AfrICANDO Abuja Communiqué

1 March 2002

Abuja, Nigeria -- After four days of workshops and roundtables on the role of women in the new African Union; the threat of HIV-AIDS; intra-African issues such as democratization and conflict resolution, and trade issues, AfrICANDO Abuja has reached a successful end.  Hundreds of Nigerian, African and American government officials, diplomats, scholars and businesspeople gathered to share their ideas on a wide range of topics and to showcase goods and services from both sides of the Atlantic.

AfrICANDO Abuja has been a collaboration of the Foundation and the Nigerian Association of Women Entrepreneurs in yet another phase of the Foundation's capacity building program with NAWE.  The Foundation's relationship with NAWE began several years ago through the participation of its members in the Foundation's annual AfrICANDO Trade and Investment Symposium in Miami, Florida.  Hundreds of NAWE members have participated in AfrICANDO in Miami over the past four years, as have African entrepreneurs and politicians from across the continent.

Two years ago, the Foundation and NAWE signed a Memorandum of Understanding that has produced a partnership that began a capacity-building program, through which the Foundation has provided hundreds of thousands of U.S. dollars in entrepreneurial and computer training, computer equipment, technical assistance, staff and other services.  A web site for NAWE is in the process of being established.  This assistance was made possible by a grant from the Education for Development and Democracy Initiative through the U.S. Agency for International Development.

As part of the Foundation's efforts to build the capacity of NAWE as a major organization of businesswomen in Nigeria, collaboration on AfrICANDO Abuja was conceived last year.  This conference is NAWE's first foray into international events and represents the first time the AfrICANDO franchise has been presented on the continent.  Initially discussed as a preparatory exercise for the annual Miami symposium, AfrICANDO Abuja became a much broader event due to the partnerships developed with the Nigerian government and international agencies.

The Nigerian government was tremendously supportive of the event, providing funding and donating the use of the International Conference Centre.  The Honourable Minister for Commerce Engineer Mustapha Bello agreed to be the chairman of the event and spoke on the opening day on behalf of His Excellency Olusegun Obasanjo, President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.  Mrs. Titi Atiku Abubakar, wife of the Vice President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, also spoke at the opening ceremony, and provided strong support for the event, serving as co-chair of the gala dinner last night.

The Foundation, which holds special consultative status with the United Nations, received enthusiastic support from the UN.  The United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM) sponsored a panel on women that highlighted the need for women to have equitable access to such implements as financing and technical assistance.

The African Development Bank also provided support for AfrICANDO Abuja, sending U.S. Executive Director Ambassador Cynthia Perry and a delegation to the conference.  Ambassador Perry spoke at the opening and played a role in various workshops and other programs.  ADB officials also spoke on several occasions on the opportunities for women at the Bank.

The Institute for Peace and Conflict Resolution in the Office of the Presidency organized a workshop covering a variety of intra-African issues, which, though not specifically gender-oriented, deeply affect African women.  Papers presented examined efforts to ensure free and fair elections, the role of civil society in conflict resolution, the current deadlock over intellectual property rights and the future of regional economic groups in the global economy.

In conjunction with the U.S.-Nigeria Development Institute, the Foundation presented a seminar on "Doing Business in America," which presented means of accessing the African Growth and Opportunity Act and examined the American market and strategies for penetrating its segments.  The two institutions also collaborated on a "Public-Private Partnerships" seminar that resulted in the initiation of four working groups involving governmental and private sector entities: a cooperative product standardization project, a business ratings service, a public-private health care project and a public-private education project.  Organizing of these partnerships will continue

The National Action Committee on AIDS cosponsored with the Foundation two sessions on HIV-AIDS that brought together experts from America and Nigeria.  These experts agreed on recommendations such as:

·         African nations must focus on prevention of mother-to-child-transmission as the most effective strategy in the fight against HIV-AIDS;

·         Economic empowerment and provision of micro-credit facilities are effective means of assisting HIV-positive mothers;

·         The stigmatization of HIV-positive people and discrimination in their medical care must be ended;

·         Alternatives to breastfeeding must be promoted, such as the use of surrogate mothers to breastfeed, establishment of nutrition centers, early weaning from breastfeeding, the boiling of expressed breast milk and the training and counseling of mothers and families on HIV transmission;

·         Ongoing programs must be developed to educate the media on HIV-AIDS, as well as including information in school curricula, in order to inform the general public and address a critical lack of knowledge;

·         Medical infrastructure must be enhanced, and physicians and nurses must be provided with comprehensive training on HIV-AIDS and treatment strategies, especially prior to dispensing of antiretroviral agents;

·         Programs developed to address HIV-AIDS must be sustainable, and

·         Women should be empowered to be more proactive in decisions on their care.

Since the theme of AfrICANDO Abuja was the role of women in the new African Union, the views of participants was solicited, and they agreed on the following recommendations:

·         The drafters of the constitution of the African Union must be gender-sensitive in their work;

·         The African Union and African governments generally should consider all feasible efforts to include women in decision-making roles, including using affirmative action plans to reserve positions for female officials;

·         Gender reforms enacted at the continental level in the African Union should be honored at the national level as well;

·         The constitution of the African Union should include provisions on the rights of women to enhance their protection from HIV infection;

·         The rights of women to own and inherit property must be respected;

·         The international illegal traffic in women and girls must be ended;

·         Women who travel must not be subjected to inequitable treatment because of their gender in terms of security arrangements at airports;

·         Cultural issues, such as the rights of widows and wives, must be defended and upheld in law;

·         Female children must be empowered the same as male children in education and other opportunities;

·         African husbands must be required to support their families, and governments must enforce this duty;

·         Insurance and other benefits must be automatically assigned to wives and children;

·         African nations must create a social safety net to cater for the needs of widows and abandoned wives and children in order to maintain African family units;

·         The marital status of women must not be used to limit the potential of women;

·         Lending and technical assistance programs must be more responsive to the needs of women and provide more reasonable terms for receiving assistance, and

·         Information on the African Union must be more widely disseminated so that all people known the status of the constitution process.