The African Women's Consultations on Darfur Statement by the ECA Executive Secretary

Statement by Mr. Abdoulie Janneh

Addis Ababa, 24 January 2007

Honorable Ministers;

The Board of Femmes Africa Solidarite (FAS);

The Executive Director of FAS Madame Binta Diop;

The Honorouble women of Sudan;

Distinguished guests

Conference participants.

Let me at the onset congratulate FAS and acknowledge its leadership in the area of peace building, security, post-conflict dialogue, and the involvement of women in these critical processes. The partnership between ECA and FAS, which goes back a long way, continues to support and champion the cause of women's human rights throughout the Continent.

The important role of women's advocacy and participation in peace process and dialogue cannot be denied nor overemphasised as unfortunately, our Continent continues to experience the largest number of armed conflicts in the world. None of our countries are spared, they are either in conflict, resolving conflict, or involved in one way or the other with displaced persons, mediation or peace building. Without belabouring the fact, I think it worthy to note that the majority of those who are adversely affected by conflict are women and children.

The impact of wars and conflicts is highly gendered. Women are not always just victims of conflicts. In many wars in Africa, women have been fighters. They have been active participants, especially in wars of liberation. Together with men, they have carried arms. Their role in conflict situations is often extended to nursing and care of the injured and sick.

Their conspicuous absence from decision-making structures, and when peace agreements are being negotiated and post-war decision-making positions are being distributed, is a cause for concern. The powers that determine ‘appropriate' peacetime behaviour for women deliberately ignore or even undermine women's wartime roles. Women are excluded from conflict resolution and peace-building programmes. The status that accrues to men as fighters, protectors and war heroes, unfortunately rarely accrues to women, even if they were active fighters in wars.

Gender-based or ‘sexual' violence in wars is the main source of women's vulnerability and the main reason why women are viewed as victims. Sexual violence has negative consequences that it has become recognized as the main problem faced by women in conflicts. During wars, women are raped, violently abducted for use as sex slaves, made pregnant by enemy forces and are forced into prostitution. Women's bodies are deliberately used to send nasty messages to perceived enemies through being raped in public, being used as sex slaves and conceiving children of the ‘enemy'. All these sexualised activities expose women to the deadly scourge of HIV/AIDS.

These occurrences are however not new. At the Seventh African Regional Conference on Women that took place in Addis Ababa in October 2004, one of the main concerns raised during the review of the implementation of the Beijing Platform for Action (BPFA), was the persistent and increasing conflicts on the Continent and their impact in reversing the gains made in promoting gender equality and the empowerment of women. One of the key decisions taken by the Ministers in charge of women's affairs was to initiate an international dialogue on peace in Africa. Concerned about the impact of conflicts on populations, especially women and children, the Ministers decided to enlist the support of women from other regions of the world, especially the developed north, as advocates for peace in Africa. To this end, they proposed organizing a dialogue for peace to be held during the global decade review of the implementation of the BPFA, which was to take place at the 49 th Session of the CSW. This dialogue remains one of the areas that ECA and AU are working on and FAS is a potential key partner.

ECA congratulates FAS for organising the African Women's Consultations on Darfur, whose major objective is to develop the Darfur Women Plan of Action for Peace, which is envisaged to be an advocacy instrument. This debate and reflection is timely, more so as African governments seek to find a lasting peace solution for the people of Darfur. As is expected, the, ECA and organizations such as FAS are at the forefront ensuring that women's voices are heard.

We look forward to the report of this conference so that it can inform our work. ECA is currently repositioning its work within Africa's development agenda. Through the ACGS and other Divisions, ECA is defining space to address issues of peace and security without duplicating efforts carried out elsewhere in the continent by other institutions such as this one. Partnerships with institutions such as FAS and the AU are crucial to ECA, which is a knowledge-based institution and values practical work such as yours.

Underlying collaboration between the ECA and FAS is the implementation of Resolution 1325, a resolution that addresses the impact of war on women, and their contribution to conflict resolution and sustainable peace. Impact of conflicts is more detrimental on women: Although there is relatively little sex-disaggregated data on the impact of armed conflict, it has been noted that in conflict situations women are among the victims that are worst hit. However, women's participation in peace negotiation, peace building and post conflict initiatives has been inadequate. The United Nations Security Council Resolution 1325 passed unanimously in October 2000 specifically addresses the impact of war on women, and women's contributions to conflict resolution and sustainable peace. The 2002 Report of the UN Secretary General on Women, Peace and Security recommends even stronger measures to integrate women in all steps of peacekeeping and peacemaking and urges peace agreements to integrate gender perspectives. As ECA is expected to report on the implementation of this Resolution to the General Assembly, information generated by you, is crucial to this process. ECA has been monitoring the implementation of 1325 by member States, using the African Gender and Development Index (AGDI). It is worth mentioning that ECA, in collaboration with the Office of the Special Adviser on Gender issues, is organising a High Level Policy Dialogue to review and support up scaling implementation of Resolution 1325.

While singling out Resolution 1325, there are other areas of the Beijing platform which are equally significant e.g. the protection of women's rights, women's equal participation to name but a few—all of which cannot exist outside of a peaceful environment.

The ECA/ AU partnership has also been strengthened with senior staff members of the Commission serving in the Interim Steering Committee of the Network on Gender , Peace-building and Governance, set by the AU. The network is aimed at galvanising action on women's participation in peace building, so that governance issues also address peace building from a gender perspective.

Priority areas of concern, as identified by the AU Heads of State (Peace, Security, Education etc.), are being monitored in terms of gender equity and mainstreaming, in the AU, its organs and member States. The gender is my agenda campaign initiated by FAS, is a strong coalition in this regard.

The initiative to strengthen the capacity of African statistical systems to generate gender-disaggregated data to support policies for the promotion of gender equality and women's empowerment in all areas is also underway. Greater availability of baseline data against which progress can be monitored will help apply results based management principles in implementing UNSC Resolution 1325.

I would like to take this opportunity to reiterate ECA's commitment and support to peace initiatives throughout the Continent and further collaboration with the AU and FAS. On this note, I would like to wish you fruitful deliberations.