WUNRN
AFRICAN UNION GENDER EQUALITY
MINISTERS ADOPT COMMON POSITION ON THE POST-2015 DEVELOPMENT AGENDA
12
February 2014 - Addis Ababa - During the Africa Regional
Preparatory and Consultative Meetings ahead of the 58th session of the
Commission on the Status of Women (CSW58) next month, African
ministers and senior officials discussed the priority theme, “Challenges and
achievements in the implementation of the Millennium Development Goals for
Women and Girls”, and adopted an outcome message with strong
recommendations.
Organized by UN Women, with the African Union Commission (AUC) and the United
Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA), the preparatory meetings were
held in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, from 6-8 February 2014. Their main objective was
to build African solidarity and consensus prior to CSW and to develop a
strategy for influencing how gender equality and women’s empowerment are dealt
with in the post-2015 development agenda.
“We have now a once-in-a-generation opportunity to position gender equality,
women’s rights and women’s empowerment at the centre of the future global
agenda,” said Deputy Executive Director Lakshmi Puri in her opening remarks.
“The present Africa Preparatory Consultation, therefore, is a critical stepping
stone towards a successful CSW58 that will deliver on these accounts. It is
galvanizing gender equality ministers and senior government officials to ensure
that the session reflects the concerns of women and girls from the region, and
that the evidence, lessons learned and good practices, as we know them, are fed
into the global process in March.”
Participants adopted a strong outcome message with recommendations for a
proactive and progressive position at CSW58, giving unequivocal support for a
transformative stand-alone goal to achieve gender equality, women's rights and
women's empowerment in the post-2015 development agenda. They said this goal
should be comprehensive and include concrete targets and indicators. They
further called for the mainstreaming of gender equality perspectives across all
goals.
Their key recommendations were grouped into four clusters, addressing women's
economic empowerment, social transformation, governance, peace and security,
and institutional frameworks.
Recommendations in the economic sphere call for strengthening women’s role in
trade and their increased access, control and ownership of land and productive
resources. They identify information and communications technology as a tool
for economic and political empowerment and access to information, markets,
networking and increased opportunities which should be mainstreamed in order
“to leapfrog the gender digital divide”.
“Studies are indicating that the gender gap costs Africa up to 255 billion US
dollars per year. We need to understand that it is not a favour to women but
it’s their right. And, it is not only a right, but it is the right and smart
thing to do,” said Ngone Diop, Chief of Gender at UNECA, during the meeting.
In addressing the need for social transformation, the recommendations say
ending violence against women and girls is a glaring omission in the MDG
framework and must be addressed in any new framework. Participants also were in
agreement that the new development framework must provide for women’s and
girls’ sexual and reproductive health and reproductive rights as well as access
to sexual and reproductive health services. They equally agreed that ending
female genital mutilation, child, early and forced marriage and early
pregnancies is essential for the health, education and empowerment of the girl
child.
Regarding the twentieth anniversary of the adoption of the Beijing Declaration
and Platform for Action in 2015, the recommendations conclude with a pledge
to intensify efforts towards full and accelerated implementation of the Beijing
Platform for Action through renewed political commitment, extensive social
mobilization and mobilization of new investments in gender equality.
In addition to the outcome document, AU Ministers of gender equality and
women's affairs adopted a Ministerial declaration that voices support for a
stand-alone gender goal and advocates for a sixth pillar to be included in the
African Common Position on the post-2015 development agenda. This pillar would
have gender-specific priority areas, and would also be mainstreamed across all
other pillars.