Gender experts end strategy meeting

Gender experts from Africa's Great Lakes region ended on Thursday a strategy workshop on the inclusion of gender issued in the implementation of a declaration on peace, security, democracy and development that the region's heads of state signed in November 2004. According to a statement issued at the end of the two-day workshop, the experts made proposals that would "ensure that gender is effectively mainstreamed in the protocols, programmes of action and projects" of the UN and African Union-supported International Conference on the Great Lakes Region (ICGLR). The workshop is one of many meetings of various expert groups that are part of the ICGLR, set up to implement the declaration. The four themes of the conference are peace and security; democracy and good governance; economic development and regional integration; and, humanitarian and social issues. The 11 core countries of the ICGLR are Angola, Burundi, Central Africa Republic, Republic of Congo, Democratic Republic of Congo, Kenya, Rwanda, Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia. Gender experts from these countries, as well as experts from the UN Fund for Women, the UN Mission in Burundi, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs and other UN agencies, attended the workshop.