COMMUNIQUÉ: High-Level Roundtable on the Margins of the 2026 World Bank and IMF Spring MeetingsWashington, D.C., 14 April 2026

On the margins of the 2026 World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF) Spring Meetings, the African Women Leaders Network (AWLN), in partnership with key stakeholders, convened a High-Level Roundtable titled “Advancing Africa’s Transformation Agenda: The Strategic Role of Women’s Leadership.” The event was aligned with this year’s Spring Meetings theme, “Building Prosperity through Policy,” and focused on the urgent need to place women in decision-making roles of economic governance and financial architecture.

The Roundtable featured keynote messages from the United Nations (UN) Deputy Secretary-General H.E. Amina J. Mohammed and the Deputy Chairperson of the African Union Commission, H.E. Selma Malika Haddadi. Opening remarks were delivered by H.E. Mme Bineta Diop, AWLN Co-Convener; H.E. Mariame Ciré Sylla, Minister of Economy, Finance, and Budget for the Republic of Guinea, and Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Director-General of the World Trade Organization (WTO). The gathering convened key global women leaders, including H.E. Nardos Bekele-Thomas, Chief Executive Officer of AUDA-NEPAD; H.E. Ahunna Eziakonwa, UN Assistant Secretary-General and UNDP Director of the Regional Bureau for Africa; H.E. Monique Nsanzabaganwa, Chair, Advisory Board, Africa Strategic Investment Alliance (AfSIA); Dr. Fatima El Sheikh, Secretary General of the Arab Development Bank (BADEA); and Dr. Vera Songwe, Chair of the Liquidity and Sustainability Facility. The meeting also featured a panel of private sector leaders, entrepreneurs, and AWLN members sharing perspectives and insights on the discussion subtitled, “Rethinking policy influence, economic governance, and financing systems that enable women’s leadership as a driver of prosperity.” The conversations converged around a clear point: Africa’s path to prosperity will depend not only on sound policies, but on who shapes them, how they are delivered, and whether they reach those most often left out.

Participants emphasized that economic governance systems still fall short of reflecting contemporary realities, with women remaining severely underrepresented in the economic and financial institutions that determine the continent's trajectory. To achieve structural transformation, a fundamental shift is required from abstract policy to "lived power," ensuring that financial decisions are directly tied to real outcomes for African families and women-led small businesses.

On financing, persistent gaps remain, with women-led enterprises facing significant barriers to capital. Strengthening gender-responsive financing through partnerships with development institutions and the private sector is a top priority. Additionally, strategic investment in areas identified to have higher returns is essential to ensure the funds available are utilized well. Okonjo-Iweala pointed to some of these opportunities for high returns on investment exist in the following areas:

• Supply Chain Decentralization: Spreading manufacturing more evenly across Africa, particularly for medicines and critical minerals, to add local value.

• Digital Trade: Leveraging the $50 million Women Exporters in the Digital Economy (WIDE) Fund to help women scale digital businesses.

• Green Trade: Utilizing Africa's 60% share of global solar power potential to drive clean energy mineral processing.

Strategic priorities and opportunities discussed for closing the financing gap also included the Her AfCFTA initiative by UNDP, which H.E. Eziakonwa described as a critical vehicle for giving a female face to the African Continental Free Trade Area and ensuring its successful implementation. To advance this mission, UNDP announced that the first "Her AfCFTA Continental Rally" will be held in Nigeria this June, aiming to empower women to "make noise" about the trade agreement and demonstrate how it directly benefits women traders. This effort aligns with a broader strategic push to move beyond policy theory and ensure that African women are the primary drivers of digital and cross-border trade across the continent.

Recognizing that 75% of Africa’s population is under the age of 35, the Roundtable emphasized the need for an intergenerational transfer of wealth and leadership. This involves funding young women entrepreneurs early and with trust, particularly those leading technology-based and AI-driven companies. It further requires the removal of legal and regulatory barriers that currently restrict women’s control over vital assets such as land, equity, and strategic decision-making spaces.

The Roundtable reaffirmed that rethinking policy, governance, and financing is essential to unlocking Africa’s potential and concluded with the following four key recommendations:

1. Operationalize gender-responsive financing through strategic partnerships with the World Bank, IMF, and regional development banks to de-risk investments in women-led enterprises and small-holder farmers.

2. Ensure policy coherence across macroeconomic, industrial, and social sectors to create an enabling environment for women’s participation in high-value industries, including mining and digital trade.

3. Establish a mechanism for women’s leadership within the global financial architecture to ensure Africa’s economic priorities are shaped by those most affected by them.

4. Strengthen the strategic alliance between the African Union and global development institutions to monitor and close the implementation gaps in Africa’s transformation agenda.

Beyond women’s leadership, a few other elements clearly emerged as central to the discussion. Institutions, governments, the public and private sectors, and all other stakeholders must:

• Make sure commitments are followed through, building trust and credibility. 

• Ensure access to decision-making spaces translates to influence, and influence into real impact on the ground. 

• Reorient financial systems, moving from access to finance to systems that are designed with women in mind. 

• Break silos between macroeconomic, industrial, and social policies to support inclusive growth, establishing policy coherence across sectors. We must build policies taking into account local realities and informality while recognizing that much of Africa’s economy operates outside formal systems, and that women are at the center of that space.

Finally, participants agreed to prioritize women’s leadership in economic transformation, align policies and financing with inclusive growth, strengthen implementation through accountability, and deepen partnerships across the AU, UN system, international financial institutions, and the private sector. The Roundtable reaffirmed that rethinking policy, governance, and financing is essential to unlocking Africa’s potential, and as highlighted by the UN Deputy Secretary-General, our systems must enable, not constrain, that potential. AWLN and its partners will continue this work with a focus on tangible results and lasting impact.

Issued in Washington, D.C., 14 April 2026