Commonwealth gender group holds landmark regional meeting in Seychelles |20 January 2014

Representatives of the Southern African Group of the Commonwealth Gender Plan of Action Monitoring Group (CGPMG) held a landmark meeting in Seychelles recently to assess the progress made in the implementation of the plan of action (PoA) in each member country and to map a way forward.

This is the first time that the Southern African group has met as a region. The meeting spanning over two days presented members of the region with the opportunity to concentrate on the progress being made and also look at enhancing cooperation among our countries, looking at areas of best practice while also considering the many challenges ahead. It was held at the social affairs department’s conference room at Unity House.

The Commonwealth Plan of Action for Gender Equality 2005-2015 (PoA) was negotiated in 2004 by Commonwealth ministers responsible for women’s affairs and endorsed by Commonwealth heads of government in 2005 and received input from over 200 civil society organisations.  

The PoA provides the framework within which the Commonwealth advances its commitment to gender equality.  It focuses on four key areas namely; Gender: democracy, peace and conflict; Gender: human rights and the law; Gender: poverty eradication and economic empowerment; and Gender: and HIV/Aids.

The Commonwealth Gender Plan of Action Monitoring Group (CGPMG) was established in 2005 to function as a mechanism for monitoring, evaluating and reviewing the PoA in order to strengthen its implementation. It serves as an advisory and monitoring body to the Commonwealth Secretariat on the implementation of the PoA and in order to raise visibility at the sub-regional members have agreed to hold sub-regional level meetings.

In addition to the 21 representatives from National Women’s Machineries (NWMs), four civil society representatives are members of the Monitoring Group. Civil society involvement with the Monitoring Group is supported by the Commonwealth Foundation. The annual CGPMG meeting takes place in the wings of the United Nations’ Commission on the Status of Women conference.
 
The main responsibility of the group currently is to ensure the effective production and delivery of the End Term Review (ETR) report of the PoA, due in 2015.

The overall aims of the sub-regional meetings are for members to contribute to the ETR by assessing the implementation of the PoA at a national and regional level and agreeing the inputs and contributions from the sub-region into the ETR report.  To help facilitate this, the meeting provided ways to strengthen the monitoring performance of the CGMPG and improve communication and working arrangements between sub-regional CGPMG members and sub-regional development bodies and other partners.

Additionally the sub-regional group identified emerging regional issues, including communication channels, and opportunities, challenges and ways forward for the implementation of the PoA in the region.  A two-hour interactive video-conferencing also took place with the Commonwealth Secretariat’s Gender Unit at DICT headquarters.
 
The Seychelles has been nominated as the Spokesperson for the region and will take part in the forthcoming meeting of the executive committee in early February and report globally to the New York meeting in March 2014.

During the meeting launched by social affairs principal secretary Linda  William-Melanie, participating countries went over a series of case studies focusing on the four pillars of the PoA i.e.
 
Botswana, Namibia, Mauritius and Seychelles. They also discussed the role of the Regional Economic Commissions within the Southern African Development Community (SADC)  vis a vis the Commonwealth PoA.

In her opening remarks, PS William-Melanie noted that the main challenges faced by the group today is increasing visibility of the PoA and ensuring its effective monitoring and implementation at both global and sub-regional levels.