“The creation of a pan-African women's bank could help reduce poverty in Africa by empowering women, the organisers of a women's conference to be held in Johannesburg later this year said Tuesday. ‘You cannot fight poverty if you are not ready to save money. Our goal is the creation of a pan-African bank for women before 2010,’ said Eno Ben-Udensi, director of Nigeria's 'Glorious Women' organisation that initiated the project.” ‘Poverty is the cause of violence, crime, unemployment, divorce, prostitution. That's why we are focusing on this issue.’” [Agence France Presse ]



“The second Pan-African Women's Conference will see women involved in politics, economics, religion and education debating ways to free women and their families from the shackles of poverty. ‘One of the issues that came out at last year's conference was the need to start savings schemes,’ said Sindy Dastile, the managing director of Masimbonge, the South African co-operative that finances micro-businesses run by women.” [Independent Online ]. Buanews adds that “the conference is to be attended by representatives from different international women organisations such as Women in Management and Business, the Professional Insurance Ladies Association, South African Women in Dialogue and women in business as well as politics”.



Also in This Edition: Briefly Noted...

Briefly Noted… Senegal's budget deficit for 2006 reached almost six percent of its GDP, nearly twice the previous year's figure, the regional office of the World Bank estimated in its monthly review. To help correct that deficit, the World Bank analysis called on Senegal to resolve the crisis in its energy sector as a matter of urgency. [Agence France Presse/Factiva]



Guinea, home to a third of the world's bauxite reserves, expects large investment projects to total $27 billion by 2015, an official of a national anti-poverty program said on Tuesday at the launch of Guinea's Poverty Reduction Strategy document. [Reuters/Factiva]