Looking beyond the rhetoric of an African Union year for women

At this year’s annual summit of the African Union, attending leaders declared 2015 the Year of Women’s Empowerment in acknowledgement of the increasing role women are playing in Africa’s development. The declaration comes as the continent prepares to kickstart the implementation of its 50-year development plan that was launched in 2013. Dubbed Agenda 2063, the plan is a pan-African vision that is expected to steer the continent towards “an integrated, prosperous and peaceful Africa, driven by its own citizens and representing a dynamic force in the global arena”.