General observations on the status of African NGOs since 1994

Abstract

The growth of the global women's movement has evolved gradually but surely since the first United Nations Conference on Women in 1975 in Mexico. At this Conference, women associations and organizations, together with women representatives of governments from all over the world demonstrated that they were important players in all the sectors of life. As the rhythm of organizing UN regional and global meetings on women stabilized to a pattern of holding every 5 years, women in the civil society continued to organize themselves to contribute significantly to the outcomes of the meetings. At the national level, many countries, particularly in the southern and eastern African subregions, also established and nurtured NGOs that engaged in political, economic and social advocacy and research that had far reaching effect in setting government agenda and priorities nationally. The outcome of the UN conferences also benefited from NGO inputs.