ADF VI convenes Interactive Dialogue among government ministers, and community, religious and traditional leaders on “emerging issues” 

Addis Ababa, 21 November (ECA) - The good part of the final morning of the Sixth African Development Forum (ADF VI) was dedicated to an interactive dialogue on the gender impact in Africa of so called “pressing emerging issues” facing the world today, namely: soaring food and fuel prices, climate change and the financial crisis.

In that regard, the interactive session featured four presentations on the following areas: Gender and international financial crisis, Women in decision making, Gender and the international financial crisis and gender, Climate Change and food security.

The objective of the dialogue was to demonstrate the importance of tackling these challenges from a gender perspective and to provide a platform for developing policy recommendations.

Introducing the theme and objectives of the session, the Moderator, Ms. Sheila Sisulu, Deputy Executive Director of the World Food Programme, posed two challenging questions to participants. “When we return to our usual jobs, what are you going to do differently? Are you going to do anything differently when you get back (other than right a report)” ?

She went on to state that there will be a need to swiftly move the ADF commitments from talk to action. As such she urged speakers to bring the discussion of the issues down to “human size”, and to think about practical implementation, as Africa has enough policy frameworks and instruments to guide good practice.

Dr. Rene Kouassi of the African Union Commission kicked off the presentations by noting that the current international financial crisis would not impact the financial sectors in Africa in a direct way, due to its marginalization from global financial institutions. However, according to Dr. Kouassi, the crisis will have a negative effect on the real economy and as such, African women will be particularly negatively affected due to their vulnerable status. He added that women will lose out from the decline in public expenditure caused by economic slowdowns in Africa in education and health generally, and in specific projects focused on promoting women entrepreneurship and improved credit facilities for women.

Her Excellency Maria Leissner (Swedish Ambassador on democracy), meanwhile, underscored the importance of having women in decision-making positions in order to ensure progress in gender equality and women's empowerment. She also noted that the international financial crisis would have an indirect effect on Africa because of declines in remittances, slower economic growth and poverty levels will increase. Additionally, she highlighted the fact that recent progress in the entrenchment of democracy in Africa augurs well for the protection of the most vulnerable groups (including women and the poor) from the negative effects of the international financial crisis. She proposed that in this time of crisis donor assistance should not be decreased. Instead, she said, targeted efforts towards the most vulnerable need to be enhanced and there should be a scaling-up of measures to stop violence against women.

Dr Josue Dione Director of the Food Security and Sustainable Development Division at ECA focused on the links between gender, food security and climate change. According to Dr. Dione, while food security is a structural problem that has plagued Africa over the last two to three decades, climate change is an emerging global challenge that is an indication of global governance failure. He noted that both concerns have a direct impact on agriculture, the major productive sector in Africa and therefore dire consequences on women given their role in securing food, fetching water and firewood.

Dione strongly suggested bold action in mainstreaming a gender perspective into all efforts in addressing climate change including: understanding and mapping vulnerabilities to better inform policy interventions; and, assessing economic, social and environmental impacts through gender disaggregated data.

The podium presentations sparked a vibrant two hour floor debate. Highlights included a call for accelerated regional economic integration in order to facilitate the empowerment of women as well as a new strong emphasis on “basic needs” development programmes in order to mitigate the impact of the current crisis on Africa .

The important role played by Faith based organizations in promoting gender equality and in building resilience to threats emerging from the international financial crises was also raised. In this regard, African Union Commission responded that informed the meeting that work was now underway to develop a new regional partnership between faith based organizations, civil society and national governments.

Another important point raised by the floor was need for policy prescriptions to protect against climate change to be gender-proofed. Finally, there was a positive reaction to a call for a “gender revolution” in Africa to promote women's empowerment and gender equality in general.

Issued by the ECA Information and Communication Service
P.O. Box 3001
Addis Ababa
Ethiopia

Tel: 251 11 5445098
Fax: +251-11-551 03 65
E-mail: ecainfo@uneca.org
Web: www.uneca.org