Initial meetings

July 2000
Lomé, Togo
Thirty-sixth Ordinary Session of the OAU Assembly of Heads of State and Government

- Ministers expressed their support for gender mainstreaming during the transition from the OAU into the AU

February 2001
Tripoli, Libya
Seventy-third Ordinary Session of the OAU Council of Ministers

- Decision CM/Dec. 579 (LXXIII) on Women and Gender was passed/adopted ? by the OAU Council of Ministers.
- The OAU agreed to support the consultative process through the AWCPD.
- The aim of the consultative process was to define the role of women in the newly established AU, and to ensure that they were appropriately represented in its decision-making processes.

March 2001
Sirte, Libya
Fifth Extraordinary Session OAU Assembly of Heads of State and Government 

- A delegation of women advocated for more women to participate actively in the AU, after its transition from the OAU.

July 2001
Lusaka, Zambia
Thirty-seventh Ordinary Session Assembly of Heads of State and Government

- This was the last summit of the OAU;
- The women's networks adopted the decision to convene an expert meeting to examine the possibility of developing a Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa.