National Plan of Action for Gender 2008-2013.

The National Plan of Action for Gender (NPAG) is an instrument which identifies specific gender interventions at the national level for the period 2008-2013. The document is structured upon the following critical areas for action: (1) Good Governance; (2) Economic Development (Focus on Employment); (3) Education and Training; (4) Health; (5) Ageing, Mental Health and Disabilities; (6) Violence Against Women; (7) Prejudices and StereotypeThe NPAG, among other aspects, aims at helping eliminate hunger, food insecurity and malnutrition. Critical area concerning health gives special attention to breastfeeding, water and sanitation. One of the objectives is to achieve universal access to safe drinking water and improved sanitation, including regularity and quality levels of water supply improved.s.
The plan aims at enabling more inclusive agricultural systems. Critical area relating to economic development encompasses challenges such as: (i) increasing incomes of those family workers who currently receive little or no remuneration, especially rural women; (ii) enhancing skills of women farmers and vulnerable groups of women to encourage diversification of their income-generating activities; (iii) promoting cottage and small rural-based enterprises, and providing increased access to financial services to accelerate growth in such enterprises; (iv) making rural-based skills trainings programmes more women-friendly to encourage more female participants.
As mentioned, the first critical area concerns good governance. This includes principles such as the rule of law, transparency and accountability, which are linked to the promotion and achievement of gender equality, including equal representation of women and men in public decision making and the quality of their participation. Major challenges in relation to good governance include: (i) integrating a gender perspective into all policies and legislation; (ii) addressing the causes for the low participation of women in good governance; (iii) increasing women’s representation at all levels of governance, especially local governance; (iv) ensuring the availability of gender-disaggregated data available for all levels of governance.