The Sixth African Development Forum (ADF VI)

I would like to extend a very warm welcome to Addis Ababa , home of the Economic Commission for Africa and the African Union Commission to all of you participating in this Sixth African Development Forum. We are honoured by the presence of His Excellency, Ato Girma Wolde-Giorgis, President of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia . Your presence, Excellency, bears testimony to your personal commitment to African development and the invaluable support and hospitality that we continue to receive from the Government and People of Ethiopia . Thank you for coming.

Mr. President, this meeting is a clear example of the on-going meaningful collaboration between the African Union Commission, the African Development Bank and ECA. It is in this respect that we salute the presence of Dr. Jean Ping, Chairperson of the African Union Commission and Dr. Donald Kaberuka, President of the African Development Bank.

Our development partners provided us with intellectual, moral and material support to organize this forum, and I wish to thank the governments of Sweden, Norway, Finland, Spain, the United Kingdom and Denmark, whose Minister of Development Cooperation, Ms. Ulla Tornaes is here with us today. Ms. Tornaes is a champion of MDG 3 and we will be hearing from her later on some of the positive achievements that have been made in this regard.

Mr. President, fifteen years after Beijing, ten years after ECA organized a conference on African women and economic development and in this year that we are celebrating ECA's 50 th anniversary, Africa continues to grapple with gender-related challenges. Happily, some progress has been made since then as we now have the first female President in the continent in Mrs. Ellen Johnson, Sirleaf of Liberia . We also have an African woman as the Deputy Secretary-General of the United Nations in the person of Dr. Asha-Rose Migiro who will address us on Friday morning. Rwanda is now the leading nation with regard to female representation in parliament with 52% of members of that body being women and the whole continent has made substantial progress in girl child education.

We still have much more to do which is why I salute the presence of so many of you here to deliberate on this very important topic including Their Excellencies, Mrs. Isatou Njie-Saidy, Vice President of the Gambia, Mr. Lesao Lehohla, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Home Affairs of the Kingdom of Lesotho, Mrs Sia Koroma, First Lady of Sierra Leone and Her Majesty, Silvia Nagginda, Queen of Buganda Kingdom in Uganda

The theme of this Sixth African Development Forum - “ Action on Gender Equality, Empowerment and Ending Violence Against Women in Africa ”- is very relevant and timely especially in the context of up-scaling efforts to achieve the Millennium Development Goals by the target date. It will also provide enable us to lend support to the recently launched multi-year campaign of the UN Secretary-General to intensify action to end violence against women and girls, which will run from 2008-2015 to coincide with the target date of the Millennium Development Goals.

TGender equality and women's empowerment are very essential for achieving sustainable and inclusive development. Indeed, promoting women's education and training and their access to productive assets such as land, credit, time-saving technology and ICTs could help African countries to scale up annual growth rates in order to achieve the MDGs. ADF VI therefore provides us with an opportunity to reflect on Africa's progress in achieving gender equality as defined in gender related MDGs as well as the African Union's gender instruments. In doing so, however, we must remain mindful that Africa , like the rest of the world is confronting challenges related to recently historical highs in food and fuel prices, the effects of which have been further compounded by the global financial crisis. All of these, combined with the negative effects of climate change, affect women in different ways from men, and have the potential to deepen and widen existing gender inequalities.

The review of the status of implementation of the Dakar and Beijing Platfoms of Action undertaken at the Seventh Africa Regional Conference on Women buttresses my earlier remarks that we have made considerable progress in reducing the gender gap in several sectors, including education, access to health services, representations in parliament and decision-making positions, and ratification of the Convention for the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW). However, there remains much to be done, especially as recent strong growth of over 5% per annum has not impacted enough on poverty reduction, the achievement of the MDGs, gender equality and overall social development.

There is also clear evidence that policies, legislation and effective strategies aimed at promoting gender equality and women's empowerment have been adopted in many African countries. Nevertheless, these various measures need to be more effectively implemented and enforced to make a meaningful difference. Indeed, important obstacles remain to women's empowerment while violence against women and the violation of the human rights of women and girls continue to be of major concern. This vulnerable group continues to be marginalized in the labor markets and has limited access to assets and other means of production. Considering that human beings are the most precious resource in development, marginalization of women means that we are locking out more than a half of Africa 's resources from the developmental process.

As this Forum demonstrates, ECA continues to work in close partnership with the African Union Commission, the African Development Bank, other UN agencies and bilateral partners to enhance the capacity of policy makers and other stakeholders in member States to use the appropriate tools and methodologies to establish gender-responsive policies and programmes. One of our major achievements in this regard is the development of the African Gender and Development Index (AGDI) that measures the extent of gender inequality in Africa and helps African governments assess their performance in narrowing the gender gap and advancing the cause of women. Other achievements relate to the establishment of an African Women's Rights Observatory to monitor the status of women's rights at the regional level and the development of a guidebook to mainstream unpaid work and household production into national statistics.

These developments notwithstanding, there is need for Africa to speed up implementation of all gender related instruments and policies which is why this forum has a very important task before it. The outcome of our deliberations must help move our countries closer to the desired goal of gender equality, empowerment of women and a life free from violence for the African woman and girl. In addition to reviewing progress that has been made, this Forum is called upon to articulate concrete actions that could be taken to accelerate the process. We must place emphasis on adopting an innovative and well thought out Action Plan that will ensure a transformational intervention in all our three main sub-themes.

I cannot end without thanking the large number of Ministers from various sectors who by their presence have shown the importance that they attach to gender-related matters. The diversity of the different responsibilities of Ministers here ranging from gender, home affairs, foreign affairs, finance and defence reflects the need for action across all sectors to achieve global and regional goals on gender equality and empowerment and the ending of violence against women. I also acknowledge the presence of several senior parliamentarians, the media and representatives of civil society organizations whose collective voice will define the outcome of ADF VI.

The UN family has worked as one to ensure the success of this gathering and UNDP, UNIFEM, UNICEF, UNFPA and ILO helped to bring a large number of us here today. Our appreciation similarly goes to the Africa Capacity Building Foundation and the African Women's Development Fund for their contribution to this event.

Thank you once again for being here, for sharing your expertise and insights and expending your energy and time to move forward the gender agenda in Africa .

I wish you successful deliberations.

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