N. The Closing Ceremony (agenda item 12)

103. The closing ceremony of the Sixth African Regional Conference on Women took place at 16:00 hrs on 26 November 1999. Her Excellency, Ms. Agnes Alafi, Minister in charge of the Family and Social Affairs, Republic of Chad, gave the vote of thanks to the Ethiopian Government, conference organisers and participants. Mme. Lalla Ben Barka, Deputy Executive Secretary of the ECA acknowledged the importance of the Sixth Regional Conference in evaluating achievements, assessing obstacles and accelerating implementation of the Dakar and Beijing Platforms for Action. Mme. Ben Barka expressed her sincere hope that the third millennium would be a time of equality between women and men in realising development opportunities.

104. The Deputy Executive Secretary pointed out the areas that need further consolidation. These include: recommitment to implementing policies that adequately address the strategic interests of women; collective ownership of relevant mechanisms and policies; pressure on governments and institutions to establish appropriate linkages between objectives and their accomplishment and accountability to people; and establishment and consolidation of alliances, partnerships and networks to increase the involvement of civil society, the business sector, the media, the youth, women's groups and universities.

105. She affirmed that the Sixth Regional Conference had strengthened institutional mechanisms and inspired collective reflection on each area of concern in the Platforms, thus enabling the updating and refocusing of priorities. She said that important linkages had been articulated more clearly, including the possibility of debt relief and cancellation to provide savings for gender-based programmes.

106. The Deputy Executive Secretary said that the conference had underscored the challenges associated with improvement in the quality of the life of women, especially in the areas of capacity-building and training, protection of rights and involvement in decision-making mechanisms, especially in peace research and negotiations. She also added her support to the need for special assistance for the girl-child and her protection.

107. She singled out the need for urgent action to reduce the appallingly high rates of maternal, infant and child mortality and the high rates of illiteracy among women and girls, and pointed to their lack of access to clean piped water. She also stressed the significance of partnerships with civil society to improve the quality of women's lives. She called on researchers and research institutions to produce and use gender-disaggregated data.

108. Referring to the need to speed up implementation, she called for more State involvement and commitment, and pointed to United Nations support for use of gender analysis and for affirmative action measures for women and girl - children, to enable society to achieve gender balance and gender equality.

109. She thanked all the UN specialised agencies for their collaboration and contributions, as well as the African Development Bank, the World Bank, and OAU. Special thanks were extended to the Governments of Canada, France, and Sweden who helped to fund the conference and to the Committee on Women and Development (formerly ARCC) whose members worked hard to organise the conference.

110. In conclusion, she appealed to African Heads of State, OAU and ECA to renew their efforts to implement the Platforms for Action and thanked the Government of Ethiopia for hosting the conference so graciously, especially Her Excellency, Tadelech Haile Michael, Minister of Women's Affairs in the Office of the Prime Minister. She congratulated the staff and consultants of the African Centre for Women and its Director, Mme. Josephine Ouedraogo for a job well done and praised participants for their dynamism and determination.

111. Mr. Salim Ahmed Salim, Secretary-General of the OAU commended the "seriousness" of participants, the objectives and timing of the conference, and the spirit of partnership and solidarity he had noted. He reaffirmed OAU's commitment to the political and economic empowerment of women, and to a strong role for women in peace management, including the OAU's programmes for post-conflict reconstruction, rehabilitation and integration. He also noted OAU's continuing support for the work of the African Women Committee on Peace and Development.

112. Referring to current and future possibilities for structuring action, he advised African women to examine and use the Abuja Treaty Establishing the African Economic Community. The treaty recognised the need for women's economic empowerment and inclusion in the integration process. He reminded the conference of the recent OAU Summit that had agreed to accelerate the process of forming an African Union. Emergent gender strategies at the regional level were therefore vital for facing the new millennium.

113. He noted that although there had been progress with advancing the women's agenda and the level of gender sensitisation in Africa, many formidable obstacles remained that had to be overcome if African women were to be fully emancipated so that they could play their rightful role in society. He said that no society could live half- free and half-enslaved, and that the reality was that liberation of women also meant liberation of men. The courage of conviction was now needed "to move from strategy to action".

114. The Secretary-General warmly welcomed the five-year African Plan of Action and acknowledged that it was not only useful in preparing for the Global Mid-Term Review in June 2000, but had also strengthened the common endeavour to follow up on the work of the conference in the upcoming third millennium.

115. The Chairperson of the conference, Her Excellency Mme. Jeanne Dambendzet, Minister of Public Affairs, the Family and Promotion of Women, Republic of the Congo (Congo-Brazzaville), in her closing remarks, expressed great appreciation for the contribution of the conference and expressed the hope that the work had not ended but would start when participants returned home to sensitise government, civil society and the public. She praised the maturity of African women and their increasing capability and capacity to contribute to development activities and processes.

116. In her view, the conference went beyond evaluation and had focused collective reflection on future policies, actions, stakeholders, and institutions, besides having acknowledged the need to involve men far more, from a true gender perspective. Individual and collective action had been inspired which should now be reflected at the national level of action. Special action was needed for sensitising communities and leaders, to break down resistance to the recognition of women's rights and contributions. The conference had helped to lay out a path into the future with a pivotal role for women as an innovative force for sustainable development.

117. She urged that action for debt cancellation should be intensified and savings used in special programmes that target women and girls as the special beneficiaries. She added that mobilisation of African women was crucial for democratisation. Thus, collective efforts were needed to help Africa face the changes being wrought by globalisation.

118. Before declaring the conference closed, the Chairperson thanked the Government of Ethiopia and all those who contributed to the successful organisation of the conference. She expressed her great appreciation to the participants for their important contributions and wished them a safe journey back home, where she hoped they would spread the messages and outcomes of the conference and undertake regalvanized implementation of their National Plans of Action.