Sitting of the ECOWAS Parliament’s Joint Committee on Gender, Employment and Social Welfare and Committee on Health and Social Services is expected to open in
According to a press release from the ECOWAS Commission, the sitting, scheduled from the 7th to the 11th August, will among others tackle the theme: “Validation of the ECOWAS Parliament Gender Strategy.”
The Joint Committee is expected to consider and update its draft gender strategy, submitted to it by a resource centre, The Canadian Parliamentary Centre in 2010, which it had hitherto considered in a couple of its sittings, but could not get through the plenary to adopt due to certain constraints.
The sitting will be guided by the ECOWAS Gender Policy to formulate a gender strategy for the Parliament.
In view of the different presentations and clarifications to be made by the ECOWAS Commission on the Community Gender Policy and the Canadian Parliamentary Centre on the gender issues within the francophone, anglophone and lusophone contexts, as well as by other independent experts in the field of gender, at the end of the sitting, Members of the Committee are expected to have a better insight into the contexts, vision, objectives to be achieved, the expected outcomes, measurement indicators, monitoring and evaluation, threats and opportunities, key players, levers and activities in relation to all stakeholders within the framework of the ECOWAS Gender Policy.
Ultimately, the five-day sitting will rise after adopting the ECOWAS Parliament’s Gender Development Strategy Paper, for onward submission to the Plenary during the 2nd Ordinary Session of the Parliament in September 2012.
The Committee on Gender, Labour, employment and social Welfare is mandated by the Rules of procedure of the 3rd Legislature to function in the development of a Community policy on equal opportunities, including equality between men and women with regard to employment opportunities as well as in the elimination of all forms of discrimination against women, including customary practices.
