A gender critique of The New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD).

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Shirley Henderson

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Gender and Development

October 2002

A gender critique of The New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD)

The New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD) was published in October 2001, after the September 11 attacks on the United States.  September 11 2001 marked a shift in the foreign policy of the United States, and it was at this time that NEPAD was being finalized and being printed.  Therefore, the ideas contained with NEPAD were conceived in a period of time when changing policies were being pursued by the United States and the United Nations.   Randriamaro asserts that African states are being categorized into those that have “failed” or are “failing”.  These states are those that could accommodate or harbor terrorists.  Randriamaro continues that potentially those elements of NEPAD that refer to security, conflict resolution and governance will take priority at the expense of the sections of NEPAD that target women.  Also the current trend towards global militarisation is of concern, because women and vulnerable groups will suffer more from the horrors of war ().

There have been various critiques of the document and the implications of it from various sectors of society.  This critique, incorporating a gender perspective, aims to discuss various points of contention concerning NEPAD.  Predominantly NEPAD is a gender blind document.  

One of the major criticisms levied against the conception and production of NEPAD is that civil society was not consulted or included.  Patrick Bond (2002) in The NEPAD, An Annotated Critique comments, “NEPAD contains no concrete actions to be taken by the African peoples, no offer of organizational resources, and no-civil society implementation plan.  The document itself was available to African civil society only through internet websites”.  This last point made by Bond has implications for the gender composition of people that can access the NEPAD document.  One requirement of the Internet is a telephone link (primarily through phone lines, but it is possible via cellular phones and infra-red links).  Within the NEPAD document itself, statistics are quoted where there are only 18 mainline telephones per 1000 people in Africa, compared to 567 per 1000 people for high-income countries.  This means that the NEPAD document is only available to a small percentage of the population.  There also needs to be a recognition that women are more likely to live in poverty than men, and therefore are more likely to have less access to the internet and consequently the NEPAD document.

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At several pointes through the document, women are specifically mentioned.  However, a common misconception is apparent through readings of criticisms of NEPAD.  Critiques that mention gender perspectives, only mention women. But gender can be defined as the social classifications usually based on sex, i.e. it is an inclusive term of both men and women, and not a term that refers to only women.  The NEPAD document makes several references to women, but no references to men.

Criticisms of NEPAD include the fact that it is devoid of popular consultation.  According to (), it is a well-established principle in ...

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