<html xmlns:v="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:vml" xmlns:o="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" xmlns:w="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:word" xmlns:st1="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40"> <head> <META HTTP-EQUIV="Content-Type" CONTENT="text/html; charset=US-ASCII"> <meta name=Generator content="Microsoft Word 11 (filtered medium)"> <o:SmartTagType namespaceuri="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" name="country-region"/> <o:SmartTagType namespaceuri="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" name="place" downloadurl="http://www.5iantlavalamp.com/"/>  <style>  </style> </head> <body lang=EN-GB link=blue vlink=purple> <div class=Section1> I am sending out the e-mail below, in view of the imminent publication of the Commission for Africa’s report-back on <st1:place w:st="on">Africa</st1:place>’s future, a report which may need a very fast gender appraisal.<o:p></o:p> <o:p> </o:p> Very best wishes.<o:p></o:p> <o:p> </o:p> Tim<o:p></o:p> <o:p> </o:p> Tim Symonds<o:p></o:p> Executive Director<o:p></o:p> Project Parity Partnerships for Peace (PPPP)<o:p></o:p> HQ East <st1:country-region w:st="on">Sussex</st1:country-region>, <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:country-region w:st="on">United Kingdom</st1:country-region></st1:place><o:p></o:p> tel. +44 1435 882 655<o:p></o:p> Fax +44 1435 882 742<o:p></o:p> mobile (Tim Symonds) +44 7773 776314<o:p></o:p> mobile (Lesley Abdela) +44 7967 650 155<o:p></o:p> <a href="mailto:tim.symonds@shevolution.com">tim.symonds@shevolution.com</a><o:p></o:p> <o:p> </o:p> Att: Emily at Womankind <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:country-region w:st="on">UK</st1:country-region></st1:place>  December 22 2005<o:p></o:p> <o:p> </o:p> Rapid Evaluation of the Commission for <st1:place w:st="on">Africa</st1:place>’s impending recommendations (January 2005)<o:p></o:p> <o:p> </o:p> Dear Emily, as Womankind will know, the UK Prime Minister’s Commission for <st1:place w:st="on">Africa</st1:place> will be issuing its recommendations in January – i.e. very shortly.  Lesley (Abdela) and I wonder whether international organisations with strong links to women and gender in sub-Saharan <st1:place w:st="on">Africa</st1:place> – Womankind for example – could rapidly respond with a Gender Analysis which should be widely disseminated to compensate immediately for shortfalls in the Commission’s report or to help re-rank recommendations and resources where women want to emphasise the importance of some recommendations.  <o:p></o:p> <o:p> </o:p> The reason Lesley is concerned is that despite her and others’ early prompt on the gender composition of the Commission only 3 women (one only being African) were appointed among the 17 Commissioners.  In other words, men outnumber women by nearly 5 to one, and it is led by a male, the Ethiopian Prime Minister.  <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:country-region w:st="on">Ethiopia</st1:country-region></st1:place> is by no means in the vanguard of African women’s equal rights.<o:p></o:p> <o:p> </o:p> It may not be necessary to form a team physically in contact with each other to put together an immediate and trenchant response from the gender perspective – we could all contribute by e-mail – but it would be necessary to have a ‘home base’ to which contributions and comments can be sent, for compiling into a parallel report and quickly issued both to the UK Government and MPs/Peers, the European Commission, IGOs such as the UN (especially UNIFEM, UNDP, UNECA), World Bank, USAID, WTO, appropriate journalists, and campaign groups throughout Africa, and to people like Charlotte Ponticelli,  Senior Coordinator International Women's Issues (G/IWI) at the US State Department.<o:p></o:p> <o:p> </o:p> Could Womankind act as the focal point for producing a ‘rapid reaction’ critique?<o:p></o:p> <o:p> </o:p> With very best wishes.<o:p></o:p> <o:p> </o:p> Tim<o:p></o:p> <o:p> </o:p> Tim Symonds<o:p></o:p> Executive Director<o:p></o:p> Project Parity Partnerships for Peace (PPPP)<o:p></o:p> HQ East <st1:country-region w:st="on">Sussex</st1:country-region>, <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:country-region w:st="on">United Kingdom</st1:country-region></st1:place><o:p></o:p> tel. +44 1435 882 655<o:p></o:p> Fax +44 1435 882 742<o:p></o:p> mobile (Tim Symonds) +44 7773 776314<o:p></o:p> mobile (Lesley Abdela) +44 7967 650 155<o:p></o:p> <a href="mailto:tim.symonds@shevolution.com">tim.symonds@shevolution.com</a><o:p></o:p> <o:p> </o:p> To enquire about the Commission’s report or other information re. the Commission for <st1:place w:st="on">Africa</st1:place>, contact the Head of the Commission’s Secretariat at the Department for International Development, Myles Wickstead, on <a href="mailto:Africa_secretariat@dfid.gov.uk">Africa_secretariat@dfid.gov.uk</a> or m-wickstead@dfid.gov.uk<o:p></o:p> <o:p> </o:p> </div> </body> </html>