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Note: This document is from the archive of the Africa Policy E-Journal, published
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Africa: Gender, Recent Documents
Africa: Gender, Recent Documents
Date distributed (ymd): 970428
Document reposted by APIC
ECA GENDER POLICY UNDER THE SPOTLIGHT THIS WEEK
UN ECONOMIC COMMISSION FOR AFRICA
INFORMATION UNIT PRESS RELEASE NUMBER 9.
ADDIS ABABA, 22 April 1997 -- Experts will take a long hard look this
week at the issue of gender and development -- one of two key themes that
cut across programme lines at the UN Economic Commission for African (UNECA)
-- when they gather here for the 18th meeting of the Africa Regional Coordinating
Committee for the Integration of Women in Development (ARCC).
ARCC, established in 1979 by the ECA Conference of Ministers, is an
inter-governmental policy-making body that focuses on the advancement of
women. As such, it is the political arm of the ECA's gender programme,
which is implemented by the African Centre for Women (ACW). ARCC meets
annually to review the work of the Centre, and to provide it with orientation
and guidance.
The three-day consultation (24-26 April) will preside over a detailed
work programme, and will prepare recommendations for the 32nd session of
the Commission and 23rd meeting of the ECA Conference of Ministers responsible
for economic and social development and planning (5-8 May).
Representatives of ARCC's 20 member countries and ACW staff will review
ACW's programme work between April 1996 and April 1997; discuss follow-up
strategies towards implementing the Dakar and Beijing Platforms of Action;
consider the report on the Commission on the Status of Women (which highlights
developments in the advancement of women in the areas of Education and
Training of Women, Women and the Economy, Women in decision-making and
Women and the Environment); and assess the ARCC itself, with a view to
improving its efficiency, and making recommendations on its structure in
view of the ECA's renewal.
According to Josephine Ouedraogo, the upgraded gender division's new
chief, the meeting represents a watershed in the evolution of women and
development programming at the ECA and in Africa.
"It provides a singular opportunity to review the role of ARCC
in the context of growing recognition that gender issues are cross-cutting
and as such must be mainstreamed into all development activities for sustainable
results," says Ouedraogo.
Josephine Ouedraogo, one of several new division chief, is a national
of Burkina Faso whose credits include: Minister of Family Development and
National Solidarity where she helped formulate the country's first Family
Code (1984-87); Coordinator of the Sub-Saharan Project on Women and Health
for the Pan-African Development Institute (1989-92); and most recently
Director-General for International Cooperation, Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
"In its new directions", she adds, "ECA will be among
the pioneers who are incorporating gender concerns in their entire work
programme rather than isolating women in development activities as a separate
programme."
Among items to be considered will be a progress report on Economic Empowerment
Activities, in the context of an Accra Declaration and Plan which emerged
from a major ECA conference in Ghana in 1996.
Another burning issue on the agenda is that of Women and the Peace Process,
drawing on the declaration and action plan of a landmark Pan-African Women's
Conference held in Kigali, Rwanda in March this year. Also on the table
for consideration by ARCC in the wake of an African Women's Leadership
Forum meeting in South Africa last November, is a recommendation for the
creation of an African Women's Committee on Peace.
If accepted by ARCC, the idea of such a Committee will be presented
to the Conference of Ministers for endorsement.
In the wake of the Fifth African Regional Conference on Women (Dakar
November 1994 ) and the Fourth World Conference on Women (Beijing September
1995), Zimbabwe and Senegal have been asked to present to the ARCC meeting
their national plans of action (NPAs). African countries had received substantial
technical advice from ACW on how to prepare their NPAs, and a technical
discussion on the two plans will take place.
By the end of the ARCC meeting, the ACW hopes to have a clear picture
of progress made in formulating viable NPAs and their state of implementation
since Dakar and Beijing.
It should also have a clear understanding of the new partnership it
should forge with ARCC in light of ECA's new programme of activities for
the implementation of the regional and global Platform for Action.
(END)
A number of background documents are available. For these and other
information about the meeting, or about ARCC and ACW, please contact:
Peter K.A. da Costa Regional Adviser, Communication for Development
Cabinet Office of the Executive Secretary UN Economic Commission for Africa
P.O. Box 3001 Addis Ababa Ethiopia Tel: +251-1-51 58 26 (direct) or +251-1-5172
00 Ext 161 Fax: +251-1-51 22 33 E-Mail: ipspdc@harare.iafrica.com
Note: Many documents from the Economic Commission for Africa -- not
as of this date including the ones mentioned in this posting, but including
full documentation on the early April meeting of African Ministers of Finance,
dealing with development finance, growth and debt -- are now available
on the UN web site, at:
http://www.un.org/Depts/eca
SARDC Press Release
April 25, 1997
[Issued by: Patience Zonge, Communications Manager, Southern African
Research & Documentation Centre (SARDC), P O Box 5690, Harare Zimbabwe;
Tel: +263-4-38694/5/6; Fax: +263-4-738693; E-mail: sardc@mango.zw.]
Meeting Calls for Implementation of Gender Plan of Action
In one of the most important follow-ups to post Beijing activities in
southern Africa, more than 100 delegates converged in Mbabane, Swaziland
last week to discuss the mainstreaming of gender issues.
The five-day workshop challenged policy makers in the region, including
the Southern African Development Community (SADC), to take concrete steps
in ensuring that gender is mainstreamed into their policies and programmes.
The workshop, the third in a series of regional follow-up meetings to
the Fourth UN Conference on Women in Beijing, reaffirmed the need to maintain
the momentum gained in lobbying for gender mainstreaming in national and
regional policies.
This momentum created at the Beijing conference, was carried over by
the region's women through a Gender Task Force, which has adopted a regional
gender Plan of Action detailing activities for incorporating gender in
all action plans.
Thus this meeting discussed and made recommendations to ensure that
this regional gender action plan does not remain merely rhetoric.
"We the women of the SADC region, have set ourselves the task of
developing policies, programmes and strategies for the implementation of
the regional plan of action for post-Beijing activities, and shall do so
at all costs," asserted Caroline Davids, a member of the Regional
Gender Advisory Committee.
The meeting brainstormed mechanisms to implement the region's four priority
areas, identified from the 12 Beijing Critical Areas of Concern.
The regional priority areas are: insufficient mechanisms at all levels
to promote advancement of women; inequality between men and women in the
sharing of power and decision-making at all levels; inequality in economic
structures and policies in all forms of productive activities and in access
to resources; and lack of respect for an adequate promotion and protection
of the human rights of women.
In his opening remarks, Swaziland's Minister of Home Affairs, Prince
Guduza, underscored the role of active dialogue and communication with
all stakeholders in achieving gender equality. He urged participants to
"design achievable mechanisms unique to the region."
Participants attending the workshop were drawn from all SADC countries,
representing the government, NGO sector, UN agencies, the Regional Gender
Advisory Committee members and the media.
The workshop was jointly organised by the Regional Gender Advisory Committee,
and SARDC, supported by the United Nations Women's Development Fund (UNIFEM)
regional office, and the Netherlands Government Directorate of International
Corporation.
During the workshop, delegates were further briefed on and applauded
the landmark developments made at this year's SADC Consultative Conference,
in which the Council of Ministers meeting adopted a gender programme to
ensure that gender is included in all structures and programmes of SADC.
Again emphasis was made on ensuring that such a major achievement is followed
up by concrete action.
Successes and challenges facing SADC countries in implementing the global
and regional action plan were examined with the view to map out the way
forward. For instance, the workshop emphasised the need to revise legal
instruments, policies and programmes and adopt a more gender sensitive
approach.
The need for information to be repackaged in different media to suit
the needs of the various target groups was underscored.
The workshop also reviewed the national Women in Development profiles,
which reveal the complex and inter-dependent factors affecting the state
of women in SADC countries.
The profiles, being produced by Southern African Research and Documentation
Centre's Women in Development Southern Awareness Programme (SARDC-WIDSAA),
in collaboration with national partners, provide information to people
implementing strategies for mainstreaming gender. The regional report on
the status of women in southern Africa, also being produced by SARDC-WIDSAA,
was reviewed. This book will provide a powerful tool for lobbying and advocate
action on transforming gender relations at all levels.
Delegates were urged to share the deliberations of this meeting and
other such meetings with all stakeholders in their countries.
This material is being reposted for wider distribution by the Africa
Policy Information Center (APIC), the educational affiliate of the Washington
Office on Africa. APIC's primary objective is to widen the policy debate
in the United States around African issues and the U.S. role in Africa,
by concentrating on providing accessible policy-relevant information and
analysis usable by a wide range of groups and individuals.
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