The African Development Bank (AfDB) Group has approved a new Gender Strategy for 2021 to 2025 tagged “Investing in Africa’s women to accelerate inclusive growth.”

This is contained in a statement from the bank in Addis Ababa on Thursday.

The strategy was approved on Dec. 11, 2020 and seeks to strengthen the bank’s commitment as a leader on the continent, to reach gender equality and women and girls’ empowerment in Africa.

The strategy is anchored on three pillars which are empowering women through access to finance and markets, and accelerating employability and job creation for women through skills enhancement.

The third pillar is increasing women’s access to social services through infrastructure.

Vanessa Moungar, Director for Gender, Women and Civil Society said: “This is a significant milestone for the bank as it will guide our interventions in the next five years as we continue to increase our efforts to achieve outcomes and maximum impact on building gender equality on the ground for women to thrive.”

Moungar said the entire bank ecosystem had been closely involved in its development through a “highly consultative process involving bank staff, members of the board and capitals”.

She added that the process also involved civil society organisations, regional and international organisations, and government representatives.