Training workshop on gender mainstreaming and implementation of Beijing Platform ends in Tunis

About 37 participants from seven North African countries completed a week-long "Follow-up and Way Forward" training workshop in Tunis, from 24-28 July 2006, on the outcome of the decade review of the implementation of the Beijing Platform for Action.

The training familiarized senior officials from the Ministries of Agriculture, Planning and Finance, Commerce and Industry, Health and Women Affairs with the new commitments that their countries made to mainstream gender concerns in policies, plans and programmes.

The commitments were made at the end of the Seventh African Regional Conference on Women in October 2004 after a review of the status of implementation of the Beijing Platform for Action.

Participants were introduced to the strategic actions recommended for the implementation of the 12 critical areas of concern. They reviewed these recommendations in relation to their countries' situations and developed a five-year Plan of Action outlining the objectives and actions that would yield the expected outcomes and impact.

The workshop also stressed the need to avoid duplication by combining the implementation of a number of policy frameworks, such as Beijing Platform, MDGs, CEDAW, ICPD, within the same set of strategic actions.

It touched on key concepts of gender as a planning tool, results-based management, monitoring and evaluation, the steps and processes of gender budgeting, and the use of indicators for monitoring the implementation of Plans of Action.

The African Gender and Development Index (AGDI) was introduced to the participants as a tool for tracking progress in the implementation of the Beijing Platform and MDGs.

The workshop was held at the invitation of the Government of the Republic of Tunisia, and hosted by le Centre de Recherches, d'Etudes, de Documentation et d'Information sur la Femme (CREDIF). It was jointly organized by ACGSD and ECA's subregional office in North Africa , in partnership with the the United Nations Development Fund for Women,North Africa and the University of Baleares in Mallorca, Spain.