Gambia Hosts Conference on Women

(PANA)-- The Gambia will host the ‘African Regional Conference on Women’, dubbed (Beijing+15), with over 28 African ministers in charge of gender affairs and high level participants from some 43 countries expected to attend, the Addis Ababa-based Economic Commission for Africa (ECA), the main organiser , said in a communiqué received by PANA on Friday.

The conference which runs from 16-20 November will be preceded by the statutory meeting of ECA’ Committee on Women and Development to be followed by the ministerial meeting. The conference will take stock of progress achieved in Africa since the Beijing Summit on Women 15 years ago, and identify pending challenges for the implementation of the 12 critical areas of the Beijing Platform for Action.

The main objectives are to review and evaluate the ECA report prepared with inputs from member states. It is also geared towards identifying key actions that Africa needs to focus on in the next five years, in time for the second decade review of the Beijing Platform for Action. A major highlight of the conference will be the launch by ECA of its ‘African Women’s Report 2009’ (AWR), which is its flagship publication on gender issues in Africa.

A cross-section of various key stakeholders, including regional and international organisations and representatives of the civil society, will take part in the conference.

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