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The Women, Gender, Development and Youth Directorate (WGDY) is responsible for leading, guiding, defending and coordinating the AU's efforts on gender equality, development and promoting women's and youth’s empowerment. The Directorate designs programmes and projects based on the policies and frameworks adopted by AU Member States. It also oversees the development and harmonization of gender and youth policies; defines strategies for gender and youth mainstreaming within the Commission, AU organs and Member States; and supports capacity building by providing training on gender and youth policies and instruments.

The Directorate advances gender equality, women's empowerment, champions and coordinates the development of youth initiatives at the continental and international levels, with a view to giving new impetus to the commitments agreed at the global and regional levels in the following areas: poverty and women's economic empowerment and entrepreneurship; agriculture and food security; women's health, maternal mortality and HIV/AIDS; education, science and technology; environment and climate change; peace and security; violence against women; governance and legal protection; finance and budget; women in decision-making positions; promotion of youth (women and men), 1 Million by 2021 Youth Initiative and internal AU youth quotas, and women in gender equality; empowerment of women.

The mission of the Directorate is to ensure the implementation of the AU Strategy on Gender Equality and Women's Empowerment (GEWE) and the coordination of policy development and mainstreaming of the topic of youth across the work of the Commission and actively engage with youth, while supporting the work of the Youth Envoy.

African Union Headquarters P.O. Box 3243, Roosvelt Street W21K19 Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

Achieving Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment is considered a critical success factor towards realizing Agenda 2063. To achieve this, in 2019, the Women, Gender and Development Directorate (WGDD), which has now moved to the Women, Gender and Youth Directorate (WGYD) established the African Union Gender Observatory (AUGO), which is an Online Knowledge Management Platform (OKPM).

The reporting tool is now accessible to AU Member States, RECs, and CSOs, in accordance with the decisions made by the policy organs of the African Union.

The African Union Commission's Women, Gender, and Youth directorate is a department that takes its responsibilities seriously. It utilizes the gender observatory tool to gather reports, which are then analyzed and verified prior to being published on this platform for public