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As this Forum demonstrates, ECA continues to work in close partnershipwith the African Union Commission, the African DevelopmentBank, other UN agencies and bilateral partners to enhance the capacityof policymakers and other stakeholders in Member States touse the appropriate tools and methodologies to establish gender-responsivepolicies and programmes. One of our major achievementsin this regard is the development of the African Gender and DevelopmentIndex (AGDI), which measures the extent of gender inequalityin Africa and helps African governments assess their performance innarrowing the gender gap and advancing the cause of women. Otherachievements relate to the establishment of an African Women’sRights Observatory to monitor the status of women’s rights at theregional level and the development of a guidebook to mainstreamunpaid work and household production into national statistics.These developments notwithstanding, there is need for Africa tospeed up implementation of all gender related instruments and policies,which is why this forum has a very important task before it. Theoutcome of our deliberations must help move our countries closer tothe desired goal of gender equality, empowerment of women and alife free from violence for the African woman and girl. In addition toreviewing progress that has been made, this Forum is called upon toarticulate concrete actions that could be taken to accelerate the process.We must place emphasis on adopting an innovative and wellthought out Action Plan that will ensure a transformational interventionin all our three main sub-themes.Integrating Africa239