Following the unveiling of the Southern Africa Development Community (SADC) Protocol on Gender and Development in August 2008, Rachel Kagoiya reviews the new responsibilities for governments across the region to ensure women occupy 50 percent of all government positions by 2015. The author also discusses women’s prospects under the SADC Free Trade Agreement, and argues that moves towards the freer cross-border movement of goods must be implemented in a way that is of genuine benefit to the region’s majority female traders.

Development must be people-centered! This was the specific re-assertion by the over sixty representatives from various governments, civil society organizations, NGOs and development partners attending the 2008 Civil Society Development Forum (CSDF) in Geneva last month. And in the words of Mr. Liberato C. Bautista, President of the Conference of Non-Governmental Organizations in Consultative Relationship with the United Nations (CONGO), “the nexus between human rights and sustainable development is not so much as a venue for consensus-making, for such venues have been amply convened, and in many occasions, failed to stir imaginations. The nexus matters because at the junction where human rights and sustainable development meets, they coalesce, they collaborate, they cross-fertilize and they become one”.

The Forum reviewed progress and further developed the recommendations and conclusions outlined in the 20-point Outcome Document resulting from the CONGO New York meeting convened in June 2008. These recommendations will subsequently be submitted to the ECOSOC Bureau and the United Nations Secretariat (UN/DESA) as well as feed into discussions at ECOSOC, including into ECOSOC's reporting to the UN General Assembly. Ultimately, these recommendations will be valuable instruments for assisting us in civil society and non-governmental organizations in shaping our own strategies and in contributing to discussions and debates around development at regional and global fora.

As Africa continues to experience profound transformations, be it political, economic, cultural, social, or technological, we are witnessing the wider populace getting more and more aware of their basic human rights. In many cases where their rights have been denied or disrespected, we have seen men and women, young and old, come out to confront their government leaders and demand for their rights. For instance, a number of countries have experienced some form of ‘citizen-pressure’ for broader participation and inclusiveness in political and economic decision-making, thus opening up political spaces where citizens are demanding for social justice, good governance, equity, accountability, human rights and democracy. Such demands have given birth to new ways of ‘doing’, ‘knowing’ and ‘being’ that is totally different and altering the status quo.