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Please see 2 parts of this WUNRN
release on Women in Africa.
Women’s forum to highlight urgent needs at the UN high-level meeting on Africa’s development needs.
19 September 2008
Media Inquiries:
Oisika Chakrabarti, Media Specialist, UNIFEM Headquarters,
+1 212 906-6506, oisika.chakrabarti@unifem.org
United Nations, New York — Many African women and their communities are worse off today than they were a decade ago — in spite of the Beijing Platform for Action and subsequent inter-governmental commitments made at international conferences or ratifications of United Nations and African Union conventions and declarations by Member States. For millions of African women, hunger, violence, exclusion and discrimination are their everyday realities.
As world leaders meet to take stock of the progress in Africa on 22 September 2008, gender experts will convene the Africa Women’s Forum to address the achievements that have been made and the challenges that remain for the continent’s women. Governments and donors will be urged to prioritize women’s empowerment and gender equality to ensure real progress in Africa. At the mid-point in the global effort to achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) by 2015 — an internationally agreed set of eight goals responding to the world's main development challenges — gender experts urge that the accelerated implementation of commitments made to women’s human rights and gender equality be a cornerstone of the process towards eradicating poverty and achieving sound, transparent governance and sustainable development.
While African governments score high in terms of ratifying and developing policies, performance is weak when it comes to their implementation, as a recent UNECA report evaluating government performance vis-à-vis their commitments to gender equality and women’s human rights found. Serious and persistent obstacles such as chronic poverty, the continued inter-generational cycle of violence and abusive practices, the lack of equal access to health, especially reproductive health services and HIV and AIDS prevention and treatment, education, training and employment, as well as the impact of armed conflict and natural disasters continue to undermine the advancement of women and their participation in decision-making processes.
The Africa Women’s Forum will address the health and empowerment of African women, including improved access to reproductive health and focus on maternal health — MDG 5 — which is the least likely of the MDGs to be achieved. Maternal mortality remains unacceptably high across much of the developing world, with one woman dying every minute (more than 500,000 per year) from complications of pregnancy and childbirth and slightly more than half of the deaths occurring in sub-Saharan Africa. Similarly, gender inequality is a key driver of the AIDS epidemic, increasing the vulnerability of women and girls to HIV infection, and intensifying the burden of care in families and communities affected by AIDS on women and girls — often at the expense of their economic and educational opportunities. African women represent the largest demographic segment affected by HIV and AIDS, constituting 58 percent of the 25 million Africans infected by the disease.
African women have not realized meaningful gains from the sustained growth of their national economies in recent years. Deregulation and privatization, labour migration patterns, and resulting changes in family structures have further marginalized women. Today, they are the backbone of the informal economy, especially in the agricultural sector. They lack access to productive resources, including credit, land, and technical and support services. Where African countries have made remarkable strides is in increased women’s political participation resulting from government quotas or reserving seats for women in national and local legislative bodies. The share of parliamentary seats held by women increased from 7 percent in 1990 to 17 percent in 2007, in line with the global average. Rwanda now ranks first among all countries of the world in terms of the number of women elected to parliament, and where women outnumber men in Parliament, as provisional election results indicate.
Representatives of Member States, donor countries, regional institutions, private sector and civil society groups attending the Africa Women’s Forum will call upon governments and other power-holders to translate their commitments to action.
Media Inquiries
DETAILS OF AFRICA WOMEN’S FORUM
Date and Time: 22 September 2008, 3:00–6:00 p.m.
Venue: Conference Room 3, UN Secretariat
Speakers: Ms. Vabah Gayflor, Minister of Gender of Liberia; Ms. Rosemary Museminali, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Rwanda; Ms. Benita Ferrero-Waldner, Commissioner of External Relations, European Commission; Ms. Ingibjörg Sólrún Gísladóttir, Minister of Foreign Affairs and External Trade of Iceland; Ms. Nilcea Freire, Secretaria Especial de Politicas para as Mulheres da Presidencia da Republica Federativa do Brasil; Ms. Litha Musyimi-Ogana, Director of Women and Gender Directorate, African Commission; and Ms. Carin Taylor, Senior Manager, Organizational Effectiveness, CISCO Systems, among others.
Lead Agency: UNIFEM
Sponsors/Co-Sponsors: OSAA, UNAIDS, UNFPA, UNICEF, UNV, ITC, UNECA, AU
Co-Hosts: Permanent Missions of Liberia, Rwanda, Iceland and the African Union and European Commission
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UNECA - United Nations Economic Commission for Africa - http://www.uneca.org/
Sixth African Development Forum to Focus on Gender Issues
ECA Press Release No. 15/2008
Addis Ababa , 4 September 2008. (ECA) -- The sixth African Development Forum (ADF VI) will be convened on the theme " Action on gender equality, empowerment and ending violence against women in Africa " from 19 to 21 November 2008 at the United Nations Conference Centre in Addis Ababa , Ethiopia .
The Forum, one of the principal events of the Economic Commission for Africa 's 50 th Anniversary celebrations, is being jointly held with the African Union (AU) and the African Development Bank (AfDB).
ECA and its partners have made a notable contribution to the shaping of the gender equality landscape in Africa over the past half century. Nonetheless, there is still some way to go before “the mission is accomplished”.
Persistent gender inequalities and violence against women continue to be among some of the factors for Africa 's slow progress towards attaining the targets of the Millennium Development Goals and overall social development.
Indeed, it is now widely acknowledged that promoting gender equality and women's empowerment is essential to achieving human development, poverty eradication and economic growth on the African continent.
At the same time, recent regional meetings (the First Joint African Union Commission and United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) Conference of African Ministers of Finance, Planning and Economic Development held in April 2008 and the 11 th African Union Summit) have highlighted the emergence of new challenges on the continent that have the potential to deepen and widen existing gender inequalities such as climate change, and rising food and energy prices.
In that regard, it is clear that as the Commission marks its 50 th anniversary, there is need to reflect on the progress made towards achieving gender equality, women's empowerment and eliminating violence against women on the continent; identify the existing policy and implementation challenges and seek comprehensive solutions to tackle them effectively. The overarching objective of the ADF VI, therefore, is to review the state of play in this critical area in order to articulate concrete actions to hasten the translation of national and regional commitments into reality.
The Forum will give prominence to eliminating violence against women as a major impediment to social and economic development on the continent and the achievement of the MDGs. This is in line with the UN Secretary-General's Campaign to End Violence against Women launched on 25 February 2008 and which will run from 2008 through 2015 to coincide with the target date for achieving the MDGs. Other themes that the Forum will discuss with regard to gender equality include: HIV and AIDS, Health and reproductive rights, Education, training and skills development, Migration, Governance, Conflict, peace and security, Employment, markets and trade, Food security, Land and property rights, Climate change, water, sanitation and energy, Financing for gender equality, and ICT.
The forum is expected to among other things come up with a plan of action that will provide clear recommendations for member States and development partners to accelerate the achievement of gender equality and women's empowerment.
(ENDS)
Background
The African Development Forum is an ECA initiative intended to advance an Africa-driven development agenda. It presents a unique opportunity to connect African decision-makers with the best policy advice, informed by credible analytical work and relevant experiences.
ADF aims to initiate dialogue, build consensus and mobilise partnerships around African stakeholders' goals.
All five previous forums have helped launch new initiatives and activities, as well as important blueprints that have had wide ranging impacts.
ADF I , on "The Challenge to Africa of Globalization and the Information Age”, resulted in important public and private sector actions that stimulated ICT for development activities on the continent.
ADF II, on "HIV/AIDS: the Greatest Leadership Challenge," adopted a plan of action which fed directly into the 2001 United Nations General Assembly Special Session (UNGASS) on HIV/AIDS.
ADF III, on "Defining Priorities for Regional Integration," reviewed ECA's preliminary research findings on regional integration, which have now been published in a major ECA report entitled Assessing Regional Integration in Africa .
ADF IV , on the issue of good governance for economic transformation under the theme “Governance for a Progressing Africa” discussed and examined ways of improving governance in Africa and made concrete recommendations on mechanisms for instituting and monitoring good governance.
ADF V on “ Youth and Leadership in the 21st Century” , produced a Consensus Statement calling for partnerships at all levels to provide the youths with leadership opportunities that would enable them to speed up development, peace and prosperity.
Issued by the ECA Information and Communication Service
(ECA/ICS)
P.O. Box 3001
Addis Ababa - Ethiopia
For more information contact:
Tel: 251 11 5445098
Fax: +251 11 5510365
E-mail: ecainfo@uneca.org
Web: www.uneca.org
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