Hello women’s rights advocates, activists and feminists!
2019 presents an opportunity for us to contribute and influence the 25 years review of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action.
For starters, you can begin by identifying who is leading the review process in your country – both government and CSOs-led initiatives.
And then position and strategize yourself to meaningfully contribute, influence, and ‘disrupt’ with thinking that is not business as usual.
Finally, connect across movements to strengthen the diverse Africa women’s movements!
Connect with the Beijing+25 Youth TaskForce
Beijing +25 Youth Task Force is a team of 30 young leaders drawn from different youth-led and youth-serving organizations, with diverse areas of expertise and from all regions of the world. They represent young people in all their diversity and across intersectional complexities including marital status, disability, sexual orientation, gender identity and expression, indigenous and ethnic identities, and refugee or migrant status. The selected youth leaders have also a track record of driving change in their communities and mobilizing young people for the empowerment young women and girls all over the world. The youth leaders will support and guide UN Women’s efforts to place young people at the centre of the Beijing+25 process; be part of a network of young supporters that will foster momentum on youth engagement for gender equality on a global level; and exchange expertise and knowledge with other young people that are working towards the same goals. Click to know and connect with your representatives from Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Cameroon, Egypt, Zimbabwe, Ghana.
Here’s Your National Review Report
Governments are mandated to collaborate with relevant stakeholders at all levels of preparations for the 2020 Beijing review and appraisal. All the 53 AU Member States (with the exception of Libya) were required to submit their national review reports to the UN Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) by end of May 2019 using specified guidelines to show progress made and challenges encountered in the implementation of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action.
As of 2nd September 2019, the following 33 countries have submitted their national review reports to UNECA.
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Engage, Influence and Contribute to the Regional Review Reporting
UNECA is coordinating the Africa Regional Review process and the tenth Africa Regional review Conference. FEMNET will lead in coordinating Africa CSOs in this process. We will be sharing more information. For regular updates send an email to r.ouko@femnet.or.ke to be included in the beijing+25 listserve.
NGO Parallel Reporting
The NGO CSW/NY has developed and shared guidelines for national parallel reporting by NGOs. These parallel reports will provide country-specific examples and some of the significant contributions that have been made by women’s rights organizations in Africa – and give actionable recommendations to African governments in order to accelerate the implementation of the BPfA in the next 5 years and translate the many commitments to the women of Africa into concrete actions.
FEMNET will be liaising with women’s rights organizations across continent to synthesis national and sub-regional CSOs Parallel or Shadow/Alternative reports and compile the Africa Civil Society Beijing +25 Parallel Report.
In May 2019, FEMNET sent out an online survey to women’s rights advocates and activists in Africa, inviting them to share their experiences and perspectives on progress and challenges of advancing women’s rights and gender equality so as to contribute to the Beijing+25 review process.
