2015 marks the AU (African Union) "Year of Women Empowerment and Development Towards Africa’s Agenda 2063". The AU has noted that despite positive achievements registered recently in decision-making, women, as the largest proportion of the population, still remain vulnerable, at-risk and impoverished due to the challenges caused by social, economic, cultural and political marginalization, gender-based violence and discrimination against women.

Since the Fourth World Conference on Women Beijing, China, in 1995, empowerment of women and specific attention to the girl child have emerged as important factors in sustainable and accelerated development in developing countries. The overarching objective of the ‘‘Year of Women Empowerment’’ is to define strategic actions to fully support women capacity building and access to resources in order to ensure their full participation to political and economic decision making. 

AWEPA asked the Chair of the AWEPA Section in the European Parliament, Hon. Bodil Valero, to give her insights on the progress achieved over the past years towards empowering women and fostering development, as well as her vision and ideas for the future.