## Make Women a Priority

_IMF Blog, March 24, 2017_

## Source details

**Canonical URL:** [Make Women a Priority](https://www.imf.org/en/blogs/articles/2017/03/24/make-women-a-priority)

## Other formats

- [Markdown version](/en/blogs/articles/2017/03/24/make-women-a-priority/index.md)
- [Structured JSON version](/en/blogs/articles/2017/03/24/make-women-a-priority/index.json)
- [Bundle manifest](/en/blogs/articles/2017/03/24/make-women-a-priority/bundle-manifest.json)

## Bibliographic details
- Authors: The Editors
- Published: March 24, 2017

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### Overview
- Publication: The Editors
- Date: March 24, 2017
- Theme: Inclusion and gender; focus on challenges facing women and youth in low-income countries, with emphasis on Africa.

### Challenges for African Women and Youth
- Africa has the largest number of people between the ages of 15 and 29.
- Women the world over often find themselves on the bottom rung of the employment ladder looking up.
- In low-income countries, the obstacles can be enormous.
- The challenge for African governments is to provide opportunities to young people, particularly young women.

### Risks and Long-term Implications
- "If we don't do anything to structurally transform African economies, to make sure jobs remain on the continent, it means that we are bringing up young people for labor on other continents.”

### Policy Discussion and IMF Activities
- The IMF is hosting a conference on gender and macroeconomics to discuss:
  - innovative empirical and theoretical research on gender and macroeconomics,
  - the policy implications,
  - a focus on the challenges of low-income and developing countries.
- Policy priority highlighted: ensuring structural transformation of African economies to create and retain jobs on the continent.

### Key Recommendations and Statements
- "African governments have to make Africa women their priority."
- "We can no longer walk ahead with 50 percent of the population left behind."

### Multimedia
- The page includes a podcast featuring Hilma Mote of the African Region’s International Trade Union Confederation discussing the challenges African women and youth face given the continent’s rapidly growing labor force.

*Source: Make Women a Priority — The Editors, March 24, 2017*

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## References

- [conference on gender and macroeconomics](http://www.imf.org/en/News/Events/Gender-and-Macroeconomics)

_Source: https://www.imf.org/en/blogs/articles/2017/03/24/make-women-a-priority_