Women's NGOs, women's networks, experts, scholars and researchers call for a permanant office for the AU SE on WPS

Representatives of women's networks, women's NGOs and experts on gender peace and security on the African continent will present a highly political petition to the AU Peace and Security Council for a permanent position of the office of the Special Envoy on Women, Peace and Security as part of the African Peace and Security Architecture (APSA).

During her presentation to flag the findings of her group assignment, Mfrekeobong Ukpanah, Programme Officer for Early Warning and Conflict Prevention in Nigeria noted that, "The position of the AU Special Envoy on Women, Peace and Security does not have to come to an end when the current Chairperson goes out of office. It has to remain permanent, as permanent as conflict remains on the continent, or maybe as permanent as until the vision of Agenda 2063 is achieved. At any given time the in coming Chairperson will need the Special Envoy's office for continuity purposes."

In the past hour women representing different women's NGOs and women's networks as well as experts, scholars and researchers on women peace and security at the AU consultation meeting with the Special Envoy on women peace and security worked in groups to assess the current framework on Women, Peace and Security, in a bid to give special advice and recommendations to the office of the Special Envoy on how to strengthen interventions on women peace and security on the continent.

During same discussions the AU Special Envoy Mme Bineta Diop called for massive documentation of peace processes on the continent showing how women in different states have been part of the negotiating processes that have taken place. Best practices must be replicated for learning purposes, but most importantly also so that women's history is not down written. She applauded the documentation of the Liberian women's struggle with the Charles Taylor government and how they influenced negotiations externally, but bemoaned the missing narrative on what women did to influence the same from within. She also bemoaned the missing narrative of the struggles of the Manor River women and their work to stop war and prevent death and suffering.

"Their work must be documented and their home grown solutions replicated in other conflict spaces on the continent. There is need for deep research and deep analysis on the roles women play in conflict in Africa. Two conflicts are never the same. We need well documented evidence to give value to women's lives. There is no need for women to demonstrate their capabilities anymore, no need for further proofs of what women can do, African men in power must simply accept that women can do it. Africa must mobilise human and financial resources for the development of key knowledge and skills in peace and security processes. We don't have to continuously look out to external sources of funding, we need to harness our own resources, government resources must be shared equally for the women's cause, we belong to our governments and they belong to us. True transformation is owned by local communities. People must be developed, biggest capital is the human capital and must stay on top of our major concern. It is not enough to just have a budget for the ministries of gender but to leverage impact through out all government ministries and sectors. We must also harness the private sector and make them part and parcel of the bigger continental architecture for peace and security. A success story is how the AU Chairperson Madam Nkosanzana Dhlamini-Zuma harnessed the efforts of the private sector and raised enough resources to deploy 1,000 health workers to Ebola stricken countries recently."

Describing herself as "(I am) Each one of you in your country!", the AU Special Envoy really surfaced a face of Pan African solidarity, and called on the need for the women of Africa to work together tirelessly until the Africa we want becomes reality. Although the gender, peace and security programme in the AU department of epace and security is fairly new, the following achievements have so far been realised:

• A gender perspective has been mainstreamed in all programmes of the AU and instruments at the international and regional levels looking at women’s participation, protection in armed conflict, women early warning and early response in prevention measures to be adopted.
• Action plans and indicators for implementation have been adopted in the Great Lakes Region and similar ones are in draft form in the Manor Rivers Region.
• The SE has taken field visits to war torn areas to assess the situation on the ground and prepare ground for further follow-ups for action at both national and regional levels.