Relevant Literature

NGO PROPOSED AMENDMENTS TO THE AFRICAN PLATFORM FOR ACTION

12-15 NOVEMBER 1994, DAKAR, SENEGAL

{{ Curly double brackets indicate proposed additions

<<Triangualar bracktes indicate proposed deletions

VI. FOLLOW-UP MECHANISM FOR THE IMPLEMENTATION AND MONITORING OF THE AFRICAN PLATFORM FOR ACTION

123. An assessment and monitoring mechanism for the implementation of the African Platform for Action should be put in place This should be in the form of a Committee comprised of member States that constitute ARCC, IGOs (e.g., PTA, SADC, ECOWAS, etc.), the Joint Secretariat (i.e, OAU, ECA and ADB) and representatives from the relevant United Nations agencies. The body should meet annually and should present a progress report to the ECA Conference of Ministers, the OAU Council of Ministers and the OAU Assembly of Heads of State and Government every two years. ECA would act as the secretariat to the Committee. To foster the dissemination of information relating to the process and progress of implementation of the Platform for Action, the publication of a regional report on African women should be envisaged.

(a) Rationale

The development and maintenance of the "human habitat" is not possible without the participation of all of us men and women. The social and economic agenda cannot be cmplete without focusing on human settlement development. Women are crucial in making "human sustainable, environmentally sound" development happen.

Objectives

1) Customary laws and religious practices that discriminate against women should be either abolished or amended to include the right of the women to land.

2) Women should have the right to control the crops they produce on their so-called "family land." For most families, the husbands sell the crops and spend the money the way the like - drinking or marrying more wives.

3) Encourage women to own their own pieces of land so that even after divorce they have some sort of property.

4) Women should have the right to inherit clan land which they have been working on before the death of their husbands.

5) Ensure that forced evictions are not carried out and that functions of subsistence are respected in the urban transition.

6) A new form of structural adjustment is required, a structural adjustment of the international finance institutions, so that they place the priorities of the women, the sustenance of human life and the environment, above the prioriy of free trade.

Proposed Actions

1) Women's fundamental human right to equitable access to and control of, land and property must be upheld, regardless of customs, laws, traditions and practices relating to inheritance and marriage which would deny such equity.

2) Laws and practices relating to enforcement of women's rights to equal treatment must be reconciled through a process of law review and reform which must also be gender-sensitive

3) Public programmes of conscientization should be carried out to create awareness of women's rights vis-a-vis tradition.

Non-Government Organizations (NGO) should provide information on women's rural and urban land rights at the community level. At the same time, the information media should disseminate information on this to the general public.

4) Mechanisms need to be set up for monitoring of implementation of all existing and new conventions relating to these fundamental rights.

5) Networking of women to support and promote equal gender right to land and property need to be set up by voluntary action, both within the bureaucracy and at the grass roots.

6) National and local authorities should have a policy supporting land allocation to women's groups: Finance institutions should a have a policy to provide access to finance to women and women's groups for land, housing and development.

7) Carry out specific training and job development for in women in formal construction skills, managerial advocacy skills, job development for women within the human settlement field.

C. Institutional arrangements for the implementation of the Platform for Action

116. The importance of core structures for the effective implementation of the strategies and plans of action for the advancement of women was recognized at the onset of the Decade for Women. Experiences since then have confirmed not only the need for such structures, but also the basic requirements that can make them more effective, especially in view of the need to bring women's concerns into the mainstream of development. These requirements include strong political will, locating them at the highest level of decision making and giving them high technical capabilities and adequate resources. Institutional arrangements for implementation and monitoring of the African Platform for Action have to be clearly identified, bearing in mind that gender issues and concerns cut across all areas of development and therefore involve multiple institutions and actors at all levels. However, a core structure with a direct mandate of coordinating, monitoring and evaluating implementation of, and accountability to the Platform for Action is required at international, regional and national levels. A review of the current institutional arrangements in support of programmes for the advancement of women is a useful starting point. The core structure for the implementation of the Platform for Action should have the mandate for advocacy and for ensuring the mainstreaming of gender concerns in all sectors, programmes and at all levels; monitoring, evaluation and accountability required at all levels.

(a) National machineries for the advancement of women

117. The need to monitor the empowerment of women in all areas of life through the establishment of responsible institutions has been recognized and called for by African Governments. Several global and regional conferences have outlined the purposes and duties of such institutions and the strategies to accelerate the advancement of women. National machineries are defined as institutions or formal entities recognized by governments and entrusted with particular responsibility for the advancement of women and the elimination of all forms of discrimination against women in monitoring the ramifications of gender relations in a given society, and acting as advocates on behalf of women. Africa also has a rich history of grass-roots women's organizations.

118. Several reports and studies indicate that in mid-1980s, Africa had over 50 different types of institutions. The growth of such machineries has continued and by the end of the 1980s. there were about 166 machineries. To date, there are approximately 650 to 800 NGOs dealing with gender issues and the advancement of women. Most of these are independent grass-root groups dealing with women's issues in different capacities. A number of them are attached to the ruling political parties and there are a few cases where NGOs and mixed governmental and non-governmental organizations are recognized as national machineries. These institutions are engaged in activities ranging from welfare concerns of women to improving women's access to resources. A number of them, especially those tied to political parties, have also been engaged in advocacy and awareness-creation on women's concerns. National machineries in Africa have covered a lot of ground towards the implementation of the Nairobi and Arusha Strategies.

119. This Platform proposes that institutional arrangements for implementation, monitoring and evaluation of its objectives and actions should be based on three major activities, namely: (a) Strengthening, mainstreaming and harmonizing the existing institutions at all levels, through increased human and financial resources;

(b) Expanding the mandates and operations of existing institutions (e.g., mainstreaming women's needs and perspectives, defining clear mandates, polices and management commitment and establishing strong independent women's networks and technical capacities); (c) Creating new institutional arrangements, where necessary.

(d) Sub regional level

120. At the sub regional level, several agencies and treaties exist that can be instrumental to the implementation of the Platform for Action. These include, inter alia, the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), the Preferential Trade Area of Eastern and Southern African States (PTA), the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA), the Southern Africa Development Community (SADC) and the Arab Maghreb Union (AMU). These agencies present good opportunities for empowering and mainstrearning women in the economic area and for eliminating gender biases in their operations.

(e) Regional level

121. Since 1975, United Nations regional commissions have been mandated by General Assembly resolution 3520 (XXX) "to accord- special attention to government programmes and projects aimed at the full integration of rural women in development". In the African region, in 197S, the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) Conference of Ministers, established the African Training and Research Centre for Women (ATRCW), now the African Centre for Women (ACW). The Africa Regional Coordinating Committee for the Integration of Women in Development (ARCC) is a subsidiary body of the ACW with subregional representation by 15 member States. In addition, ECA also established committees for the implementation of plans of action for the integration of women in development, within the framework of the existing Multinational Programming and Operational Centres (MULPOCs) at the subregional level. Regionally, several NGOs exist whose activities are focused on the advancement of women in Africa, for exarnple, AFWE, FEMNET, FAWE, WLDAF, etc.

(e) United Nations

122. United Nations system-wide coordination on gender issues at the policy level is largely the responsibility of existing United Nations commissions and committees such as the Commission on Sustainable Development, .~he Commission on Human Rights, the Population Commission, the Commission on the Status of Women and the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW). At the level of programmes for the advancement of women, numerous specific United Nations organizations and agencies are mandated to focus largely on gender issues, inter alia, UNIFEM, INSTRAW. already pointed out earlierm since the 1970s all United Nations organizations are required to include a strong gender component in all their programmes and activities.

VI. FOLLOW-UP MECHANISM FOR THE IMPLEMENTATION AND MONITORING OF THE AFRICAN PLATFORM FOR ACTION

(a) Rationale

Objectives

1) Customary laws and religious practices that discriminate against women should be either abolished or amended to include the right of the women to land.

3) Encourage women to own their own pieces of land so that even after divorce they have some sort of property.

4) Women should have the right to inherit clan land which they have been working on before the death of their husbands.

5) Ensure that forced evictions are not carried out and that functions of subsistence are respected in the urban transition.

Proposed Actions

2) Laws and practices relating to enforcement of women's rights to equal treatment must be reconciled through a process of law review and reform which must also be gender-sensitive

3) Public programmes of conscientization should be carried out to create awareness of women's rights vis-a-vis tradition.

4) Mechanisms need to be set up for monitoring of implementation of all existing and new conventions relating to these fundamental rights.

5) Networking of women to support and promote equal gender right to land and property need to be set up by voluntary action, both within the bureaucracy and at the grass roots.

7) Carry out specific training and job development for in women in formal construction skills, managerial advocacy skills, job development for women within the human settlement field.

B. Resource implications and mobilization

112. Implementation of the African Platform for Action will require the mobilization of all available human. physical and financial resources internationally, regionally and nationally. Investment in people and, inter alia, in infrastructure. education, health, employment. food production and food security, including proper functioning of institutions, are prerequisites for the success of the implementation process. Such mobilization will have to be based on short-, medium- and long-term objectives and perspectives. In addition, commitments from the central actors should be reflected in specific and substantial allocations proportionate to their operating budgets. The main rationale for assistance to African countries to implement the Platform for Action should be based on ethics of mutual benefit and collective responsibility. Africa and its partners in development must recognize the reciprocal responsibilities in adopting criteria for the allocation of resources and the need to foster South-South cooperation. In Africa and the least developed countries, existing and new strategies towards a durable solution to the crippling external debt should be applied in a timely and flexible manner through measures such as debt consultation, debt-for-social development swaps, etc.

Appropriate emphasis should be placed on bilateral and multilateral assistance for poverty alleviation and the economic empowerment of women, for example through job creation programmes; credit schemes for the poor, for women and the self-employed; rural employment generation programmes, non-farm employment in the women-dominated rural sector: programmes for education; nutrition and health.

113. Alongside these measures, the issues of accountability, transparency and mismanagement of resources must be openly addressed. African Governments should endeavour to explain economic reform and adjustment measures to their citizens, focusing on how these measures affect the lives of people. Governments must also introduce and publicize measures aimed at encouraging accountability within their own operations as well as in the operations of NGOs. In turn, women's organizations and NGOs can also exert pressure on governments to avoid the mismanagement of resources in order to free these resources for more pressing and priority national needs.

114. Resources will be mobilized from the following sources: (a) Governmental and intergovernmental: In the national budgets, provision should be made to fund the proposed actions for implementation on a sustainable basis;

(b) Women's organizations, national and international NGOs: To show their commitment towards the success of the follow-up to the Platform for Action, individual women, women's organizations and men should also make provision for funding the proposed actions; (c) Development partners:

(i) Bilateral partners: There is growing consensus among countries in the African region that at least 20 per cent of ODA should be committed to human development programmes, as compared with the present average of 7 per cent. Africa's development partners should commit themselves to meeting this target and to match the increased allocations that African countries will make to human and social development fields. Africa's social development, particularly through the economic empowerment of women, will further require the availability of new and additional resources. This Platform endorses the setting of 0.7 per cent of the gross national product (GNP) of industrialized countries as the target for official development assistance (ODA). This is a valid target that should be implemented and enhanced within specific time frames. In addition, the 20-20 concept. including a call to donor countries and agencies, to allocate a minimum of 20 per cent of their development assistance, and on developing countries to also allocate the same percentage of their budget to social sector expenditure, is also supported, but with a special focus on women; (ii) Multilateral financial institutions: Multilateral partners should establish special windows for financing the implementation of the Platform for Action. In particular, such windows should offer easy access to women entrepreneurs; (iii) The United Nations system should incorporate a strong funding component in their programme of work and regular budgets in support of the implementation of the activities of the Platform for Action. ft is proposed that such budgetary allocations should be between 20 and 25 per cent.

115. The proposed financial arrangements should address the stated objectives and the proposed actions in the Platform for Action. At the national level, African Governments should apply gender-sensitive planning and evaluation to all public spending including identification of the amounts directed to benefit women, and their impact. At the international, regional and sub regional levels, emphasis should be on evaluating and coordinating the programmes undertaken by United Nations agencies and regional and sub regional intergovernmental organizations.