The Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD) hosted the 7th Meeting of Ministers responsible for Women or Gender Affairs of the IGAD Member States from the 3-7 of December 2018 in Khartoum, Republic of Sudan. The meeting was held under the theme: Leaving No One Behind: Promoting Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment (GEWE) to enhance Drought Resilience, Regional Integration and Peace for Sustainable Development. The meeting was preceded by two days’ deliberations by experts from Member States on the priority thematic areas, in line with the United Nations (UN) 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and African Union (AU) Agenda 2063.
The 7th Meeting of Ministers was therefore informed by three priority thematic areas on; Gender and Drought Resilience with special attention to cross border areas; Gender and Migration, and Gender, Peace and Security, with specific focus on efforts to promote gender equality in Peace Support Operations (PSOs).
The main outcome of the meeting was the Communiqué of the 7th Meeting of Ministers responsible for Women/Gender Affairs of IGAD Member States. The communiqué provides an overview of the key policy concerns, priority issues and required for GEWE interventions in the context of drought resilience, migration as well as PSOs in the IGAD region. It also provides recommendations for decision making by IGAD Policy Organs (Committee of Ambassadors, Council of Ministers and Assembly of Heads of State and Government) and recommendations for follow up actions by IGAD Secretariat, Programme Steering Committees as well as other duty bearers (regional and national) until the next Ministerial Meeting. It also provides recommendations for priority issues to be covered within the next cluster dialogues.
ACCORD has been a partner of IGAD in implementing its peace and security related programs and the involvement of women in decision-making, development and peace processes. Through this initiative ACCORD remains committed to contributing towards supporting the implementation of the African Peace and Security Architecture (APSA).
