Report of the Joint Monitoring Committee on Improvement of Quality of Life and Status of Women on Office on the Status of Women contained in the Report and Financial Statements of Vote 1 – The Presidency for 2004-2005, including the Report of the Auditor-General on the Financial Statements of Vote 1 for 2004-2005 [RP 191-2005], dated 11 November 2005:

The Joint Monitoring Committee on Improvement of Quality of Life and Status of Women, having considered Office on the Status of Women contained in the Report and Financial Statements of Vote 1 – The Presidency for 2004-2005, including the Report of the Auditor-General on the Financial Statements of Vote 1 for 2004-2005 [RP 191-2005]: referred to it, reports that it has concluded its deliberations thereon.

The following points were considered:

The Beijing + 10 Report referred to, was not sent out for discussion to the relevant stakeholders prior to its presentation to the meeting in New York. The Committee was not given the opportunity to discuss, comment on and/or adopt the Report. To its knowledge, the Committee is not aware that there has been a report back by the Office of the Status of Women to stakeholders.

In the spirit of consultation and participation, that the government is committed to, the Committee would like to recommend that the 10-year National Action Plan for Gender Mainstreaming, be opened up for broad discussion, in all the provinces, before Cabinet/the government adopts it.

The National Policy Framework on Women’s Empowerment and Gender Equality, adopted in 2000, sets out both short-term and long-term indicators for the achievement of gender equality. The Committee, as part of its monitoring role, would like the Office of the Status of Women to undertake research that responds directly to the indicators, to determine what progress has been made, five years after the policy has become operational.

The National Gender Machinery, of which the Committee is one of the co-chairs, holds most of its meetings in Pretoria. The Committee would like to recommend the rotational holding of the meetings in different provinces, as a way of broadening the participation of provincial stakeholders, and giving a broader base of civil society organisations access to the National Gender Machinery deliberations.

Report to be considered.