B. Opening statements (agenda item 1)

9. In her opening remarks, the Chairperson of the Fifth African Regional Conference on women, Her Excellency Mme. Aminata Mbengue Ndiaye, welcomed participants to the Sixth African Regional Conference on Women and conveyed the best wishes of the President of Senegal. She noted that the primary objectives of the conference included undertaking a mid-decade review and assessment of the level of implementation of the Regional and Global Platforms for Action; contributing to the UN Special Session - Beijing + 5; and identifying a regional African common position for the next five years. In reference to the various implementation mechanisms at the global, regional and national levels, she underlined the need to identify new priorities to deal with the problem of increasing poverty. She observed that the context of the twentieth century poses many challenges among which are globalisation of the world economy, advances in the fields of science, technology and information, widespread conflicts and environmental degradation. Consequently, despite all the achievements of the last five years since Beijing, many challenges still remain.

10. Mme. Ndiaye thanked the President of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia for the warm welcome extended to the delegates in Addis Ababa. She also thanked the following dignitaries for their support: Mme. Compaore, the First Lady of Burkina Faso and Mrs. Stella Obasanjo, the First Lady of Nigeria; Ms. Angela King, Special Adviser on Gender and Advancement of Women; Mr. K.Y. Amoako, the Executive Secretary of ECA for his support and commitment to African women in particular and gender issues in general; Ms. Josephine Ouedraogo and her team; Mrs. G. Mongella for her continued interest in African women, and His Excellency the Secretary-General of the OAU for his interest in the development of African women as evidenced by the creation, in collaboration with the ECA, of the African Women's Committee for Peace and Development. Mme. Ndiaye concluded her address by announcing the recent appointment of Ms. Rose Odera of Kenya, as President of PREPCOM for the Special Session of the General Assembly of the United Nations scheduled for the year 2000.

11. In opening the conference, His Excellency, Dr. Negasso Gedada, President of the Federal Republic of Ethiopia welcomed participants to Addis Ababa and to the Sixth African Regional Conference on Women. He pointed out that promoting the advancement of women required commitment on the part of all governments. In this regard, he reiterated the commitment of his Government to promoting the full participation of women in development. The President stated that Ethiopia has appropriate structures and institutions to ensure gender mainstreaming in national policies and programmes. He underlined the vital role played by women in Africa's socio-economic development and called for governments to formulate policies aimed at meeting women's needs.

12. The President emphasised that the Ethiopian Constitution targets the elimination of all forms of discrimination against women and that the country has a national policy on women that is aimed at institutionalising equal rights for both genders. Furthermore, there are appropriate structures in the country's sector ministries to ensure that gender issues are taken into account in all development programmes. Despite these achievements, he pointed out that Ethiopia, like many other African countries, lacked peace and stability because of inter- and intra-state conflicts that continue to sap the energies and resources of the people. African countries must therefore be united in their effort to combat the enemies of peace without which the achievement of gender equality would be in vain.

13. In concluding his address, the President specified that there are two areas in which women have major roles to play namely, in the containment of armed conflicts and in efforts aimed at confronting the HIV/AIDS pandemic in Africa. Their role in these areas is crucial since it is women and children who are the most affected by armed conflicts and the spread of HIV/AIDS. He reiterated Ethiopia's commitment to work in partnership with other African States to make gender equity and equality a reality.

14. In his statement, Mr. K. Y. Amoako, the Executive Secretary of ECA, welcomed participants to the meeting and thanked those involved in the preparation of the conference, particularly the staff of ECA's African Centre for Women under the leadership of Ms. J. Ouedraogo. He thanked His Excellency, Dr. Negasso Gedada, President of the Federal Republic of Ethiopia for his insightful remarks, and the Government of Ethiopia for continuing support for the work of the Economic Commission for Africa. He also thanked the Governments of Canada and France for their financial support in organising the conference.

15. The Executive Secretary said that although the Beijing era was a special time for African women and for those men wishing to see African women move forward, major challenges still remained in attaining gender equality and in expanding choices for women. Key among these was the need to respond to the challenges of the HIV/AIDS scourge that has affected women in many ways. He also noted that women in Africa were still deprived of land and inheritance, and lacked equal access to education and training. This has led to significant disparities in enrolments, literacy and dropout rates due mainly to early marriages, teenage pregnancy, inappropriate school environments, inadequate infrastructure, negative attitudes to girls' education, and limited financial resources.

16. He called for greater efforts in moving women into leadership and decision-making positions, in establishing institutional arrangements to monitor implementation of the Platforms at the national level and in involving women in conflict prevention and resolution. He requested national governments to put in place mechanisms for collating gender-disaggregated data in national accounts.

17. In concluding, Mr. Amoako appealed for four types of interventions: first, in renewed efforts to formulate and implement policies that respond to the different needs of women and men; second, in efforts aimed at monitoring progress; third, in approaches that link performance to accountability; and fourth, in wider networking and co-ordination throughout Africa. He called for greater involvement of NGOs and the media in promoting gender equality, and for inclusion of academia, the business sector and the youth in future deliberations.

18. In her address, Ms. Angela King, the Special Advisor on Gender Issues and the Advancement of Women, said it was an honour for her to be present at this important Regional Conference to review the regional implementation of the Beijing and Dakar Platforms for Action. She paid tribute to his Excellency, the President of Ethiopia for the interest and support he had demonstrated for the conference. She also thanked the Executive Secretary, Mr. Amoako for his consistent commitment to the empowerment of women in the region, and Ms. Ouedraogo and her staff for the excellent arrangements made for the conference.

19. In reference to the work of conference, Ms. King noted that the meeting would look objectively at what had been achieved since the Beijing and Dakar Platforms were adopted and would reflect on what needed to be accomplished in the future. She observed that the momentum occasioned by the forthcoming Special Session of the General Assembly to review and appraise the progress made to implement the Platforms would help in stocktaking. In this connection, early indications from the review and appraisal carried out in 124 countries showed that women had made remarkable gains in health, education, and in recognition of their human rights. Despite this progress however, much remained to be done in the areas of poverty eradication, illiteracy, unemployment, inheritance rights, violence against women, reproductive health, the HIV/AIDS pandemic and in access to decision-making.

20. Ms. King highlighted the roles played by the Division for the Advancement of Women (DAW), ECA, and Member States through the OAU and by NGOs in keeping gender equality at the top of the African development agenda. In collaboration with UNIFEM, DAW had been implementing some of the recommendations of the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) in the twelve critical areas in the Beijing Platform for Action. In addition, the Declaration and Plan of Action adopted by the OAU First Ministerial Conference on Human Rights in Africa had specifically urged member States to eliminate discrimination against women and abolish cultural practices that were harmful to women and children. Likewise, the Ouagadougou Declaration had condemned female genital mutilation (FGM) and made specific recommendations in terms of legal, advocacy and community-level action to be taken for its elimination. The NGOs, she said, had been vital in energising debates on the twelve areas and had played a significant role in monitoring commitments by Governments and States to the CEDAW Convention.

21. Regarding the future, Ms. King noted that as the meeting reviewed the track record on achievements towards gender equality, it needed to be fully aware of the new challenges arising from the current global realities. These were marked by a shift in macroeconomic policy towards privatisation, liberalisation, deregulation and lower public spending. She underlined the challenge of ensuring that "social programmes" are translated into tangible investments to develop the economic and productive capacities of women. Since peace and human security were vital in achieving the twin goals of economic growth and expansion of human capabilities, she stated that women should be central actors with men in any peacekeeping and humanitarian efforts in the region.

22. In conclusion, Ms King reminded participants of their unique role in framing the challenges, opportunities and solutions for building an inclusive society based on social justice and equality for women, men and youth of the region. She pledged the support of the Inter-agency Committee on Women and Gender Equality and of DAW to their efforts and looked forward to their advice and guidance and to the African Plan of Action that the conference would adopt.

23. In his statement, the Assistant Secretary-General of the OAU, Ambassador Habib Dentum, welcomed all delegates on behalf of the Secretary-General of OAU, Dr. Salim Ahmed Salim. He said it was a pleasure for him to be at the conference since it would be discussing the future of Africa's women in the political and social affairs of Africa in the twenty-first century. He thanked the ECA team and the African Centre for Women for their role in organising the conference. Ambassador Dentum pointed out that the conference was a part of the Beijing + 5 preparatory activities and it offered a unique opportunity to look critically at the past so as to better envision the future. Additionally, it provided an opportunity to establish a framework for a realistic and concrete programme of action to ensure that women would participate more effectively in the political, social and economic advancement of the continent.

24. He then highlighted the contribution made by OAU in fulfilling its role in the implementation of the Dakar and Beijing Platforms. In this regard, Ambassador Dentum affirmed that the total participation of women in the development process had been recognised since the founding of OAU. Key OAU initiatives included the Arusha and Nairobi Forward-looking Strategies. He said that these initiatives would have yielded concrete results had much of the continent not been embroiled in almost three decades of armed conflict, which had greatly affected women and children. The Ambassador said that ECA and OAU recognised the important role women could play in conflict prevention and had therefore established the African Women Committee on Peace and Development (AWCPD). It was established to give women the opportunity to contribute to conflict prevention, management and resolution. He indicated that without peace, security and stability, there could be no sustainable social and economic development in Africa. This underscored the need for AWCPD and all organisations to play an active role in building a continent free of conflicts.

25. In his concluding remarks, he reminded participants that building a strong African continent able to respond effectively to the challenges on the threshold of the twenty-first century, and in the context of globalisation, would require the efforts of both men and women.

26. The Secretary-General of the United Nations Fourth World Conference on Women, and President of Advocacy for Women in Africa (AWA), Ms. Gertrude Mongella, stated that the conference provided a unique opportunity to examine the progress made since Beijing on the 12 critical areas of concern for achievement of gender equality. She observed that the partnership between governments, international and regional organisations and civil society had grown stronger since Beijing. She urged women to work also in partnership with men towards the goal of gender equality based on the understanding that the changing dynamics of gender roles and relationships have a significant impact on development outcomes. She emphasised the importance of women's role in peacemaking and conflict resolution and noted that critical landmarks had been achieved in a number of areas. These included the contribution of women in business and politics who, by networking and lobbying, had kept the agenda on women alive. They also included the formation of mechanisms for follow-up actions on women's human rights; the presence of subregional initiatives such as the SADC Declaration on Women and Development signed by Heads of State and Government; and the growth in the capacity and coverage of African NGOs.