The Scope of the Review
The Seventh African Regional Conference on Women (Beijing+10) will be held in parallel with the Fourth African Development Forum (ADF IV) on Governance, 6-15 October 2004 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Both meetings will be able to take full advantage of the presence of a wide variety of delegates and guests in Addis Ababa.

Beijing+10 fits within the global evaluation framework for assessing progress achieved after 10 years of implementing the 1995 Beijing Platform for Action on Women (BPFA). The review will also detail progress in addressing the 12 priority areas of concern and the emerging issues taken into account in the recommendations of the Outcome Document of the United Nations General Assembly Special Session on Beijing + 5, June 2000.

The meeting will also holistically assess implementation of the regional 1994 Dakar Platform for Action (DPFA), the Africa-specific content of which raises issues that are widely reflected in the global BPFA and other relevant global and regional frameworks. Moreover, participants will review achievements of the goals of the Millennium Declaration, the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), the World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD), the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) and the New Partnership for African Development (NEPAD).

Participants
In addition to Ministers in charge of women and gender issues, other participants from key sectors will also attend the conference including African women parliamentarians and representatives of various constituencies, women entrepreneurs, African institutions, inter-governmental organizations, international organizations, United Nations Specialized Agencies, and representatives of international donor and funding agencies.

The Evaluation Process in Africa

1. National level
African governments will prepare their national evaluation reports based on a questionnaire formulated by the United Nations Division for the Advancement of Women (DAW). NGOs will also prepare their contribution either by producing separate evaluation reports or by integrating their inputs into the government reports.

2. Subregional level
The Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) organized five subregional BPFA Decade Review Meetings in 2004:

• West Africa: 13-15 April, Abuja, Nigeria
• North Africa: 14-16 April, Tangiers, Morocco
• Central Africa: 19-21 April, Brazzaville, Congo
• Southern Africa: 26-29 April, Lusaka, Zambia
• East Africa: 2- 4 June, Kigali, Rwanda

The purpose of these meetings was to enrich national evaluation with a subregional perspective, build consensus around priority areas and identify the way forward. Final reports outlining the outcome recommendations of these meetings are available at:
www.uneca.org/beijingplus10
In the Eastern and Southern Africa Subregions, NGOs also met to review
Progress made in the implementation of the BPFA just before the
intergovernmental review meetings. Their outputs were presented in the
intergovernemtal review meetings.

3. Regional level
Beijing + 10 meetings will focus on regional, ministerial-level evaluation of BPFA and other initiatives. Prior to the Ministerial session, a Pre-Ministerial Conference Meeting will be organized in thematic group discussions that will focus on the following issues:
- HIV/AIDS;
- Closing the gender gap in Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers (PRSPs);
- Women’s rights and right to development;
- Women’s voices in conflict prevention and peace building;
- Economic empowerment of women;
- Gender mainstreaming in national accounts and national budget;
- Partnership for gender equality: the role of multilateral and bilateral agencies;
- Partnership with men and boys for gender equality;
- Gender responsiveness of NEPAD;
- Women and governance;
- The role of the judiciary in promoting and implementing women’s rights;
- Institutional mechanisms for effective gender mainstreaming in national policies and programmes; and
- The Girl-child

African Gender and Development Index
In a joint ADF IV/Beijing + 10 Session, ECA will launch the African Gender and Development Index (AGDI). The AGDI is a tool that the African Centre for Gender and Development (ACGD) has developed to help policymakers, planners and civil society measure gender equality and equity on the continent, and track and monitor priority actions agreed upon in the Dakar and Beijing Platforms, the MDGs and other conventions. AGDI has been piloted in 12 countries and the results will be presented in the ECA biennial African Women’s Report (AWR) to be published in mid-2005.

Involving African NGOs in the Beijing +10 Evaluation Process
ECA is facilitating and supporting the participation of women NGOs in the decade review process at the regional level, as requested by the ECA Committee on Women and Development (CWD). To this effect, ECA convened a Regional Consultative Meeting of African women NGOs (22-23 July 2004, Addis Ababa) that gathered about 50 NGO organizations and regional women’s networks, as well as CWD members. The main objective of this meeting was to offer participants the opportunity to exchange views on preparations for the African Women NGO Forum, due to be held 6-7 October 2004 in Addis Ababa just before the Prep-Ministerial and Ministerial Sessions of the Seventh African Regional Conference on Women (8-14 October).

Parallel Exhibition
A joint ADF IV and Beijing+10 parallel exhibition is planned to give visibility and exposure to various civil society organizations and stakeholders, and to provide the public with more information on their products, services and activities.

Major Outcome Expected
The Beijing +10 review process encourages African governments to make all gender-related critical areas the focus of national and regional action. The major outcome of the conference will be a Declaration that reflects convergence and articulates a series of actions and measures over a five-year period, designed to help overcome major obstacles in achieving gender equality and equity in Africa. CWD will convene every two years to follow up and evaluate the implementation of commitments undertaken. The collaboration of all key players is vital, including African intergovernmental organizations, national governments, the private sector, trade unions, and sectoral stakeholders, including NGOs and other civil society organizations (CSOs). A specific monitoring and reporting mechanism needs to be created as part of the implementation process.

Programme of Work of the Seventh African Regional Conference on Women (Beijing + 10)

The Seventh African Regional Conference (Beijing + 10) Programme of Work comprises three meetings:
• An African Women NGOs Forum on Beijing+10 will convene 6-7 October to review the role and achievements of civil society and other actors in implementing BPFA. The Forum will achieve this through thematic group sessions that will be conducted on all the 12 critical areas of concern.
• The Pre-Ministerial Conference Meeting on the Decade Review of the Implementation of the Dakar and Beijing Platforms for Action, (8-10 October). This will also be organized in the form of 12 Thematic Group Discussions from 8-10 October 2004
• The Ministerial Meeting of the Seventh African Regional Conference on Women on the Decade Review of the Implementation of the Dakar and Beijing Platforms for Action will convene 12-14 October.

Ministerial Meeting on the Decade Review of the Implementation of the Dakar and Beijing Platforms for Action

Day One
The first day of the Ministerial Meeting (Beijing +10) will review the achievements and challenges of advancing gender equality and women’s empowerment.

Day Two
The African Union (AU) and the African Development Bank (ADB) will be given the opportunity to present their contribution to progress achieved ten years after the 1995 Fourth World Conference on Women. Day two will also provide opportunity for UN agencies and NGOs to present their contributions to the implementation of BPFA The outcome of the 12 Thematic Group Discussions of the Pre-Ministerial meeting will also be presented.

Day Three
On the third day, participants will adopt the Declaration of the Ministerial Conference on Beijing+ 10. The major recommendations and issues raised in this Declaration will be presented to the Heads of State and Government Roundtable, scheduled to take place at the end of ADF IV.

For further information, you can visit the following websites:
Beijing +10 website: www.uneca.org/beijingplus10
ECA website at: www.uneca.org
ACGD website at: www.uneca.org/fr/acgd/en/800x600/acgd.htm