ADDIS ABABA, Oct. 14 (Xinhuanet) -- The Seventh African Regional Meeting on Women concluded Thursday in Addis Ababa, capital of Ethiopia, with participants urging for action rather than words toimprove the situation of African women.

    A statement issued at the end of the three-day meeting indicated that despite some achievements since the Fourth World Conference on Women held in Beijing in 1995, globalization poses new socio-economic challenges to women, especially African women whose position in society might become worse.

    African women, especially those living in rural communities andthose with disabilities, still face daunting challenges, the statement said.

    Women's lower access to productive resources including land, credit, education, health and remunerated employment has contributed to the situation wherein more African women live in absolute and relative poverty compared with 10 years ago.

    The cumulative effects of HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria, food insecurity, low economic productivity, low levels of education and increased sexual violence have left African women with considerable challenges and vulnerabilities.

    Globalization, driven by competitive global markets and liberalization, is pushing away women who still struggle in rural areas and in informal sector activities to be recognized, assistedand given equal opportunities.

    Gertrude Mongella, president of the Pan-African Parliament and also secretary general of the Beijing conference, said that because women are not educated or trained to compete in global markets, liberalization in Africa will continue to make women morevulnerable to exploitation.

    Statistics show that out of the 1.3 billion poor people in the world, 70 percent are women, the majority of whom are illiterate with no access to basic immunities such as safe drinking water, two-thirds of the 130 million children worldwide who are not in school are girls, and between 75 percent and 80 percent of the world's 27 million refugees are women and children.

    Mongella stressed that these statistics only proved that there are new, emerging challenges that most activists did not foresee during the Beijing process.

    In fact, it was not even in our vocabulary, she said, as she urged everyone in Africa to address these challenges by finding ways of improving Africa's economic growth, to make sure resourcesare available to continue to empower women.

    More than 40 African ministers in charge of gender affairs tookpart in the meeting in Addis Ababa, focusing on developments in African women's lives, and women's constraints and challenges, joined by a cross section of other key stakeholders including parliamentarians, entrepreneurs, and representatives of international organizations. Enditem