Press Release No. 20/1997

Expert Group Meeting on Gender Networking Zeroes in on Economic Empowerment, Legal and Human Rights

Addis Ababa, 16 June 1997: Promoting the economic empowerment of women through the enhancement of their participation in decision-making and the protection of their human and legal rights is the subject of an three-day experts meeting that began today at the Headquarters of the Economic Commission for Africa.

Speaking to African gender experts at the opening ceremony Monday, K.Y. Amoako, UN Under Secretary-General and Executive Secretary of the ECA, described gender equality as a "matter of social justice and economic imperative", adding that ECA's role in gender was to help African governments "modify laws and regulations to ensure equal opportunities, realize macroeconomic stability and increase micro-economic incentives".

Elaborating on this theme, Mr. Amoako also said that ECA would support governments in redirecting public spending towards investments that offered high social returns. It would also intervene in ways that corrected inequality.

Gender networking, described by Seble Dawit, director of "Alliances" (an African Women's network based in Boston) as the necessity for strategic linking of like-minded actors in the interest of gender issues, has come to assume as important dimension in ECA's vision.

"A network is first, and perhaps foremost, a tool of communication among actors with similar visions and objectives. It is a process in its most active sense, of mutual support, often moral and usually institutional", said Ms J. Ouedraogo, Chief of the African Center for Women (ACW) - which implements the ECA's Gender programme.

Specifically the meeting will focus on:

• drawing lessons from past experience in the application of gender networking;
• considering new strategies and partnerships required to achieve synergies between like-minded actors and optimize gender sensitive development outcomes;
• exploring ways to strengthen ECA's role in the process.

A synthesis paper produced before the meeting on the situation of women in the East African subregion notes: "Close to two years after the Beijing Conference was held, the situation of women in the subregion has not changed significantly".

The lessons learned here are specific and region-wide:

• political will is necessary and must be consistently mobilized if change is to be realized;
• support for women's organizations is of paramount importance;
• economic reform and poverty eradication programmes must take account of gender considerations beginning with conceptualization, and ending with implementation;
• given the predominance of women in agriculture and the information sector, poverty reduction and economic empowerment programmes much pay serious attention to these sectors.

One of the most significant issues before the meeting is to decide on the status of existing networks in the region. Are they developed horizontally; that is, are they established in Africa by Africans on an inter-African bases; or they initiated by institutions or individuals in the North who want to act through African organizations?

The ACW believes that Africa has relevant analysis, policies and strategies theoretically in place; but the transformation of the women's situation eludes the region. A link in the chain is missing.

"We believe that the missing link is joint effort, collaborative action and a shared vision among all the public sector decision-makers and actors" on a broad actionable agenda, said Ms. Ouedraogo.

Mr. Amoako told the meeting that ECA has positioned itself to inform and strengthen the gender dimensions and strategic vision of member States through assisting governments in drawing up policies and programmes which contain three dimensions:

• women's access to resources
• women's access to opportunities
• women's access to decision-making.

"Effective networking around well-defined goals and objectives provide an invaluable tool for attaining the goal, stressed Mr. Amoako, adding: "We can have an impact on the situation of women and on the development of the continent".