African civil society organizations demand to be given a bigger role in regional evaluation reviews
ECA Press Release No. 54/2009
Addis Ababa 22 October 2009 (ECA) – In a statement issued on the second day of the ICPD+15 expert meeting gathered in Addis Abeba to review progress achieved in the implementation of ICPD Plan of Action, members of the civil society attending the meeting made a number of observations and recommendations for the improvement of the final phase of implementation of ICPD Programme of Action (PoA).
The statement underlined the dynamic role played by civil society organizations in Africa since ICPD Cairo Conference in 1994 to contribute meaningfully towards the achievement of the ICPD PoA and the MDGs. It noted however that such role was not adequately matched with the suitable level of involvement of Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) in charting the agenda and setting the priorities for the future implementation of the ICPD PoA.
According to the statement “effective involvement of the civil society in the preparation of the review would have been important and helpful in the inception of country, regional and continental reports as CSOs have gathered and documented useful data through surveys and program evaluations”.
The statement suggested that convening an NGOs Forum as is usually the case in the review process of the implementation of Beijing Platform for Action for the advancement of women would have generated information to enrich the proceedings of the expert meeting.
Increasing the number of CSOs representatives in country delegations, as well as including youth are two aspects, which need to be addressed to ensure a more representative outcome.
Talking about the context under which the current review of ICPD PoA is conducted, the statement underlined the uniqueness of the present context marked by a number of new challenges, which did not exist fifteen years ago when the ICPD Cairo Conference convened. Such challenges, namely global warming and global financial crisis should have been better articulated to help formulate new strategies.
The CSOs statement welcomed the establishment of the UN Economic Commission for Africa - ECA’s Committee on Human and Social Development and stressed the need to strengthen it through broader participation of all stakeholders and by laying more emphasis on the ICPD PoA and the Maputo Plan of Action.
As a way forward, the statement listed a number of recommendations to boost the role of CSOs at the national and regional level in order to effectively contribute to achieving the ICPD/PoA and the MDGs. Some of these recommendations are:
- The urgent creation of a Forum, which will serve as a space for CSOs to input into the agenda of ICPD PoA for the next five years;
- Taking concrete measures to help CSOs monitor and evaluate implementation and to produce a shadow report to complement government reports;
- The inclusion of CSOs in country delegations and enhance CSOs participation;
- Opting for efficient and accountable use of resources for maximum gains; and
- Improving data collection, documentation and sharing of lessons at country, regional and continental level and enhance CSOs and state parties collaboration in this area.
The statement also insisted that a visible place be given to ICPD PoA and Africa’s related PoAs in the work of ECA’s Committee on human and social development.
For more information, contact:
Kaylois Henry, UNECA, ecainfo@uneca.org Houda Mejri, ECA/ACGS, hmejri@uneca. org
Esther Tankou , African Union Commission, yamboue@africa-union.org George Ngwa, UNFPA, ngwa@unfpa.org
