During the 53rd Session of the Commission on the Status of Women in March 2009 an African Non Governmental Organisation (NGO) Task Force on Beijing +15 was set up. The aim was to spearhead the process of mobilizing women in Africa to organize and prepare for the participation of African women in the regional processes leading up to the 2010 Beijing +15 Review and the 2010 Global NGO Forum. The Task Force members coordinated the dissemination of information about the review process, and facilitated women’s NGOs operating at national levels to collaborate and engage in national review processes as well as in the process of developing national shadow reports. Through this document, African women’s NGOs report on the progress, gaps and challenges experienced in the implementation of the Beijing Platform for Action in West, East and Southern Africa. The report argues, for example, that in East Africa governments have shown progress towards the implementation of the Beijing commitments in all countries except Somalia. However, the degree to which these commitments are implemented varies from country to country. For instance only Rwanda and Tanzania have ratified the African Union (AU) Protocol on Women’s Rights as of October 2009. For the purposes of the review, the report also maps out the progress, gaps and challenges under each critical area of concern.
For example under the section on violence against women the resource highlights how in Nigeria, the national anti‐trafficking law is unknown to most citizens and law enforcement agents. In Morocco the government has put in place penalties for exploitation of women in prostitution and sex tourism. However these are insufficient measures and implementation is slow. In several instances the report indicates that the numerous policies and actions plans developed and/ or reviewed in the last five years have taken huge resources with minimal results in terms of fundamental changes in the daily realities of women’s lives in Africa. Finally, the report gives actionable recommendations to African governments in order to accelerate the implementation of the Beijing Platform for Action over the next 5 years. These include reforming the education system to give life skills, functional literacy and to revise the school curriculum to include issues around gender equality, human rights and democracy.