Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) arising from Tripoli Commitment for monitoring and evaluation and reporting on the implementation of the Solemn Declaration on Gender Equality (SDGE)
Full document »

We, the Civil Society Organizations working across Africa meeting at the 6th Consultative meeting on Gender Mainstreaming in the African Union (AU) in Tripoli, Libya, 1-2 July 2005 prior to the 5th Ordinary Session of the Assembly of Heads of State and Government to follow-up on the implementation of the Solemn Declaration on Gender Equality (SDGE):

Building upon the important work and achievements accomplished by African women’s networks under the initiative of the African Women Committee for Peace and Development (AWCPD) and Femmes Africa Solidarité (FAS) during previous consultative meetings in Durban in June 2002 organized by the African Centre for the Constructive Resolution of Disputes (ACCORD); in Dakar in April 2003; in Maputo in June 2003 organized by the Foundation for Community Development (FCD); in Addis Ababa in June 2004 organized by the AU Gender Directorate; and in Abuja in January 2005 organized by the Africa Leadership Forum (ALF). In addition to the organisations above, participating networks committed to this campaign have included: FEMNET, WILDAF, ACDHRS, WAWA, MARWOPNET, ATM, EBWA, Akina Mama Wa Africa, AWA, FAWE, Equality Now, ABANTU, AAWORD, NPI, SSWC, ANSEDI, Pan African Movement, CAFOB and other partners.

Recognising, the commitment of the Minster of Social Affairs of The Great Socialist Peoples Libyan Arabe Jamahiriya in facilitating the 6th Women’s Pre-Summit Consultative Meeting

Recalling the commitment of the African Heads of State to gender equality as a major goal of the AU as enshrined in Article 4 (1) of the Constitutive Act of the African Union, in particular the decision to implement and uphold the principle of gender parity taken at the Inaugural session of the AU Assembly of Heads of State and Government in July 2002 in Durban South Africa and its operationalization during the Second Ordinary Session in Maputo, Mozambique 2003, the decision to establish a Gender Directorate within the Office of the Chairperson of the Commission, the resolve to integrate the formal African Women Committee on Peace and Development into the organs or the Commission of the African Union as well as the Solemn Declaration on Gender Equality in Africa adopted by the Conference of Heads of State and Government of the African Union in Addis-Ababa, Ethiopia in July 2004;

Recognizing their previous commitments to the implementation of Convention on the Elimination of All Form of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW); the Beijing Platform for Action; the Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa (2003); Universal Declaration of Human Rights, International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, the African Charter on the Rights of the Child and all other relevant international, regional and sub-regional instruments aimed at eliminating all forms of discrimination against women and promoting equality between women and men;

Considering their commitment to implement the UN Resolution 1325 (2000) on Women, Peace and Security; to combat the HIV/AIDS pandemic and other related infectious diseases as contained in the Maputo Declarations on Malaria, HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis and other Related infectious diseases; as well as the Millennium Development Goals (MDG); and the NEPAD programme;

Acknowledging, the AU Gender Directorate meeting of gender experts in May 2005 on developing a monitoring and evaluation framework for the Solemn Declaration on Gender Equality.

Resolve, to build on the momentum of the adoption of the SDGE by agreeing to partner in facilitating a process to monitor, evaluate and report on the implementation of the SDGE,

We commit ourselves to

• Take collective responsibility to accelerate the advocacy campaign for the implementation of SDGE
• Increase networking activities aimed at the implementation of the SDGE by identifying focal point organisation in the thematic areas of the SDGE to facilitate further involvement of the local, national ,regional networks
• Continue strengthening the various partnerships with the AU Directorate, AU Commission, ECOSOCC, the Pan African Parliament, other AU organs, the REC’s and all international partners on the implementation of the SDGE;
• Consolidate and co-ordinate the various attempts by civil society organisations and networks to document the process of civil society that led to the adoption of the SDGE
• Stimulate existing regional networks such as WAWA; and initiate the formation of such where they do not exist to take ownership of the process and mobilize support from national organizations
• Document the monitoring, evaluation and reporting on the SDGE against the Monitoring and Evaluation Framework developed
• Convene an Annual Women’s civil society Pre-Summit consultative meeting in July to inform each other on the progress made in the implementation of the SDGE I our thematic areas
• Develop an annual progress report by civil society on the implementation of the SDGE.
• Mobilise human and financial resources to implement activities around the SDGE

Roles and Responsibilities:

We agreed that

• The following networks, involved since the inception of the Women’s Pre-summit meeting in Durban in 2002, undertake to facilitate the expansion of participation of other organisations/ networks; on thematic issues as shown below -

Thematic Areas               Facilitating Organisation
Governance                       Africa Leadership Forum
Human Rights                    WILDAF
Peace and Security             FAS/ACCORD
Health
Education                          (FAWE)
Economic Empowerment     Africa Women Development Fund/AWDF

• In addition the focal points will facilitate the process of reporting on the progress for input into annual report on the SDGE.
  
  
• Each of the participating organization will take responsibility to mainstream activities around the SDGE into their existing organizational work.
  
  
• FAS would continue the coordinating role by fundraising and appointing programme personnel for gender mainstreaming in the African Union.
  
  
• Focal point organizations would fundraise for specific activities in thematic areas and jointly fundraise for regional and continental activities.

 

Done in Tripoli, Libya 2 July 2005

Femmes Africa Solidarite (FAS)
Women’s Society of Alfateh University Tripoli –Libya
Libyan Women’s Union
WILDAF
Advocacy for Women in Africa
Africa Leadership Forum
Egyptian Business Women’s Association
African Centre for the Constructive Resolution of Disputes (ACCORD)
Tunisian Mothers Association