ACPSP: Gender Equality Network

The Gender Network brings together women parliamentarians and supporting partners including male MPs and representatives of civil society who have the common goal of furthering the integration of gender considerations in the development of Africa.

Evolution of the Gender Network

The Africa-Canada Parliamentary Strengthening Program (ACPSP) emanated from Canada’s response to the New Partnership for Africa’s Development initiative. At the ACPSP’s inaugural meeting in Accra, Ghana, the women Parliamentarians expressed concern about the gender aspects in the NEPAD document and resolved to form a Women’s Working Group on Gender (WWGG) whose main objective is to ensure the integration of gender issues in all the NEPAD components. Being an informal group, the WWGG members identified the following six priority areas to focus on:

• Advocacy for integration of women in the NEPAD process
• Identifying and developing strategies for dealing with regional focus issues
• Facilitating women’s access to decision-making positions
• Building capacity for women Parliamentarians
• Addressing the HIV/AIDS pandemic, especially the mother to child transmission
• Addressing the question of how women can benefit from the information technology

Gender Network Membership

The original membership was based on women parliamentarians who attended the second ACPSP meeting held in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia in May 2003. The membership has since expanded to include not only women MPs, but also members of Civil Society with relevance to the role of Parliamentarians, such as women lawyers associations. The Network also aims to reach out to partner women’s networks on a national and regional basis. Ties have been established, among others, with the Women’s Parliamentary Network of the Assemblée Parlementaire de la Francophonie. The Network now aims to maximize its reach and facilitate communications by connecting with women’s caucuses and equivalent structures in national and regional parliaments.

Joining the Gender Network

Gender Network’s Activities

The network is involved in advocacy work on NEPAD related activities and has since successfully lobbied for representation at the African Heads of State and Government Summit held in Maputo, Mozambique in July 2003. A network representative Hon. Priscilla Misiharabwi-Mushonga MP, presented a paper on, “The role of women and Civil Society” at the African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM) conference held in Uganda in December 2003. The Network now aims to support the women’s caucuses in countries undergoing the APRM (Rwanda, Ghana, Kenya, etc.) to actively monitor the review process.

In addressing regional focus issues, the first regional workshop for West Africa was held in Mali in March 2004 and focused on the role of MPs in economic empowerment of women through micro-finance. A workshop for the East African region is planned for Kigali in September 2004 and is expected to concentrate on the role of MPs in poverty reduction in post-conflict situations within the context of the NEPAD initiative.

The Gender Network recently sponsored a National Women’s Conference in Uganda on the impact on women’s representation of the proposed transition to a multiparty system.

Other activities planned for the next year include a gender-budget training targeted to members of key parliamentary committees, a review workshop on the implementation of the CEDAW in collaboration with the women’s network of the Assemblée parlementaire de la Francophonie, as well as support to the creation of a women’s caucus within the Pan-African Parliament.

For more information, please contact Annie Gingras