SOURCE: The East African
frican countries that want to continue benefiting from European Union funding for women's empowerment programmes will have to adopt a new framework released by the trade bloc.

The framework, approved recently by the European Commission and the European External Action Service aims to ensure that developing countries achieve tangible results towards gender equality, and will come into effect next year.

"With this new framework, the EU takes forward its work on gender equality," said EU vice president Federica Mogherini.

"Women's rights are human rights and human rights are women's rights. We want to provide our partners with the support they need in order to fight violence against women and girls, and at the same time to empower them socially and economically, so that women can participate actively in the political, social and cultural lives of their countries."

The framework, which will guide the EU's external relations on gender from next year until 2020, focuses on four thematic pillars: Ensuring girls' and women's physical and psychological integrity; promoting the social and economic rights/empowerment of girls and women; strengthening girls' and women's voice and participation; and strengthening institutions.

The four pillars are also expected to cause a shift in how institutions in developing countries operate to help deliver effectively on EU commitments.

To ensure that tangible results are achieved, the EU will perform a gender analysis for all new projects, and bilateral and regional programming.

"EU actors reporting on these activities will use sex-disaggregated data wherever available. Concerted efforts will be made to generate data when needed," said the EU headquarters in a statement.

EU Commissioner for International Co-operation and Development, Neven Mimica, said the new approach to gender equality will bring about concrete actions and results.

"It will be translated into real improvements in the livelihoods of women and girls in developing countries where progress needs to be accelerated if we are to transform our world and unlock a development that is really sustainable," said Mr Mimica.

This means that African countries and other developing nations will have to prove to EU officialdom that they have put in place necessary measures and are ready to work towards achieving the four thematic pillars or else miss out on funding for some of the programmes.

EAC countries

East African Community members are among the benefactors of the gender empowerment programmes funded by the EU. Consequently, the five countries will have to adopt the new framework, if they want to continue receiving funds from the trade bloc.

There have been concerns among EU officials that some gender programmes funded by the bloc in developing countries have not achieved the expected tangible results, hence the approach to doing things must change.

According to the EU, 2015 is a pivotal year for gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls, when a new development framework will be agreed upon at the global level. It is also the year world leaders adopted the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, of which gender equality constitutes Goal 5.