There has been a significant amount of local and international policies and legislation aimed at addressing the empowerment of women and gender equality, including a number of United Nations Security Council Resolutions (UNSCRs). Through in-depth interviews with ten key players in locally represented international bodies, this paper tackles the issue of slow implementation of the empowerment agenda, particularly in South Africa. It offers mechanisms and suggestions that may assist the country to develop its own national action plan (NAP) and join the handful of other dedicated African countries that have done so. The resolutions, along with other initiatives meant to empower women, inter alia, the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) are discussed from the perspective of self-determination and autonomy. The primary research question examined was: What does South Africa need to do to overcome the obstacles and utilize the enablers to develop and implement a national action plan to put the various UNSCRs for the empowerment of women, into effect? It was clear that not having a NAP is detrimental to meeting empowerment and gender equality objectives. South Africa has all it needs to coordinate this, including existing structures, processes and policies, and, most importantly, competent, dedicated women.