Statement
by K.Y. Amoako

Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
20 March 2004

Your Excellency, the Chairperson of the Commission of the African Union,
Distinguished members of the African Women Committee on Peace and Development,
Invited Guests,
Ladies and Gentlemen,

I am particularly pleased to address this gathering today after several unsuccessful attempts to bring us all together over the past few months.

It is particularly good to be here with my friend Alpha Konare – I salute his commitment and deeply value the opportunity to work closely with him on these issues.

I also want to say how delighted I am to be with you just after Gertrude Mongella was elected to serve as the PanAfrica Parliament’s first president; she is truly a credit to Africa’s women and this high honour is fitting tribute to her capacities and contribution.

Today we are marking the end of the first phase in the evolution of the African Women Committee on Peace and Development.

It certainly has much to be proud of since it was inaugurated by the Secretary General of the Organization of the African Unity, Dr Salim Ahmed Salim during the International Conference on African Women and Economic Development in 1998.

As you will recall, that conference was held on the occasion of ECA’s 40th Anniversary.

The theme of the conference was chosen because we didn’t just want to look back at the Commission’s achievements over the years. Instead, we wanted to celebrate ECA’s birthday by advancing the agenda in an area of critical importance to the Africa’s development.

At the time, I referred to gender as the single greatest cross cutting issue for our work.

That, my friends, still remains true.

I am therefore pleased to see that the investment, of time, effort and resources, we have made in this area is bearing fruit, although of course we still have a long way to go. For, in the words of a famous son of the African Diaspora, Martin Luther King Jr. we still haven’t “got to the mountain top”.

However, it is clear that we are, at least moving in the right direction.

As we all know (and can see before us today), the African Union has now adopted and implemented a gender parity policy at the highest levels in the African Union Commission.

This has been one of the most resounding successes of the Committee on Peace and Development as it has lobbied, from day one, for African women to become active participants in decision making processes at all levels.

The election of bureau member Gertrude Mongella to lead the Pan African Parliament is another significant mark of progress in meeting the objectives that she, and her esteemed colleagues, set for themselves when this Committee was launched.

Madame Chair, congratulations once again on your appointment.

Additionally, there have been several other important achievements since the first meeting of your Committee in December 1998.

It has successfully lobbied for the inclusion of women in peace negotiations.

For example, in West Africa, it helped establish the Mano River Women’s Peace Network in 2000, which seeks to foster a sub regional peace-building programme in Liberia, Sierra Leone, and Guinea.

The work Network was internationally recognized last year when it was awarded the 2003 United Nations Prize in the Field of Human Rights.

Yet another recorded achievement is the African Women Committee on Peace and Development’s contribution towards the formulation of the Security Council Resolution 1325, which for the first time acknowledges the imperative of the role of women in the peace process.

Ladies and gentlemen,

In as much as there have been successes by the Committee; there have also been difficulties and constraints in the implementation of its work.

Regrettably a full staff was never recruited and there have been a number of challenges in establishing procedures to keep everyone well informed.

Nonetheless, we have learnt much from the first phase of the African Women Committee on Peace and Development. The experience has been undoubtedly rich, if at times difficult and painful.

We are more sure than ever today of the need for the Committee and the magnitude of its potential contribution in integrating women’s perspective in deliberations for conflict resolution and peace.

Over the next two days you will no doubt discuss the best ways to advance its agenda in a new environment.

As the Committee moves to its new home at the African Union, we at ECA, wish it continued energy in its essential task.

We promise to lend our continued support where it can best be used.

Thank you.