When next year’s World Economic Forum takes place from January 23-26, 2018 in Davos, it will be co-chaired for the first time by women. The line up includes International Monetary Fund director Christine Lagarde, Norwegian Prime Minister Erna Solberg and IBM’s chief executive Ginni Rometty. The seven co-chairs for the four-day event were announced in the face of criticism that the conference has in the past lacked female representation. The Co-chairs, who were chosen to reflect global stakeholders, are all leaders in their fields, and shape the programme and lead discussions and panels. The timing of this announcement couldn’t have come at a better time, particularly in light of The World Economic Forum’s 2017 Global Gender Gap Report, which analyzes disparities in health, education, economy, and politics. It found that the overall average gender gap rose to 32%, up from 31.7% in 2016. It’s a fractional increase, but it’s the first uptick since the Forum began tracking gender inequality in 2006, signalling that efforts by the public and private sectors to prioritize gender parity have stalled. This is not a good sign for global economies, and particularly not good news for Africa. The report also announced that the annual credit gap for female entrepreneurs is almost $300 billion. This impedes women’s ability to start or expand their businesses, reducing opportunities to create much needed jobs or boost economies. Let’s hope that by taking a proactive gender lens to the next World Economic Forum in January that real and lasting solutions can be found to redress the balance.

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