CSW Desk
CSW is a UN session. This desk reads it year-round — what governments commit to, and how those commitments become law, policy, budgets and implementation across Africa.
PolicyPeopleAfrica
Different perspectives.A more equal Africa.
Laws set the floor. Procurement sets the ceiling. Ahead of CSW71, Ghana must decide if its biggest buyers will keep excluding the women who already carry its trade.
Into the room
The Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) is the United Nations’ principal intergovernmental body focused on gender equality and the advancement of women. Each year, governments meet at the UN to discuss progress, challenges and commitments on women’s rights.
For Gender Lens Africa, CSW is a starting point for reporting on what governments commit to and what those commitments mean for women and girls across Africa.
Decisions and commitments made at CSW can influence national laws, policies, budgets and advocacy long after the session ends.
The CSW Desk follows those connections, asking what international commitments mean for power, money, bodies, safety and everyday life across Africa.
Governments meet at the UN’s annual forum to discuss women’s rights and gender equality.
The CSW Desk focuses on what governments say, commit to and take forward, and on whether those commitments translate into action.
We examine how Ghana and other African governments are meeting their obligations under the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), the Maputo Protocol and wider African Union commitments, including Agenda 2063.
That work is year-round. It goes beyond the CSW session to examine how commitments are reflected in laws, policies, budgets and implementation.
We follow commitments from international and regional forums into national action.
The question is simple: what changed, what did not, and what does the evidence show for women and girls across Africa?
The CSW Desk follows the UN Commission on the Status of Women (CSW), the UN’s annual forum on women’s rights and gender equality. It looks at what governments commit to at CSW and what happens after the meetings end.
The desk also tracks the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), the UN treaty often described as the international bill of rights for women. We examine how Ghana and other African governments are meeting their obligations under it.
We follow the Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa, known as the Maputo Protocol, the continent’s key regional treaty on women’s rights. We also track African Union commitments, including Agenda 2063 and the AU Strategy for Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment.
This is year-round accountability journalism. We follow commitments from international and regional meetings into laws, policies, budgets and implementation, asking what changed, what did not, and what the evidence shows for women and girls across Africa.
