WUNRN
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 52nd 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
23rd 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.
Celine
Nkiru Okoro - African Caucus
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