Africa: From OAU to AU and NEPAD: Regional integration processes in Africa and African women

Over the past decade, progress has been made on the African continent in the area of women’s political and economic empowerment. Although the road to women’s full incorporation in the areas of development, peace building and politics in long and replete with obstacles, recent developments at the regional level provide space for optimism. This is according to Prof. Maria Nzomo, the Kenya High Commissioner to Zimbabwe, who was speaking in October at a keynote address made at a Regional Strategy Meeting on Women's Political Participation and Gender Mainstreaming in AU and NEPAD.