Since the conference of the Women’s International Democratic Federation (WIDF) held in Vienna (Article) in May 1958, Africans felt the need to create a continental organisation within which they can be legitimately represented during international meetings.
In December of the same year, the General Conference of the African People took place in Accra (Ghana) during which unifying the African people was of major concern. It is within this framework that national and then regional unions were created in Sudan, the present Mali, with the birth of the Union of Sudanese Women and the holding of the constituent conference of the Union of West African Women. Following the dissolution of the Union of Sudanese Women in 1959, Mrs AOUA KEITA, (First Intellectual Woman of Mali) was charged with sensitising African Heads of State on the creation of a Pan-African organisation. She then undertook a tour across the continent and a preparatory committee of the new association was convened in Bamako from 8 to 10 June 1962 to define strategies of approach and conditions for constituting the union of African women.
This committee grouped women from 10 countries notably: Angola, Cameroon, Benin, Ghana, Guinea Bissau, Kenya, Mali, Nigeria, Tunisia. The name “Conference of African Women” was given to the association and it was decided that its constituent general assembly should hold in Dar es Salam (Tanganyika) from 27 to 31 July 1962, date of birth of the conference of African Women, that became the Pan-African Organisation in 1967 (OPW).
OPW had as objective:
Creating an international African organisation allowing women to exchange and act together in favour of the emancipation of African women;
Supporting the wind of political and economic liberation in Africa;
Contributing to the promotion of unity among African States;
Establishing links with women of the world to promote progress, justice and peace.
These objectives remained unchanged until 1986.
In 1990 at the conference of Canada (Angola) with the advent of democracy and the decade of the woman, OPW reviewed its objectives namely:
Ensuring the full contribution of women to economic, social and cultural development efforts;
Striving for cognizance and enforcement of African women’s rights for their participation in decision-making on political, economic and socio-cultural issues, at both national and international levels;
Contributing to the improvement of the socio-economic, political and cultural status of women in member countries;
Involving women alongside governments to fight against hunger, poverty and diseases and to participate in conflicts prevention and resolution.
Considering the creation of the African Union, the elaboration of NEPAD programmes and the globalisation of the economy, the OPW hopes to reorientate its objectives in order to adapt to new development vision for Africa and the world during the 9th conference to be held soon.
The AWD is therefore a day of reflection that enables women to review actions carried out for the purpose of ensuring their full emancipation and to develop strategies adapted to their particular needs. This day symbolises the women’s commitment to chip in their contribution to the culture of peace and development in Africa.
In Cameroon, government policy has always advocated the ideal of peace, an indispensable condition to reaching the goals of development. This concern relating to the preservation of peace has been reiterated, on several occasions.
It is in this light that the previous editions of the AWDs have been celebrated in Cameroon, discussions focused on peace, HIV/AIDS, dialogue between generations, as revealed by the themes of the past years.
1999: The culture of peace and non-violence in Cameroon: together lets meet the challenge;
2000: Cameroon society: what mobilisation towards the effective implementation of the CEDAW;
2001: Lets Build an Africa without AIDS;
2002: African Women and Information and Communication Technologies (the challenges of the Internet);
2003: Women: inter-generation dialogue for peace and development;
2004: Gender and the Culture of Peace in Africa.
For 2004, the theme followed the same orientation and concerned women who should raise the awareness of the government to the vital importance in considering the culture of peace as a factor of development.
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