International Women's Day, which falls on 8 March, aims to celebrate the social, economic and political achievements of women while calling for greater efforts to tackle gender inequality issues that still affect societies all over the world.

To observe this day, IBTimes UK spoke with Anita Nzeh, founder of iecoAfrica - an online platform that promotes sustainable development in Africa - on the obstacles that prevent the empowerment of African women.

Nzeh believes that 2015 is a positive year for women's empowerment and development in Africa as the latest African Union (AU) summit, held in January, ended with a strong call to the integration of African women in societies as part of the Agenda 2063's goals.

The Agenda, created in 2013, aims to involve all the sectors of African societies to "build a united and prosperous Africa based on shared values and a common destiny."

However, Nzeh thinks that empowerment can be successful only if social and cultural differences between men and women are overcome and discriminatory laws tackled in order to guarantee a greater participation of women in every sector of society.

Nzeh is developing Ieco7, an online platform that promotes reputation management, leads collaborations and strategic partnerships for sustainability and corporate responsibility.

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