MEWC’s Annual Review of the African Women’s Decade (AWD) aims to evaluate the progress, or lack thereof, being made to include and promote the rights of women at country, regional, and Pan-African levels.

This was achieved by presenting each country on the continent with a background and a presentation of progress and developments made within different areas during the third year of the African Women’s Decade 2013.

We evaluated each of the levels around our central gender issues: Women, Peace and Security; Violence Against Women; Political Participation and Leadership; Economic Empowerment; Education; HIV/AIDS and Reproductive Health; and Human Rights of Women.

The report is divided into sections according to regional visions of the African continent, and then reports on each country are presented individually. Countries are classiffied by region based on the United Nations country grouping.

Objectives of the Report

MEWC aims to publish an annual report throughout the 10-year duration of the African Women’s Decade to provide an overview of status of women's rights in Africa. It is important to keep track of countries progress with regards to gender equality in Africa for several reasons:

a)To monitor progress being made in the continent in general and in each country over the period of the Decade

b)To offer evidence of best practice of enhancing gender equality and the human rights of women

c)It is a way of monitoring progress achieved on the continent and will thus function as a resource for accessing developments throughout the decade.

d)Furthermore, the report can function as an incentive for countries to improve their efforts in the areas of gender equality and the human rights of women.

To read the full report, please click here