Archives
Speeches and Writings for 1999 First Preparatory Meeting for the Sixth
African Regional Conference on Women for the Mid-Decade Review of the Implementation of
the Dakar and Beijing Platforms For Action
Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
26-27 January 1999
Introduction
The first
preparatory meeting for the Sixth African Regional Conference on Women for the mid-decade
review of the implementation of the Dakar and Beijing Platforms For Action was held in
Addis-Ababa, Ethiopia, from 26 to 27 January 1999 at the UN Conference Centre. It was the
first in a series of planned preparatory meetings leading to the Sixth Regional Conference
on Women to be held from 22 to 27 November, 1999 in Addis Ababa. The meeting was organized
by the African Centre for Women (ACW) of the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa
(ECA).
The main objective
of the meeting was to establish a Technical Preparatory Committee and to develop
strategies to facilitate the organisation of the Conference. The organizations present
were invited on the basis of their mandates and capabilities to facilitate the preparatory
process and successfully organize the Conference.
The meeting was
attended by the members of the proposed Technical Committee who included members of the
Bureau of the Committee on Women and Development (CWD), formerly the Africa Regional
Co-ordinating Committee (ARCC); selected Regional IGOs and NGOs as well as representatives
of the UN system. The list of participants is attached as annex 1.
SUMMARY OF PROCEEDINGS
Opening and
adoption of the agenda (agenda item 1)
The meeting opened
with a welcome address from Ms. Josephine Ouedraogo, Director of the African Centre for
Women followed by a statement by Her Excellency Mrs. Aminata Mbengue Ndiaye, Minister of
Family, Social Action and National Solidarity in Senegal and President of the Fifth
Regional Conference on Women. Mrs. Lalla Ben Barka, Deputy Executive Secretary made an
Opening Statement.
In her address, Ms.
Ouedraogo welcomed the participants and thanked them for honoring the invitation. She
apologized for several postponements of the meeting and the inconveniences caused. She
thereafter presented the procedures for the preparatory meetings, their respective
duration and objectives. Considering the magnitude of the work to be undertaken, she
called on commitment and forging of stronger partnerships.
Mrs. Aminata Mbengue
Ndiaye, Minister for Family, Social Action and National Solidarity of Senegal, wished
participants peace, good health and success in their endeavours. She particularly
commended the Executive Secretary of the ECA who, understanding that Africa’s
renaissance would heavily depend on the status of its women, had decided to embark on the
boldest reforms so that this enlightened vision would be best shared and become one
reality for the year 2000 and beyond. The current meeting was important in that it marked
the launching of the preparations for the Sixth African Regional Conference on Women
She observed that
the members of the Committee on Women and Development, the experts and the representatives
of United Nations specialized agencies and NGOs would have to review together the various
stages of preparation by drawing lessons from the preparation and organization of the
Fifth Regional Conference. She then reviewed the process of preparing and organizing the
Fifth Regional Conference, emphasizing the challenges that her country had faced in that
regard.
Through intensive
mobilisation, the African Platform for Action had been convincingly upheld and defended by
women from all walks of life in order to insure that it was fully taken into account in
preparing the Beijing Platform for Action. She welcomed ACW’s wisdom in planning for
the establishment of a Technical Preparatory Committee to oversee the preparations for the
Conference, including the process of assessing the implementation of the Regional and
Global Platforms, and the formulation of appropriate strategies, for the benefit of
governments, for conducting comprehensive assessments of progress made in the eleven
critical areas of concern.
She noted that the
Committee on Women and Development was now capable of actively pursuing its tasks of
coordinating, directing, monitoring and backstopping the work of the Technical Preparatory
Committee. Given what was at stake, the effective involvement of all players in the
preparatory process and the support of development partners would be crucial to the
attainment of set objectives. Before concluding, she appealed to participants, on behalf
of the Bureau, to ensure that the political will and expertise of partners and donors
alike would be mobilised in order to reflect the commitment of the meeting objectively,
comprehensively and with the degree of relevance that an accurate assessment of the status
of African women and their future would require.
Taking the floor,
Mrs. Ben Barka, Deputy Executive Secretary of ECA welcomed participants to ECA and more
particularly to ACW whose work was a source of pride to herself and the Executive
Secretary. The current Conference was of great importance, being the first of a series
that would guide Africa towards the Regional Conference in November 1999. The track record
established since the Beijing Conference should be an objective assessment of the volume
and quality of the work done. Coming as it would on the eve of the millenium, the Regional
Conference would have to take stock of the individual and collective efforts that Africa
and its partners had made and highlight both the results achieved and their impact.
For that to happen,
it would also be important to conduct an objective appraisal of the policies, strategies
and machinery established at the institutional, policy, financial and human resource
development levels in order to achieve and guarantee genuine sustainability. She called on
the Committee to be action oriented in its approach since the task was difficult and would
involve conducting a fair analysis and taking bold decisions regarding the vision,
priorities and options, revisiting them and realistically making difficult choices by
focusing on what would be feasible. She described her own experience in education,
women’s advancement, gender and development and summed up the impact of those
activities. Five years after the Beijing Conference, participants needed to focus on a
comprehensive analysis, objective and constructive criticism and what could be learned
from the assessment of the eleven areas of concern. While those areas were
inter-dependent, the issues of information, training and education in the broadest sense
deserved particular attention.
As the century came
to a close and the new millenium began in the information age, Africa (and more
particularly its women) had a unique opportunity to seize. Whether in terms of their
rights, access to land, understanding of reproductive health and the related nexus issues,
policy advocacy, conflict resolution of peace, women had to have the right information at
the right time and needed to be trained in the skills of resolving their problems without
having to expect others to do it for them.
She had come to the
firm conclusion that no women would be proud to see in the coming decades an Africa that
was economically poor, lost in the struggle between fragile democracies and resurgent
dictatorships, torn by strife, whose women had lost hope, whose children were starving and
without a hope of going to school. To avert all that, women would have to bring
Africa’s people and decision-makers back to reason.
In that endeavour,
women would have to be better positioned at levels of responsibility and help their people
to better understand the real issues and to find appropriate solutions. Participants would
have to go beyond their differences of opinion in order to mobilise every energy and
resource for building the capacity and skills that women needed to fully execute their
role. She ended by reaffirming ECA’s preparedness to work with its tried and tested
friends and partners in this all important exercise and wished participants every success.
Adoption of the agenda and programme of work (agenda item 2)
15. The agenda and
programme of work were adopted without amendment.
Establishment of the Ad hoc Technical Preparatory Committee (agenda item 3)
Before considering
the agenda item, the meeting observed a minute of silence in remembrance of the late
husband of the Chairperson of the Committee on Women and Development.
The following bureau
was unanimously elected :
Chairperson: Minister
in Charge of Women Advancement in Tunisia, Chairperson of the Bureau of the Committee on
Women and Development.
Vice- Chairperson: Minister
for Family, Social Action and National Solidarity of Senegal, Mme. Aminata Mbengue Ndiaye,
Rapporteur:
African Women’s Development and Communication Network (FEMNET), the Regional NGO
which organized the NGO forum at the Fifth African Regional Conference on Women
Unanimously the
Technical Preparatory Committee for the Sixth Regional Conference was composed as follows:
- The Bureau of the Committee on Women
and Development
- The non-governmental organisations
FEMNET, Microfin Afrique, Abantu for Development, Association Tunisienne des Mères (ATM),
Association of African Women for Research and Development (AAWORD), Women in Law and
Development in Africa (WiLDAF) and the PanAfrican Women’s Organisation .
- All United Nations specialized
agencies, including the World Bank
- OAU and ADB
- ACW will serves as the secretariat
of the Committee
Terms of reference
The Committee’s
terms of reference are set out in document E/ECA/FMPTC/RC.VI/99/3
Consideration of the agenda, objectives and work programme for the 6th
Regional Conference (agenda item 4)
Proposed Format of the Conference
ECA’s proposed
format is based on holding a single session which brings together government and civil
society representatives. The underlying principles behind this proposal aim to:
- Break the traditional monologue
which has been the pattern at previous statutory meetings and to promote dialogue between
policy makers and NGOs;
- Enable all the players working in
the critical areas of concern to play active decision-making roles with respect to the
Conference.
The meeting achieved
consensus on the principle of partnership with the possibility for governments, NGOs and
other participants to network and share experiences within the context of the parallel
activities planned for in the Conference programme.
Draft Programme of Work for the Sixth African Regional Conference
The consensus
achieved by the end of discussions comprised:
1. Special Forum:
African Cultural Identity in the Next Millenium
Maintaining the
special forum on African cultural identity on the Conference agenda. However, there was
concern that the time alloted for considering this issue would not be adequate to
exhaustively discuss the subject. It was also agreed that the Festival of African Art
could be relaunched during the forum.
African Women
Parliamentarians
It was noted that the space for presentations by African Women Parliamentarians
had been erroneously omitted in the draft programme. Corrections were consequently made.
3. African Rural
Women
It was agreed that
African rural women should be given the opportunity to express their views themselves at
the Conference
4. African youth
It was the unanimous
view of the meeting that the youth should be involved in the preparation of and also
participate at the Conference.
5. The United
Nations
In this regard, it was
proposed that a special slot should be reserved in the programme for specific agency
presentations.
6. Evaluation
Workshops
It was proposed that
the morning sessions should be devoted to presentations on progress made over the five
years after the Beijing Conference while the afternoon sessions would be focusing on the
process of evaluation.
7. Parallel
Activities
Parallel activities
would include exhibitions and gender training sessions.
8. The Plan of
Action for the next five years
It was considered
necessary that strategies should be formulated and machinery established to facilitate the
drafting of the plan of action, during the Conference.
9. Change in Venue
The Minister from Cote
d’Ivoire expressed the apologies of the government for withdrawing its offer to host
the Conference due to numerous other commitments during the same period. The new venue for
the Conference is Addis-Ababa, at the ECA headquarters.
10. Any other
business
It was proposed that
the length of time for the Conference work programme be prolonged if necessary, to exhaust
all the items on the agenda.
Process of evaluating the implementation of the Dakar Platform for Action before
and during the Sixth Regional Conference (agenda Item 5)
23. The Director of
the ACW presented a proposal on the process of assessing the implementation of the African
PFA. The proposal suggests two levels of assessment, one on the implementation of national
Plans of Action, and the second on the implementation of the strategies defined for each
of the eleven critical areas of concern. On the first level, the 53 national reports will
be prepared by the respective governments and ACW will synthesize the reports into one
summary document. On the second level, the assessment will highlight the progress made,
obstacles encountered, good practices; monitoring, reporting and support mechanisms
established from a regional perspective, for each of the eleven critical areas of concern
specified in the Platform for Action.
24. The proposal also
suggests a timetable for the preparation of the assessment reports beginning March and
ending October 1999. The key task for the first phase lasting three months centres on
planning, collection and analysis of data and writing of the draft documents. The second
phase scheduled for June involves critical reading and synthesis of the documents into one
key thematic report, and elaboration and development of discussion guides for the working
groups. Tasks for phase three to take place in July include development of the workshop
facilitation methodology, review of the technical papers, identification of resource
persons and the finalisation of the Conference programme. Document translation, editing
and reproduction will be carried out by the end of September. The documents will finally
be disseminated to participants in October. Thirty-three international experts and six
translators will be required for the entire preparatory period.
25. The proposal
further outlines the process of the evaluation workshops to be held during the Conference,
each focussing on one of the 11 priority areas from the PFA. The themes will first be
presented in plenary by panelists. The session will be followed by the evaluation
workshops; which are further subdivided into three working groups each, on the assessment
of mechanisms of implementation, the assessment of review mechanisms, and the assessment
of support mechanisms respectively. Discussion guides will be provided for these
workshops. It will be the duty of the workshops to propose Plans of Action for the next
five years, to be presented together with the discussion reports in plenary. Consensus
will then be developed on the priority measures to be adopted during the year 2000.
Interventions
26. During the
discussion that followed, the following interventions were highlighted:
It was noted that
two formats for presenting the national reports have been distributed, one by the UN
Division for the Advancement of Women (UNDAW), and the other by ACW. It was however agreed
that the fundamental objective was to produce a true, informative and exhaustively
analytical and qualitative report and countries should use either format to prepare their
reports.
There is need to use
common indicators of success when evaluating the progress made in order to produce the
national reports. The meeting was informed that countries were encouraged to develop
national plans of action after Dakar for their own self-assessment, and in so doing, set
targets and criteria for follow-up. Preparation of the national reports should therefore
be based on the objectives set out in the national plans of action, and both NGOs and
governments should be involved in writing the assessment reports. The meeting was also
informed that there were already initiatives being carried out on the assessment of the
implementation of the PFA, notably one done by FEMNET, and that collaboration with these
initiatives would be advisable. It was also suggested that UN agencies be requested to
support the countries to prepare and send their national reports to ACW and the UNDAW.
On the criteria for
determining ‘good’ practices, it was agreed that it would be more realistic to
discuss innovative experiences, and that what would be considered as ‘bad’
practices would in fact contain crucial learning points for the future.
The importance of
Africans themselves preparing their assessment reports was emphasised. UN agencies and
donors were urged to assist in mobilising African experts in each country for the task.
The representative from UNDP pledged support but could not immediately commit the agency
to a specific figure before discussing further with ACW as well as consulting with the
different country offices.
Consideration of a strategy for disseminating and utilising the results of the
Conference. (agenda Item 6)
27. It was decided
that the discussion on this item be postponed until the next meeting.
Review of the profile of participants to the Sixth African Regional Conference
(agenda item 7)
28. The Director of
ACW introduced the document on this agenda item. This was followed by an intensive
discussion and an exchange of views on the issue of numbers proposed for each category.
The following issues were raised:
The need for
ensuring true partnership between governments and NGOs in the spirit of the new guiding
principles for the Conference;
The numbers of
governmental and NGO participants should be considered within the same spirit of
cooperation, goodwill and partnership;
There will be need
to restrict the number of participants from each country to those agreed at the Technical
Committee meeting, in order to keep to a manageable number of participants;
The Technical
Committee should develop clear guidelines and criteria for the selection of participants
from national as well as regional levels;
There will be need
to address the issue of government and NGO partnership as a substantive issue within the
agenda of the Conference since this is an area in which they need to reach an agreement
for the follow up activities before and after the Conference.
29. The final list of
categories and numbers of participants was agreed upon as follows:
Category |
No. per country |
Total |
Government participants |
10 |
530 |
Parlamentarians |
3 |
159 |
Thematic NGOs |
3 |
159 |
Women’s Associations |
7 |
371 |
Youth Associations |
2 |
106 |
Regional and sub-regional NGOs |
- |
50 |
Journalists |
2 |
106 |
UN Agencies |
- |
100 |
Bilaterals |
- |
50 |
Inter Governmental |
- |
25 |
Committee on Women and Development (formerly
ARCC): |
- |
40 |
Volunteers |
- |
50 |
Total |
|
30. The need to have a
clear picture of who will be invited for the Conference and for ensuring that only those
who are invited travel to Addis Ababa was stressed. In this regard it was agreed that ACW
will send out guidelines to all Governments and NGOs in all countries as soon as possible
and all parties will ensure that the guidelines for participation to the Conference are
adhered to.
Consideration of
the Conference Budget and financing modalities (agenda item 8)
31. The proposed
budget for the Conference was presented by the Director of ACW. She explained that ECA had
no specific budget for covering expenses other than the costs of use of facilities,
interpretation, reproduction etc., as indicated as the contribution of ECA to the total
cost. In the discussion that ensued, a number of issues were raised as follows:
Whether the Centre
had to raise funds for all the participants since in the past, governments have been
responsible for funding their participation to the meetings.
The feasibility for
ACW to put together an appropriate secretariat capable of handling the information flow in
light of the current staffing situation and regular work load.
The possibility of
getting financial, technical and logistical support from other UN agencies and NGOs at
regional and country levels. The Director of ACW gave an example of how FEMNET had
assisted in making one of its staff available to work on Conference preparations. She said
that this was the only consultant that she had been able to recruit so far.
The amount of time
left for raising funds was a major concern given the fact that many agencies obligate
funds far in advance; and may be unable to assist within the short time left.
The need to mobilise
financial and technical support.
It was strongly
recommended that a specific fund-raising strategy to guide the Technical Committee and all
the parties both government and NGOs be developed. The need for learning from past
experiences was also stressed, particularly the need for co-ordination between various
agencies in the financing of the Conference and the provision of technical support to
countries.
The members of the
UN agencies represented expressed a desire to lend support and in this regard, requested
for further consultations with the Director of the ACW.
UNFPA proposed that
countries could seek support from their Country Support Teams (CST) which are already
working on the evaluation of the implementation of the Cairo Plan of Action in preparation
for the Cairo + 5 Conference. This means that they are already tackling one of the eleven
thematic priority areas.
A letter signed by
the Executive Secretary requesting for financial and technical assistance from ADB, UN,
multi-lateral and bilateral agencies should be sent out as soon as possible. It was
suggested that ADB and UN Agencies could either avail personnel to work within ACW to
prepare evaluation reports or alternatively undertake the thematic evaluations themselves.
The issue of space
and costs of holding exhibitions and the availability of interpreters during the evening
sessions and for parallel activities was raised. It was explained that this had been a
problem during the 40th Anniversary Conference. It was agreed that the
Technical Committee should propose registration fees for all participants and agencies
participating in the Conference and parallel activities, as a way of contributing to the
cost.
The need to identify
national-level focal points which could help with information flow and in coordinating the
national delegations was identified. It was agreed that ACW should send out letters
seeking support from development partners at national and regional levels as soon as
possible.
On the issue of the
consultants to be involved in the preparatory process, it was agreed that a geographical
balance was mandatory.
Adoption of a timetable for the preparatory phases (agenda item 9)
32. The
Director of ACW presented the proposed timetable for the preparatory phase. The timetable
was divided into three phases which included this first preparatory technical meeting. The
breakdown of the time-table is attached as annex. Tunisia accepted to host the meeting and
the Chairperson of the Committee proposed the dates 18 to 19 June, 1999. After some
discussions, the date was accepted with the suggestion that all the participants should
adjust their programmes to accommodate these dates. The dates for the September meeting
will be agreed upon at the June meeting.
33. Another issue
debated extensively was the sponsorship of the participation of NGOs to the two remaining
technical committee meetings. The ACW Director stated that even through ECA sponsored the
participation of Committee members to the first preparatory meeting, it would not be able
to sponsor participation to the other meetings due to lack of funds. Participants would
have to raise their own funds for travel and other expenses. Most of the NGOs however
expressed concern over this issue since they have already allocated their budgets and may
not be able to raise additional funds in the short time available. After consideration and
debate, the Chairperson, on behalf of the Government of Tunisia offered to meet the costs
of accommodation and subsistence for participants attending the meeting. However, it was
agreed that members of the Technical Committee should raise funds for their travel.
34. The timetable was
approved as it was planned.
Any Other Business (agenda item 10)
35. Under this agenda
item, the representative of the African Development Bank (ADB) made a statement explaining
the situation of the Gender Programme within the ADB. The statement included a historical
background on the restructuring at the Bank and the present location of the Gender
Programme within the Sustainable Development and Environment Unit. She explained that ADB
was carrying out gender-related work and that it was also planning to recruit four more
gender specialists. In the new Bank vision which was recently adopted, gender and
environment were both considered to be the Bank’s major cross-cutting issues. The
main areas of focus of ADB include agriculture, health and education, sectors in which
women play a significant role. In addition the Bank has a micro-finance programme AMINA,
in which building the capacity of women is given high priority. In the discussion that
followed, members made some suggestions as to how ADB could become more active in the
follow-up to the Beijing Conference and in the implementation of the Platform for Action
36. The meeting
decided to send a Communiqué expressing solidarity with the women of Sierra Leone at this
time of armed conflict in the country and particularly requesting for the creation of a
corridor for the delivery of humanitarian assistance to the civilian population. The
Communiqué was read and unanimously adopted for dispatch to various people including the
Pope, the President of Sierra Leone, the warlords, President Clinton, the OAU, the British
Prime Minister and others. It was agreed that it be put on the Internet immediately.
37. The absence of
governments and NGOs from Eastern and Southern Africa at this preparatory meeting was
raised as a major concern. It was then agreed that equitable geographical representation
is mandatory for all preparatory meetings as well as for the Conference itself.
The Closing
38. During this
session, the meeting recapped on the final list of categories and numbers of participants
to be invited to the Sixth African Regional Conference on Women. The meeting also received
the draft report of the deliberations of the previous two days. Various amendments were
proposed, either to fill in gaps or clarify issues or agreements reached by the Committee.
The report was then adopted unanimously.
39. In her closing
remarks, the Chairperson thanked Committee members for the confidence they had shown in
electing her to the chair. She pledged to steer the work of the Committee to her best
ability in order to achieve success in the Regional Conference and the entire process
leading to the Beijing + 5 Conference. She thanked the Director of ACW for her dynamic
leadership and commended her and the staff for the meticulous planning that had gone into
the preparations for the meeting.
40. She lauded the new
partnership approach that will ensure government and NGO co-operation in the preparatory
process and that illustrates an increased adoption of democratic practices in Africa.
41. She thanked the
members of the Committee for their patience and commitment that had resulted in consensus
decisions which are the best foundation for partnership. She thanked the interpreters for
their patience and conscientiousness and finally declared the meeting closed.
Thank you.
Peter K.A. da Costa
Senior Communication Adviser
Economic Commission for Africa (ECA)
United Nations
P.O. Box 3001 (official mail)
Addis Ababa
Ethiopia
Tel: +251-1-51 58 26
Cell: +251-9-20 17 94
Fax: +251-1-51 03 65
E-Mail: dacosta@igc.apc.org
dacosta@un.org
Web: http://www.un.org/depts/eca
|