An assessment of NEPAD's potential for bringing about gender equity in Africa

Abstract

A search for 'gender' or 'women' on the official New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD 2001a) website yields little more than the following:

"Women who constitute a critical mass in the continent must have a central, critical and decisive role in the implementation and success of NEPAD. We must all play an advocacy role for this important component of the African society in the process of the evolution of NEPAD, as this is not a static programme." - Statement by Dr Dlamini Zuma, South African Minister of Foreign Affairs, to the Regional Women's Association on NEPAD, 4 July 2002

Amidst the plethora of official documents, press releases, speeches and policy statements available on the site, all one finds is one woman addressing a gathering of her own sex, and so presumably 'preaching to the converted', in 2002. Given that the NEPAD document itself (NEPAD 2001b) is not mute as regards gender, this paucity of 'gendered material' on the official website is somewhat perplexing. This article will assess how NEPAD could play a role in bringing about gender equity in Africa. Before doing so however, NEPAD will be 'unpacked' as to its origins; a brief summary of the nature of its content; the general criticisms levelled against it thus far; and those criticisms that focus more specifically on its gender content.