Gender

Written by AWEPA Monday, 12 July 2010 07:28

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AWEPA focuses on gender mainstreaming in parliaments as well as the participation and empowerment of women through:

workshops on the empowerment of women parliamentarians and gender mainstreaming;
support of national and regional women's caucuses and gender networks;
support for the active participation of national and regional women's caucuses and gender networks in conferences;
ensuring gender-balanced delegations to AWEPA conferences.

AWEPA’s different programme areas also specifically target gender imbalances.

Whereas it is a recognized universal fact that eliminating gender inequality and achieving women’s empowerment are paramount to achieving all of the MDGs, progress with the MDG implementation is slowest in those areas that depend most heavily on improving the status of women and girls. Consequently, at the mid-point towards the 2015 MDG deadline, progress in relation to gender in many African countries remains behind schedule. In 2009 AWEPA aimed to dialogue with African women parliamentarians to address issues facing women on the continent which African leadership should be addressing with regard to gender relations. The objective of these forums enabled AWEPA to produce a gender programme which will be owned both in terms of process and content by the stakeholders.

Gender Round Table Dar-es-Salaam:

In June a Gender Round Table was held in Dar-es-Salam bringing together 14 women parliamentarians representing different parliamentary bodies from across Africa. The meeting discussed and endorsed AWEPA’s Concept Note, and recommended six concrete measures/actions that can be taken to improve the situation of women parliamentarians and women as a whole in Africa.

Mission of African Parliamentarians to Ignite Continental Action Towards Abandonment of Female Genital Mutilation, Ethiopia, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

In August Ethiopian members of the Pan African Parliament Women’s Caucus supported by AWEPA organised a mission of Parliamentarians from Ethiopia and seven African Countries. The aim of the mission was to set in motion a coordinated continental effort, in collaboration with the African Union, to shake off the harmful traditional practice of Female Genital Mutilation / Cutting (FGM/C).

The concrete outcome of the mission was a set of ten specific recommendations for review and adoption by the Pan-African Parliament to ensure a more active role of African Parliamentarians as champions and agents of change for FGM/C Abandonment both nationally and continentally.

Gender Forum Cape Town, South Africa:

Following the Gender Round Table, AWEPA organised a Gender Forum in Cape Town in October in which 35 African women parliamentarians participated. AWEPA gave an update on activities and projections since the Gender Round Table and asked for further feedback. The meeting narrowed the focus to three main focuses:

Solidarity between European and African women MPs.
Strengthening the African women’s caucuses, forums and institutions.
In order to deepen one theme for a longer period towards concrete measures the area of violence against women was chosen, specifically FGM/C.

Taking these recommendations from our African partners, the Gender Programme is focussing on the ways and means needed to actualise them, with specific focus on developing a programme with the ability to assist in ending the practice of Female Genital Mutilation in Africa and Europe.