ECA's Committee on Women and Development Adopts the Follow- up Strategy for the Implementation of Beijing+10 Regional Outcome Document
25 Octobre 2005

The 10th meeting of the ECA's statutory Committee on Women and Development (CWD) was held in Dakar, Senegal on 13 October 2005. Forty countries were represented either at ministerial or/and at senior expert level. Six Regional Economic Communities, 13 national, subregional and regional NGOs, 6 UN agencies and a bilateral organization were also represented.

Also present at the meeting was the Acting Deputy Executive Secretary of ECA.

As is customary, the meeting was held at the experts and ministerial levels. It was organized around two major objectives: to review and endorse the proposed Follow-up Strategy for implementing the Outcome and Way Forward that emerged out of the Seventh African Regional Conference on Women on Beijing + 10 ECA held in October 2004; and to renew the membership of CWD and elect its new Bureau.

The Follow-up Strategy constituted the major technical document that was introduced jointly by Ms Thokozile Ruzvidzo, the Officer in Charge of the African Centre for Gender and Development (ACGD) and Ms Hannah Tiagha, Senior Social Affairs Officer at ACGD. The objectives of the Strategy were to tackle obstacles and challenges encountered in the fight for gender equality and the empowerment of women in the last 10 years and to stimulate priority setting, concrete action plans and time-bound targets within a 5-year period.

The Strategy also seeks to reaffirm the relevance of the Beijing Platform for Action (BPFA) and responds to the Declaration passed at the global review of the BPFA in New York in March 2005 to accelerate the full implementation of the BPFA in order to achieve the Millennium Development Goals. The Strategy thus proposes concrete actions to be undertaken within each of the 12 critical areas of concern and other emerging issues. It also suggests specific measures to strengthen the institutional mechanisms set up to facilitate accelerated implementation namely national gender machineries, coordination, accountability and capacity building mechanisms, as well as mechanisms for monitoring and evaluating the process and impact of implementation. The implementation of the Strategy is carried out at the national, subregional and regional levels and as such, the roles of the different actors are discussed in the document. The imperative of availability of adequate resources is also underscored.

Both the Experts and the Ministers of CWD adopted the Follow-up Strategy whole-heartedly and looked forward to putting it into operation with the technical assistance from ECA and other partners.

The CWD successfully renewed its membership that includes 19 member States elected along subregional lines. The country chairing the African Union during the election year and the country that chaired the last African Regional Conference on Women are also members of CWD in an ex-officio capacity. Additionally, 13 national, subregional and regional NGOs and 5 resource persons are chosen in their individual capacity to support CWD technically. All are selected by ECA to serve in an ex-officio capacity. The current members in this category who were also recently renewed were presented to the new CWD.

The new Committee on Women and Development concluded by electing its Bureau. It selected Senegal as the Chairperson, Uganda as the First Vice Chairperson, Cameroon as the Second Vice Chairperson, and Tunisia as the Rapporteur. Expressing the need to meet before departure from Dakar, the new Bureau held its first meeting during which the Officer in Charge of the African Center for Gender and Development briefed the members on their role and expectations during their two-year term. On the understanding that it is expected to spearhead the implementation of the Follow-up Strategy, the Bureau decided to meet at least once a year to review progress made within each subregion and the prevailing concerns and priorities. Each member of the Bureau resolved to have continuously overall knowledge of the status of their subregion and to use it as the basis of the work of the Committee.