of gender and a driver of development\u201d. Participants included the Minister for Integration, Cecile Kyenge; the Deputy Minister for Foreign Affairs, Marta Dass\u00f9; and the Director General for Development Cooperation, Giampaolo Cantini. Also taking part were the President of the Foundation, Biancamaria Bosco Tedeschini Lalli, and Italian and African representatives of non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and civil society.<\/P>
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Progress for Africa will be achieved through women, while Italy plays a leading role, says Bonino <\/STRONG><\/P> The conference opened with messages from the President of the Republic, Giorgio Napolitano; the Speaker of the Chamber of Deputies, Laura Boldrini; and Foreign Minister Emma Bonino. Commenting on her recent missions to Africa, Minister Bonino underscored the \u201cleading role played by Italy in protecting women\u2019s rights and promoting true gender equality, not just through official initiatives but also through the contribution made by our NGOs and civil society\u201d. <\/P> And Italian Development Cooperation, added Minister Bonino, \u201cprovides the utmost support to the advancement of women\u2019s status in Africa. All of this taking into consideration one vital concept. The concept that allowing women, through education, to fulfil their abilities and aspirations in their personal and working lives is the only way to enable Africa to achieve its full growth potential. Progress for Africa will necessarily be achieved through women and the active role that they play\u201d. <\/P> Diversity is a resource, not an obstacle to be pushed to one side, says Kyenge<\/STRONG><\/P> Integration Minister Cecile Kyenge\u2019s speech focused more closely on Italy\u2019s domestic problems, most notably that of migrants. <\/P> \u201cOur policy guidelines and initiatives must be inspired by the need to impart a greater impetus to development. And in this, we should start by recognising the value of diversity as an opportunity for a new approach that sees difference as a resource rather than an obstacle to be pushed to one side\u201d, underscored Minister Kyenge. She illustrated the importance of \u201cmotivating women migrants, involving them, fostering a united spirited and imparting greater confidence to them, and focusing on the skills and abilities of each\u201d. <\/P> Not least because, in Italy as in the rest of the world, \u201cincreasing women\u2019s education levels is in itself an indicator of improvement in women\u2019s status. Because increased access to education presents a challenge to discrimination against women\u201d, concluded Minister Kyenge. <\/P> Africa is once again at the centre of our geopolitical map, says Dass\u00f9<\/STRONG><\/P> \u201cWe have decided to restore Africa to the centre of our geopolitical map, after years \u2013 most probably \u2013 of paying the continent too little attention\u201d, commented Deputy Minister Marta Dass\u00f9 in her closing address. The Deputy Minister underscored minister Bonino\u2019s commitment to Africa and to the campaign to combat discrimination against women. And women\u2019s issues will, observed Dass\u00f9, be one of the key themes of EXPO 2015, in the run-up to which the \u201cWE \u2013 Women for EXPO\u201d has recently been launched at the Farnesina\u2019s initiative. <\/P> \u201cWe are trying to create a significant international lobby, a pressure group to arrive in Milan with a Women\u2019s Charter in which we aim to set out the 10 most important actions to improve women\u2019s role in the nutrition sector\u201d, explained the Deputy Minister. \u201cWomen\u2019s role in the agricultural sector, and especially in Africa, is decisive\u201d. The story of one woman who exemplifies women\u2019s role in one of Africa\u2019s many crisis regions was featured in this morning\u2019s Conference. Dr. Asha Omar Ahmed, a Somali citizen who studied medicine and gynaecology in Rome, described her decision to return to Mogadishu to provide her own, important support to Somalia\u2019s rebirth. <\/P> Today, Asha works at the De Martino hospital, Mogadishu\u2019s first, built by the Italians in 1929. There, she helps to prevent death in childbirth and focuses her battle on the \u201cstupid and widespread\u201d practice of female genital mutilation. Asha\u2019s life in Mogadishu is not easy. <\/P> \u201cI don\u2019t have a normal life. I move around the city with an escort, in an armoured-plated existence. But for me, going back to Somalia meant making an important contribution to the country\u2019s growth\u201d. We need to try to emerge from this developing country \u201ctunnel\u201d, is the message conveyed by Asha, a \u201creverse example\u201d of African migration. As she explained, \u201cvery few of us return, but ours is an example of how to halt the brain drain from Africa\u201d.
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The example of Asha, a gynaecologist who has returned to Somalia to help her fellow citizens<\/STRONG><\/P>
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