Africa: African women welcome the NEPAD engendering process

African women welcome the NEPAD engendering process

African women attending the 7th African Regional Meeting on the Review of
the Dakar and Beijing Conferences (Beijing + 10) in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
from 6-14 October, 2004, expressed satisfaction with the efforts of the
African Union (AU) and NEPAD to ensure that all their policies, programmes
and practices are inclusive and engendered.

This nod was given unanimously after a day-long expert group meeting on the
AU and NEPAD, held on October 9, 2004.

The expert group meeting, chaired by Dr. Sara Longwe of FEMNET, heard from
two panelists: Madam Bineta Diop, the executive director of Femmes Africa
Solidarite (FAS) and Ms Litha Musyimi-Ogana, NEPAD Gender and Civil Society
advisor who presented a paper on " Gender Responsiveness of NEPAD."

To quote from one of the participants: "The two presentations are a living
testimony that our continent is emerging as a continent of hope and not of
doom.

"At last African governments are keenly listening to the voice of the
African people, and African women in particular, as demonstrated by the
Heads of State commitment to gender equality through the adoption of the AU
Protocol on the Rights of Women in Africa and the Solemn Declaration on
Gender Equality in Africa."

The two presentations attracted intensive and uplifting discussion on the
AU and NEPAD and raised many questions and clarifications.

The discussions centred around NEPAD policies, programmes and
implementation and also called for the monitoring of the implementation of
the Heads of States commitments and declaration at the national level.

In addition to participating in this panel, NEPAD also took part in
sessions on the African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM) and UN Resolution 1325
and the Peace, Security and Conflict Resolution, coordinated by the UN Fund
for Women (UNIFEM).

At the end of the discussions the meeting recommended a set of proposals
for the AU and NEPAD to make them more gender responsive, inclusive and
accountable to the people.

One of the key requests was that the conference participants be added to
the mailing list of the NEPAD Dialogue newsletter.

At the conclusion of the meeting, African women expressed their
satisfaction with the mechanisms that the AU and NEPAD had put in place for
gender mainstreaming and to ensure popular participation of the African
people.