Background
The United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) in collaboration with the Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) and with the support of the United Nations Population fund (UNFPA) is implementing an innovative project to harness the twin potential of the demographic dividend and gender equality in Africa and Asia and the Pacific for sustainable development. The project entitled “Demographic Dividend with a Gender Dimension: Entry Points for implementation of Sustainable Development Goals in Africa and Asia and the Pacific” is being implemented over a period of four years, from 2018 to 2021. It aims to strengthen the capacity of member States and regional economic communities to mainstream gender into national policies and programmes, promote youth development and enhance national evidence-based policies to reduce inequalities and reap the demographic dividend.
The initiative is expected to benefit selected member States of Africa and Asia through:
- enhanced capacities of governments to integrate the demographic dividend and gender equality dimensions into their national plans and policies; and
- enhanced technical capacities to regularly monitor and assess progress on harnessing the demographic dividend and related gender dimensions
The project will achieve its objective through production and dissemination of a variety of knowledge products and statistical tools for monitoring and assessing progress as well as establishing and revitalizing virtual and physical platforms for policy dialogues among many stakeholders within and across both regions. The cross regional approach of this project is based on the premise that South-South cooperation can foster exchange of experience on common areas of interest with particular focus on the importance of harnessing demographic dividend and achieving gender equality for sustainable development and facilitate dissemination of best practices and success stories.
For the Africa region, the interventions will focus on three countries - Nigeria, Uganda and South Africa. Two more countries, Ghana and Zambia, have been engaged in the Project to champion the commitments and enrich the lessons drawn from the Project.
The initial phase of the project (2018-2019) was dedicated to the production of the following knowledge products and tools:
- country situational analyses to identify gaps and good practices on integrating policies to harness the benefits of the demographic dividend into national plans with the gender dimension;
- an operational manual on integration of the demographic dividend and gender dimensions into strategies for SDGs implementation and follow-up; and
- a statistical dashboard and a summary index to monitor and strengthen the synergy between gender equality and the demographic dividend.
Objectives of the Workshop
The regional dialogue workshop will seek to review and validate the above cited knowledge products which aims to enhance the capacity member States to integrate the demographic dividend and gender equality dimensions into their policies, plans and strategies geared towards the attainment of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). It will also serve as a platform for selected member States to share best practices, exchange knowledge and experiences on enhancing the nexus between gender equality and the demographic dividend.
The workshop has four main objectives:
- gather experts’ feedback on the draft situation analyses
- review the draft operational manual on integration of the demographic dividend and gender dimensions into development strategies
- review and validate the draft statistical dashboard and summary index; an
- discuss and agree on a joint strategy for successful implementation of the project.
The regional workshop will feed into national capacity development workshops during which technical support will be provided to member States for the domestication of the knowledge products and policy tools.
Expected Outcomes
The workshop is expected to achieve the following results:
- Situation analysis reports for: South Africa, Uganda, Nigeria, Ghana and Zambia validated;
- Enhanced knowledge on gender and the demographic dividend nexus including information on country experiences and good practices.
- Feedback is provided to the consultants on work done so far on the draft operational manual and the draft statistical dashboard;
- Roadmap for subsequent project activities discussed and agreed upon; and
Organizational arrangements and participation
The workshop is being organized by the Gender, Poverty and Social Policy Division of ECA. It will take place from 23 to 25 April 2019 at the United Nations Conference Centre, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
The meeting will bring together about 50 gender and demographic dividend experts from the focus countries of the project and also from selected member States in Africa. They will include the country project teams, representatives from embassies or relevant sectoral ministries, national statistical office, academia, civil society organizations and UN agencies.
Language
The deliberations of the meeting will be conducted in English and French with simultaneous interpretation services.
Contacts
This EGM is being organized under the direction of Ms. Thokozile Ruzvidzo, Director, Gender, Poverty and Social Policy Division, ECA.
For more information, kindly direct all your inquiries to: Mr.Selsah Pasali (pasali@un.org) and Ms. Mamusa Siyunyi (siyunyi@un.org) copying Ms. Hannan Mohamed (mohamed27@un.org).