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Africa's gender roadmap critical to successful political unity
26 June 2008
Afriquenligne
Sharm el Sheikh, Egypt - Efforts to achieve Africa's economic and politic al unity goals will succeed only if the African states agree to fully implement t he Solemn Declaration on Gender Equality in Africa, a pioneer gender rights activist said here.
Benetta Diop, the Executive Director of the Famme Africa Solidarite (FAS ) - the organisation which spearheads campaigns for the adoption of the Solemn Declarati on - said the accord held hope for millions of African women in the villages.
She said the efforts to set up a Union government of Africa, though a positive step, might require the political leadership to address urgent and more pressing issues such as enhancing food security, education, availability of condoms among a host of issues.
Tanzanian President Jakaya Kikwete is the current chairman of the pan African or ganisation's political wing while Jean Ping, Gabon's former Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister, has assumed the leadership of AU's technical wing.
The two leaders are tasked with the responsibility of steering the continent through the debate on the transformation of the Union into an Africa government while delivering on a host of issues discussed and agreed upon during the past decade.
"We say yes for the transformation of the African Union (AU) to a Union governme nt of Africa and to make it more effective. We have hope in the new leadership they would guide us in bringing the changes," Diop told PANA.
FAS has been holding a three-day meeting of the African women (20-23 June) to track the implementation of the gender accord, which has been popularised under the slogan "Gender is My Agenda" campaign, spearheaded by FAS.
"The Gender is My Agenda campaign is meant to bring down the Declaration to the people at the villages. It was meant to accelerate the commitments made by the African leaders, from the Beijing platform to the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs)," she said.
Among the landmark agreements endorsed by the African leaders was the Solemn Dec laration on Gender Equality in Africa, aimed at ending the impunity with which some African women have been treated over the years, especially during armed conflicts.
The accord also focused on economic empowerment of the African women, their protection especially during armed conflicts and sought to assure the women of access to health care services.
FAS tasked expert organisations in these areas to undertake a study on the delivery of these pledges over the last four years since the accord was agreed upon.
Diop, whose organisation convened the Pre-Summit meeting of African women to discuss the implementation of the gender accord, noted that ending poverty within the continent required combined efforts of the leaders and the African women thems e lves.
She said the involvement of the civil society in the campaign to popularise the gender campaign was meant to make the AU meetings much more practical in its discussions.
"The civil society has been at the backbone of the political leadership, just to ensure that the declarations do not just remain under the corridors or the table that is why we started a process to see how it is being implemented by reporting and evaluating them."
Keywords: gender, African Union
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