Relevant Literature

Relevant Literature on Human Rights in Africa

African Platform for Action adopted by the Fifth Regional Conference on Women

held at Dakar from 16 to 23 November 1994

V. [Resource implications and mobilization & Institutional arrangements for the implementation of the African Platform for Action]

B. Resource implications and mobilization

124. 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 (men, women and youth) 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, collective responsibility and sustainable development. Africa and its partners in development must recognize the responsibilities in adopting criteria for the allocation of resources and the need 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 cancellation and conversion, debt for social development swaps especially for women programmes. Therefore all African Governments should allocate more resources for the financing of women's programmes. Appropriate emphasis should be placed on bilateral and multilateral assistance for empowering women for poverty alleviation and the economic empowerment through job creation programmes; credit schemes for the poor, for women and self-employed; rural employment generation programmes, non-farm employment in the women-dominated rural sector; programmes for education; nutrition and health.

125. Alongside these measures, effective planning, better management, particularly through transparency in the allocation of resources must be encouraged. 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.

126. Resources will be mobilized from the following sources:

(a) Governmental and intergovernmental: in the national budgets, adequate 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;

(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 average of l7 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 reaffirms the setting of 0.7 per cent of the gross national product (GNP) of industrialized countries as the internationally agreed target for official development assistance (ODA). This target should be implemented and enhanced through new and additional resources within specific time frames. In addition, the 20-20 concept, which calls to donor countries and agencies to allocate a minimum of 20 per cent of their development assistance, and developing countries to also allocate the same percentage of their budget to social sector expenditure, is supported, 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. It

is proposed that such budgetary allocations should be between 20 and

25 per cent.

(iv) As a matter of priority, the proceeds of debt by-back, equity

conversion or debt progressiveness should be channelled by African

countries and their development partners into women's programmes.

127. 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 subregional levels, emphasis should be on evaluating and coordinating the programmes undertaken by United Nations agencies and regional and subregional intergovernmental organizations.

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

128. 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 such structures at the highest level of decision-making and providing 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 African 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

129. 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 mandates and purposes and activities 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.

130. 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 66 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-roots 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.

131. 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; and creating new institutional arrangements, where necessary;

(b) Expanding the mandates and operations of existing institutions (e.g., by mainstreaming women's needs and perspectives, defining clear mandates, policies and management approaches and establishing strong gender sensitive development programmes, women's networks and strengthening technical capacities).

(b) Subregional level

132. At the subregional 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), the Arab Maghreb Union (AMU), the Central African Customs and Economic Union (UDEAC), the West African Monetary Union (UMOA) and the Economic Community of Central African States (ECCAS). These agencies, as well as the African Development Bank (ADB), should provide opportunities for empowering and mainstreaming women in the economic area and for eliminating gender biases in their operations.

(c) Regional level

133. 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 1975, 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 ECA with subregional representation by 15 member States. The OAU, which brings together African Heads of State and Government as well as sectoral ministerial conferences, is well placed to advocate and sensitize all these target groups towards effective implementation of the Platform for Action.

(d) United Nations

134. 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, the 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. Among them are UNIFEM, UINSTRAW, UNFPA, the United Nations Division for the Advancement of Women (UNDAW). In addition, as already pointed out earlier, 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

135. A flexible assessment and monitoring mechanism for the implementation of the African Platform for Action should be put in place. The emphasis should be on strengthening and capacity-building of the existing national mechanisms preferably the National Preparatory Committees that could monitor and implement the Platform for Action. The different mechanisms should establish linkages at the community, national, regional and international levels in order to assess the progress achieved in the implementation of the Platform. At the regional level, coordination, monitoring and evaluation of the implementation of the African Platform for Action should be entrusted to ARCC in close collaboration and consultation with existing IGOs such as PTA, SADC, ECOWAS, etc., as well as the Joint OAU/ADB/ECA secretariat, IPU, UPA and relevant United Nations agencies especially UNIFEM, as stipulated in the existing institutional frameworks. 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. There should also be a review of the effectiveness of the delivery of donor programmes related to gender and development.

136. To foster the dissemination of information relating to the process and progress of implementation of the Platform for Action, the Secretariat should publish a regional report on African women. To ensure a better monitoring of the African Platform for Action and other actions for the advancement of women, it would be important to institute a prize-award scheme for the countries on the basis of their performance for the advancement of African women.