Promoting a feminist approach to delivery and financing of public services in Africa – FEMNET AFMA 2021 Report

From November 15-19, Dakar hosted AFMA 2021, the first African Feminist Macroeconomic Academy (AFMA) to be held in a francophone country, as well as the first physical academy to be held since the onset of COVID, following a virtual convening in 2020. AFMA 2021 marks the fifth academy since inception in 2017. Memory Kachambwa and Ebrima Sall, on behalf of FEMNET and Trust Africa, set the context for the Academy.

Considering that a deep understanding of issues is required to counter dominant discourses and challenge what is often presented as a ‘no-alternative’ default, AFMA facilitates a space for women to gather and reflect, challenge orthodoxy in economics, deepen their thinking and explore alternatives.

COVID has exposed the extent to which these orthodoxies must be challenged, considering they have not and will not serve us. We’ve witnessed a reduction in resources, a reprioritization based on interests and power and an exacerbation of existing inequalities – particularly for the most marginalized members of our societies.

AFMA allows us to use a pan-African, feminist lens, using feminist tools to break down macroeconomics, the political economy, examining power and how it affects us in all our diversities. This edition of the Academy focuses on public service delivery and financing. The importance of public service has become even more apparent with the pandemic, the disproportionate burden of which has been borne by women and girls, and among them, the poorest, most marginalized members. While our governments should have been responsible, the lack of a care economy has meant that women and girls have been subsidizing governments and picking up the slack.

Click Here to Read/Download FEMNET AFMA 2021 Report