Economic and Social Council

United Nations Economic and Social Council Distr.: General 16 December 2015 Original: English Economic Commission for Africa Committee on Gender and Social Development First session Addis Ababa, 17 and 18 December 2015 Item 11 of the provisional agenda* Subprogramme 6 of the Economic Commission for Africa: the African Gender and Development Index African Centre for Gender Social Development Policy Division I. Introduction 1. Africa has made some progress in implementing commitments on gender equality and women s empowerment. The 20-year review of the implementation of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action in 2015 showed favourable outcomes on social development among the 51 reviewed countries. In terms of economic improvements, however, despite recorded average growth rates of 5-7 per cent, there is rising gender inequality in income and wealth and certain gender parameters show sharp disparities. The African Gender Development Index (AGDI) was developed in 2004 as a tool to measure inequality between men and women, and to assist African member States in addressing gender gaps to implement global and regional commitments. 2. The Index aims to address the inadequacy of policy, planning and monitoring mechanisms and to track progress made towards gender equality and women s empowerment commitments in Africa, such as the Protocol to the African Charter on Human and People s Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa, the Beijing Platform for Action, the review outcomes of the International Conference on Population and Development, the new 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and its 17 Sustainable Development Goals and the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child, within the framework of Agenda 2063 of the African Union. The AGDI is the oldest Africanized gender assessment index, developed by the African Centre for Gender and endorsed by ministers responsible for gender equality and women s affairs. 15-01808

3. The Index was piloted in 12 African countries 1 and the findings were published by the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) in the first African Women s Report issued in 2009. Following the pilot study, the Index was refined and AGDI studies were extended to a further 14 countries. 2 The current third phase of the AGDI process is being carried out in 13 countries, namely Gabon, Guinea, Liberia, Morocco, Namibia, the Niger, Nigeria, Rwanda, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, South Africa (for technical assistance only), Swaziland and Zimbabwe. This brings the current total number of countries to have participated in AGDI studies to 39. The present report draws on the AGDI regional synthesis report from the second cohort of countries in the AGDI process. II. Objectives of the African Gender Development Index 4. The main objective of the Index is to strengthen member States policy and planning focus, while enhancing their impetus to compile and analyse gender disaggregated statistics so as to assess their own status in the achievement of gender equality. In view of this, the specific objectives of the Index as a reporting tool are as follows: Provide African Governments with data and information on the status of gender equality and the effects of their gender policies on reducing women s marginalization; Equip policymakers and their partners with a tool to mainstream gender into their development planning and implementation processes and to measure gender equality and women s advancement in various spheres, namely economic, political, social and women s rights; Strengthen the capacity of African member States to effectively monitor progress made in implementing conventions they have ratified, as well as other gender commitments; Promote change in attitudes, structures and mechanisms at the political, legal and operational levels to achieve gender equality and women s advancement; Bridge the knowledge and information gaps between stated achievements by member States and the real impact of gender mainstreaming efforts; Democratize statistics and qualitative monitoring tools that are effective and easy to use. III. Rationale for measuring progress on gender equality 5. The Index provides quality indicators to identify key gender inequalities, and assess whether progress is being made towards achieving gender equality and the policy interventions necessary to achieve it in Africa. The Index was initially conceived as a monitoring and evaluation tool to support African member States in assessing the implementation of their global and continental gender commitments. 6. The past 10 years of its use by African member States have given rise to innovative ways in which the Index can be employed as a policy planning tool to inform different development processes. The Index is an important planning 1 Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Ethiopia, Egypt, Ghana, Madagascar, Mozambique, South Africa, Tanzania, Tunisia and Uganda. 2 Botswana, Burundi, Cabo Verde, Congo, Côte d Ivoire, Djibouti, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the Gambia, Kenya, Malawi, Mali, Senegal, Togo and Zambia. 2

tool, as data and information collected help provide the baseline for planning processes that address gender equality and women s empowerment indicators in all Government sectors, thus providing the impetus and rationale for measuring progress on gender equality. The Index supports this impetus by analysing the gaps and effective transitioning of global and regional frameworks on gender equality and women s advancement in African countries. 7. Malawi has used the Index to inform and develop its National Poverty Reduction Strategy by presenting gender as a subtheme in the first and second phases of the Malawi Growth and Development Strategy, which is the overarching medium term strategy for poverty reduction and wealth creation in Malawi. Togo intends to use its AGDI report to inform its inclusive growth strategy. 3 Consequently, the overall rational of the AGDI process is aiding Governments to streamline and align their national development frameworks and visions with regional commitments under the broader frame of gender concerns. IV. Composition of the African Gender Development Index 8. AGDI is a composite index that combines both quantitative and qualitative indicators through its two parts, the Gender Status Index (GSI) and the African Women s Progress Scoreboard (AWPS). GSI measures gender equality gaps by assessing whether men and women have the same opportunities to earn income, and access resources and opportunities to obtain education and live healthy lives. AWPS captures qualitative issues in relation to the performance of the gender policies of African Governments and progress in implementing regional and international commitments on gender equality a nd women s empowerment. 9. GSI consists of the following three blocks: social power which measures human capabilities; economic power which measures economic opportunities; and political power which measures voice or political agency. The components under these three blocks are as follows: the social power block: education and health; the economic power block: income, time-use and employment and access to resources; and the political power block: public sector and civil society. For the social power block, the education component is further divided into enrolment, completion and literacy, while the health component is subdivided into child health and HIV/AIDS. The components in the economic power block are further divided into subcomponents as follows: wages and income (income component); time-use and employment (time-use and employment component); and means of production and management (access to resources component). The political power block is divided into the public sector and civil society, with representation indicators for men and women in decision-making positions in both subcomponents depicting equality in agency. 10. AWPS tracks government progress in incorporating the provisions of conventions and texts into national laws, programmes and policies, such as the 1990 African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child; the 2001 framework document of the New Partnership for Africa s Development (NEPAD); the 2003 Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa; and the 2004 Solemn Declaration on Gender Equality in Africa. The key international instruments included are the 1979 Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW); the 1989 Convention on the Rights of the Child and its optional protocols adopted in 2000; the Programme of Action of the International Conference on Population and Development; the Millennium 3 See ECA, Concept Note: African Gender and Development Index 3,, Addis Ababa, 2014. 3

Declaration which defined eight Millennium Development Goals; the 1995 Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action; the 1999 Optional Protocol to CEDAW; and the 2000 Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children. 11. AWPS and the components and subcomponents of the three blocks in GSI are measured using relevant indicators. GSI consists of 44 indicators divided into 7 components and 11 subcomponents. The indicators receive equal weight within each component and subcomponent, therefore ensuring that the three blocks also have the same weight. The third phase of the implementation of AGDI offers an opportunity for African member States to implement it in a comprehensive way, drawing lessons from the pilot and the second implementation stage of the Index. V. Country examples: AGDI in Kenya and Malawi 12. The majority of African member States (over two thirds) have endorsed regional and global commitments on gender equality in their legislations; however, in terms of actual implementation, there remains huge cultural and social barriers limiting this transition. This chapter uses the country case studies of Kenya and Malawi to highlight some of the challenges in applying the Index and its benefits as a planning tool. 13. The AGDI process commences with the establishment of a national advisory panel, comprising representatives of the ministries responsible for gender, finance, health and education and the Bureau of Statistics, a representative of a non-governmental organization and two independent gender and development experts. The panel facilitates research and data collection; validates the results upon completion and ensures production of a good quality AGDI national report. The second step involves a number of processes: engaging different consultants, gender and statistics experts and members of national advisory panels. A methodology workshop is conducted where all these national experts are trained using the AGDI manual for hands-on appreciation of the AGDI indicators and sources of data collection. Data is collected through different research methods, but relies heavily on demographic and health surveys; labour force surveys; living standard measurement studies and household surveys; and other censuses that are most recently available. 14. For Kenya and Malawi, consultative and participatory meetings were held to assess progress in the implementation of gender policy commitments using AWPS and defined GSI indicators. The protocol highlighted above was observed in the national AGDI process for both countries. The meetings facilitated consensus amongst strategic actors and developed justifications for the scoring presented in the AWPS (table 2). Regarding = GSI, the sample in table 1 is drawn from the Malawian AGDI report; each indicator is calculated in a similar way by dividing the indicator for female achievement by that of male achievement for each variable. For indicators that refer to numbers or shares, the share of females in the total value is used. An example of GSI calculation is shown in table 1. A. Gender Status Index for Malawi 15. The GSI score for Malawi is 0.621, which indicates that it is slightly above middle parity of 0.5 on a scale of 0-1 in the GSI scoring methodology. However, a breakdown of GSI into the various components of economic, social and political blocks show huge marginalization of women in Malawi, especially in the political and economic blocks, despite a few avenues where there are fewer disparities. For instance, in the public and civil service under the political block, women to men s representation in parliament is 43 to 150 according to 2012 data, which indicates that women represent less than one-third of those 4

involved in decision-making at the national level. Under the entire economic block (women s access to means of production, women as employers, time-use and employment, and incomes) the score for Malawi is 0.694 (table 1). However, when you deconstruct further, for example taking the share of women in non-agricultural wage employment, the score is lower with 21 per cent representation for women compared with 79 per cent for men, or a ratio score of 0.266. It is therefore important to understand the underlying factors fuelling inequality in certain sectors of the Malawian economy, rather than accept at face value the aggregated score. In general, this example signifies the challenges of using indexes as a measure of progress; however, an added advantage of AGDI is that its second part (AWPS) provides legal and qualitative justifications for whether the quantitative section has validity. Table 1 Gender Status Index (GSI) for AGDI II participating country- Malawi Component Subcomponent Indicator Women Men Index Subcomponent Component Block Early childhood enrolment - - Enrolment Primary enrolment rate (net) 84.0 82.0 1.024 Secondary enrolment rate (net) 15.0 12.0 1.250 Education Tertiary enrolment rate (gross) 0.3 0.7 0.429 0.901 Proportion of Completion pupils starting grade 1 who reach 68.0 73.0 0.932 0.932 last grade of primary Literacy Literacy rate of among 15-24 age group 60.0 79.0 0.759 0.759 0.864 Stunting under 5 minus 2 standard 43.3 51.1 1.160 deviations Child health Underweight under 5 minus 2 standard deviations 11.7 14.0 1.027 Health Mortality under 5 117.0 138.0 1.024 1.070 HIV/AIDS prevalence among 12.9 8.1 0.948 HIV/AIDS 15-24 age group Access to antiretroviral treatment 274238 177 308 0.971 0.959 1.015 0.939 Income Wages Wages - agriculture 55 000 55 000 1 Wages - civil service 36 802 36 802 1 Wages - formal sector 49,786 49,786 1 Wages - informal sector 4,500 4,500 1 1 Income Income from informal enterprise 16243 33091.5 0.491 Income from small agricultural household 16222.4 20712.2 0.783 enterprise Share of women under the poverty line 51.6 48.4.0938 0.737 0.869 Time-use and employment Time-use Time spent in market economic 18.4 28.0 0.657 5

Time-use and employment Access to resources Time-use Employment Means of production activities (as paid employee, ownaccount or employer Time spent in nonmarket economic activities or as unpaid family worker in market economic activities Time spent in domestic, care and volunteer activities Share of women in non-agricultural wage employment Youth unemployment rate Ownership of rural land/ farms Ownership of urban plots/ houses Ownership of livestock Access to credit (commercial and micro-credit) 13.7 13.8 1.007 7.7 1.2 0.156 0.607 21.0 79.0 0.266 3.00 5.00 1.400 0.833 0.720 2,273,485 4,419,540 0.514 20.0 80.0 0.250 45.0 55.0 0.818 10.7 14.0 0.764 0.587 Management Employers 0.2 0.6 0.333 Own-account workers 15.6 19.6 0.796 Senior civil servants (Class A) 187 628 0.298 Members of professional 585 3,297 0.177 0.401 0.494 0.694 syndicates Members of Public sector parliament 43 150 0.287 Cabinet ministers 9 21 0.429 Senior positions in civil service and 4 41 0.098 para-statals Employment in the security forces 0.2 0.8 0.250 Judges in higher courts 4 25 0.160 Judges in lower courts 40 129 0.310 Judges in traditional and - - - religious courts Members of local councils 76 767 0.099 Number of male/female traditional rulers 16 249 0.064 0.212 Civil society Senior positions in political parties 2 39 0.051 Senior positions in trade unions 24 52 0.462 Senior positions in employers 14 63 0.222 associations Senior positions in non-governmental organizations 106 418 0.254 0.247 0.230 Gender Status Index 0.621 Source: ECA, AGDI II Report, 2012. 6

B. African Women s Progress Scoreboard for Kenya 16. Table 2 presents the analysis of the AWPS for Kenya. It shows that, while the country has made progress in implementing some of its commitments to gender equality and women s empowerment, gaps still remain. In table 2, the Kenyan AWPS has been estimated at 58 per cent. The scoreboard shows that Kenya is doing relatively well in implementing a number of protocols and agreements for the empowerment of women. On this parameter, it scores above 50 per cent. Under the social block, the country scores below 50 per cent only in safe abortions. In the economic block, in terms of ratification of all conventions of the International Labour Organization, the country scores slightly below 50 per cent, as well as in access to agricultural extension services and to technology. The overall scores in the blocks give Kenya an AWPS aggregate of 536, out of a maximum possible score of 932. There are certain areas within the women s rights block where the country has not made much progress, particularly the Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa. In 2012, the Government announced that it would start reporting on and implementing the provisions of this Protocol. 7

Table 2 African Women s Progress Scorecard for AGDI II participating countries - Kenya Ratification Reporting Law Women s rights Policy commitment Plan development Targets Institutional mechanism Budget Human resources Research Involvement of civil Information & dissemination Monitoring & evaluation Social power capabilities Capacity Accountability/ Total Percentage International and regional legal instruments on women s rights Violence against women and children Health - Plan of Action of the International CEDAW 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 1 1 2 2 1 1 2 2 26 87 CEDAW, 1979 (article 2) X X 1 1 1 1 2 1 1 2 2 1 1 2 2 18 69 CEDAW, 1979 (article 16) X X 1 1 1 1 2 1 1 2 2 1 1 2 2 18 69 Optional Protocol to CEDAW, 1999 0 X X X X X X X X 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights (ACHPR) on the Rights of Women in Africa, 2003 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 1 1 2 1 0 2 2 12 40 Beijing Platform for Action, 1995 X 2 2 2 2 2 2 1 1 2 2 2 2 2 1 25 89 Solemn Declaration on Gender Equality in X 1 1 1 0 0 2 1 1 1 2 1 0 1 2 14 50 Africa, 2004 African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 1 1 1 1 2 1 2 25 83 Harmful practices: female genital X X 2 2 2 2 2 1 1 2 2 2 2 2 2 24 92 mutilation; early/forced marriage; widowhood rites Review and modification of customary law X X 1 1 0 0 2 1 1 2 2 2 0 1 2 15 58 Domestic violence X X 1 1 2 2 2 0 1 1 2 1 1 2 2 18 69 Rape X X 2 2 2 2 2 0 1 1 2 1 1 1 2 19 73 Statutory rape/defilement X X 2 2 2 2 2 1 1 0 2 1 1 1 2 19 73 Sexual harassment X X 2 2 2 1 2 1 1 1 2 1 1 1 2 19 73 Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons Especially Women and Children, 2000 Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography, 2000 Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the involvement of children in armed conflict, 2000 2 1 0 1 2 2 2 2 2 0 2 1 2 2 2 23 77 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 1 2 0 0 0 1 1 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 9 30 HIV/AIDS X X 2 2 2 2 2 1 1 2 2 2 2 2 2 24 92 Maternal mortality X X 1 2 2 2 2 1 1 2 2 1 1 1 2 20 77 Family planning X X 0 1 2 2 2 1 1 2 2 2 2 2 2 21 81 Safe abortions X X 1 0 0 0 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 10 38 8

Economic power opportunities Political power agency Conference on Population and Development Education Policies to prevent and protect female X X 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 1 2 2 1 1 2 23 88 dropouts Education on human/ women's rights X X 2 2 2 1 2 1 1 2 2 2 1 1 2 21 81 Employment ILO Convention 100 on Equal 2 0 2 0 0 0 1 0 1 0 1 1 0 1 0 9 30 Remuneration, 1951 ILO Convention 111 on Equal 2 0 2 0 0 0 1 0 1 0 0 1 0 1 0 8 27 Remuneration, 1958 ILO Convention 183 Concerning Maternity 2 0 2 0 0 0 1 0 1 0 0 1 0 1 0 8 27 Protection at the Workplace, 2000 Sustainable Engendering national poverty reduction X X X 2 2 2 2 2 1 1 1 1 2 1 2 19 79 development strategies to ensure that gender dimensions (article 19 of poverty are taken into account of the Access to agricultural extension services X X X 1 1 0 2 0 2 0 0 0 0 1 0 7 29 Protocol to the ACHPR on the Access to land X X X 1 0 0 2 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 4 17 Rights of Women in Africa, 2003) NEPAD Access to technology X X 1 2 1 1 1 1 1 2 0 1 0 1 0 12 46 framework document, 2001 Peace and security Participation in decisionmaking Security council resolutions 1325, 1820, 1888 and 1889 on women, peace and security Participation of women in traditional governance X X 2 2 2 1 2 1 1 1 2 1 0 1 2 18 69 X X 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 3 Policies Gender mainstreaming in all departments X X 2 2 2 2 2 2 1 2 2 1 1 2 2 23 88 Support for women's quotas and affirmative action X X 2 2 1 2 2 1 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 24 92 African Women s Progress Scoreboard 536 58 Source: ECA, AGDI II Synthesis Report, 2012. Notes: X = Not applicable. The abbreviations used in the table stand for: ACHPR - African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights; CEDAW Convention on the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women; HIV/AIDS; ILO International Labour Organization; NEPAD The New Partnership for Africa s Development. 9

10 VI. Challenges and risks of the AGDI process 17. While AWPS captures qualitative issues in relation to the performance of gender policies in Kenya, the GSI for Malawi assesses whether women have the same opportunities as men to earn income, access resources, obtain education and live long lives, and whether they have the same opportunities to achieve positions of power. AGDI is intended to address challenges in reporting, monitoring and evaluation, planning, and in strengthening institutional mechanisms for gender equality and women s empowerment commitments. However, the process itself is fraught with technical, methodological, data collection and ownership issues in terms of its rolling out. To expatiate on issues of data, for example, availability, gender disaggregation in data collection, timeliness and frequency in conducting censuses and surveys have been its greatest setback. This delays the process and inhibits in-country assessments of the AGDI overtime. 18. Financing challenges also prevent a quick rolling out of the AGDI process. In the earlier implementations of the AGDI process, the first and second cohort of countries indicated their need for sustained funding and financing to frequently carry out the process. This was clearly highlighted in the national AGDI report of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, where the budget share allocated to the Ministry of Gender was 0.06 per cent of the total national budget. Moreover, many countries still rely exclusively on external sources to finance gender policies. In the Democratic Republic of the Congo, all gender equality projects and programmes were shown to depend on resources from bilateral and multilateral partners. 19. These risks are further compounded with issues of ownership and acceptance, which motivate or demotivate the will of member States to initiate and continue the AGDI process. Without adequate buy-in of stakeholders in national AGDI processes, the possibility of having a robust AGDI to enable cross-country, subregional and global analysis and comparisons is limited. In addition, the national process of validation, which requires the presence of all vested stakeholders to review a country s AGDI, makes the process unique and credible but also makes it very risky by prolonging its publication date. Thus, there is a need for efficient avenues to streamline the validation process at the country level. VII. AGDI as a planning and monitoring tool for Africa 20. The analysis provided in chapter V shows that GSI and AWPS reinforce each other, since policies implemented by Governments are important in accessing different opportunities. By using AGDI to measure gender equality in member States (in the first and second cohort countries), it was found that the tool was useful in informing national development plans and growth strategies to be inclusive, pro- poor and gender responsive. For instance, Zambia has reported the use of AGDI to inform it national monitoring and evaluation strategy, while Malawi and South Africa have reported use of the tool for greater policy analysis of their national planning initiatives. This phase has placed emphasis on the importance of gender responsive planning to ensure that the strategic needs of all African citizens, particularly women and young people, are taken into account when socioeconomic priorities are being defined in the long term. AGDI processes have been expanded to enable the forging of strong partnerships, especially between gender ministries and other line ministries, particularly economic planning and central statistics offices, to lead the AGDI data collection processes. The aim is to facilitate collection of good quality data and advocate strong measures to improve the production of gender statistics. In addition, AGDI processes are intended to strengthen gender

responsive monitoring and evaluation frameworks and planning processes that integrate gender in all development planning cycles. Ultimately, AGDI processes will facilitate strong planning mechanisms and gender responsive benchmarking for the attainment of the Sustainable Development Goals and effective implementation of the Beijing Platform for Action in the coming years. VIII. AGDI findings, policy actions and the way forward 21. The AGDI is being implemented in phases through an all-encompassing process that ensures national level participation of different stake holders to ensure ownership. Out of the Phasing a dynamism is evolving, albeit at a slow pace, which encapsulates key tenets of international and regional gender equality instruments, and how African Governments are embracing women s advancement policies in development priorities. The 2012 AGDI regional synthesis report alludes to a silent revolution in progress towards women s empowerment, particularly at basic education levels. A limitation to this, however, is the inadequacy of concrete measures to finance gender equality and women s empowerment. Even in countries where this share was larger, there was no indication from budgetary institutions on how to mainstream gender in the elaboration of the budget, both at the national and local levels. This critically hampers national efforts and commitments, thus jeopardizing the sustainability and overall coherence of development policies. 22. Overall, findings point to a picture of staggered progress on African women s political power and agency, with some countries recording high numbers of women in specific sectors and lower numbers in other areas of decision-making. Despite the noted diversity between ADGI participating countries, findings point to a gender gap in the past decade, with the average GSI political block at 0.27. This is an indication of women s limited power and the continent s under performance in its efforts to promote women s political agency. The continent is experiencing systematic regression in the numbers of women in political positions, especially in newly elected parliaments - a factor pointing to deeper underlying factors like backlash or other challenges undermining women s leadership. There is a clear need to strengthen institutional, structural, legislative and policy frameworks that ensure sustainable, inclusive and participatory democracy by including equal numbers of women representatives in decision-making. 23. Findings also indicate the various innovative strategies through which AGDI participating countries were implementing Security Council resolutions to promote the role of women in peacebuilding and security initiatives, with some countries appointing women to senior and influential positions in this previously male-dominated sector. Progress remains slow however regarding the institutionalization of quotas and other affirmative action strategies to ensure the presence of women in positions where they were previously disadvantaged. 24. Based on some of the discussed challenges, it can be argued that policies conducive to women s economic empowerment and access to opportunities and decision-making need to be over-emphasized at the highest political levels in Africa. Furthermore, technical support is needed to align legal instrumentation with women s quotas and affirmative action in all development sectors, while building the long-term capabilities of women towards the achievement of full gender equality and empowerment. In view of some of the highlighted issues, a range of policy actions are needed to close these gender gaps, while providing opportunities and enhancing the agency of women in Africa. These include, but are not limited to, the following: There is a need to recognize education as a human right in all relevant legal and policy frameworks and fast track the eradication of harmful 11

traditional/cultural practices that hinder access to education for both girls and boys; There is a need for African Governments to review existing laws and enact those that promote gender equality in access to and control of productive resources, especially legislation that promotes equitable distribution of land, housing, livestock and access to credit facilities; There is a need for renewed and strengthened advocacy for member States to prioritize the implementation of international and regional instruments that promote women s human rights. 25. Moving forward, the African Centre for Gender aims to roll out the fourth and last cohort of 15 countries into AGDI in 2016. The last batch of countries to participate are Algeria, Angola, the Comoros, Central African Republic, Chad, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Guinea-Bissau, Lesotho, Libya, Mauritania, Mauritius, Somalia, South Sudan and the Sudan. Once all countries have undertaken AGDI studies, with support from ECA, it is envisaged that member States will update their AGDI reports every three years to ensure that they capture emerging trends. IX. Conclusions 26. Despite the great strides made by African member States, gender inequality persists in the economic and political sectors, reinforced by negative social and cultural norms, which taints the economic gains made in the last decade. Transforming negative stereotypes and eliminating persistent inequalities is crucial to the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals and Agenda 2063, using AGDI as the overarching gender monitoring tool for Africa. In view of this, the third implementation phase of AGDI offers member States an opportunity to implement a comprehensive, robust and multidimensional index for development planning, which draws lessons from past implementation phases of the AGDI process. Against the back drop of the Sustainable Development Goals and Agenda 2063, the AGDI III report will be rolled out by embracing these renewed commitments to accelerate the implementation of gender equality. 12