Please see French Version below

Comments by Mary Wandia, FEMNET
I would like to thank you for signing on to the FEMNET and APC Africa women
discussion list on Gender and NEPAD and also for contributing your views.
You can access the input for the last two weeks at the following web
address: http://lists.kabissa.org/lists/archives/public/nepad-forum/

So far we have about ninety men and women working on gender issues signed on
to the list from both Francophone and Anglophone Africa and we are receiving
more requests for registration. We have not managed to have the NEPAD
Initial action Plan, Africa Peer Review Mechanism and the Declaration on
Democracy, Political, Economic and Corporate Governance in French. The
French version of NEPAD is available on request through FEMNET's address:
[email protected]

I would like to suggest that we continue with the above topic for two more
weeks to ensure that we respond to the issues that arise from the first
introduction on 'women's concerns around the NEPAD?. Some of you have
requested for background information on NEPAD to ensure that we start from
the same level. Below is the summary.

Background on the NEPAD
NEPAD is made up of three elements rolled into one. First is the vision of
the future. Next is a development agenda, laying out the strategy to
translate its vision into reality. And the third part is a programme of
action from the strategy. Broadly, the goals of NEPAD are to:
· eradicate widespread and severe poverty;
· promote accelerated growth and sustainable development;
· halt the marginalisation of Africa in the globalisation process; and
· restore peace, security and stability
NEPAD also elaborates a fairly broad Programme for Action. Concrete actions
are proposed to address:
· three conditions for sustainable development (peace, security and
political governance; economic governance; and sub-regional and regional
development approaches);
· six sectoral priorities (infrastructure, including energy, information
technology, transport and water; human resources, including poverty
reduction, education, the 'brain drain' and health); agriculture; the
environment; culture; and science and technology); and
· two resource mobilisation strategies (capital flows, including domestic
debt, aid and investment); and market access, including diversification,
mining, manufacturing, tourism, services, private sector, exports and
non-tariff barriers).
The initiating Presidents have proposed to fast track the following NEPAD
programs, in
collaboration with development partners:
(a) HIV/AIDS and other communicable diseases
(b) Information and Communications technology
(c) Debt reduction
(d) Market access and
(e) Conflict resolution, peace and security.

NEPAD's mode of partnership will operate on three levels:
· On the global level will be Africa against donors, development partners,
and international institutions;
· On the regional level will be African states cooperating in joint ventures
and integration, cross border projects, etc. and
· On the national (domestic) level will be revitalized partnership among the
public sector, the private sector and the civil society.

Women's concerns
In brief, a look into the areas outlined above in the detailed version of
NEPAD reveals the gaps or concerns raised in the gender analyses done as
indicated in our first introduction. We would like to suggest that you
review the concerns and read the full text of the NEPAD to enable us to
progress with our discussion.

Personally, for NEPAD to respond to gender concerns, there is need to
establish a mechanism through which African peoples' can input into the plan
from their lived experiences. The people including African women would then
decide to select their representatives with expertise to ensure that their
concerns are integrated in all the processes of the NEPAD.

On gender issues, regional and international agreements that have been held
under the auspices of the United Nations and regional institutions such as
the now African Union, have identified actions that should be taken by
governments to ensure gender equality. The actions have been clustered in
areas similar to those of the NEPAD, and thus it a matter of identifying
and/or prioritising them in the NEPAD in a transparent and participatory
way.

There are questions that we will need to be answer from my concerns. What
form should the participation mechanism take? What are the priorities from
gender perspective under each sectoral area and conditions for sustainable
development of the NEPAD? How can the NEPAD Heads of States and Governments
Implementation Committee and the NEPAD Secretariat be made gender sensitive
or mainstream gender it its operations, mandate, structure and activities?

Alternatively, we can still respond to the earlier questions:
· What other concerns do you think can be added?
· How can these concerns be integrated into the NEPAD to make it responsive
to African women?

I hope that now we can be able to move on. Looking forward to your input.
Thank you
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African Women's Development and Communications Network (FEMNET)
Réseau de Développement et de Communications des Femmes Africaines
P. O. Box 54562, Nairobi, Kenya.
Tel: +254 2 3741301/20
Fax: +254 2 3742927
E-mail: [email protected]
Website: http://www.africaonline.co.ke/femnet

FEMNET aims to strengthen the role and contribution of African NGO's
focussing on women's development equality and other human rights, through
communications, networking, training and advocacy.

FEMNET vise à renforcer le rôle et la contribution des ONG des femmes
africaines en mettant l'accent sur le développemnt, l'égalité et d'autres
droits humains de femmes par le moyen des
communications, travail de réseau, formation et plaidoyer.

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