With only a few months before 2005, the year marking the 10th anniversary of the Fourth World Conference on Women, which was held in Beijing, China, in 1995, processes to review the implementation of the Beijing Platform for Action (BPFA) are gaining momentum. In southern Africa, auditing of progress and mapping strategies for the way forward is currently taking place. This site will share information on activities that are taking place within southern Africa and beyond towards Beijing +10.

Preparations for the African Women NGO Forum on Beijing + 10 to be held from 6 - 7 October 2004 have been initiated with the appointment of an organising committee. A meeting convened by the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa Centre for Gender and Development (UNECA ACGD), from 22 – 23 July 2004 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, brought together more than 50 women activists from all five sub regions of Africa to prepare for the October forum.

NGO participants to the July meeting appointed a twelve-person organising committee comprising one NGO representative from each sub region (save for west Africa which has two representatives, one Anglophone and another Francophone), and four organisations with an Africa-wide mandate. In addition, two Ethiopian-based NGOs will facilitate logistical arrangements in that country.

The NGO forum will precede the Africa Inter Governmental Ministerial Forum on Beijing + 10 also in October, and will provide an opportunity for an anticipated 300 women activists to consolidate their positions on the review of progress and challenges during the decade since the UN World Conference on Women held in Beijing, China in 1995.

A Consultative meeting of African women’s NGOs was held in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia from 22 to 23 July 2004. The purpose of the meeting was to discuss and decide on the organisation of a Forum of African Women’s NGOs on Beijing +10. The United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA), through its African Centre for Gender and Development (ACGD), and under the leadership of the Committee on Women and Development (CWD), is coordinating the inter-governmental decade review process of the implementation of the Beijing Platform for Action at the level of the continent. The purpose of the meeting was to discuss and decide on the organisation of a Forum of African Women’s NGOs on Beijing +10. The outcome of the meeting were threefold:

• The formulation of an Action Plan for the preparation of the NGOs Forum on Beijing +10, including a strategy for resource mobilisation
• The election of the NGO Regional Organising Committee for Beijing +10; and
• The adoption of a Format and Draft Agenda for the NGOs Forum on Beijing +10

On the 25 April 2004, a day prior to the sub-regional meeting to review progress by the Southern African Development Community (SADC) in achieving the Beijing Commitments convened in Lusaka Zambia on the 26th to the 28th of April 2004, SARDC-WIDSAA and the Non Governmental Organisations’ Coordinating Council for Gender and Development (NGOCC), convened a working session in Lusaka, Zambia.

The one-day working session provided an opportunity for NGOs to make a strategic input into the main April meeting by taking stock of government and NGO activities after Beijing +5. Participants at the meeting debated and highlighted progress, challenges, and constraints in achieving issues related to the Beijing Platform for Action (BPFA).

A southern African Sub-Regional Meeting for the decade review of the Beijing Platform for Action (BPFA) was held in Lusaka, Zambia, from 26 to 28 April 2004, followed by a meeting of Ministers of Gender/Women’s Affairs on 29 April. These meetings were organised by the southern African regional office of the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) in collaboration with the Southern African Development Community (SADC).

The Lusaka meeting was attended by government experts from National Gender Machineries, Ministries of Finance, Planning, Industry and Trade, Foreign Affairs, Health, Agriculture and Foreign Affairs from Angola, Botswana, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Swaziland, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe. Present also were representatives of various national and regional NGOs.