Though there has been some progress in realizing women’s rights in Africa, it must be acknowledged that the remaining challenges and gaps for the full realization of women’s rights is daunting. In every country in the continent, women continue to be denied full enjoyment of their rights. In Africa, 1 in 3 women have experienced either physical and/or sexual intimate partner violence or sexual violence by a non-partner at some point in their lifetime; in 6 countries there is no legal protection for women against domestic violence; African women and girls account for 62% (179 000) of all global deaths from preventable causes related to pregnancy and childbirth; an estimated 130 million girls and women alive today have undergone FGM, mainly in Africa and 125 million African women and girls alive today were married before the age of 18. If current trends continue, almost half of the world’s child brides in 2050 will be African. Protection gaps in the areas of health, marriage and family relations are particularly striking as is the non-recognition of intersectional forms of discrimination. In many countries, these gaps are also compounded by political instability and conflict.

Compounding the situation are setbacks such as the HIV/AIDS pandemic that is destroying the health of more women than men in Africa, eroding some of the development gains women had attained. In sub-Saharan Africa women comprises the highest percentage of new HIV infections globally. As a result, poverty, discrimination and gross inequality in Africa continues to wear a woman’s face. Concerned that the critical issues confronting African women were quickly returning to the shadows, even in The Gambia. Women make up 50 percent of Africa’s population, but 80 percent of them live in rural areas. More than half of rural women are employed in the agriculture sector.

And The AU?
In recommitting to scale up actions for the progressive gender inclusion towards sustainable development, African leaders declared 2020 to 2030 the new Decade of Women’s Financial and Economic Inclusion. In declaring 2020 to 2030, the Decade of African Women’s Financial and Economic Inclusion, the AU is keen to move forward the recommendations on the expansion of opportunities, particularly with the implementation of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA).

Where We Come in
AU Watch is stepping up to the challenge of tracking results and demanding that long overdue attention to gender parity in Africa not become derailed.

Achieving gender equality and empowering women and girls is the unfinished business of our time, and the greatest human rights challenge in our world. Many African governments gender policy is to achieve gender equity and women empowerment as an integral part of their national development process through enhancing participation of women and men, girls and boys for sustainable and equitable development and poverty reduction.

AU Watch is rolling out a series events and activities in The Gambia:

a. Ask questions as to how far the Government of the Gambia (according to its National Gender Policy 2010- 2020 plan) has achieved “gender equity and equality at policy, program and project levels in all institutions and levels across all sectors of The Gambian society;

b. Raise awareness of the human rights of the Gambian woman amongst the general population and enhance the implementation of The Gambia’s commitments related to gender equality and women’s empowerment;

c. Support activities resulting in tangible positive change for Gambian women at all levels, with the objective of influencing the patriarchal system in a positive to way to promote and protect the rights of women in The Gambia;

d. Hold the Gambian Government accountable to the commitments it has made for gender equity in policy decisions in the context of the African Union’s African Women’s Decade and all its UN commitments, especially its 2014 admission in in its CEDAW Report that a number of constraints have served as barriers to the eradication of violence against women, including the culture of silence, fear, shame, lack of knowledge of existing legislation and lack of data (para. 36).

e. Use the occasion of the end of the Women’s Decade’ as an opportunity for women in The Gambia and for the Government to consider how to work on the African Union’s Agenda 2063 program for women, and how to accelerate the 2030 Agenda in The Gambia, building momentum for the effective implementation of the SDGs, especially goal number 5: Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls; and number 4: Ensure inclusive and quality education for all and promote lifelong learning.

f. Raise awareness regionally that many countries in Africa have still not signed or ratified the Maputo Protocol.