News

The Ministry of Family, Women, Children and the Elderly has so far received 1,950 applications for funding under the national women's entrepreneurship programme (RAIDET).

Applications are being considered, Minister Amel Moussa said at the opening of a conference on "Women actors of climate Resilience and Inclusive Development" held in Tunis in partnership with UN Women.

"The department has received so far 400 applications for projects in agriculture and a limited number in the sectors of technology, green economy or organic products," she added.

The ministry, she said, will encourage women to invest in scientific research, technological innovation and promising economic activities that have significant impact on the fight against climate change.

This conference fits within Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD8) side events and is designed to promote female entrepreneurship and help create startups, mainly in technology and green economy, Moussa further said.

Women's presence in the labour market is limited to the workforce with a very small number of female project managers.

"Only 6% of farming project managers are women and less than 7% are in charge of start-ups," she added.

Despite the wealth of natural resources in Africa, women face hard times trying to access the labour market or start businesses, particularly because of climate change.

TICAD8, scheduled for August 27-28 in Tunis, is an opportunity to shed light on national programmes on women and climate change in Africa, promote scientific and technological partnership between Japan and Africa and examine the possibilities of funding research projects, the official said.

The UN Women representative in Tunisia said the organisation will keep on supporting Tunisia in delivering SDGs and called for integrating the gender approach in all public policies.