Seminar on gender and water resources management in Africa: statement by Mr. Dickson Mzumara director, office in Southern Africa, economic commission for Africa

Abstract

Statement by Mr. Dickson Mzumara Director, Office in Southern Africa, Economic Commission for Africa at the Seminar on Gender and Water Resources Management in Africa. Mr. Mzumara, on his remarks highlighted that this seminar has been organized as a follow-up to the African Ministerial Conference on Water held in December 2003 in Addis Ababa, during the Pan African Implementation and Partnership Conference on Water. At that meeting the African Ministers adopted a number of commitments some of which addressed the mainstreaming of gender in water resources management. During 2004, the ECA organized 5 sub-regional meetings on the implementation of the Beijing Platform for Action. The meetings were organized in each of the sub regions of the ECA culminating in the regional meeting on the Decade Review of the Beijing Platform for Action, organized in Addis Ababa in October 2004. The follow-up Global Review meeting is NOW taking place at U.N. Headquarters in New York. The Platform for Action that is being reviewed was the outcome of the Fourth World Conference on Women held in Beijing, China, in 1995 and it provides a framework for action to overcome all major obstacles towards gender equality and sustainable development.