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Association for Women's Rights in Development

http://www.awid.org/go.php?list=analysis&prefix=analysis&item=00446

 

The Road to Accra - Third High Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness - Gender

An interview with Therese Niyondiko, Acting Executive Director of the
African Women's Development and  Communication Network (FEMNET) on the
processes in the lead up to the Third High Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness
that will be held in Accra, Ghana, from September 2 - 4, 2008.

By Kathambi Kinoti - AWID

AWID: Why are you involved in the Aid Effectiveness Agenda?

THERESE NIYONDIKO:

The Aid Effectiveness Agenda adopts a highly technical
approach to development. Donors and
governments alike tend to regard it as a more or less technical issue to be
confined within finance and planning ministries, but it is a citizen's
issue. Women's rights organisations share an interest in the Aid
Effectiveness agenda because women are the ones most affected by poverty
and underdevelopment. As it is now in the Paris Declaration, the agenda
does not create adequate opportunities for addressing gender equality and
women's empowerment.  We need to make this information widely available to
citizens. We need to inform African women what the Aid Effectivenss agenda,
as exemplified in the Paris Declaration, means in practice or how it is
being experienced on the ground . We in civil society see the process as
having a social effect and so we have to be involved.

AWID: How are you involved in the processes leading up to the Third High
Level Forum (HLF3) that will be held in Accra in September this year?

TN: On May 26 and 27, FEMNET will be co-convening a Regional Consultation
on Aid Effectiveness and Gender Equality: Road to Accra. We are doing this
in collaboration with Action Aid International, the African Women's
Development Fund (AWDF), the African Women's Economic Policy Network
(AWEPON), and UNIFEM. The aim of the meeting is to prepare women's
organisations for the HLF3 and build their capacity to contribute to and
beyond the Accra meeting.

 

At the Where is The Money Africa regional resource mobilisation strategy meeting
in Johannesburg last year, one of the recommendations made was that the
capacity of women's rights advocates to engage at the political level be
enhanced. Most women are really not aware of the issues and processes in
the Aid Effectiveness agenda. Next week's meeting is also planned within
the framework of a project we are implementing on Gender, Macroeonomics and
Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers (PRSPs) in Africa, and the impetus for
this meeting was reinforced at the Johannesburg meeting. The meeting will
create awareness about the Paris Declaration and prepare women's
organisations to participate in the HLF3 and related events to be held in
Accra in September 2008.

FEMNET has participated in several processes in the lead up to the HLF3. In
February this year we went to Ottawa  to attend the International
Consultative Meeting for Women's Rights Organisations and Networks on Aid
Effectiveness and Gender Equality. The meeting was organised by AWID and
WIDE. The meeting was held just prior to the Multi-stakeholder Dialogue on
Civil Society and Aid Effectiveness which was hosted by the Advisory Group
on Civil Society and Aid Effectiveness. Some of the organisations that
attended the meeting for women's rights organisations, stayed on to
participate in the Multi Stakeholder Dialogue. FEMNET presented a case
study at the Dialogue addressing Paris Declaration principle of ownership.
The case study explored the role of civil society in national planning
processes. We examined how civil society organisations, particularly
women's organisations in Kenya were  involved in the process of producing
Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers.

After the Ottawa Civil Society Advisory Group meeting, WIDE and AWID were
invited to join the Advisory Group which until then had not had any women's
rights organisations. FEMNET was invited to sit on the International
Steering Group which will be in charge of the Civil Society Parallel Event
in Accra.

In March this year we participated in a meeting in London on Strengthening
the Development Results and Impacts of the Paris Declaration through work
on Gender Equality, Social Exclusion and Human Rights. This meeting
addressed practical implications of applying the PD and a number of case
studies were presented; both good practices and bad.

At this meeting it was suggested that the term 'cross-cutting issue'
should be substituted with 'policy priority issue' or 'central goals to
development,' as the continued use of the term 'cross-cutting' for gender
equality and human rights perpetuates their marginalisation in the
development process.

We also participated in a regional consultation preparatory workshop to the
HLF3 which was held in Kigali. This meeting was organised for governments,
parliamentarians and civil society. A number of donors participated as
observers. FEMNET was one of six gender expert organisations identified by
UNIFEM to participate in the meeting.

The meeting aimed at coming up with at common position for African
countries to present at the HLF3. During this meeting we strongly advanced
our position as women's rights advocates. The meeting was structured as it
will be in Accra with six different round tables on Ownership and national
leadership, Accountability and Management for Results, Harmonisation and
Alignment, Aid Effectiveness in fragile states and conflict situations, New
aid architecture and plenary sessions. Some of our issues were taken on
board and some were not. We were successful in securing the understanding
that the 'gender' in the PD and related documents should be replaced with
'gender equality and women's empowerment' because  'gender' is not
sufficient to express the inequalities that are at the heart of
underdevelopment.

FEMNET is also planning three sub-regional training workshops on gender,
macroeconomics and PRSPs  to build
capacities of women, government economists and the media for gender
specific monitoring and a better understanding of the relationship between
macroeconomic policy and poverty, especially poverty among women. We have
carried out research on the effects of PRSPs in Egypt, Mali, Rwanda, Uganda
and Zambia and these will inform the workshops.

AWID: What opportunities for engagement will there be at the HLF3 in Accra
later this year?

TN: Prior to HLF3 there will be a civil society parallel event with 350
civil society organisations expected to attend. Out of the participants at
the parallel event, eighty will be able to get accreditation to attend HLF3
and the round tables. We do not as yet know how many slots have been
allocated to each continent, or to women's organisations. However, we have
asked that at least forty per cent of the civil society organisations at
both the parallel event and HLF3 be women's organisations.

The civil society organisations that are accredited to the HLF3 will be
able to make presentations at the round tables and women's rights
organisations have been preparing for this. AWID has written a issue paper
on the Paris Declaration principle of harmonisation, WIDE on accountability
and DAWN on ownership.

 

FEMNET has provided input from an African perspective into these

papers, and if selected, we will  present our issues  at the round tables.

Civil society will also present a statement at the HLF3. We are hoping to
have a one day meeting for women's rights organisations prior to the CSO
parallel event  in order to strategise on our input into the civil society
statement.

Apart from the formal participation at the HLF3, we can always use informal
opportunities to lobby government and donor representatives in Accra. There
are several donor organisations that are allies of women's rights
organisations and movements. At the upcoming regional meeting next week, we
plan to suggest having an African
women's task force made up of some of the participating organisations, to
follow up advocacy opportunities before HLF3. The round tables at Accra
will be co-chaired by some African governments  such as the Democratic
Republic of Congo, South Africa, Ghana, Uganda and Tanzania. Women's rights
organisations in those countries will be tasked with lobbying their
ministries prior to the Accra forum.

AWID: How can women's rights organisations join the process?

TN: Registration for the parallel event has been launched at
www.accrahlf.net and will be open until June 15, 2008. There are
opportunities for funding for some organisations with experience in Aid
Effectiveness process to attend. Organisations wishing to be among the
eighty CSOs that will be accredited to attend the HLF3 can also apply
through the website. The website contains information about the processes
leading up to HLF3. There is also the Road to Accra email list that
regularly sends out information on the processes and the issues. FEMNET, as
a regional communication network, will ensure that useful information on the
process is disseminated to women's organisations and networks.

AWID: What do you hope to achieve at the HLF3?

TN: Gender equality is often regarded as accessory to development. We want
gender equality and women's empowerment to move from the status of a cross
cutting issue to being a central goal of development. This will in turn
mean that sufficient resources will be allocated to addressing gender
inequalities and therefore contribute to reducing poverty. It is important
to note that our work will not end with the HLF3; we need to keep up our
engagement with the Aid Effectiveness agenda even after the Forum to ensure
that the flow of resources actually has a real and
positive impact on the lives of women.





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