The Motsepe Foundation has a targeted focus on youth, women and other vulnerable groups across Africa. The Centre for Gender Equality, Wellness and Leadership (GEWAL) complements these efforts by directly engaging on contentious topics in our society.

Numerous studies show that gender inequalities lead to social, economic and environmental regression around the world. A 2016 report by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) shows the staggering costs of not investing in women, which equates to a loss of US$95 billion a year to Africa’s GDP.

While progress has been made across many fronts in most countries, gender equality for African women and girls is far from satisfactory, especially in areas such as gender-based violence, maternal mortality, access to finance and markets, and gaps in enrolment and retention of girls in the fields of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM).

GEWAL believes that advancing women’s contributions in sustainable development and growth requires affording women access to information, resources and opportunity. Most especially, GEWAL recognises that society must include women in decision-making processes in order to foster diverse and varied contributions.

GEWAL aims to form meaningful connections between diverse groups of women, men and young people through impact-driven platforms and projects. Emphasis is placed on initiatives that can enable women and girls to narrow, and hopefully eliminate, gender inequality and the severe economic imbalances that continue to negatively affect them.