Background
The next meeting of the Committee on Women and Development
(CWD) will be held from November 5-8, 2001 in Addis Ababa,
Ethiopia. The Committee will meet to deliberate within its
terms of reference to:
· Undertake periodic reviews of progress in the implementation
of regional and global policy frameworks
· Harmonize and coordinate the subregional programmes
on the integration of women in development
· Facilitate the sharing of information and experiences
relating to the advancement of women among the various member
States
Since the reorganization and revitalization of the Committee
in 1997, the membership was expanded beyond national government
representatives to include members of the civil society (
including associations of rural women), specialized organizations,
of the United Nations system subregional and regional organizations
and resource people nominated in their own capacity. While
selection of government representatives was completed in 1997,
the selection process of the rest of the membership was not
completed until 1998.
It will also be recalled that the life span of membership
is two years for two thirds of the representatives while a
third is retained for another two years for the sake of continuity.
This is in accordance with the guidelines established by the
Committee in its meeting in April 1999 in Ouagadougou. In
this connection the government representatives of the Committee
met on 25 November 1999 in the context of the Sixth Regional
Conference on Women and renewed their membership. The Bureau
of the Committee was also renewed.
The Committee decided that the country chairing the OAU would
automatically be a member of the Bureau for the duration of
its term of office in order to link CWD activities with the
OAU organs.
The Committee will also review its work programme for the
next 4 years in the context of its terms of reference, and
in particular, in the context of the recommendations of the
Bureau during its meeting in New York in March 2000 when it
attended the preparatory meeting of the Beijing + 5 Review
Session. The Bureau recommended that the Committee should
direct its advocacy on gender issues towards the ECA Conference
of Ministers and at the regional level and subregional levels
by organizing consultative meetings on modalities and procedures
for implementing actions that have been decided upon in different
for a. The Bureau had emphasized the need to pay particular
attention to the issue of feminization of poverty.
The Committee will also provide leadership in the implementation
of the work programme of the African Centre for Women. The
meeting will therefore review and validate Monitoring and
Evaluation
Indicators of the implementation of the African Plan of Action
which will be used subsequently to assess the status of women
10 years after Beijing in 2004. To review and update indicators
on Gender and Governance will be undertaken. This meeting
will therefore be an important step in the follow up process
of the implementation of the Platforms for Action that will
culminate in subregional assessments in 2003-4 and an integrated
evaluation regional report that will also include a definition
of the way forward for the accelerated advancement of women
and gender equality in 2004, all under the leadership of CWD.
[top]
Objectives of the meeting
1. To define the specific modalities in which CWD will play
its advocacy role at the ECA Conference of Ministers in 2002.
2. To review and validate Monitoring and Evaluation Indicators
for the African Plan of Action to accelerate the implementation
of the Dakar and Beijing Platforms for Action.
[top]
Expected Outcomes
By the end of the meeting, the following will have been achieved:
1. The exact issue of focus by CWD in its advocacy intervention
at the ECA Conference of Ministers will be defined as well
as the required preparatory activities and those responsible
for their preparation.
2. The Monitoring and Evaluation Indicators drafted by ACW
will be reviewed, modified, finalized and adopted ready for
dissemination in member States for use. In addition, the exact
number of the subregional evaluation meetings in 2003 and
2004 and the modalities for collaboration with RECs, ECA/SRDCs
and other partners in this connection will also be spelt out.
Organization of the meeting
The meeting will be organized over 4 days. The Experts will
meet to deliberate for the first 3 days and the Ministers
will meet on the last day to consider and endorse their work..
A number of Experts in the field of monitoring and evaluation
will therefore be invited to participate in the work of the
Committee which will include the review and validation of
the Monitoring and Evaluation Indicators proposed by ACW.
.
