With the clock steadily ticking towards 10 years of global focus on women’s empowerment through the implementation of the Beijing Platform for Action (BPFA), southern Africa has begun to consolidate an agenda for reviewing and defining the parameters for national and sub- regional action.

A high-level consultative dialogue attended by representatives of gender machineries from the government and non-governmental organisations (NGOs), as well as female parliamentarians from southern African countries was held recently in South Africa, to chart a framework of action for preparing country reports aimed at reviewing progress towards achieving the BPFA.

The SADC Gender Unit and partners, including the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA), United Nations Fund for Women (UNIFEM), and the gender programme of the Southern African Research and Documentation Centre (SARDC), convened the consultative dialogue December 2003.

A questionnaire to guide governments globally (including all 53 in Africa) in the report preparation process was drafted by the UN Division for the Advancement of Women (UNDAW) and distributed in October 2003. The country progress reports will form the basis for the Africa review on the status of women in November 2004, and later be incorporated into a global review and appraisal at the forty-ninth session of the UN Commission on the Status of Women, to be held in March 2005.

The UNECA Africa Centre for Gender and Development (ACGD) is responsible for the organisation of the review and appraisal of progress in Africa, which will feed into the global UN appraisal process.

Two UNECA representatives from the sub-regional gender focal point (SRO) and the ACGD respectively, informed participants of the steps to be undertaken to prepare for the Africa review in November 2004. These include, amongst other things, reports addressing the relevance of the BPFA in the context of challenges and successes in their implementation, and sustainability of accomplishments.

Aside from the 12 critical areas of concern, specific areas that have gained prominence and requiring review, include responsiveness of macro economic and social policies to gender concerns, women and girls’ access to free and compulsory universal education, progress made towards reduction of maternal mortality and morbidity, and gender-based violence in situations of conflict, including armed conflict.

Review of progress made in addressing issues of women and girls with disabilities, research- based knowledge, sex and gender disaggregated data, and mechanisms of to enhance coordination, as well as transparency are also a key focus.

Sources of information in report preparation will include national action and development plans, programmes, and activities; sectoral policies, programmes and activities; plans emerging from other global conferences; and initiatives such as the World Summit for Sustainable Development, International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD), Millennium Development Goals, and the New Partnership for Africa’s Development.

For southern Africa, the consolidated regional report on progress is also expected to address achievements and challenges in implementing the SADC Gender and Development Declaration, and the Plan of Action for Gender in SADC. The Plan of Action for Gender in SADC was approved in July 1998, and has since been revised into a Framework of Activities on Gender under the Regional Indicative Strategic Framework (RISDP).

Reporting on progress and challenges will be greatly enhanced by the African Gender and Development Index (AGDI), a UNECA coordinated tool to measure and report on gender equality. Both quantitative and qualitative measures of progress are to be captured in the AGDI, and in this way the dynamic and complex nature of African women’s lives will be better profiled.

Ministries in charge of gender and women’s issues are responsible for the production of the reports, which must be inclusive, based on extensive consultation and input. NGOs are expected to make an input into the national reports, or alternatively prepare shadow reports, and ensure that at every stage of the process they are fully informed and effectively utilize the spaces for engagement.

The national reports will be synthesized into one sub-regional report by the UNECA SRO in Lusaka, Zambia, which will in turn organize, together with the SADC Gender Unit, a review meeting at the end of April 2004, to be held in Lusaka. The report of the outcome of this meeting will be presented to the Inter Governmental Committee of Experts (ICE) in May 2004 for endorsement, after which it will be submitted, together with other African sub-regional reports, to the UNECA/ACGD by July 2004.

The UNECA/ACGD will in turn synthesise all the sub regional reports into the Africa report by August 2004, for presentation to the Seventh Africa Regional Conference on Women in November 2004. This, in essence will comprise the Africa review of the BPFA. Upon endorsement, this report will be presented to the Committee on the Status of Women (CSW) by January 2005, as the Africa position.

Participants at the December consultative dialogue agreed that an effective communication and information strategy, including good coordination of activities, resource mobilization to support the processes and adherence to deadlines were critical as there is no turning back for southern Africa. Gender activists in the region must therefore continue to proactively contribute to defining an agenda for the future of equality in Africa.