During a debate on 'Maternal, Infant and Child Health and Development' held during the 15th Ordinary Session of the Summit of the African Union (AU) recently concluded in Kampala, President Yoweri Museveni of Uganda and President Armando Emilio Guebuza of Mozambique challenged the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) Executive Director Mrs. Thora Obaid’s claim that women’s issues are not a priority for African leaders. Our commemoration of Pan-African Women’s Day today provides an important occasion to reflect on the status of women in Africa and of governmental commitments to its amelioration. Are women a priority?

About 70 days from now, on October 10, the African Union, in collaboration with the Government of Kenya and civil society organizations, will launch the AU African Women’s Decade 2010-2020 here in Nairobi. This decade begins 25 years after the United Nation’s Third World Conference of Women (Nairobi), six years after African Heads of State adopted the Solemn Declaration on Gender Equality in Africa, and on the eve of the fifth anniversary of the entry into force of the Protocol to the African Charter on Human and People’s Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa (Maputo Protocol). The decade is meant to provide citizens and states with the opportunity to reflect on progress made in advancing gender equality and women’s empowerment and for states to take action ensuring their commitments to African women are realized during the next ten years. As we celebrate the Pan-African Women’s Day, 31 July 2010, African women expect no less than genuine action!

Critical to gender equality is women’s realization of the rights enshrined in the Maputo Protocol, an instrument which guarantees women’s social, political, and reproductive rights. During the AU Summit, Uganda became the 28th country to ratify the Protocol and the third East African Community Member to ratify, after Rwanda and Tanzania. While we congratulate Uganda and the other countries that have ratified, Kenya must serve as an example as it prepares to host the continental launch of the AU African Women’s Decade. At the same time, African states must go beyond discussion and ratification and fully deliver on their commitments to gender equality. That is what the African Women’s Decade is all about!

* Brenda Kombo is Senior Program Officer at Equality Now Nairobi Office and is in charge of coordinating the Solidarity for African Women’s Rights (SOAWR) coalition campaign on the AU Protocol on the Rights of Women in Africa. SOAWR has 36 member organizations from across the continent.

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