The case for doing so has never been stronger, argues the philanthropist
EARLIER THIS year I contacted a few African development experts for their views on the continent’s priorities. Our conversation centred on issues like debt restructuring and taxation policy, but just as we were wrapping up, one of them, a Ghanaian economist, offered a different piece of advice: “Don’t stop talking about gender.”
I appreciated the encouragement—and I understood why it was offered. In the two decades I’ve worked as an advocate for women and girls, I’ve learned that there will always be people who insist that now is not the time to talk about gender equality. When the global agenda gets crowded, gender equality is one of the first items to fall off. It is treated as a distraction from the world’s most pressing problems, even though the data make clear it’s a central part of the solution.
