Speaking at a summit in Greece, the head of State said, “Women should lead change. We must change the nature of power and not power changing the nature of women.”

Zewde traveled to Athens to participate in the Women Political Leaders Summit from March 19-21, the state-owned Fana Broadcasting Corporate reported.

Referring to Africa, she said that the leaders have goals to improve the continent on the basis of the African Union (AU) 2063 Agenda, and called for more efforts to address challenges with direct impacts on women, such as unconditional change of government and related issues. “Africa is the continent of the future. Africa is a young continent where the average age is 19, and a rich continent, but also the poorest of the poor, we have to do something to change this,” she stressed.

As in Europe or anywhere else in the world, African women must be empowered to ensure that we are all in this together, she urged. In this regard, she recalled that currently there are only a few women in senior management positions, a number that needs to increase.

The Ethiopian leader called for collaboration and cooperation among all stakeholders to address the challenges that women face today.

“Different attacks and harassment against women are increasing day by day. We need to make efforts to ensure that any form of violence against women is addressed,” she said.

She noted the adoption of the draft convention on “Ending Violence against Women and Girls” at the AU Summit held last month in Addis Ababa as a promising step to address the problems being faced by women on the continent.

“And hopefully, it will be signed next February when leaders meet at this event,” she concluded.

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