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STATEMENT OF THE AFRICAN WOMEN’S CAUCUS AT CSW 52 ON FUNDING FOR WOMEN’S EMPOWERMENT AND GENDER EQUALITY

February 27, 2008

 The African Women’s Caucus attending the 52^nd Session of the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women and representing millions of African women and girls recognizes the strides that have been made through various national, regional and global commitments towards the promotion of gender Equality and Empowerment of women. 

Recalling that the 23^rd Session of the United Nations General Assembly called upon Governments to incorporate a gender perspective into the design, development, adoption and execution of all budgetary processes, we note with deep concern the limited progress made on this commitment.

 The African Women Caucus observes as follows:

That women and girls in Africa continue to face gross human rights violations in both private and public sphere including adverse effects of war, armed conflict and gender based violence;

• That the inadequate commitment to Financing for Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment has reinforced feminized poverty and failed to curb the spread of HIV/Aids, Malaria and Tuberculosis;
• That the New Aid Modalities has continued to reduce emphasis on the principles of ownership and accountability particularly for civil society and citizens thereby resulting in the imposition of donor priorities at the expense of national priorities. Consequently, there is more emphasis on Aid and Development Efficiency rather than Aid and Development Effectiveness.

The African Women’s Caucus thereby calls on government to:

• Recognize the centrality of equality and  human rights particularly the rights of women in the process of defining aid modalities and their desired impact;
• Allocate sufficient resources to all national machineries institutions that contribute to implementation and monitoring of women’s empowerment programmes.
• Recognize the role of civil society organizations as equal partners in development.
• Establish and strengthen gender units and gender focal points at all levels to ensure that gender concerns are mainstreamed into policy making and budgetary processes.
• Support stronger gender machinery within the United Nations.

The African Women’s Caucus also calls on Donor Agencies to: 

• Increase funds for gender specific development assistance and the empowerment of women and girls inline with United Nations recommendations of 0.7% of  Gross Domestic products;
• As a matter of urgency realign their development intervention to the needs of local communities an assess aid effectiveness based on the effect of gender funding on the family, community and national development.

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Celine Nkiru Okoro - African Caucus

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