The 2030 Agenda from a feminist perspective: No meaningful gains without greater accountability for Africa’s women

Abstract

abstractIt is two years since the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development was adopted by world leaders following three years of intense consultations, negotiations and advocacy. Women’s rights organisations (WROs) and feminists groups, including African Women's Development and Communications Network (FEMNET), followed this process closely and put forward clear demands related to achieving women’s rights and gender equality. Today, FEMNET and other WROs celebrate the gains made and continue to be at the forefront of implementing the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development in order to sustain and monitor the realisation of the gains made. Although this Agenda has been hailed as transformative and one that has potential to transform the lives of girls and women everywhere if fully implemented, its potential for transformation by itself is largely dependent on a number of factors, particularly in Africa and the Global South to address both its limitations and to push forward its gains. The major limitations include its nature of being voluntary and non-binding, the current international political environment, including growing religious fundamentalism, corporate power and its involvement in the 2030 agenda, limited resourcing especially for WROs in the Global South and the failure of the 2030 Agenda to address structural barriers to gender equality and equality between countries in the Global South and North. For example, illicit financial flows, inequalities in international trade and the entire macro-economic policies architecture remain obstacles in the way of achieving gender equality in Africa. This article will share a feminist perspective of the 2030 Agenda and its implementation by highlighting its gains and missed opportunities. It will further offer recommendations on how the highlighted limitations can be addressed to advance the achievement of gender equality, women’s and girls’ human rights and empowerment of girls and women in Africa. It will draw from my experience of African women’s engagement in various processes, both regionally and globally, leading to the adoption of the 2030 Agenda and the follow up mechanisms after adoption.