Table
of Contents
Preface
Introduction
1. Objectives and commitments
1.1 Commitments
made by United Nations agencies and other organizations
1.2 Commitments by regional organizations
1.3 Impact of the commitments
1.4 Commitments by NGOs
1.5 Commitments by African countries
2. Follow-
up mechanisms at the regional, subregional and national levels
3. Results and recommendations of follow- up conferences
and meetings on the platform and the programme
4. Progress made
4.1 Progress
made in the area of resource mobilization
4.2 Progress made with regar to policies
and programmes
5. Constraints
and challenges
5.1 Political
and institutional barriers
5.2 Financial constraints
5.3 Constraints on education and school
enrolment
5.4 Health- related constraints
5.5 Constraints relating to legal protection
6. Conclusions
and recommendations
6.1 Mainstreaming
issues relating to the girl- child as a crucial and separate
area in national plans of action
6.2 Mainstreaming the specific needs
of the girl- child in programmes for women s empowerment
6.3 Adopting approaches to facilitate
the girl-child’s access to better health care and education
6.4 Preparing follow-up indicators
for evaluating actions taken in favour of the girl-child
6.5 Strategies for speeding up the
implementation of the recommendations of the Platform and the
Program with regar to the girl- child
6.6 Strengthening inter- generational
links within the family
6.7 Strengthening partnership among
stake holders of programmes for the advancement of the girl-
child
Appendix:
Guiding questionnaire for the workshop discussions
Notes
Boxes
Box
1 : Mainstreaming the girl- child in national plans of action
Box 2 : Strategies for reducing
the gap between the gross school enrolment ratios for boys and
girls
Box 3 : Measures taken by several
African countries to reinforce the legal protection of the girl-
child
Box 4 : Lack of data disaggregated
by sex, age and zone for applying gender analysis to education
and training
Information
about this publication
Preface
Following
the Dakar and Beijing Conferences on women, number of actions
have been taken on the African continent to meet the needs and
concerns of the girl- child. In fact, twenty- three countries
have included the issue of the girl- child as a priority in their
national plans of action. Forty- three have set up national committees
to follow up on the Beijing Programme of Action concerning young
people. Twenty two countries have set up committees to follow
up the implementation of the United Nations Convention on the
Rights of the Child. A number of countries have set up Children
P rliaments and associations of m yors committed to protecting
the rights of the child.
Although most
programmes in favour of the girl- child had been initiated before
the Beijing Conference, the mobilization of intern tional specialized
gencies and non- governmental organizations ( NGOs) in this reg
rd became reinforced in many reas after Beijing. These include:
reducing the disparities in the school enrolment of girls and
boys; universal primary education; combating the incidence of
girls dropping out of school; mobilizing action gainst female
genital and sexual mutilation; combating exploitation of the labour
of girl- children; fighting against AIDS; protecting AIDS orphans;
disseminating inform tion on methods of contraception; and legislating
on violence gainst the girl- child.
These actions
are necessary for guiding early childhood; for keeping girls in
school, especially in rural and sub- urban areas where the r te
of dropping out is high; for improving the legal protection of
girls; and for increasing girls access to health care.
Most sub-
Saharan African countries are striving to ttain the objectives
mentioned above, but in an unf vourable context marked by n impoverishment
of families, an external debt burden, political instability, the
proliferation of conflicts, reduction in external aid for education
and health care and an ever- increasing school- age population.
Thus, although the Beijing Conference brought bout institutional
changes, many of its objectives have yet to be translated into
specific policies and programmes t the n tional level.
Some countries
have made adjustments in their institutions responsible for improving
the situation of the girl- child and woman, and have increased
their budgetary allocations for women s affairs. Other countries
have still not given specific priority to the issue of the- girl
child such that actions in f vour of the girl- child are conceptualized
within the framework of sectoral programmes and strategies for
women s dvancement in general, making these actions difficult
to identify and assess on the ground.
There are
no reliable mechanisms for monitoring change with reg rd to either
the situation of the girl- child or the implementation of the
twelve critical areas identified by the Dakar Platform for Action
and the Beijing Programme of Action. Therefore, countries and
other actors should take measures to correct this. The next stage
should be to reinforce of current actions and lay the groundwork
for gender analysis. This entails collecting statistical data
at the national level; breaking them down by ge, sex and zone;
and disseminating them for decision- making, for designing strategies
and for planning and implementing programmes identified in the
field.
In promoting
inform tion on national development policies and strategies, the
African Centre for the Woman ( ACW) expects this report to help
strengthen the ongoing dialogue with the national, regional, subregional
and intern tional institutions contributing to the effort to speed
up the implementation of the Platform and the Programme.
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Introduction
The fifth
African egional Conference on Women held in Dakar in 1994 specifically
examined the issue of the girl- child and decided to make it a
priority area of the African Platform for Action and the Beijing
Programme of Action.
Consequently,
although underlying all the problems concerning woman and development,
the theme the girl- child came up for the first time as a specific
area of concern in a context that is both favourable, when human
development became central in development debates, and unfavourable,
with the continent s persistently worsening political and social
crises and its increasing impoverishment.
Girls make
up half of the 303 million children aged 0- 14 who account for
43 per cent of the African population. According to the Convention
on the Rights of the Child, a child is a person in the 0- 18 years
age range. Yet, at 18, in most sub- Saharan African countries,
almost half of the girls are already married, have had their first
child and try to take up their responsibilities as individuals,
wives and mothers, in an environment where their roles and positions
are largely predetermined. In Africa, as in most other parts of
the world, girls are, from birth and at all stages in their lives,
placed at a disadvantage by socialization practices in terms of
their legal, economic, social, health, cultural and emotional
status.
Participants
at the Dakar conference believed that, since the girl- child of
today is the woman of tomorrow, she should be given special attention
to enable her to grow- up while benefiting from health, self-
confidence and education necessary for her to occupy with dignity
and on an equal footing with man, the place which is hers in society
.
The need to
consider the specific condition of the girl- child has never been
more pressing. Indeed, widespread poverty; social and political
instability; changes in the social fabric and in relationships
within the family; and the ensuing conflicts, including between
parents and children, all have a direct impact on the girl- child.
The public, governments and development aid organizations are
becoming increasingly aware that no significant progress can be
made in improving the status of woman if the inequalities, discrimination
and marginalization they are subject to are not addressed from
the roots by questioning the socialization process and bringing
the attention of young people to matters concerning them.
The fact that
the girl- child is the woman of tomorrow makes her, first and
foremost, someone whose rights should be guaranteed and protected
throughout her life. She has her specific needs and concerns,
some of which she shares with women and others. Countries and
other actors must formulate adequate strategies and take appropriate
measures to meet these needs and concerns.
The main objective
of the sixth egional Conference on Women held in Addis- Ababa
from 22 to 27 November 1999 was to conduct a mid- term appraisal
of the recommendations of the Dakar Platform and the Beijing Programme;
to identify the progress made and strategic actions to be recommended
for the next five years. A preliminary report on the girl child
was prepared as a working document of the workshop on this theme
within the framework of the Conference. This report is the final
version of that document. It takes into account the lessons learned
from country reports, the conclusions of the workshop discussions
on the girl- child, the Conference s recommendations on the theme,
and information supplied by institutions involved in the implementation
of the Platform and the Programme
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1. Objectives
and commitments
In the resolution
adopted by the fifth African egional Conference on Women, African
countries affirmed their political will and their commitment to
set up or strengthen national mechanisms, as well as to establish
a conducive environment for implementing the Platform for Action
while providing for considerably increased budgetary resources
for the implementation of strategies, programmes and projects
commensurate with the concerns of women and youths . This resolution
urgently called on government organizations to focus their efforts
on the major areas of the Platform in designing and implementing
their programmes. It also called on African governments, bilateral
and multilateral institutions and the United Nations and its specialized
agencies, to support the adoption of the gender approach in the
formulation and implementation of programmes coming within their
respective areas of competence.
With regard
to the girl- child, the Platform for Action laid down the following
four major objectives:
( a) To
eliminate discrimination against girls in the areas of education
and training, health care and nutrition;
( b) To
advocate for the elimination of negative cultural attitudes
and practices against women and girls;
( c) To
enhance the capacities and esteem of girls, especially those
with special needs; and
( d) To
sensitize young girls to social, economic and political issues
and problem;
For these objectives to be achieved, the Platform recommends:
( a) That
research should be undertaken on the situation of girls, and
that information and data obtained should be disaggregated by
sex and age to provide an appropriate basis for action;
( b) That
awareness should be created among policy makers, implementers
and communities about the disadvantaged situation of girls;
(c) That
the policies and laws in force should be reviewed to ensure
the enlightenment of girls in matters pertaining to education,
health care and early marriage;
( d) To
support NGOs and community- based organizations in their efforts
to promote positive changes in the prevailing practices and
attitudes towards women and girls;
( e) To
provide the necessary education and skills training to girls,
after the primary school level, in order to increase their opportunities
for employment. The education of the girl- child with disabilities
should be made free and compulsory to ensure that her needs
are met;
( f) To
provide sex education as from primary school; ( g) To review
school curricula and textbooks to integrate in them the principle
of gender equality;
( h) To
use the media to promote information on the need to give equal
treatment to women and girls on the one hand, and to these and
their male counterparts on the other, with regard to nutrition,
health care, education and participation in decision- making;
( i) To
mobilize men and boys to work for the advancement of woman and
for a real partnership based on equality between boys and girls;
( j) To
provide opportunities for schoolgirls who become pregnant to
continue with their education.
Besides the
specific objectives of the Dakar Platform for Action and the Beijing
Programme of Action, the international community has made a number
of commitments which have featured on the agenda of major international
conferences since the 1990 World Summit for Children. The commitments
made in this regard aim:
( a) To
reduce by half, during the period 1995- 2005, the number of
children suffering from malnutrition;
( b) To
attain the objective of 80 per cent school enrolment for boys
and girls in the year 2000 and reduce illiteracy among women
and men to 8 per cent by the year 2015;
( c) To
pay more attention to the reproductive health of the woman throughout
her life span;
( d) To
promote respect for children s rights in accordance with the
provisions of the Convention on the Rights of the Child and
the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination
against Women.
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1.1 Commitments
made by United Nations agencies and other organizations
The commitments
made by international organizations and donor countries within
the framework of the Beijing conference are contained in the United
Nations System- wide Medium- term Plan for the advancement of
the woman during the 1996- 2001 period; in terms of bilateral
cooperation, they are also contained in the documents of the Organization
for Economic Cooperation and Development ( OECD) on the role of
technical cooperation for development on the eve of the 21st century
and on the guidelines of the Development Assistance Committee
( DAC) for gender equality and the empowerment of women within
the framework of development cooperation.
All the United
Nations institutions, especially the United Nations Development
Fund for Women ( UNIFEM) , the United Nations Children s Fund
( UNICEF) , the United Nations Population Fund ( UNFPA) and the
United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization
( UNESCO) were requested to adapt their action plans to the objectives
of the Beijing Programme, to draw up operational guidelines for
cooperating with countries and to support coordination efforts
within the system while carrying out their respective mandates.
Consequently, the organizations of the United Nations system pledged
to involve youths at all stages of the implementation of the Beijing
Programme. Two working groups made up of NGO representatives were
set up in Geneva and New York, respectively, to give more prominence
to the theme of the girl- child and to see to it that her concerns
and contributions are adequately considered in the deliberations
of the Commission on the Status of Women ( CSW) .
UNICEF, UNFPA,
the International Labour Office ( ILO) and the World Health Organization
( WHO) have taken major steps to improve the status of the girl-
child.
Under its
education for all programme, UNICEF has implemented its African
Girls Education Initiative with the support of the Governments
of Canada and Norway. Almost 60 million dollars were raised for
this operation which to date has covered 27 countries. The initiative
for girls education ( SCOFI) enabled participating countries to
try out various approaches to closing the gap between boys and
girls. The programme s strategies include social mobilization
and the involvement of parents and the community, as well as strengthening
partnership with all the actors on the ground.
In 1996, UNICEF
adopted a global strategy for protecting and promoting the rights
of the child, drawing on the Convention on the Rights of the Child
and the guidelines of the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination
against Women. UNICEF also plays an active role in the fight against
AIDS by embarking on programmes to prevent neo- natal transmission,
by addressing the needs of orphans and by involving young people.
Furthermore, it assists the initiatives taken in many countries
to eradicate harmful traditional practices ( HTPs) affecting the
health of mothers and girls.
UNFPA has
paid particular attention to the situation of adolescents in implementing
the Cairo Programme of Action on Population and Development. Both
the Dakar Platform and the Beijing Programme clearly address the
specific reproductive and sexual health needs of adolescent girls
and young women. Most UNFPA programmes include sensitization and
training for health personnel catering for the needs of adolescents,
campaigning for policy reforms, educating schooled and unschooled
youths on family life and setting up information centres for youths.
The African
Forum on the reproductive health of youths organized in January
1997, by UNFPA in cooperation with ECA and OAU, brought together
500 girls and boys from 48 countries. The recommendations and
resolutions of the Forum were submitted to the Council of Ministries
of the OAU. The agency has also paid much attention to the involvement
of men in the fight against AIDS, a principle already integrated
in the programmes of 43 countries.
In 1997, WHO
launched a egional Plan of Action, to speed up the elimination
of FGM in Africa within the period 1996- 2015, covering 26 countries.
This plan is multisectoral and multidisciplinary aims to eradicate
these practices and to deal with the resultant medical complications.
It provides for the inclusion of a module on ( HTPs) in training
programmes for medical and paramedical agents. UNICEF, for its
part, pledged to help governments in drafting their plans of action
in this area. The strategies recommended by this plan are:
( a) To
involve communities in the identification of the physical, psychological
and emotional problems associated with the practices in question;
( b) To
design and produce, together with the people concerned, adequate
Information, Education and Communication ( IEC) programmes on
culture, and focused on specific target groups;
( c) To
promote multisectoral and multidisciplinary cooperation in identifying
and planning actions.
In 1997, WHO,
UNICEF and UNFPA issued a Joint Declaration on female genital
mutilation in which they asserted their intention to assist governments
and communities to promote the health and development of women
and children.
ILO supports
the campaign against the exploitation of child labour through
its International Programme on the Elimination of Child Labour
( IPEC) . This programme aims to prevent the use of child labour,
to eliminate the most extreme forms and the most serious situations
of the exploitation of child labour and to improve working conditions.
The subregional Workshop on the trafficking of children used for
domestic work in West Africa and Central Africa, organized with
the support of UNICEF from 6 to 8 July 1998 in Cotonou, Benin,
made it possible to work out a framework for analysis and for
improved coordination of the actions of countries and subregions
West Africa and Central Africa in particular in this regard.
The World
Bank notes that increasing the school enrolment of girls and the
education of women is one of the surest ways to the economic and
social development of Africa. In 1997, it adopted a egional Gender
Action Plan ( RGAP) which identifies new opportunities for action
in favour of the girl- child. The second strategic objective of
this plan focuses on the human development of women and on considerably
improving their participation in education and their access to
adequate health care, nutrition and planning services. The World
Bank has recently begun to strengthen its action in favour of
education, especially for girl- children in Africa.
As for UNIFEM,
it has launched a regional campaign to combat violence against
women in many countries. The regional seminar organized in Dakar
in 1998 on the Law on violence against women enabled 12 countries
to compare their national laws and to recommend necessary amendments
particularly on rape, genital mutilation, domestic violence, sexual
harassment and forced marriage.
At the bilateral
level, significant is the revision by the Canadian International
Development Agency ( CIDA) , in 1995, of its Woman and Development
policy and its adoption of a new gender equality policy that gives
importance to the rights of women and girls. The strategic framework
defined for each subregion contains the two priority areas of
woman and development and human rights which are among the six
priority areas of the development aid policy of the Canadian Government;
and each country is required to prepare its own strategy for gender
equality.
To illustrate,
the project on Women s rights and citizenship in French- speaking
Africa initiated in 1997 by the Swedish International Development
Agency ( SIDA) is aimed at increasing respect for the rights of
women and girls and their participation in democratic life. The
project focuses on three aspects: equal legal and social rights
for men and women; elimination of violence against women and girls;
and increasing women and girl s participation in power sharing.
This project which concerns Guinea, Mali, Côte d Ivoire and Burkina
Faso supports the establishment of coalitions of organizations
involved in the promotion of women s rights, human rights, and
the rights of institutions with decision- making powers or influence.
At the regional level, it is hoped that these networks will be
brought together in a Forum that will also include the Subregional
Committee on HTPs and the Group of Women Ministers and Members
of Parliament.
These positive
actions notwithstanding, many countries regret that efforts made
to fulfil the Beijing commitments are below expectations. While
funding agencies have supported the process of developing national
plans of action to various degrees, the financing of projects
remains a problem. Some funding institutions have even reduced
the medium- term contributions to sectors having a direct impact
on the well- being of the child, for example, the contributions
of the World Bank and the United States Agency for International
Development ( USAID) to health care and education. Paradoxically,
these budgetary cuts are coming at a time when the beneficiary
countries need larger and sustained financing.
It should
be pointed out that the priorities of donors and those contained
in the national plans of action do not always tally and agencies
tend to intervene on a country- by- country basis rather than
take an articulated regional approach. Moreover, while most of
their programmes have a gender perspective, the inadequate mastery
of the gender approach prevents the national partners from making
the best of the existing opportunities for the advancement of
young girls. Also, information is not available on the volume
and distribution of funds allocated in support of the implementation
of national plans of action. The coordination of technical assistance
has often been informal - virtually inexistent in the case of
financial aid.
Most development
aid agencies give priority to combating poverty which affects
women and young people more than men. Besides, the Departments
in charge of women and girls affairs and the organizations representing
them still need better understanding of poverty- alleviation documents
and programmes.
Most of the
current programmes were initiated prior to the Beijing Conference.
Except for health care, few are the initiatives or new programmes
that have been launched. The initiative for the education of girls
ended in 1999 but its positive results have not yet been popularized
and its achievements consolidated.
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1.2 Commitments
by regional organizations
The joint
OAU/ ADB/ ECA secretariat was established to follow up and ensure
the implementation of the recommendations of the Dakar Platform.
Through the African Centre for Women ( ACW) , the Economic Commission
for Africa ( ECA) was mandated to support the coordination, follow-
up and evaluation activities of the African Committee set up to
coordinate the implementation of the Platform and the Programme
at the continental level. ECA was also mandated to ensure that
the objectives of the Dakar Platform was adequately pursued.
Raising
the institutional status of the African Centre for the Woman
To enable
ECA to adequately carry out its mandate, it raised the institutional
status of ACW, strengthened the Committee on Women and Development
( CWD) , ensured that the gender approach is mainstreamed in all
its activities, and organized a Forum on developing new opportunities
for younger generations.
ACW fulfilling
its responsibility to follow up on the Dakar and Beijing Conferences,
ACW has organized four subregional follow- up meetings: in November
1997, in Dakar, for West Africa; in June 1998 in Bangui for Central
Africa; in October 1999 in abat for North Africa; and in February
1999 in the Seychelles, for Eastern and Southern Africa. These
meetings addressed issues pertaining to achievements made with
regard to national plans of action and progress reports on the
implementation of the Platform and the Programme.
Furthermore,
ACW has laid down follow- up guidelines and indicators, provided
technical assistance to Mauritius and South Africa in the development
of their national plans of action on gender equality, advised
the African Institute for Economic Development and Planning (
IDEP) on mainstreaming the gender approach in economic development
and planning programmes. ACW has assisted Guinea and the Niger
in the area of human rights and led various training and research
activities. The Centre has also appointed two regional advisers
specialized in women s rights and women s empowerment, respectively.
The services of these regional advisers are given free of charge
to governments, upon request.
Strengthening
the Committee on Women and Development
The mandate
of CWD, formerly African egional Coordinating Committee for the
Integration of Woman in Development ( ARCC) , a consultative organ
which coordinates policies in favour of women, was increased in
1997. The Committee s terms of reference include:
( a) Periodically
examining progress made in the implementation of the Platform;
( b) Mobilizing
resources for the implementation of action plans at the sub-
regional level;
( c) Organizing
exchange of information, data and experiences on countries policies
for the advancement of women.
CWD has actively
embarked on advocacy to sensitize African decision- makers to
women s issues. It saw through the adoption, by the Assembly of
Heads of State and Government of the OAU, of a resolution to speed
up the implementation of the Dakar Platform and the Beijing Programme.
Notably, that resolution recommends the creation of a post of
Adviser to Heads of State on gender issues and calls for the systematic
involvement of women in OAU statutory meetings.
Applying
gender analysis to ECA activities
Every ECA
division and Subregional Development Centre ( SRDC) has a focal
point for gender issues.
Developing
new opportunities for younger generations
The forum
on this subject was held as part of activities to mark the fortieth
anniversary of ECA. It enabled young girls and boys from various
places to express their concerns about the present and visions
for the future of Africa. The OAU strives to mobilize African
political leaders for the implementation of the Platform and the
Programme, and African Heads of State and Government and Ministers
of Economic and Social Development have adopted resolutions endorsing
the recommendations of the Platform.
Since 1990,
the OAU has gradually been establishing, within its structures,
a political and strategic framework for the protection and advancement
of children. It has designed the African Charter on the Rights
and Welfare of the Child. The organization s fight against the
most intolerable and most abusive forms of child labour, endorsed
by the Summit of Heads of State and Government in June 1998, in
Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, is a giant step in this direction.
The OAU set
up a special committee in 1997 to examine the status of children
in war- torn countries and to further its campaign for the ratification
of the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child.
The Addis Ababa Declaration adopted in 1998 during the Summit
of Heads of State and Government affirms their commitment to the
eradication of HTPs affecting the health of women.
With regard
to education, the OAU showed its commitment to universal education
in Africa by proclaiming the period 1997- 2006 the Decade for
Education in Africa during its thirty- second Assembly of Heads
of State and Government held in Yaoundé, Cameroon, in 1996. he
Decade s programme of action, officially launched in 1997, was
designed with the support of UNICEF and the International Development
esearch Centre
( IDRC) . Its objectives include to expand education and reduce
all disparities, especially between boys and girls and between
rural and urban areas. Other objectives of the Decade s plan of
action which, if implemented, would likely have an impact on the
status of the girl- child include improving the quality of education
and vocational training and strengthening capacity building. Harmonizing
the educational policies of countries, also advocated by the Decade
programme, should improve exchange of experiences and best practices
with regard to girls schooling.
The setting
up by OAU of the African Women s Committee for Peace in 1998 was
meant to ensure women s effective participation in all peace actions
and to empower them to clearly express the needs and concerns
of refugee and displaced women and children.
As for the
African Development Bank ( ADB) , in fulfilling its mission to
work for the economic and social development of Africa, the Bank
was involved at all stages of preparation and implementation of
the Dakar Platform and the Beijing an has shown its commitment
by integrating the gender approach in its policies and programmes.
A gender perspective now has to be taken into account in formulating
all strategies and evaluating country projects. Specifically,
the Bank has:
( a) Systematically
applied gender analysis to projects submitted to it for financing;
( b) Trained
team leaders and heads of departments on gender issues and set
up interdepartmental advisory committees on women s affairs;
( c) Strengthened
the capacity and budgetary resources of the Unit responsible
for women s affairs;
( d) Increased
funding for women s advancement and child protection activities,
especially within the framework of poverty- alleviation programmes.
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1.3 Impact
of the commitments
It is important
to note that these commitments mainly have a political impact
for no programme or initiative capable of jumpstarting real action
in favour of the girl- child has actually been launched in the
continent. Even the objective of the major action initiated in
the area of education through the OAU Decade plan has eluded the
control of national and regional institutions because the implementation
is highly dependent on external financing.
Generally,
the declarations made are not accompanied by mechanisms to implement
them. Also, no mechanism has been established to compel institutions
to render account of their fulfilment of their commitments. The
strategic choices, priorities and internal constraints of each
institution have therefore taken precedence over their political
and moral obligation to women and girls. ADB, for instance, has
no statistical data for evaluation in connection with the increased
funding earmarked for gender- related actions or women and girls
affairs.
The actions
of the OAU, ECA and ADB in this area are virtually uncoordinated.
esolving these shortcomings demand that in the second phase of
the implementation of the Platform and the Programme these institutions
see to it that commitments made for the advancement of the girl-
child are concretely implemented at the regional level, ensure
that the conclusions and recommendations of the Forum on youths
organized to mark the celebration of the fortieth anniversary
of ECA, or similar meetings, be used as a basis for defining actions
to undertake.
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1.4 Commitments
by NGOs
Besides communities
and decision makers, some civil society organizations ( CSOs)
are fully committed to education, health and rights. Thus, IAC
organized a regional meeting in Dakar in 1997 and a symposium
in Banjul, the Gambia, in 1998, for religious leaders and health
personnel on genital mutilation as violence against women. The
symposium adopted declarations and recommendations.
The Forum
of African Women Educators ( FAWE) has been very active in sensitizing
policy makers in favour of the girls education and has established
a scholarship scheme in many countries. Such other regional or
subregional NGOs as the Société des Femmes Africaines face au
SID , the Women in Law and Development in Africa ( WILDAF) , the
Association des femmes africaines pour la recherche et le développement
( AFARD) , the network of African Women Leadership in Agriculture
and Environment ( AWLAE) and the réseau des femmes de l Afrique
centrale ( RESEFAC) have been very active in their areas of intervention.
Undoubtedly, as mentioned in many country reports, cooperation
between governments and NGOs, is the driving force for the implementation
of the Platform s recommendations.
These actions
have, among other things, made it possible to popularize the objectives
of the Platform, carry out advocacy activities to stimulate national
and international institutions, conduct pilot experiments and
mobilize communities. However, their outreach is limited because
of the dispersion of interventions, poor coordination between
the government institutions and the NGOs involved, weak capacities
and meagre resources.
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1.5 Commitments
by African countries
African governments
have explicitly acknowledged the have prime responsibility for
the achievement of the objectives of the Dakar Platform and Beijing
Programme. They have therefore pledged to implement the various
institutional, legal and political measures contained in the national
plans of action designed after the Beijing Conference. These measures
include:
( a) Establishing
mechanisms or offices responsible for issues relating to the
girl child;
( b) Providing
universal education and raising the level of girls school enrolment;
( c) Setting-
up adequate health care services;
( d) Securing the legal protection of the child, especially
against violence, and promoting her/ his rights;
( e) Setting- up structures to empower young girls to actively
participate in the implementation of the Platform and the Programme.
[Top]
2. Follow-
up mechanisms at the regional, subregional and national levels
The Dakar
Platform identified a number of regional, subregional and national
follow- up mechanisms whose supplementary actions should facilitate
integration of the Platform and Programme s recommendations in
the programmes and policies of governments and development institutions,
as well as evaluation of the actions undertaken.
At the
national level , three types of mechanisms have been established
taking into account the specific context of countries. They are
coordination structures, technical mechanisms and focal points;
and are described as follows:
( a) Coordination
mechanisms are generally national follow- up committees set
up by Ministries in charge of women affairs and responsible
for the implementation of national plans of action. These mechanisms
have facilitated the involvement of other ministries, NGOs and
youth and women s organizations in the implementation process;
( b) Technical
mechanisms are made up of sectoral units in charge of gender
issues within major ministerial departments, as in Egypt and
Kenya, for instance;
( c) Focal
points are the resource persons responsible for monitoring the
mainstreaming of national plans of action in their own sector.
In Tunisia,
coordination of the implementation of the Platform and the Programme
is carried out by the Ministry responsible for women and family
affairs which has sub- contracted it to NGOs. The Ministry reports
quarterly to the higher Council on woman and the family chaired
by the Prime Minister. As for Egypt, it has set up a national
follow- up commission made up of twenty experts and has specialized
committees within various ministries.
At the
regional level, ACW has played a basic strategic role in the
implementation of the Platform s recommendations. To this end,
it has relied, internally, on the support of the Joint OAU/ ECA/
ADB secretariat and the ECA coordinating mechanisms supervised
by the Conference of Ministers of Economic and Social Development.
Externally,
ACW cooperates with CWD which it has helped to revamp. This Committee
has been meeting twice a year to address issues relating to the
implementation of the Platform.
At the technical
level, ACW has facilitated the development of national plans of
action and progress reports by drawing up guidelines, performance
indicators and models for use at the country level. The Centre
s contribution to the high- level meetings of ECA has helped to
keep the objectives of the Platform on the agenda of major debates
on the economic and social development of the continent.
The African
Commission on Human and People s Rights and subregional organizations
like the Economic Community of West African States ( ECOWAS) ,
the Southern African Development Community ( SADC) , and the Economic
Community of Central African States ( ECCAS) are also mechanisms
involved in the implementation of the Platform and the Programme.
At the
international level , the United Nations Committee on the
Rights of the Child is the formal follow- up mechanism of the
Convention on the Rights of the Child. It examines periodic reports
from member States. These reports contain gender- disaggregated
data and are reliable sources of information on the status of
children in Africa and in the World.
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3.
Results and recommendations of follow- up conferences and
meetings on the platform and the programme
Since 1994,
numerous meetings regional, subregional and national consultations
have been held on the implementation of the Dakar Platform and
the Beijing Programme. These meetings have helped the actors to
sharpen their strategies, prepare plans of action and adopt common
positions. The meetings were meant to evaluate actions taken in
implementation of the Cairo Plan of Action on Population and Development,
of the recommendations of the World Summit on Social Development
and of the World Summit for Children, or to brainstorm on issues
relating to the girl- child. With regard to education, a series
of fruitful consultations held led to the proclamation of a Decade
for universal education whose programme of action was adopted
by the eighth Conference of African Ministers of Education held
in Harare in 1999.
The two mid-
term evaluation meetings to asses the implementation of the recommendations
of the Jomtien Conference held in 1996, respectively in Yaounde
for West Africa and Central Africa and in Johannesburg for Eastern
and Southern Africa; the African Conference on the empowerment
of women through functional literacy and the education of girls
held in Kampala; and the seventh Conference of Ministers of Education
held in Durban, South Africa, from 20 to 24 April 1998 all emphasized
the need:
( a) To
prepare adequate policies and plans of action to enrol and keep
young girls in school;
( b) To
develop opportunities for young girls;
( c) To ensure the safety and well- being of young girls at
school;
( d) To provide incentives to encourage young girls to study
science and technical subjects;
( e) To take measures to prevent the exploitation of housemaids.
The Amman
Consultation held in June 1995 to evaluate the implementation
of the recommendations of the Jomtien Conference enabled Africa
to compare its results with those of other regions. The Conference,
which established a new vision for education, stressed the link
between the respect for gender differences and the education of
girls; made the education of girls an absolute priority; and recommended
that educational systems should remove the cultural and political
barriers to gender equality and pay attention to the differences
between girls and boys. Moreover, by drawing attention to the
crucial importance of early childhood by establishing that learning
begins at birth, the Jomtien Conference helped to popularize the
adoption of a comprehensive approach to learning.
Concerning
FGM, the joint ECA- UNICEF- UNFPA meeting examined the common
commitments of the Cairo Programme of Action and the Beijing Programme
of Action in light of the reproductive health needs of adolescents.
ACW and UNFPA organized an international training seminar on FGM,
in Addis Ababa, from 27 to 29 March 1997, with the main objective
of preparing a model for integrating FGM eradication activities
in the reproductive health, population and development programmes
of UNFPA.
These meetings
strengthened the political will of African leaders to adopt common
positions, strengthen synergies among the institutions involved
and formulate strategies to be used at the regional and subregional
levels. However, coordination of the operational activities need
to be improved to increase the effect of actions and improve follow-
up of the recommendations adopted.
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