Jill Biden left a message of hope in Africa

There was none of the muscular, national-security-focused attitude of the presidency in US First Lady Jill Biden’s recent tour of Namibia and Kenya that concluded on Sunday. She wore flowery clothes and smiled all the time and turned to hope to address social issues.

“We face the same challenges, from climate change to economic inequality, to strengthen democracy. That is why the African Leaders Summit was held in Washington in December, because it was very important to him,” he said, referring to Joe Biden in a speech at the Namibian State House on Thursday.

“And that’s why I’m proud to be here, with a strong democracy…as Joe said at the summit, African voices, African leadership and African innovation are critical to addressing the biggest global challenges and bringing the vision to life. We all share a world that is free.”

Biden brought one of his seven grandchildren with him to highlight how girls and women can be powerful cogs for change.

She faces many obstacles, say analysts who address gender and development issues.

“Every country has a female problem,” said Caren Grown, a fellow at the Brookings Institution’s Center for Sustainable Development. “There is not a country in the world where women are absolutely equal to men in all respects.”

“We have made great progress globally, and many countries have made progress in recent years, especially in education. But there are huge gaps in employment, labor force participation and wages. There is no country in the world where women earn more than men, and although the gap has closed, there is still no parity”.

And many young women and activists showed Biden on his five-day trip that Africa also has a problem with women.

In an informal meeting near the Namibian capital, Biden met a teenager who told him that a pregnancy forced her to drop out of grade 11.

In Nairobi, the Kenyan capital, she met young people at a screening of a South African television series that shows that for young South Africans, commercial sex is the norm rather than the exception. The South African president has referred to gender-based violence as “a second pandemic”.

And in the slum of Kibera, in Nairobi, Biden and the first lady of Kenya spoke with women who, due to a lack of access to conventional financing, created their own network of loans.

President Biden, who sometimes refers to himself as “Jill Biden’s husband,” said upon the first lady’s return Monday that her trip demonstrated his administration’s strong commitment to Africa.

“He met with the presidents and first ladies of both countries. He spoke to more than a thousand young people, the first generation born free of apartheid in Namibia. … In Kenya, he met families affected and devastated by drought and insecurity food… made worse by Putin’s brutal assault on Ukraine. And he made it clear that the US commitment to Africa is real,” Biden said.

Analysts say it is not clear whether the trip will result in new initiatives or policy changes on the continent.

Grown says, however, that Biden’s efforts challenge a prevailing belief to this day, and not just in Africa, that to be born female is to come out in life at a disadvantage.

“Dr. Biden has been an exemplary role model, not just in the field of education, but in everything she has done in her capacity as First Lady,” she said.

“That gives hope to girls that they can grow up knowing that there are many roles they can take on as adults, and that they can enter fields that have been denied them, and gain an education.”

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