Regional Conference on Women Security Sector Governance, Kampala

ACORD in alliance with Action Aid International Africa, The African Women's Development Fund, Urgent Action Fund Africa, Akina Mama wa Afrika, the Great Lakes Parliamentary Forum on Peace - Amani Forum and Fahamu hosted the second Pan African Conference on Sexual and Gender Based Violence from 26 to 28 October in Kampala, Uganda.  Download Conference Abstracts

This stock-taking conference, themed Due Diligence and Women's Security: Relocating the Narratives is a follow-up to a successful convening in July 2008 in Nairobi. This convening zoned in on two key questions that continue to shape development and governance discourse in the continent today: security sector reform and transitional justice.

In keeping with the first conference, ACORD created platforms for practical and programmatic reflection on how to engage in work around women’s security in a manner more comprehensive and nuanced than through the limited lens of sexual violence.

The conference brought together leading experts in security sector governance debates from the Diaspora and in Africa as well as experts on transitional justice. Over two days through a range of dialogical methodologies space was created for women’s rights experts, members of regional parliaments and regional economic blocs to debate on the current trends, challenges and key directions for women’s rights work as it intersects with these two areas.

The conference was also an opportunity to validate a framework of tools for the development of an SGBV index, an action point mooted by the former Pan African President Dr. Gertrude Mongella at the 2008 conference. ACORD initiated a baseline study and research process that has culminated in a framework which will be analysed and validated by key experts in the region. This regional validation also benefited from the insights of Thoko Rudvidzo of UNECA, under whose stewardship the African Gender and Development Index was successfully completed. We see the future SGBV index as complementing the AGDI index and hope to work closely with UNECA to actualise it. During the event ACORD drew on existing peer review mechanism through the experiences of Dr. Grace Ongile who had led the Africa peer review mechanism at NEPAD Kenya.

This conference was made possible by partial funding from the Dutch Government’s MDG3 Fund through which ACORD launched its sub regional programme titled “The Hidden War Crimes: Challenging the Impunity on Sexual and Gender Based violence in Countries in the International Conference for the Great Lakes Region (ICGLR)” - Burundi, Democratic Republic of Congo, Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania.

Related topics:

Africa: Developing Stronger Protection against Gender-Based Violence

Kinshasa: Judicial Audit Review Prioritises Reforms

Nairobi: ACORD Launches Regional Gender Programme

IPS: Governments Must be held Accountable to Meet MDGs