Event

Somali Women's Expert Group Meeting on the Post-Conflict Joint Needs Assessment

Event Type: Conference, Meeting or Symposium

Date: 21.02.06 – 22.02.06
Time: 8:30 AM – 4:30 PM

Location: Kenya – Inter Continental Hotel, Nairobi

Details

The post-conflict Joint Needs Assessment for Somalia is organized around  six priority clusters namely: (a) Governance, Safety  and Rule of Law, (b) Macro-economic policy framework and data development, (c) Infrastructure, (d) Social services and protection of vulnerable groups, (e) Productive sectors and environment, (f) Livelihoods and solutions for the displaced. It is a principle of the Joint Needs Assessment that Gender and Human Rights will be treated as cross-cutting issues. Other crosscutting issues are peace building and capacity building, which must also be addressed from a Human Rights Based Approach.

UNIFEM as leader of the cross cutting cluster on gender and Human rights  will work in partnership with the Inter Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD) to bring together a team of over 40 women and gender experts in an expert meeting to elaborate on the key priorities and results areas for gender in the post-conflict reconstruction agenda for Somalia. In post conflict countries should be facilitated to become national stakeholders in the peace building process and in the post conflict reconstruction process.

The objectives of the proposed Somali EGM on gender includes:

1. Mobilization Somali women parliamentarians and experts to form a forum that will define Somalia women’s priorities and advocate for interventions that will respond to women’s rights, protection and leadership.
2. Sharing experiences on institutionalizing the gender mainstreaming framework with other post conflict countries in the IGAD region.
3. Reviewing technical documents and publications that were submitted during the peace process in the context of the ongoing transition process in order to recommend an institutional framework for gender mainstreaming.
4. Developing a framework for the ministry of women and family affairs (MOWAFA) at national and regional levels, which will strengthen coalition building and solidarity among Somali women.
5. Developing a coherent and coordinated strategy to lobby for the implementation of the women’s agenda in the reconstruction process.
6. Advocating for donor support for the coherent strategy for strengthening women participation to promote human rights and protection.

The EGM will focus on achieving the following two major outputs for each cluster:

1. Recommendations for JNA on women’s priorities to be included in JNA, and
2. Communiqué summarizing the recommendations which will be presented for adoption at ministerial meeting in order to get political support from IGAD members.

The high level expert group meeting on gender will be addressed by senior officials from IGAD, including Ambassador Kiplagat, the IGAD Special Envoy on Somalia; the United Nations Secretary General’s Representative to Somalia, Ambassador Francois Fall, the Joint Needs Assessment Senior Coordinator for Somalia, Mr David Bassiouni, and the UNIFEM Regional Programme Director for East and Horn of Africa, Mrs Nyaradzai Gumbonzvanda.

Sponsored by: United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM) in partnership with IGAD and financial assistance from SIDA (Sweden).

Contact:
Hendrica Okondo, UNIFEM Programme Manager, Somalia

Tel: +254 20-7624383
Fax: +254 20-7624494