Gender
Last Updated on Monday, 16 January 2012 11:28 Written by Communications Intern Wednesday, 20 October 2010 09:22
Background
AWEPA has always been focusing on gender mainstreaming in parliaments and on the participation and empowerment of women. This is done through the organisation of workshops on the empowerment of women Members of Parliament. In general, AWEPA is always inviting gender-balanced delegations to its conferences and gender issues are also mainstreamed into all themes addressed in AWEPA's programmes.
AWEPA supports national and regional women's caucuses and gender networks, such as the PAP Women’s Caucus; EALA Women’s Forum and the Network of Women Parliamentarians in Central Africa (RFPAC), among others.
Gender Programme Towards Parliamentary Gender Equity
Whereas it is a recognized universal fact that eliminating gender inequality and achieving women’s empowerment are paramount to achieving all of the Millennium Development Goals’, 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. Women, who are the greatest sufferers in the wake of poverty, violent conflict and social upheaval, human trafficking and HIV/AIDS, remain severely under-represented in political and decision-making positions.
Programme Purpose
AWEPA continues to address gender concerns at parliamentary levels through our activities with the Pan African Parliament (PAP), the Programme for Women Parliamentarians of the Great Lakes Region (RFPAC) and ongoing support to information sharing and capacity building amongst women Parliamentary Caucuses. This three year programme proposes to contribute to improving the status of women through supporting parliaments in Africa promote and implement gender mainstreaming as a fundamental element in all aspects of decision making, policy formulation and legislative action. This is crucial if we are to make good strides towards reaching the MDG objectives in 2015. Achieving this objective will require concerted efforts through an integrated participatory approach that will not only address equity in representation but will also make deliberate efforts to raise the capacity of women parliamentarians to contribute effectively to decision making in all areas of democratic governance, policy making and legislative action. The programme will also make deliberate efforts to sensitise parliamentarians in general to recognize that gender mainstreaming is a fundamental element in contributing to efforts towards reaching the MDGs by 2015.
The Gender Programme aims to achieve this through the following objectives:
1. Support parliaments assess actions and commitment to ratify and implement international protocols and conventions on gender equity, and build monitoring mechanisms.
2. Support gender mainstreaming through legislative action, budget processes, oversight and equal representation.
3. Support parliaments, promote gender balance, enhance women visibility in parliament and within the executive and promote legislative actions sensitive to gender relations.
4. Build the capacity of women parliamentarians and caucuses to enable them gain relevant skills needed for effective participation in policy formulation and legislative actions.
5. Contribute to Gender Equity discourse through research, discussion forums, building and strengthening women parliamentarian networks as a basis for information sharing and drawing on lessons learnt to contribute to improved practice and theory.
