Africa Beijing +30 Parallel Report
This report is a parallel report by African Women’s Rights Organizations (WROs) on the progress of gender equality in Africa, 30 years after the adoption of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action (BPfA). Findings were derived from regional review processes, national reports, and consultations with diverse stakeholders, including civil society, governments, international partners, academia, unions, political parties, private sector representatives, youth-led organizations, and disability advocacy groups. National gender institutions collaborated closely with civil society and international bodies, ensuring intersectional and grassroots approaches. Marginalized groups such as rural women, persons with disabilities, and youth were actively engaged.
The report assesses advancements across the BPfA’s 12 critical areas: poverty, education, health, gender-based violence (GBV), armed conflict, economy, power and decision-making, institutional mechanisms, human rights, media, environment, and the girl child. While African governments have enacted significant policy and legislative reforms and socio-economic initiatives, systemic barriers and emerging threats persist.
The neoliberal imperialist economic framework entrenches inequalities, leaving millions of African women impoverished amid worsening economic and climate crises. African women urgently demand renewed commitment to intersectional, bold, decolonial gender justice, calling for structural transformations to dismantle deeply entrenched oppression, ensuring economic justice, addressing digital exclusion, and countering the global rollback of women’s rights amidst rising anti-rights movements that threaten hard-won gains.
