UNSIA Newsletter Issue 2, November 1998
Enhancing the future of Africa's women
"In my 29 years with the ECA, this is the first time I am witnessing a conference of such importance organized by the Commission for women," said Mrs. Sefanit Assefa, Administrative Assistant, commenting on the International Conference on African Women and Economic Development, held on the occasion of ECA's fortieth anniversary held in April-May 1998.
The conference convened approximately one thousand women and men, including Heads of State, the United Nations Secretary-General, Ministers, heads of UN agencies, and people from civil society, non-governmental and private sector organizations, and international agencies.
The conference focused on four themes: (a) Developing African economies: the role of women; (b) Achieving good governance: the essential participation of women; (c) African women and the information age: a new window of opportunity; and (d) Creating opportunities for Africa's new generation. Catalytic role
The African Centre for Women (ACW) Chief, Ms. Josephine Ouedraogo, noted that based on the expectations expressed by the participants, the Centre had a major role to play in monitoring the commitments made during the conference in addition to providing regular information on the status of women in Africa. Of the 189 concrete actions recommended by the conference, Ms. Ouedraogo said that ACW would take the lead in advocating for the integration of gender into national accounts. In early December, a follow-up meeting is scheduled to formulate mechanisms for monitoring and integrating the recommendations of the conference into national and sub-regional institutional work programmes. ACW hopes to promote policies and programmes that remove constraints to accessing resources so that rural African women in 10-15 countries in all the sub-regions can enhance their economic well-being by the year 2005.
A significant step was made in including youth as partners in development and decision-making. They are a part and parcel of implementing the conference recommendations.
Future plans include five national workshops at the request of member states who felt that the recommendations needed wider discussion and dissemination.