Eurostep Home Page

Brussels, November 1999

Dear Madam, Dear Sir,

Following up on the Eurostep position paper “Poverty Eradication and Gender Equality. A Benchmark for the Successor Agreement between the EU and the ACP”, which was produced for the Ministerial negotiations taking place in July 1999, we would like to comment on the results of the negotiation concerning poverty eradication and gender equality.

We would like to draw your attention to the issue of mainstreaming gender equality in the agreed Key Sentences of the framework agreement.

We are concerned about the fact that although both negotiating parties have accepted gender equality as a crosscutting issue of ACP-EU co-operation, there is surprisingly little reference to this issue except in the specific Key Sentences on gender equality produced by working group 2.

Key sentences produced by the negotiating parties in July recommended the mainstreaming of gender issues throughout the agreement.

Yet, an analysis of the key sentences produced by the four negotiating groups, indicates that the marginalisation of gender equality is likely to continue in the next Agreement.

It has been argued that gender equality is best catered for at the implementation phase. However, experience show that implementation can only be monitored for gender awareness if explicit references are made throughout the framework on which co-operation is based.

Another concern is the lack of bold objectives and goals in the key sentences produced so far by the negotiating groups.

The objective stated in the Preamble from the July Negotiations “… the partnership shall be centred on the objective of reducing and eventually eradicating poverty” appears to have been weakened instead of strengthened.

We would like to refer to the Eurostep position paper of July 99 in which we recommend that the objectives of new agreement should include:

• The eradication of poverty, agreed at the UN summit for Social Development;
• The empowerment of women, the objective of the Beijing Platform of Action;
• The full realisation of all human rights and fundamental freedoms, including women’s rights, agreed at the UN Summit for Human Rights.

In addition while the key sentences produced so far by the negotiating group 2 provide for a broad framework, they do not identify specific goals.

Eurostep believes that the goals should be based on commitments that have already been agreed at the World Summit for Social Development and the Fourth World Conference on Women and should include:

• A reduction by one-half in the proportion of people living in extreme poverty by 2015;
• Universal primary education in all countries by 2015;
• Demonstrated progress towards gender equality and the empowerment of women by eliminating gender disparity in primary and secondary education by 2005;
• A reduction in two-thirds in the mortality rates for infants and children under age 5 and a reduction by three-fourths in maternal mortality, all by 2015.
• Access through the primary health-care system to reproductive health services for all individuals of appropriate ages as soon as possible and no later then the year 2015.

Concerning the following phrase from the preamble proposed by the Central Negotiation group in July: “Recalling the commitments within the framework of the World Trade Organisation”. Eurostep is of the view that the commitments made in the WTO do not have the objective to eradicate poverty, and the reference is, therefore, irrelevant and should be deleted.

We urge the EC and the Member States to introduce clear objectives and goals and prepare concrete proposals for implementation procedures guaranteeing gender mainstreaming in practice into the future ACP-EU cooperation.

Updated on 10 December 1999
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