Ivanka Trump backs women’s land rights on African trip

Ivanka Trump said she would campaign for women’s right to own and inherit land in Africa as she visited Ethiopia yesterday to promote a $50mn US development project.U S President Donald Trump’s daughter, who works as his adviser, told reporters at the headquarters of the UN Economic Commission for Africa that women made up just 15% of land owners on the continent.“Eighteen countries in the world still have laws that allow husbands to legally prevent their wives from working. Half of these countries are in Africa. We can and we must address these barriers to women’s equality and countries’ prosperity,” she added.She did not spell out how she would tackle the problems.But she was promoting the Women’s Global Development and Prosperity initiative, which officials have said aims to economically empower 50mn women by 2025.Ivanka Trump met Ethiopia’s Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed and was due to wrap up her four-day African trip with a visit to Ivory Coast.She also visited a church in Addis Ababa to pay her respects to the victims of the recent Ethiopian Airlines crash, as her father, US President Donald Trump, fired off a sarcastic tweet about the company that made the aircraft, Boeing.Ivanka met with religious leaders representing the diverse faiths of those killed in the crash, laid a wreath and observed a moment of silence at the Holy Trinity Church.“My heartfelt sympathies to all the victims’ families and loved ones,” she tweeted after the visit.She announced $350mn towards a programme “supporting women-owned, women-led and women-supporting projects in Sub-Saharan Africa.”On her first day of the visit on Sunday, “the first daughter of US” as she is sometimes jokingly called, met with Ethiopian businesswomen and participated in a traditional coffee-drinking ceremony.Today, she heads to Ivory Coast in West Africa, for the second leg of the trip.