Leide Aparecida Souza, president of the Association of Residents of the Genipapo Settlement in the rural area of Acreúna, a municipality in central-western Brazil, stands next to breads and pastries from the bakery where 14 rural women work. The women's empowerment and self-esteem have been boosted by the fact that they earn their own income, which is more stable than from farming, and provide an important service to their community. CREDIT: Marina Carolina / IPS

By Mario Osava
ACREÚNA/ORIZONA, Brazil , Apr 16 2024 (IPS)

A bakery, fruit pulp processing and water pumped from springs are empowering women farmers in Goiás, a central-eastern state of Brazil. New renewable energy sources are driving the process.

“We work in the shade and have a secure, stable income, not an unsteady one like in farming. We cannot control the price of milk, nor droughts or pests in the crops,” said Leide Aparecida Souza, who runs a bakery in the rural area of Acreúna, a municipality of 21,500 inhabitants in central Goiás."The Network is the link between the valorization of rural women, family farming and the energy transition. We chose family farmers because they are the ones who produce healthy food." -- Jessyane Ribeiro

The bakery supplies a variety of breads, including cheese buns and hot dog buns, as well as pastries, cakes and biscuits to some 3,000 students in the municipality’s school network, for the government’s school feeding program, which provides family farming with at least 30 percent of its purchases. Welfare institutions are also customers.

The bakery is an initiative of the women of the Genipapo Settlement, established in 1999 by 27 families, as part of the agrarian reform program implemented in Brazil after the 1964-1985 military dictatorship, which has so far settled 1.3 million families on land of their own.

Genipapo, the name chosen for the settlement, is a fruit of the Cerrado, the savannah that dominates a large central area of Brazil. Each settled family received 44 hectares of land and local production is concentrated on soybeans, cassava and its flour, corn, dairy cattle and poultry.

Six solar panels will reduce the costs of the women’s bakery, installed on the former estate where 27 families were given land in Acreúna, in the Brazilian state of Goiás, as part of the country’s ongoing agrarian reform program. CREDIT: Mario Osava / IPS

Bakery empowers rural women

The women of the Association of Residents of the Genipapo Settlement decided to create a bakery as a new source of income 16 years ago. They also gained self-esteem and autonomy by earning their own money. In general, agricultural and livestock income is controlled by the husbands.

Each of the women working at the bakery earns about 1,500 reais (300 dollars) a month, six percent more than the national minimum wage. “We started with 21 participants, now we have 14 available for work, because some moved or quit,” Souza said.

A year ago, the project obtained a solar energy system with six photovoltaic panels from the Women of the Earth Energy project, promoted by the Gepaaf Rural Consultancy, with support from the Socio-environmental Fund of the Caixa Econômica Federal, the regional bank focused on social questions, and the public Federal University of Goiás (UFG).

Gepaaf is the acronym for Management and Project Development in Family Farming Consultancy and its origin is a study group at the UFG. The company is headquartered in Inhumas, a city of 52,000 people, 180 km from Acreúna.

Due to difficulties with the inverter, a device needed to connect the generator to the electricity distribution network, the plant only began operating in March. Now they will see if the savings will suffice to cover the approximately 300 reais (60 dollars) that the bakery’s electricity costs.

Iná de Cubas stands next to the biodigester that she got from the Women of the Earth Energy project in the municipality of Orizona, in the center-east of the Brazilian state of Goiás. The biogas generated benefits the productive activities of small farmers in rural settlements, as do solar plants on a family or community scale. Image: Mario Osava / IPS

“It’s not that much money, but for us every penny counts,” Souza said. Electricity is cheap in their case because it is rural and nocturnal consumption. Bread production starts at 5:00 p.m. and ends at 3:00 or 4:00 a.m. from Monday to Thursday, according to Maristela Vieira de Sousa, the group’s secretary.

The industrial oven they use is low-consumption and wood-burning. There is another, gas-fired oven, which is only used in emergencies, “because it is expensive,” said de Sousa. Biogas is a possibility for the future, which would use the settlement’s abundant agricultural waste products.

Alternative energies make agribusiness viable

Iná de Cubas, another beneficiary of the Women of the Earth Energy project, has a biodigester that supplies her stove, in addition to eight solar panels. They generate the energy to produce fruit pulp that also supplies the schools of Orizona, a municipality of 16,000 inhabitants in central-eastern Goiás.

The solar plant, installed two years ago, made the business viable by eliminating the electricity bill, which was high because the two refrigerators needed to store fruit and pulp consume a lot of electricity.

The abundance of fruit residues provides the inputs for biogas production, an innovation in a region where manure is more commonly used.

The refrigerators in which Iná de Cubas keeps the fruit and fruit pulp that she prepares for sale to schools in Orizona in central Brazil consume a great deal of electricity. CREDIT: Mario Osava / IPS

“I only use an additional load of animal feces when I need more biogas,” said Cubas, who gets the manure from her neighbor’s cows, since she does not raise livestock.

On her five hectares of land, Cubas produces numerous species of fruit for her cottage industry.

In addition to typical Brazilian fruits, such as cajá or hog plum (Spondias mombin), pequi or souari nut (Caryocar brasiliense) and jabuticaba from the grapetree (Plinia cauliflora), she grows lemons, mangoes, oranges, guava and avocado, among others.

For the pulp, she also uses fruit from neighbors, mostly relatives. The distribution of her products is done through the Agroecological Association of the State of Goias (Aesagro), which groups 53 families from Orizona and surrounding areas.

Agroecology is the system used on her farm, where the family also grows rice, beans and garlic. The crops are irrigated with water pumped from nearby springs that were recovered by the diversion of a road and by fences to block access by cattle, which used to trample the banks.

“The overall aim is to strengthen family farming, the quality of life in the countryside, incomes, and care for the environment, and to offer healthy food, without poisonous chemicals, especially for schools,” explained Iná de Cubas.

Biodigesters made of steel and cement, solar energy for different purposes, including pumping water, rainwater collection and harvesting, are part of the “technologies” that the Women of the Earth Energy project is trying to disseminate, said Gessyane Ribeiro, Gepaaf’s administrator.

In the area where Iná de Cubas lives, the project installed five biodigesters and seven solar pumps for farming families, in addition to solar plants in schools, she said.

The eight solar panels on the roof of the Cubas family’s house, in the rural area of Orizona, make small agro-industrial processes viable, adding value to the wide diversity of native fruits from different Brazilian ecosystems, such as the Cerrado savannah and the Amazon rainforest, along with species imported throughout the country’s history. CREDIT: Mario Osava / IPS

Network of rural women

The Women of the Earth Energy Network, brought together by the project and coordinated by Ribeiro, operates in six areas defined by the government based on environmental, economic, social and cultural similarities. In all, it involves 42 organizations in 27 municipalities in Goiás.

The local councils choose the beneficiaries of the projects, all implemented with collective work and focused on women’s productive activities and the preservation of the Cerrado. All the beneficiaries commit themselves to contribute to a solidarity fund to finance new projects, explained agronomist Ribeiro.

“The Network is the link between the valorization of rural women, family farming and the energy transition,” she said. “We chose family farmers because they are the ones who produce healthy food.”

“We offer technological solutions that rely on the links between food, water and energy, to move towards an energy transition that can actually address climate change,” said sociologist Agnes Santos, a researcher and communicator for the Network.

Recovering and protecting springs is another of the Women’s Network’s activities.

Two solar panels run a pump installed in a spring in the forest to pump the water needed by the 29 cows owned by Nubia Lacerda Matias’ family in Orizona, in the state of Goiás, near Brasilia. Thus the cows stopped drinking water in the springs, which are now fenced off, vital to protect the water source for local families living downstream. CREDIT: Mario Osava / IPS

Nubia Lacerda Matias celebrates the moment she was invited to join the movement. She won a solar pump, made up of two solar panels and pipes, which bring water to her cattle that used to damage the spring, now protected by a fence and a small forest.

“It’s important not only for my family, but for the people living downhill” where a stream flows, fed by various springs along the way, she said.

But the milk from the 29 cows and corn crops on her 9.4-hectare farm are not enough to support the family with two young children. Her husband, Wanderley dos Anjos, works as a school bus driver.

Iná de Cubas’ partner, Rosalino Lopes, also works as a technician for the Pastoral Land Commission, a Catholic organization dedicated to rural workers.

In his spare time, Lopes invents agricultural machines. He assembles and combines parts of motorcycles, tractors and other tools, in an effort to fill a gap in small agriculture, undervalued by the mechanical industry and scientific research in Brazil.

Angela, 15, from Hyderabad, India. Her vision of a violence-free world would be to live like the mermaid in her painting - free and happy. Stella Paul/IPS

By Stella Paul
INDIA/CAMEROON, Nov 26 2017 (IPS)

Sally Mboumien remembers the day she pressed a steaming hot stone against her chest. In Bawock, the rural community of western Cameroon where she grew up, young girls often had their young, sprouting breasts flattened with a hot iron or a hammer or spatulas that had been heated over burning coals.

This was good for the girls because it would keep them safe from men, she had often heard her elders say. So one day, when her mother had gone to visit relatives, a 11-year-old Mboumien overheated a stone and tried to iron her own breasts.“The 16 Days come as we experience a global outcry over sexual harassment and violence. Now it is time for action to end violence against women." --Nanette Braun of UN Women

The stone burnt the delicate skin and tissue, leaving deep black scars over her breasts. Her waves of pain were overshadowed with fear. Terrified, the little girl hid her scars from everyone, including her mother.

“I did what everyone said was good. But I was only a victim of ignorance,” says Mboumien – now one of Cameroon’s most vocal advocates for Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights (SRHR) for girls and young women.

According to the United Nations, breast ironing or breast flattening affects 3.8 million women around the world, including in Cameroon, Benin, Ivory Coast, Chad, Guinea-Bissau, Kenya, Togo, Zimbabwe and Guinea-Conakry. It is also one of the five most under-reported crimes relating to gender-based violence.

Although it is done in an attempt to delay puberty and safeguard the girl from unwanted sexual desire, breast ironing exposes girls to numerous health problems such as infections, cysts, permanent damage of the tissue, cancer and complete disappearance of one or both breasts. Besides which, it’s an utter violation of a girl’s sexual and physical rights and integrity.

Coinciding with UN Women’s Orange Campaign – an initiative that generates public awareness for 16 days of activities against gender-based violence from Nov. 25 to Dec. 10 – Mboumien, the Founder of Common Action for Gender Development, a SRHR Advocacy organization, is planning to hit the road. She will be seen doing what she does best: educating people in local communities on the sexual and reproductive rights of girls and women and why it is crucial for society to abandon any practices that violate these rights.

Breast ironing is embedded deep into the local culture which means people believe in their heart that this is good – and that is what makes it so hard to eradicate, Mboumien says. “The best way to fight this is that instead of focusing on one form of violence (breast ironing), we focus on educating people on SRHR in general.”

Denial of dignity amounts to violence

Thousands of miles away from Mboumien, Bharti Singh Chauhan, a girls’ rights activist in India’s Rajasthan state, is also participating in the Orange Campaign. Her plan: watch a movie.

In a state where almost 40 percent of all girls are married before 18 years of age and where it is still hard for girls, especially those from marginalized communities, to get an education, watching a film is both a symbolic and an actual move forward. At Praveenlatha Sansthan, a charity Chauhan founded, she is empowering over 100 teenage girls to fight the dual evil of child marriage and illiteracy.

All of the girls come from the most marginalized families in the city and witness violence in many forms: child marriage, physical and psychological abuse. The first casualty of this is their education, as the girls drop out of school voluntarily or their parents stop sending them. Chauhan, a fierce advocate for rights to dignity, helps the girls go back to school so that they don’t fall prey to the vicious cycle of illiteracy, poverty, abuse and child marriage.

Going out to watch a movie in a theatre is anything but a trivial matter to these girls. In fact, for them, this is a day of living free.

“It helps them get out of the four walls within which they live, it helps them feel freedom, forget the daily hardship they experience every day and it also helps them learn something from the movie, especially because we choose the movies that come with a strong social message. Finally, sitting there in the same hall with others help them feel what it is: that they are not lesser than anyone and that they have the same rights as anyone else has,” says Chauhan.

The movie the girls will watch this time is Secret Superstar, an Indian film that tells the story of a teenager from a Muslim family who strives to be a rock star but is forbidden by her father to do so. Defiant, the girl posts her own videos on Youtube, fulfilling a dream. The girls, feels Chauhan, will identify with the protagonist of the film as they have many things in common, especially the social, communal, economic and cultural struggles.

“We want the girls to believe in themselves and believe that they can have a dream and that they can realize this too, no matter what.”

GBV – a common global evil

Like Mboumien and Chauhan, thousands of other women – many of them survivors of gender-based violence – are joining the 16 Days of Orange Campaign across Africa, Asia, the Americas and elsewhere. From sexual assaults, beatings, violations of human rights, violation and denial of health rights, rights to privacy and rights to choose a partner to the right to say no to unwanted pregnancies, women activists are taking to the streets, village halls and city auditoriums to demand an end to gender-based violence.

Celine Osukwu, who champions the rights of disabled women in Abuja, Nigeria, shares her plan. “On 25 November I will be in Ibadan, Nigeria with a group of women and men. I will raise my voice on gender-based violence against women and girls with disabilities. You know December 3rd is the International Day of Persons with Disabilities, so I will take this opportunity to direct my talk ‘to leave no one behind’ and tell people that we must make education safe for all.”

In Toronto, Canada, 68-year-old school teacher Tamarack Verall is also feeling excited about participating in the Orange Campaign. Her plan is to meet indigenous women and talk about their right to a violence-free world.

The fact that the campaign has been able to strike a chord with women across the world also proves that GBV is not an academic term, but an ugly reality that women experience globally, regardless of their race, religion, culture, age, language and educational or economic status.

Nanette Braun, Communications and Advocacy Chief at UN Women, agrees. “The 16 Days come as we experience a global outcry over sexual harassment and violence. Now it is time for action to end violence against women,” she says.

Education, not condemnation

However, activists like Mboumian and Chauhan say feel that these 16 days are not the only time to talk about gender violence. There should be a sustained effort to eradicate gender-based violence in all forms.

Chauhan says fighting violence is a 24-hour a day, 365-day a year job, and one must have empathy even while opposing a social evil. “If I only say child marriage must end, I am not doing the complete job. It will stop the girl from getting married early. But to end the cycle of violence, she must also be sent to a school, and provided the freedom she needs to pursue a goal and allowed the dignity she deserves to live a happy, normal life,” says the activist, who has been given an award for her work by the office of the President of India.

Mboumien adds that social campaigns launched by Western countries often fail to understand the local history of a violent practice and the ethos attached to it. This, she feels, limits the campaign’s impacts as men start viewing women who condemn violence as rebellious and acting superior to them. Violence, she says, needs to be understood in its local context. Men need to be involved. People need to be assured that a campaign is trying not to rob them of their tradition, but to save it from becoming a tool that destabilizes the entire society.

With her favorite slogan “Don’t condemn us, educate us” Mboumien tries to spread knowledge about how gender-based violence not only harms a specific gender but weakens the cultural fabric of the enite society and prevents it from becoming progressive.

“I don’t believe in condemnation. Condemning a community or a people for a cultural practice is not the right way to rid it. What we need is make people understand why it is bad, what harm it actually causes and seek their cooperation to end this harmful practice,” she says.

Her belief is shared by Nanette Braun: “Prevention of violence must be a priority, and it must start at a young age through education. We also need laws to protect women and services for survivors so they can overcome the trauma and restart their lives.”

Delegates participate in one of the women’s forums during the Nov. 28-Dec. 1 HLM2 Nairobi meeting. Credit: Robert Kibet/IPS

By Robert Kibet
NAIROBI, Kenya, Dec 12 2016 (IPS)

Reengineering the framework of support by bringing in women as new actors in effective development cooperation will play a pivotal role in achieving the 2030 Agenda for the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

“We need to deliberately make sure that women are part of the development agenda,” Stephen Gichohi, country manager at Forum Syd’s office in Kenya, told a recent Nov. 28-Dec. 1 Second High Level Meeting (HLM2) on the Global Partnership for Effective Development Cooperation (GPEDC) in Nairobi.“If you look across countries, institutions working on gender equality and women’s rights issues are the least funded." -- Patricia Akakpo of the Network for Women Rights in Ghana

The HLM2Nairobi meeting brought together over 5,000 delegates from across the globe, and saw a 400 delegation Civil Society Organisations Partnership for Development Effectiveness (CPDE) endorse the Nairobi Outcome Document.

“Through the government of Kenya’s hosting of this meeting and its leadership, stronger language on gender equality, women’s empowerment and youth’s role in development was made possible,” Theresa Nera-Lauron, co-chair and CSO Policy Advisor, Effective Development Cooperation told IPS.

The HLM2Nairobi built on the Rome Declaration on Harmonisation (2003), the set of principles adopted in the Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness (2005), the Accra Agenda for Action (2008), the Fourth High Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness in Busan (2011) where the Global Partnership for Effective Development Cooperation (GPEDC) was born, and the outcome of the First High-Level Meeting of the GPEDC in Mexico City (2014).

Patricia Akakpo, Programme Manager, Network for Women Rights in Ghana (NETRIGHT), says despite progress on gender equality and women’s rights, much needs to be improved.

“The general CSO concern, for instance, on democratic ownership is not about shared ownership. The shrinking space of women’s rights and a backlash on gains made in gender and women rights clearly reveals that more needs to be done,” Akalepo told IPS.

She says gender-responsive budgeting has been sector-specific, coupled with failure of the governments to meet commitments on gender equality and women’s empowerment.

“If you look across countries, institutions working on gender equality and women’s rights issues are the least funded. Gender ministries are the least funded. Feminists organizations don’t have the funds to organize to advance women’s rights,” she says.

This comes in the wake of concerns regarding the failure of development support to marry country development policies.

“We need to look at quality for development cooperation and aid in general as countries have been getting much on development support, but little concern is given to whether the support marry with the country development policies, such as the Vision 2030 for Kenya, “said Gichohi.

Kenya’s President Uhuru Kenyatta reiterated the need to include all sectors of the population in the development and implementation of the socio-economic agenda.

“We are happy that the topic of incorporating women, youth and persons with disabilities in the development cooperation has raised big interest in this meeting. We must chose to champion the economic empowerment of women and youth in recognition to the potential they can contribute to the Agenda 2030,” said Uhuru when he opened the HLM2Nairobi meeting.

“HLM2Nairobi focussed on women and youth, a population largely left out. Nothing about us without us. We must involve the voices of youth and women in the development agenda,” Memory Kachambwa, Programme Manager for the African Women’s Development and Communication Network (FEMNET), told IPS in an interview.

Reacting to President Uhuru’s sentiment, Kachambwa reiterated the need for policymakers to stop viewing women as victims, and rather as agents of change in their own right who should influence the aid agenda.

Africa, a continent endowed with rich natural resources – especially from the extractives sector – has borne the brunt of tied aid and illicit financial flows, but concern was also raised about the impact of it on the women.

“For every one dollar that comes through development aid, 10 dollars leaves African countries. African has natural resources, but cannot be accounted for, and has been the interest of donor countries which have Multi-National Companies. Governments need to work on certain jurisdictions that provide multinational companies loopholes for tax avoidance,” said Kachambwa.

In a report last year, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) said that companies and government officials are skimming as much as 60 billion dollars annually though illicit financial flows.

“The 60 billion dollars lost through illicit financial flows from African continent is much more than the aid being received. Women are disproportionately affected. This shows there is more in utilizing local resources to fund development in the developing world,” Angel Gurria, OECD Secretary General, told IPS in an interview.

With women facing the harsh reality of fragility in states witnessing violence, Kachambwa calls for linkages with instruments such as the UN Security Council Resolution 1825 and Beijing Declaration.

“Women’s leadership, active participation and influence on different levels in society is important for a sustainable development and a strong democracy,” says Lisbeth Petersen, head of the International Programme Department at Forum Syd.

The link between women in climate change is a cross-cutting issue that deserves greater recognition at climate negotiations. It is pervasive, touching everything; from health and agriculture to sanitation and education.

Women from developing countries witness the nexus between climate change and gender issues on a first-hand basis. They are oftentimes highly dependent on the land and water resources for survival and are left in insecure positions. Climate change is not just an environmental issue, but links to social justice, equity, and human rights, all of which have gender elements.

A female perspective is critical to the success of the 2015 Climate Conference (COP21), which strives to find a global agreement to tackle climate change. In order for it to be effective, it must integrate gender equality, particularly women’s empowerment and gender responsiveness to the vulnerability of rural women.

During the back-and-forth iterations of the climate agreement’s draft, of which several versions were published in the last two weeks, gender was treated as an accessory element that could be removed and bargained with, and all but a handful of parties ignored it. They are wrong.

Asia, the Caribbean, and Africa are three of the most climate vulnerable continents in the world and although they contribute the least to climate change, the women in their countries endure the brunt of its severe impact.

Millions of people in Asia are extremely vulnerable to climate change, especially women because of their traditional, gender-prescribed roles. In many rural areas the mobility of women is very limited, as women working outdoors is often frowned upon due to conservative social perceptions. So while men from climate change-affected areas often migrate to cities and less climate vulnerable regions in search of work, women are left to take care of the homes and children. This confinement to houses translates to economic dependence and lack of access to information such as early warning, which contributes to increasing women’s vulnerability.

Women in Asia usually have more climate sensitive tasks, such as fetching water and preparing food, which increases their vulnerability in the context of climate change. The UN Development Program (UNDP) field research has shown that fetching water involves women and girls commuting over long distances. With the increasing frequency and intensity of floods, women regularly have to navigate through waterlogged areas for fetching water and cooking, which exposes them to the risks of drowning, snakebites, and skin diseases.

Halfway around the globe, women face similar climate-related issues. Caribbean households are largely matriarchal and women find themselves at the frontline of the need for climate adaptation and mitigation.

Women have the prime responsibility of taking care of everyone in the home and are affected by food security and water scarcity. Rural women are particularly vulnerable, especially smallholder producers, marginalised farmers, and agricultural workers living in rural areas.

Whether the food or water shortages are due to the increased amount and intensity of hurricanes or drought, their chances of living decent lives are not high and aren’t getting better. Understanding this point of view is important for successful formulation and execution of climate adaptation strategies.

According to Mildred Crawford, President of the Jamaica Network of Rural Women Producers,” Agriculture needs more visibility in the negotiations. Women are actors in the food chain and need finance to assist small farmers to mitigate and adapt to climate change. Women groups are already organised; so incentives can be given to them to control carbon from waste in their community.”

The Caribbean is in its worst drought in the past five years. According to Mary Robinson, former Prime Minister of Ireland, and also former head of t UN’s High Commission on Human Rights, the climate draft needs to have a sharper gender focus in order to ensure that women have greater access to climate finance, renewable technologies and adaptation capacity. Indeed, climate campaigning should not be narrowed to emissions reductions, carbon trading and transfer of technology, but it should strive to go beyond.

Along with these, it should take note of the fact that most farmers in developing countries are women and therefore adaptation applies strongly to them. Gender applies across the board, it is not something to be used conveniently.
Women from developing countries need to be empowered to play major roles in the climate change fight as they stand to lose so much.

Kalyani Raj, member in charge of All India Women’s Conference, argues that it is crucial to give vulnerable women a voice and include them in policy planning.

“A lot of women have developed micro-level adaptation approaches, indigenous solutions and traditional knowledge that are not being replicated at the macro level,” she said. “So policies should be focused on upscaling these instead of proposing one-size-fits-all measures for climate change adaptation.”

In Africa, the climate change impact on gender issues is mainly linked to agriculture, food security and natural disasters. According to the 2011 Economic Brief of the African Development Bank (AFDB), out of Africa’s 53 countries, women represent 40 percent or more of the agricultural workforce in 46 of them. This sector is characterised as vulnerable because generally it does not comprise formal sector jobs with contracts and income security.

“The poor are especially vulnerable to the effects of climate change, and the majority of the 1.5 billion people living on $1 a day or less are women,” pointed out UNFPA in the 2009 State of World Population report. Furthermore, in a sample of 141 countries over the period 1981–2002, it was found that gender differences in deaths from natural disasters are directly linked to women’s economic and social rights. In inequitable societies, more women than men die from disaster.

As young women from these three vulnerable continents, we are calling for proper representation of women in the climate agreement. The cry of the rural woman is a reality that we must all face. However, we must recognise that women are not just victims, we are powerful agents for change. Therefore, women need to be included in the decision-making processes and allowed to contribute their unique expertise and knowledge to adapt to climate change, because any climate change intervention that excludes women’s perspective and any policy that is gender blind, is destined to fail.

(End)

These Haitian schoolchildren are being supported by a WFP school feeding programme designed to end malnutrition which, for many countries, can be a double burden where overweight and obesity exist side by side with under-nutrition. Credit: UN Photo/Albert González Farran

By Gloria Schiavi
ROME, Nov 23 2014 (IPS)

Not only do 805 million people go to bed hungry every day, with one-third of global food production (1.3 billion tons each year) being wasted, there is another scenario that reflects the nutrition paradox even more starkly: two billion people are affected by micronutrients deficiencies while 500 million individuals suffer from obesity.

The first-ever Global Nutrition Report, a peer-reviewed publication released this month, and figures from the Rome-based U.N. Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) highlight a multifaceted and complex phenomenon behind malnutrition.

“The double burden of malnutrition [is] a situation where overweight and obesity exist side by side with under-nutrition in the same country”, according to Anna Lartey, FAO’s Nutrition Director. “And we are seeing it in lots of the countries that are developing economically. These are the countries that are going through the nutrition transition”."The double burden of malnutrition [is] a situation where overweight and obesity exist side by side with under-nutrition in the same country. And we are seeing it in lots of the countries that are developing economically. These are the countries that are going through the nutrition transition” – Anna Lartey, FAO’s Nutrition Director

Beside hunger then, governments and development organisations have also been forced to start tackling over-nutrition.

“While under-nutrition still kills almost 1.5 million women and children every year, growing rates of overweight and obesity worldwide are driving rising diseases like cancer, heart disease, stroke and diabetes”, Francesco Branca, Director of Nutrition for Health and Development at the World Health Organisation (WHO), explained in a statement.

The solution does not lie in the realm of science, health or agriculture alone. It requires a cross sectorial and multi dimensional approach that includes education, women’s empowerment, market regulation, technological research and, above all, political commitment.

For this reason, representatives of governments, multilateral institutions, civil society and the private sector met in Rome for the Second International Conference on Nutrition (ICN2) that took place at FAO headquarters on Nov. 19-21. Jointly organised by FAO and WHO, the conference came 22 years after its first edition and, unfortunately, addressed the same unsolved problem.

Malnutrition, in all its forms, has repercussions on the capability of people to live a full life, work, care for their children, be productive, generate a positive cycle and improve their living conditions. Figures from the Global Nutrition Report estimate that the cost of malnutrition is around four to five percent of national GDP, suggesting that prevention would be more cost-effective.

With the goal of improving nutrition through the implementation of evidence-based policies and effective international cooperation, ICN2 produced two documents to help governments and stakeholders head in the right direction: the Rome Declaration on Nutrition and a Framework for Action.

The conference also heard a strong call for accountability and for the strengthening of nutrition in the post-2015 development agenda.

Flavio Valente, who represented civil society organisations at ICN2, remarked that “the current hegemonic food system and agro-industrial production model are not only unable to respond to the existing malnutrition problems but have contributed to the creation of different forms of malnutrition and the decrease of the diversity and quality of our diets.”

This position was shared by many speakers, who stressed the negative impact that advertising of unhealthy food has, mainly on children.

According to a participant from Chile, calling obesity a non-communicable disease is misleading, because it spreads through the media system very effectively. He added that Chile currently risks being brought before the World Trade Organisation (WTO) by multinational food companies for its commitment to protect public health by regulating the advertising of certain food.

This happens in a country where 60 percent of people suffer from over-nutrition and one obese person dies every hour, according to the permanent representative of Chile at FAO, Luis Fernando Ayala Gonzalez.

In an address to the conference, Queen Letizia of Spain also acknowledged the responsibility of the private sector: “It is necessary to help the economic interests converging towards public health. It is worth remembering that no country in the world has been able to reverse the epidemic of obesity in all age groups. None.”

The outcome of ICN2 brought consensus around a plan of action and some key targets.

Educating children about healthy habits and women who are in charge of feeding the family was recognised as crucial, as was breastfeeding, which should be encouraged (through paid maternity leave and breastfeeding facilities in the workplace), and the need to empower women working in agriculture.

Supporting small and family farming would also give people better opportunities to eat local, fresh and seasonal produce as well as fruit and vegetables, reducing the consumption of packaged, processed food that is often low in nutrients, vitamins and fibres and high in calories, sugar, salt and fats.

However, teaching people how to eat is not enough, if they cannot easily access quality food – hence the need for relevant policies targeting the food chain and distribution.

Initiatives like the Fruit in Schools programme proposed by New Zealand go in the right direction, especially when implemented within a coordinated policy that promotes physical activity and a healthy lifestyle that fights consumption of alcohol and tobacco.

(Edited by Phil Harris)

Employment opportunities for women in Pakistan’s northern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province are limited, due to a prevailing cultural attitude of male dominance. Credit: Ashfaq Yusufzai/IPS

By Ashfaq Yusufzai
PESHAWAR, Pakistan, Sep 25 2014 (IPS)

Saleema Bibi graduated from medical school 15 years ago – but to this day, the 40-year-old resident of Peshawar, capital of Pakistan’s northern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) province, has never been able to practice as a professional.

“I wanted to get a government job, but my family wanted me to get married instead,” Bibi tells IPS. Now she is a housewife, with “strict in-laws” who are opposed to the idea of women working.

“I know the province is short of female doctors,” she adds. “And the salaries and other benefits for people in the medical profession are lucrative, but social taboos have hampered women’s desire to find jobs.”

"Social taboos have hampered women’s desire to find jobs.” -- Saleema Bibi, a medical school graduate.
According to the International Labour Organisation (ILO), gender disparities in labour force participation rates are severe in Pakistan, with male employment approaching 80 percent compared to a female employment rate of less than 20 percent between 2009 and 2012.

In the country’s northern, tribal belt, the situation is even worse, with religious mores keeping women confined to the home, and unable to stray beyond the traditional roles of wife, mother, and housekeeper.

What Saleema Bibi discovered in her late-20s was something most women who dream of a career will eventually encounter: endless hurdles to equal participation in the economy.

For instance, the health sector in KP, which has a population of 22 million people, employs just 40,000 women, while maintaining a male labour force of some 700,000, according to Abdul Basit, a public health specialist based in Peshawar.

He says the “shortage of women employees in the health sector is [detrimental] to the female population” and is the “result of male dominance and an environment shaped by the belief that women should stay at home instead of venturing out in public.”

Even though one-fifth of the country’s doctors are female, few of them are engaged in paid work. Hundreds of female students are enrolled in the public sector’s medical colleges, but KP only has 600 female doctors, compared to 6,000 male doctors, Noorul Iman, a professor of medicine at the Khyber Medical College in Peshawar, tells IPS.

Experts also say the proportion of women workers occupying white-collar jobs is very limited, since even educated women are discouraged from entering the public service.

According to the Pakistan Economic Survey for 2012-2013, women have traditionally populated the informal sector, taking up jobs as domestic workers and other low-paid, daily-wage professions as cooks or cleaners, where affluent families typically pay them paltry sums of money.

In contrast, their share of professional clerical and administrative posts has been less than two percent.

Research indicates that only 19 percent of working women had jobs in the government sector, while the economic survey reports that some 200,000 women in KP were actively seeking jobs in the 2010-2011 period.

The most popular jobs were found to be in medicine, banking, law, engineering and especially education.

“Because women can work in all-girls’ schools, without interacting with male students or colleagues, their families allow them to take up these posts,” Pervez Khan, KP’s deputy director of education, tells IPS, adding that the female-only environment provided by gender-segregated schools explains why women are attracted to the profession of teaching.

The provision of three months’ paid leave, as well as 40 days of maternity leave is yet another incentive to enter the education sector, he states.

Still, the disparity between men and women is high. Although KP has a total of 119,274 teachers, only 41,102 are female.

The manufacturing sector does not fair any better. Muhammad Mushtaq, a leading industrialist in the province, says only three percent of the workforce in 200 industrial units around KP is comprised of women.

“Many people do not want women to mix with men in offices, and prefer for them to stay away from public places,” he tells IPS. This is a particularly disheartening reality in light of the fact that the number of girls in Pakistani universities, including in the northern regions, is almost equal to that of boys; despite their competitive qualifications, however, women are marginalised.

Mushtaq also believes that sexual harassment of women in their workplaces conspires with other forces to keep women from the payroll. About 11 percent of working women reported incidents of sexual harassment in the workplace, according to a 2006 study by the Peshawar-based Women’s Development Organisation.

“The research, conducted on women working in multinational companies, banks, government-owned departments, schools and private agencies, found a prevailing sense of insecurity,” says Shakira Ali, a social worker with the organisation.

Faced with mounting poverty in a country where 55 percent of the population of about 182 million earn below two dollars a day, while a full 43 percent earn between two and six dollars daily, many women are growing desperate for work, taking up positions in garment and food processing units, or entering the manufacturing sector where their embroidery skills are in high demand.

But this too, experts say, is predominantly temporary, contractual employment.

There is a kind of vicious cycle in which a lack of experience results in inadequate skills, which in turn fuels unemployment among women.

The situation is made worse by a nationwide female literacy rate of just 33 percent. While the female primary school enrollment rate is 70 percent, that number falls to just 33 percent for secondary-level education.

Muhammad Darwaish at the KP Employment Exchange Department says that only those women who head their households – either due to the death or debilitation of their husbands – are free to actively seek employment.

They too, however, fall victim to low wages and informal working conditions.

KP Information Minister Shah Farman tells IPS the government is committed to creating a safe working environment for women, which is free of harassment, abuse and intimidation with a view toward fulfillment of their right to work with dignity.

“We are bringing in a law on the principles of equal opportunity for men and women and their right to earn a livelihood without fear of discrimination,” he asserts.

Farman claims the KP government has launched a 10-million-dollar interest-free microcredit programme for women to enable them to start their own businesses.

“The programme, started in December 2013, seeks to reduce poverty through creation of self-employment and job opportunities for women,” he says.

Under the scheme, small loans worth anywhere from 1,000 to 2,000 dollars are being given to women who want to start embroidery, sewing and other home-based businesses.

It will continue for the next five years to bring women into the economic mainstream.

Pakistan is also bound to work towards gender equality by the targets set out in the internationally agreed-upon Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), which are due to expire next year.

The government has taken steps towards the goal of empowering women through a series of national-level initiatives including the establishment of crisis centres for women, the National Plan of Action, gender reform programmes and the Benazir Income Support Programme (BISP).

Still, women on average continue to earn less than men, while women only hold 60 seats compared to 241 seats occupied by men in the National Assembly.

Until women are allowed to fully contribute to the national economy, experts fear that Pakistan will not reach the goal of achieving gender equality.

Edited by Kanya D’Almeida

The Burundi National Police is composed of 2.9 percent women. Despite a 30 percent quota for women’s representation in parliament, there is still a long way to go to fill the gap in government institutions where women represent only an average of 20.15 percent. Courtesy: Bernard Bankukira

By Bernard Bankukira
BUJUMBURA, Jul 5 2014 (IPS)

As Burundi heads towards the 2015 general elections, and despite a quota of 30 percent women’s representation in parliament, women in this southeast African nation feel that they are yet to have a significant say in the management of their country.

Bernardine Sindakira, the chairwoman of Synergy of Partners for the Promotion of Women’s Rights (SPPDF), a Burundian coalition of women’s rights organisations, tells IPS that the country’s very traditional culture still considers women as “homemakers” as women are educated to play this role from young. “A hen doesn’t crow when the rooster is there,” says a Burundian proverb."We’ve got so many woman engineers at building sites, doctors, heads of organisations, business women, security women, and so many others." -- Marceline Bararufise, Burundian Member of Parliament

“This has long kept her in the position of being unable to [ensure] her empowerment and have the place she deserves in the country’s management,” says Sindakira.

This country is still recovering from a 12-year ethnic-based civil war after the 1993 assassination of the country’s first democratically-elected president, Melchior Ndadaye. Almost 300,000 people died in the Hutu-Tutsi violence and the conflict “had a very negative impact on women and young girls who experienced rape and other forms of sexual violence,” according to a 2011 Global Network of Women Peacebuilders report.

According to the Inter-Parliamentary Union, after the 2010 elections women in Burundi held 34 out of 106 seats in the lower house, about 32.1 percent, “as well as a significant rise in the upper house to 46.3 percent, due to a considerable degree to its quota system.“

But according to a 2011 report by the Global Network of Women Peacebuilders “the law does not specify the quota for women in other decision-making bodies. Thus in the top three offices i.e. President, First Vice President and Second Vice President, there are no women.”

SPPDF figures show that although the 30 percent quota is almost fully respected in elective agencies like parliament and local administration, there is still a long way to go to fill the gap in government institutions where women represent only an average of 20.15 percent.

In security services, women’s representation remains the lowest.

• The 2012 official records of the Burundi National Defence Force show that women represent just 0.5 percent of the force — 148 woman soldiers of the total 25,000.
• The Burundi National Police comprises 2.9 percent women.

Marceline Bararufise, a Member of Parliament (MP), head of the Parliamentary Education Sub-committee, and head of the Association of Parliamentarian Women in Burundi, told IPS that there is proof that women can perform better than men when it comes to public service delivery.

A 2012/2013 national survey conducted to assess the public service delivery at the district level, revealed that the district which came in first place for service delivery was a northern district headed by a woman. Many other districts headed by women were among the most successful, Bararufise said.

As SPPDF has launched a nationwide campaign for increasing women’s representation in the overall management of the country, Sindakira regrets that the law itself still discriminates against women.

“For example, we have been fighting for a parliamentary review of the matrimonial law so as to enable women to benefit from [inheritance], but the current situation is that we are even banned to raise the issue. This hampers all women’s efforts to stand for their rights,” Sindakira said. Here, women are not allowed to inherit and property passes from father to male heir.

She also regretted that so many women still consider that a review of the matrimonial law would be a breach of culture.

“Having educated women implies that the culture has also changed and thus no reason for the dark cultural practices to keep the Burundian woman behind,” said Sindakira.

Bararufise, who served as a governor before becoming an MP, points out though that Burundian woman have made significant steps towards self-empowerment.

“Now, apart from these political positions enshrined within the constitution, we’ve got so many woman engineers at building sites, doctors, heads of organisations, business women, security women, and so many others. This is to show that a woman of 20 years back is totally different from women now,” she told IPS.

She said that while she understood that Burundian culture was among several factors impeding women’s emancipation, it was important to note that women’s empowerment did not mean standing completely against culture as there remain some positive aspects of Burundian culture that need to be preserved.

“The only thing is that both men and women must understand that the sustainability of their family is the duty of both of them [and comes] with equal responsibility,” she said.

Bararufise regretted that Burundian women in leadership positions were disrespected by their male counterparts. “In some situations, women in positions of leadership find it difficult to command respect from men.”

She also acknowledged that a lot still needed to be done to evolve and change these current attitudes. “We want men to understand that women are able and have rights to contend for higher positions, instead of staying home.”

Malawi’s President Joyce Banda says women must be empowered and have to be actively involved in all decisions related to their health and well being. Credit: Katie C. Lin/IPS

By Mabvuto Banda
LILONGWE, Aug 3 2013 (IPS)

Malawi’s President Joyce Banda knows a thing or two about women’s empowerment. After all she is the first female southern African head of state.

But she has not had it easy. Banda had a tough job fixing a sputtering economy after taking over from her predecessor Bingu wa Mutharika who died in office on Apr. 5, 2012. In 2011 the country witnessed nationwide protests against Mutharika and the failing economy. The United Kingdom, Malawi’s largest donor, had suspended 550 million dollars in aid after Mutharika expelled its ambassador for calling him an autocrat.

But she did succeed. Since taking office she has implemented of a number of austerity measures, which included selling the country’s presidential jet for 15 million dollars and taking a 30 percent cut in her salary. She also embarked on a range of reforms that not everyone has agreed with. The most controversial has been cultivating closer ties with international financial institutions like the International Monetary Fund, which is known for its heavy-handed austerity plans.

But in June, the World Bank said the country’s economy was recovering, with manufacturing expected to grow six percent and agriculture 5.7 percent.

In September 2012, the International Bar Association’s Human Rights Institute reported that since Mutharika’s increasingly autocratic rule ended, respect for democracy and human rights has returned to the country under Banda’s presidency.

In an exclusive interview with IPS, Banda said that women’s empowerment remained high on her agenda.

“The message I am trying to send is ‘Nothing for us without us’ – nothing for women without their involvement and inclusion. We need to make deliberate efforts and policies that will aim at eliminating the structural barriers posed by poverty and gender inequality in economic empowerment of women because such efforts will have long-lasting improvements on the welfare of a woman,” Banda told IPS.

In June, Banda appointed Anastasia Msosa the country’s first female chief justice. Msosa is just one of a number of women who have been appointed to high-level positions by Banda. In March, she appointed Hawa Ndilowe the first ever female head of the public service. Banda noted that even after women’s active participation in the fight for independence in the 1960s and their involvement in liberation movements in Africa, “women did not get prominent decision-making positions to correspond to their inputs in the struggles.”

Excerpts from the interview:

Q: Many scholars and activists say that there is a direct link between gender equality, good governance and women’s empowerment and sustainable development. Do you agree with that?

A: Gender equality unlocks the potential of women and men to allow space for each other. And women’s empowerment proactively enhances the capacity of women to participate in decision making and in matters that affect them.

Q: Since you came to power in April 2012, you have appointed a number of women in very influential positions like chief justice and head of the public service. You have also appointed more women to your cabinet. What is your agenda?

A: It is important that women’s needs, aspirations and realities become central drivers of policies and programmes to increase maternal health care access and utilisation. Women must be empowered and have to be actively involved in all decisions related to their health and well being. As I have said many times before in different forums, we cannot talk about empowering a particular group without involving the group itself. No decisions should be made about women without women’s involvement.

Q: Before you joined politics, you formed the National Association for Business Women, an organisation that lends start-up cash to small-scale business women. You also successfully set up a school to help educate girls. Why are you so passionate about this?

A: Women constitute the majority of our population in Africa. Therefore, when we talk about poverty, suffering and underdevelopment, we are talking mostly of women. That’s why I believe that the promotion of gender equality, women’s empowerment, improvement of maternal health and achieving education for the girl child is a transformational strategy to achieving development.

Q: Women’s subordinate position in most African societies restricts the ability for them to take control of their lives to combat HIV/AIDS, leave a high-risk relationship or have adequate access to quality health care and education. What is your take on this?

A: In Malawi women and girls between the ages of 15 and 30 experience very high rates of HIV/AIDS infection. The infection rate of women/girls is six times higher than that of men/boys in the same group and the reason is because of the low socio-economic status of women in addition to various cultural practices that prevent women from negotiating safer sex.

Q: So what needs to be done to change this?

A: We need laws that protect women and my government has managed to push through the Gender Equality Bill and it has been passed by parliament. We also need deliberate policies to push capable women into decision-making positions in every sector so they lead and help empower fellow women.

Q: Finally, what are your last thoughts on empowering women?

A: In most African countries, women have over time faced a variety of legal, economic and social challenges. These disadvantages placed women and girls at the margins of society. In most homes, girls lack opportunity to access education. It is typical that in most African families when resources are low they prioritise boys’ education over girls’.

Sex-stereotyping on the part of parents, educators, religion, the media and society at large encouraged the practice that certain jobs are exclusively for men, and as a result the majority of women remained in the ‘feminised’ jobs. In some African societies, customary laws regarded adult women as minors and these women in most instances did not enjoy property and inheritance rights.

This increased their dependence on men. Treatment of women as minors manifested in formal provisions barring women from opening their own bank accounts and apply for credit in their own right, for instance. Women have not enjoyed access to factors of production like their male counterparts.

However, I am pleased that African women have not just sat back, and accepted being pushed into the margins of society. African women have risen up to claim their rightful place in society and are driving the agenda for their empowerment.

Excerpt:

By Lucy Westcott
UNITED NATIONS, Jun 26 2013 (IPS)

Bogaletch Gebre knows exactly what women in her Ethiopian community are going through. Along with her sisters, the women’s rights activist was a victim of female genital mutilation (FGM) when she was a child in a part of Ethiopia where the practise was carried out on every girl.

In 1997, Gebre and her sister, Fikrete, founded Kembatti Mentti-Gezzima-Tope (KMG), which means “women working and standing together”. For her work with KMG, Gebre won this year’s King Baudoin African Development Prize.

Bogaletch Gebre, a women’s empowerment activist, in her signature sunglasses. Credit: Lucy Westcott/IPS

Gebre believes that a trifecta of issues – economic, societal and ecological – combine to oppress women, so KMG works on a range of issues, from improving infrastructure to encouraging communities to confront customary practises like bridal abduction and FGM, which it has helped to dramatically decrease.

IPS correspondent Lucy Westcott spoke to Gebre in New York about the practise of and attitudes about female genital mutilation, as well as the power of women’s economic independence.

Excerpts from the interview follow.

Q: Your encouraging communities to discuss FGM and other taboo subjects has been called a rebellion. Do you agree with that label?

A: One of KMG’s aims is eliminating gender-based violence, which includes customary practises such as FGM, bride abduction and widow inheritance.

In 1998, when we did our baseline survey on FGM, we were touching taboo issues. So somebody called it a rebellion and me a renegade for touching things like that, because people do not dare to.

Q: Was it difficult to start talking about these issues? What was the culture like when you were growing up?

A: When I was growing up, body parts and anything taboo were not pronounced by girls – only by grandmothers, mothers and married elders. FGM is called “removing the dirt”."[In Ethiopia], female genital mutilation is called 'removing the dirt'."
-- Bogaletch Gebre

I was awakened to the harmfulness of FGM because somebody took the time to explain to me that I didn’t have to go through it. When I underwent it, it was a celebratory event. Everyone was dancing and celebrating.

But my sisters, my mother, myself – we were crying, because they knew how harmful and painful it is. My mother said, “I wish they would do away with it.” She knew what was being done to her daughter, but she felt she was mandated, that this thing should be done in order to make her daughter acceptable and marriageable, and this is what the girls should go through.

Q: How did your organisation achieve such a decrease in FGM cases?

A: In 1998, we found that FGM was happening to 100 percent of girls in the areas where KMG worked in Ethiopia. Today, that is changing. We have reduced the FGM rate by 97 percent, according to UNICEF, so right now those rates are just under three percent.

What’s important is not just change through workshops, but also girls becoming social forces in the community. They’re organising clubs, going to school and passing exams. It’s not like it used to be.

We discovered that we didn’t know where FGM and other practises came from. We asked the elders, the community leaders, anyone who would know the myths, oral traditions and history of the area, but nobody can tell you where it comes from.

How did it become our tradition? And why did it become Ethiopian or African culture? Why are we killing our children?

Q: When people realised that no one knew where FGM originated, did they change their minds or did they still want to hold on to tradition?

A: Nothing is automatic. It doesn’t change overnight, so we have continuous engagement as a community. We see change coming, individual behaviour changing and the community arguing among itself.

There’s no parent in the world that would knowingly hurt his or her children. That FGM is mandated by in their religion or culture is a misconception and misunderstanding that nobody has questioned.

When people start reasoning and questioning, there’s no answer to the question of why, so one person at a time, it stops. They’ve built their own contract, with the community punishing those who continue with the crimes.

Q: Is there a correlation between the decrease in FGM and the rise in opportunity for young women in Ethiopia?

A: We are not addressing just FGM through the organisation, but a whole array of social change. We’re helping to send girls to school, and we are improving economic opportunities for mothers. Women are establishing militias to protect each other and are accessing justice.

There is huge change taking place. Building roads and improving infrastructure is also a big part of what we do, as it helps women become economically independent.

Economic empowerment gives women a voice, confidence and also space and respect in the community. Once they start talking, there’s no stopping.

Excerpt:

Caption: FAO Director General José Graziano da Silva presents the Jacques Diouf Award to Reema Nanavaty of SEWA. Credit: ©FAO/Giulio Napolitano

By Stella Paul
ROME, Jun 15 2013 (IPS)

Jassiben, a self-employed potter from Nana Shahpur village in western India, loves summer despite the heat waves and frequent power cuts, because summer days always mean great business.

“Poor people like us do not have refrigerators, so they store drinking water in the earthen pots that keep the water cool,” says Jassiben, who uses only one name."The best thing is that my husband doesn’t have to migrate anymore. Now he helps me run this business." -- Jassiben, a self-employed potter from Nana Shahpur

“This year, the demand has been so high, I am selling at least a dozen pots every day,” she says with a smile. That fetches over 17 dollars – literally a month’s worth of food.

Jassiben was born into a potters’ family, but married a landless farmer. About six years ago, her husband started to migrate to the city in the summer as work became scarce due to a water shortage.

Left behind with two infants, Jessiben often faced hunger and starvation. She wanted to start making pots to help her family, but found nobody willing to lend her any money.

“The nearest market is about 10 kms away, the roads are bad and most pots break while transporting. So everyone thought it was a high-risk business,” she says.

Three years ago, she heard of the Shri Mahila Sewa Sahakari Bank, which offered micro-loans to poor women to start a business. It was founded in 1974 by the Self-Employed Women’s Association (SEWA), a non-profit organisation that helps women become find a livelihood and become self-reliant.

Jassiben borrowed 60 dollars, a sum that helped her buy a potter’s wheel and build an extra room in her house to store her pots.

“It was a turning point. I discovered that buyers too found it equally troublesome to buy a pot in the market and bring it home intact. Now, they can come to my home, choose a pot or any other item they want, and even order one. I now earn about Rs 5,000 (86 dollars) every month. But the best thing is that my husband doesn’t have to migrate anymore. Now he helps me run this business,” she says.

SEWA bank initially had 4,000 self-employed women workers. Today it has over 50,000 depositors and a working capital of 174,000 dollars. It functions as a cooperative, in which all the members and customers are self-employed women and policies are made by their own elected board.

In recognition to their great contribution to women’s empowerment, SEWA was presented with the Jacques Diouf Award Saturday by the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) at its ongoing 38th conference in Rome.

Accepting the award on behalf of its 1.7 million members, Reemaben Nanavaty, president of SEWA, tells TerraViva that through the initiative of the SEWA bank, poor women have been given control of natural and financial resources.

“The SEWA Bank has contributed directly in achieving, to some extent, the larger SEWA goals of organising and creating visibility for self-employed women, enabling them to get a higher income and to have control over their own income,” she says.

“A large number of members now have their own hand-carts, sewing machines, looms and tools of carpentry and blacksmithy to work with. Many of them have upgraded their skills and developed more business.”

According to Nanavaty, the award is a great motivation. “I dedicate this award to all the women who are fighting poverty and finding food security and financial self-reliance collectively,” she says.

SEWA shares the award with the European Commission, which has also been working to reduce poverty and ensure food security in 50 countries across the world.

Other FAO awards handed out Saturday recognised the UK-based Guardian newspaper’s global development team for its reporting on agriculture, food security and poverty; FAO field officers David Doolan, Patrick Durst, and Luca Alinovi; the Kenya Forest Service; and the Organización del Sector Pesquero y Acuícola del Istmo Centroamericano (OSPESCA).

Shaheen Begum receives skills training at the PPC paraplegic centre in Hayatabad in northern Pakistan. Credit: Ashfaq Yusufzai/IPS

By Ashfaq Yusufzai
PESHAWAR, May 13 2013 (IPS)

Gul Shada thought it was the end of the road for her when she and her husband met with a road accident last year in the Nowshera district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, one of the four provinces of Pakistan. Not only did the mishap leave Shada widowed at the relatively young age of 37, she also sustained an injury to her back that immobilised her.

It was then that she came to the country’s sole paraplegic centre (PPC) at Hayatabad, to the southwest of Peshawar, the capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. And it was here that she was taught that you don’t need to be on your feet to be able to stand on your own.

Along with helping her regain her physical strength, the centre also gave Shada training in sewing and embroidery. Today, she is able to earn a living of her own, enough to provide her three children with a decent education.

“I had thought I would be bedridden forever and my children would have to beg on the streets,” Shada told IPS. “But I am a shining example of how the PPC is helping its patients. I was referred for physiotherapy here after being operated on for spinal injury at the Hayatabad Medical Complex. My hopes were raised further when I was taught sewing and embroidery here and I became somewhat of an expert.”

Established by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in 1983 for those wounded in the 1979-1989 Soviet war in Afghanistan, the centre was left in the hands of the Pakistan Red Crescent (PRC) after the ICRC withdrew in 1995.

The PRC managed the centre till the reins were handed over to the current management in 2005. The provincial government of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa – which borders Afghanistan to the northwest – then made it an autonomous body governed by a board, through a 2009 Act.

The PPC, which has a staff of 110, remains the only centre of its kind in Pakistan which provides free treatment and rehabilitation to patients who have received injuries to their spine. Some 1,200 women and 800 men have benefited since 2005 under its training centre, bringing hopes to lives that have foreseen only despair.

One among them is Shaheen Begum from Khyber Agency, one of the eight tribal areas that make up the Federally Administered Tribal Areas, to the west of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. The 25-year-old fell from a wall in February last year, damaging her spine. After treatment at the local hospital, she was shifted to the PPC for physiotherapy.

“Not only did the physiotherapists give me tips on different exercises during my two-month stay here, they also helped me acquire computer skills. Now, I work as a composer from home,” Begum told IPS.

She may be confined to a wheelchair now, but that hasn’t dented Begum’s confidence.

On a follow-up visit to the PPC she told IPS that “I have only one son. I feel proud to be able to operate a computer and earn enough so that I can afford a proper education for him. Otherwise, I would have been roaming the streets of Peshawar with a begging bowl.”

She said she couldn’t thank god enough for giving her the opportunity to be able to work and earn her own living despite her misfortune.

The PPC’s chief executive officer, Syed Muhammad Ilyas, takes pride in the progress of his patients. He urges them to regain their physical strength and rather than be a burden on others, learn to help not just themselves but also their families.

“These are healthy young men and women who have become prisoners in their own bodies and have lost control over their bodily functions. One can well imagine the level of frustration and anxiety they go through,” he said.

The trap becomes worse if they are the sole breadwinners of the family, he added. This is, in fact, the case with 80 per cent of the patients who come to the PPC, while more than 90 per cent of them fall below the poverty line.

Many of the spinal cord injuries are sustained during road accidents, said Ilyas. But he added that falls from rooftops, trees or electricity poles, as well as firearm injuries, were also common. Patients at the centre are as young as 26 years old, he said, and they tend to arrive at the centre with little or no hope.

Few things are more expensive than treating and rehabilitating patients with spinal injuries. The cost of rehabilitating a patient in Europe or the United States can go up to millions of dollars. “We achieve the same with a fraction of that amount by getting patients to a stage where they can move about on a wheelchair and by imparting them different skills,” Ilyas said.

Sultana Gul, 51, says she came to the centre for physiotherapy 10 years ago, where she learned skills as a seamstress. Her house in Charsadda district now serves as a training centre for local women, helping many earn respectability and an income.

“In the past decade, I have taught these skills to at least 200 women in my neighbourhood,” Gul told IPS. “Around 10 women, who were earlier reduced to begging in the market square, are now earning their own living because we brought them here and taught them how to knit and sew. We train them for a month after which they teach the same skills to other women around them, everyone making a decent sum of money in the bargain.”

“It takes only a month to train a patient,” said Gul Pari, a trainer at Sultana Gul’s centre. They are initially hesitant to go through training, but agree once you convince them of how it can change their lives, she said. The centre trains about 80 women every year, she said, and there six trainers like her.

And that gives a whole new meaning to women’s empowerment.

Maasai villagers in traditional clothing and jewellery in the Serengeti National Park, Tanzania. Credit: William Warby/cc by 2.0

By Joan Erakit
UNITED NATIONS, May 9 2013 (IPS)

The Maasai tribe of Kenya and Tanzania has long been a beacon of traditional culture to many Africans – and for Westerners on safari through Maasai Mara, Samburu or Amboseli, a familiar face.

But familiarity and travels aside, the tribe faces many of the same roadblocks on the path to development as any other marginalised community around the world.

William Kikanae, community leader of his Maasai village in Maasai Mara, recently spoke with IPS in New York during the launch of an initiative to provide economic opportunities for local tribeswomen by the Spanish footwear brand Pikolinos.

“First, I know for myself that women are the most important part of the family,” Kikanae told IPS. “(But) for Maasai people, women are not important. They don’t have power like a man.”

As an Adcam director for Kenya, Kikanae works with brands overseas like Pikolinos to cultivate projects that allow the women of his community to earn money.

Through the Maasai Project, local women embroider sandals that are then sent to Spain for finishing and sold all over the world, with the proceeds going back into community development projects such as schools, clinics and housing.

“Before, the men of my community thought that I supported women to be in power more than them,” Kikanae said in regards to the Maasai Project.

“We’re not going against anyone. I can say now that even our politicians are proud of the project,” Kikanae added.

The middlemen

According to a female government officer and doctor from the Maasai tribe, who asked that her name be withheld, supporting women and propelling them to the forefront of development is a significant way to achieve change among the Maasai.

“Women cannot own livestock they look after, but if educated these things will change. All is not lost for those who did not go to school, however. If allowed by their men to trade in milk, handicrafts, they can generate income for their families,” the Kenyan officer told IPS.

Poor communities are always subject to exploitation and misrepresentation when it comes to aid, so when a tribe like the Maasai partners with an organisation abroad, it is only natural for scepticism to arise.

“I think the problem here stems from the middlemen. These are the guys who are supposed to connect the community with the ‘helpers’. These people will use the opportunity to exploit the community to realise their own ambition with very little of the help reaching the beneficiary,” the officer told IPS.

“Since education has lagged behind, the few educated individuals have used the ignorance of the majority to their own benefit. So, in a nutshell, the common villager may not be able to differentiate this.”

Homework by firelight

The women of the Maasai are hardly in denial when it comes to their lack of education. They understand that the more people are educated within their community, the fewer will fall victim to exploitation.

But old patterns persist. In many local African villages, it is a well known fact that only if a young girl is rendered useless to her family – unwilling to marry young, reluctant to perform household duties and chores, or go to the garden and dig – would she be sent off to school to study. This caused a division in opportunity and kept education inaccessible to those who desired it.

A tradition-versus-modernisation issue is still visible today.

Additionally, the lack of basic needs at home such as electricity or transportation to school greatly hinders the performance of a rural student. As the officer told IPS, “You can imagine trying to do homework by firelight or walking long distances to and from school.”

Let the women lead

From an outsider’s point of view, it may seem that the Maasai women cannot catch a break, from lack of health services – especially in regards to maternal health where many women still die during childbirth – to the spread of HIV/AIDS, a topic that most do not feel comfortable talking about.

“Men go to towns, sells cows or work, have relationships with town women and bring the virus home,” the officer said. “The women have not heard of condoms or negotiating for safe sex.”

As in other societies around the world, the spread of HIV/AIDS is directly linked to education, and when children don’t receive information on sexual health, the perpetual cycle of disease continues.

Added to these concerns is the growing problem of displacement.

“Large tracts of Maasialand are being sold by men, sometimes without the knowledge of their wives. From Kitengela to Namanga on the border this is happening. This land is being bought by other communities and before long the Maasai will be in the back of beyond in extremely hard to reach areas. The current leadership is too short-sighted to see this catastrophe in the making,” the officer added.

Asked what is needed to facilitate development among the Maasai, the officer said, “There is need to for good leadership to guide this process so that there is no exploitation.”

With education and good leadership, the obstacles that the tribe face are slowly tackled. One by one, Maasai women are more likely to reassess the needs of their entire families and surrounding community, whilst working together with local and international organisations to bring about measurable change, she said.

Amina Mohamed is the first woman to be nominated head of Kenya’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Credit: Brian Ngugi/IPS

By Brian Ngugi
NAIROBI , May 9 2013 (IPS)

Kenya’s nominees for cabinet secretary positions, who include an unprecedented number of women – six out of 18 – will undergo a gruelling public vetting process by the Parliamentary Committee on Appointments Thursday.

Despite the appointments – which are yet to be confirmed – women’s rights organisations in this East African nation say President Uhuru Kenyatta’s new government must do more to seriously mainstream gender issues in the country.

Kenyatta made history on Apr. 25, when he nominated the six women to the cabinet – the highest number the country has had since independence.

The nominees include former diplomat Raychelle Omamo, who was proposed to head the sensitive Ministry of Defence, a docket which has never before been held by a woman.

And Anne Waiguru, an economic and public policy expert, is expected to head the critical Ministry of Devolution and Planning, which will coordinate the implementation of Kenya’s new devolved system of government in 47 counties.

Charity Ngilu, a former government minister, was nominated to head the Ministry of Land, Housing and Urban Development; Phyllis Kandie, an investment banker, was nominated to head the Ministry of East African Affairs, Commerce and Tourism; and Judy Wakhungu, a former associate professor of science, technology, and society at Pennsylvania State University, was tapped to head the Ministry of Environment, Water and National Resources.

Earlier, on Apr. 23, Kenyatta and his Deputy William Ruto had announced the nomination of Amina Mohamed as the first woman to head the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Twenty-three men, including Kenya’s founding president Jomo Kenyatta, have held this key post since 1963.

But ahead of the vetting process, which will pave the way for the tabling of the list of nominees in parliament for debate, approval and subsequent confirmation, Maria Nzomo, the first Kenyan woman to obtain a Ph.D in political science and international studies, from Dalhousie University in Canada in 1981, told IPS that despite the historic appointments, women here still lag far behind men on a number of fronts.

She said many of them continue to suffer from restricted access to health care, education, political participation and cultural life, as well as legal protection and economic opportunities.

Consequently Nzomo, who teaches at the Institute of Diplomacy and International Studies at the University of Nairobi, said the government must do more to address the plight of Kenyan women.

“Women lack required skills, access to affordable credit or even better education, meaning therefore that they are perennially disadvantaged to men and can only survive by plying informal sector jobs,” she said.

Her comments were echoed by Grace Mbugua, the executive director of Women’s Empowerment Link, a non-governmental national women rights organisation, who told IPS that empowering Kenyan women would take more than the nomination of the six women to the cabinet.

“While we must say that we appreciate that President Kenyatta’s administration actually complied with the constitutional requirement regarding appointment of women in public offices, this is not the glass ceiling for Kenyan women and the state must do more if we are to bridge the gender gap in Kenya,” she said.

The nominations mean that once the nominees to the 18-member cabinet are finally vetted and approved by parliament, the cabinet will meet the one-third gender threshold provided for in the Kenyan constitution as part of a principle of affirmative action.

Article 81 (b) of the constitution provides that “not more than two-thirds of the members of elective public bodies shall be of the same gender.”

The Kenya Supreme Court ruled in December 2012 that a constitutional provision calling for a mandatory one-third gender representation would not apply to the 2013 general elections but instead should be implemented progressively by August 2015.

According to the World Bank’s annual World Development Report 2012, efforts at empowering women in developing countries like Kenya have over the years considerably paid off, yet despite achievements in the advancement of women’s rights and privileges, gender inequality gaps between men and women in key areas of society still persist.

Highlighting this, Mbugua told IPS that the government must now create and implement mechanisms to bridge the existing gender inequalities.

“It must for instance create the proper structures to encourage women in leadership through continually reforming laws surrounding elections to enable more women to participate fairly in elective politics and ascend to decision-making positions,” she said.

According to Nzomo, the appointment of six women to the cabinet may not necessarily translate into the prioritisation of a women’s agenda for the cabinet due to what she terms the entrenched patriarchal decision-making nature of the government.

“Numbers in the cabinet are not enough to enhance gender equity as the Kenyan governance framework is still male-dominated and hostile to women’s participation,” she told IPS.

Nzomo, however, said the move was a step forward in the right direction for women’s empowerment, considering the significance of the ministries the six women have been tapped to head.

“It is a signal of good will, but we are a long way from that point where we can say Kenya has attained gender equality and equity,” she said.

But according to Wambui Kanyi, the executive director of the women’s lobby Women Political Alliance Kenya, the appointment of the six women will create needed awareness that women too can hold critical dockets. She said most Kenyans at the grassroots level still lack confidence in women’s leadership, going by the outcome of the country’s recent elections.

“At the national level we are faring commendably in terms of women’s representation, but we need to do more to increase women’s representation at the grassroots leadership level. It seems the national leadership believes in the capability of women to lead while at the grassroots it is a different story,” she said.

In the country’s Mar. 4 general elections, no female candidate was elected to the 47 gubernatorial or senate positions up for grabs.

According to their share of elected seats, however, political parties nominated another 16 women. Additional nominations were made for two members representing young people and two members representing persons with disabilities.

But only 16 women were elected, out of 290 member of parliament positions. A further 47 women were elected, however, as women representatives on the basis of affirmative action.

Women’s rights organisations blamed this poor performance on a controversial ruling against the implementation of a gender quota in parliament by Kenya’s highest court.

“Women were disadvantaged in the elections because of this ruling as well as cultural barriers and financial constraints to mount campaigns, and this tells you that while the executive may believe in women’s leadership, the story is different at the grassroots,” said Kanyi, adding that the state must do more to create awareness and support women’s participation in leadership.

Panelists at the fifth annual Women's Empowerment Principles event in New York City. Credit: Michael Dames/U.N. Global Compact

By Joan Erakit
UNITED NATIONS, Mar 17 2013 (IPS)

In an effort to promote gender equality in workplaces and communities, business leaders, politicians and supporters came together during last week’s fifth annual Women’s Empowerment Principles Event to explore ways to ensure women are supported in their careers and life choices.

Held at the Rockefeller Plaza in partnership with United Nations (U.N.) Women and U.N. Global Compact, the event focused on business strategies for implementing the Women’s Empowerment Principles (WEPs) under the theme of “Inclusion: Strategy for Change”.

“We need to support women’s leadership and equal opportunity because this is good for women, and it is good for democracy and a healthy and productive society,” Michelle Bachelet, executive director of U.N. Women, said.

The WEPs are an essential component in governing business, as it asks participants to abide by various rules such as promoting equality through advocacy and community initiatives, ensuring the safety, health and well-being of both women and men workers, and establishing high-level corporate leadership for gender equality.With more and more women joining the workforce, equality in business has become synonymous with growth.

In a rapidly changing world with more and more women joining the workforce, equality in business has become synonymous with growth. A company’s success thus lies in its ability to address issues pertaining to women while encouraging education, balance and support for the women working at that company.

“For the future world of women, I would advise that they invest in themselves,” Nur Ger, founder and CEO of Suteks Tekstil, told IPS. “They have to have their training and education. Even if the money they earn is good enough to survive on their own, they have to keep on going for their own existence.”

From competitive compensation and flexible working hours to human rights and protection against violence, the seven WEP principles not only serve as goals but also function as a system of checks-and-balances.

The balancing act

The topic of gender equality often closely follows the issue of a woman’s ability to develop a healthy work-life balance. As women continue to head into the corporate workforce while rearing children and looking after extended family, stress and guilt become all too familiar.

“Women, to be successful in corporations, actually have to use a lot of masculine traits,” said Naveen Narayanan, senior VP and head of global talent acquisition and mobility at HCL Technologies. The WEPs strive to eliminate this perception, often found in the corporate world.

The third principle also plays a role in work-life balance, advocating for the well-being of all workers, male or female, by respecting workers’ rights to time off for medical care and counselling for themselves and their dependents.

Because of the notion that being a family woman should not lessen the prestige of being a corporate woman, businesses are also urged to adapt to the ever-changing modern world.

“People say women have children and they stay home,” said Poire Saikia-Eapen, managing director at PRIA Global. But she points out that with virtual offices, it’s possible for women to have children and continue working.

“They can stay home, they can work from home and if they have meetings we can actually set them up with video conferencing and there are companies who do that, and companies who should do that,” added Saikia-Eapen.

Promoting gender equality

In order to establish a more stable and fair corporate environment, the WEPs consider it fundamental to have a conversation regarding gender equality. Nor should that conversation be limited to women, according to these principles.

Men are an integral part in the sensitisation of society towards women’s issues. With their partnership and active advocacy, men, who most often hold leadership positions, are able to affect the perspectives of those around them by upholding gender equality.

Ger suggested that the situation would improve if men understood that a working woman is not a threat and “that she shouldn’t also be a wonder woman to take care of her children, her family, her business”.

Businesses that participate in the WEPs are urged to build policies that not only foster the protection of human rights and gender equality but also look at situations that affect both men and women differently. By understanding these differences, solutions can be made tackle obstacles like violence against women in the workplace, discrimination and exclusion.

“Economically it’s viable to have gender equal societies, because if you only have 100 percent men in a society in its economy, it’s not developing well enough no matter how big the income per capita,” Ger told IPS. “The development in this comes from a woman developing, which comes with education and then training.”

Through annual discussions and through partnerships with U.N. Women and U.N. Global Impact, the WEPs continue to grow in reach. Ultimately, the goal is to change corporate culture so that women not only feel included but empowered and respected as well for their contributions.

By Julia Kallas
UNITED NATIONS, Dec 11 2012 (IPS)

Today, approximately 125 countries have laws that penalise domestic violence – a great advance from a decade ago. Yet 603 million women around the world still live in countries where domestic violence is not a crime, and up to seven in ten women are targeted for physical or sexual violence, or both.

One organisation that has worked for the past two years to protect and empower women is U.N. Women, the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women. Lakshmi Puri, deputy executive director of the organisation, described what it has achieved so far.

Lakshmi Puri, assistant secretary-general of the United Nations and deputy executive director of U.N. Women. Credit: Ryan Brown/U.N. Women

”U.N. Women is today a coherent, unified organisation that has achieved concrete results that go from…enhancing women’s voices in decision-making in communities, to leveraging and influencing national and international planning processes,” Puri told IPS.

But as the statistics indicate, much more remains to be done before women’s rights are fully realised. Puri spoke to IPS correspondent Julia Kallas about the achievements, challenges, expectations and future of U.N. Women. Excerpts from the interview follow.

Q: U.N. Women turns two in January. What have been some high points since the founding of U.N. Women?

A: U.N. Women has heavily emphasised increasing women’s political participation. Women must have a say in the decisions that affect their lives and their communities. Our efforts in 14 countries contributed directly to five countries’ increasing the number of women elected to office. And in one year the number of countries with women comprising at least 30 percent of parliament has risen from 27 to 33.

We are also actively supporting women’s representation at the local level. In India, for example, U.N. Women is training 65,000 elected women representatives in village councils to become more effective leaders.

To enhance women’s participation in peacebuilding and post-conflict recovery, U.N. Women has successfully advocated for an agreement to earmark at least 15 percent of all U.N.-managed peacekeeping funds for programmes on gender equality.

Women’s economic empowerment is another key area of our work. Financial security gives women the independence they need to take informed decisions for themselves and their families. So our interventions try to enhance governments’ abilities to improve women’s access to assets, markets, services and decent work.

Ending violence against women remains a top priority. It is a scourge of pandemic proportions, affecting up to 70 percent of women and girls. U.N. Women is working in 85 countries to prevent violence in the first place, to end impunity for these crimes, and to expand essential services to survivors.

Gender equality and women’s empowerment remains a universal challenge and requires actions by all. We know there is still a long road ahead, but we are on the right track. We are working with and in all countries to carry out our universal mandate and we are constantly making progress.

Q: What do you consider the greatest challenges for U.N. Women and women around the world next year and beyond?

A: Many obvious gaps remain in protecting women’s human rights and in advancing their rightful role in development, peace and security. In 2012, our priorities were to make a renewed push for women’s economic empowerment and political participation.

In the months ahead, we will focus on ending violence against women. Next March, the focus of the U.N. Commission on the Status of Women will be to tackle violence against women and girls. Expectations are high for governments to agree on strengthened international frameworks to end violence against women and girls.

In this context, U.N. Women launched COMMIT, an initiative that encourages governments to implement international agreements on ending violence against women and commit to new, concrete steps to end it.

Funding is another challenge we face. Women still constitute a majority of the world’s poor. They are directly and indirectly affected by the financial and economic crisis, as is funding for U.N. Women and women’s organisations around the world. We need all donors to prioritise funding for gender equality and women’s empowerment at this critical time.

In addition to being the right thing to do, it is also the smart thing to do, as evidence shows that investing in women’s empowerment will have an exponential impact on social and economic development.

Q: As emerging economies such as the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) countries grow in political and economic influence, how well have women’s rights kept pace with this development?

A: Some countries have shown deep commitment to gender equality and women’s empowerment and have adopted special policies and measures to rectify deep rooted poverty, customs- and tradition-related biases and gender stereotyping.

Yet we have seen that economic growth does not necessarily translate to greater gender equality. In middle income countries – including the BRICS – remain large numbers of poor people. A disproportionate majority of them are women. As a result, governments, including the BRICS, continue to proactively address this issue.

Q: What are your expectations for getting a comprehensive gender perspective into a post-2015 development framework and the Sustainable Development Goals that are currently being negotiated?

A: What we need is a truly transformative development agenda that can drive change on systemic issues and structural causes of discrimination, including unequal power relations, social exclusion and multiple forms of discrimination.

The framework should therefore focus on women’s rights, eliminating gender-based violence, promoting sexual and reproductive health and rights, access to essential infrastructure and services and political and economic empowerment – all in the broader context of poverty eradication.

The framework should also recognise that gender inequality is the mother of all inequalities. It is not yet clear what the format of the post-2015 development framework will be, but in any case, U.N. Women advocates for a strong focus on gender equality and women’s empowerment.

If we are about to turn a new leaf in terms of a more sustainable, equitable and people-centred development model and framework, we need to empower and fully tap the talent and potential of half of humanity.

Excerpt:

Violence against women is on the rise in Bangladesh. Credit: Naimul Haq/IPS

By Naimul Haq
DHAKA, Oct 17 2012 (IPS)

Bangladesh, often cited as a model of progress in achieving the United Nations Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), appears to be sliding backwards when it comes to dealing with violence against women (VAW).

Police statistics and assessments by non-government organisations (NGOs) working to establish women’s rights show that there is in an increasing trend in VAW.

According to police records, while there were 2,981 cases of dowry-related violence in 2004, the figure has already hit 4,563 in the first nine months of 2012. Also, where there were 2,901 rape cases recorded in 2004, the figure for the current year, up to August, stands at 2,868.

Farida Akhtar, an internationally known rights activist, told IPS that the disturbing aspect of this rising trend in VAW is that it is “taking on different deceptive forms that go beyond the statistics.”

“When women are better aware of their rights through education, and want to assert them, they suffer violence,” said Akhtar, a founder of the NGO, ‘UBINIG’, acronym for ‘Policy Research for Development Alternatives’ in the Bangla language.

With school enrolment at 95 percent, Bangladesh is well on track to achieving the MDGs that deal with gender parity in education by 2015. But gender equity and women’s empowerment are another matter.

Akhtar said there is evidence that Bangladeshi women are now facing more mental torture than before. “Unfortunately, mental torture cannot be quantified and often goes unreported. But, the fact that suicide is the biggest cause of female deaths in this country is telling.”

Women’s rights leaders say that atrocities go unreported because of fear of harassment by religious or political leaders and, of the cases that are registered, a large number end up being dismissed as false allegations.

Police data show that 109,621 complaints of various forms of VAW were lodged during the 2010-2012 (up to August) period.  Of these, 18,484 complaints were taken into cognizance, but only 6,875 cases were deemed ‘genuine’ and fit for further proceedings.

Mohammad Munirul Islam, additional inspector-general of police responsible for dealing with crimes related to VAW at the police headquarters, told IPS, “On many occasions our investigations showed that the law was used to harass the accused. It does seem that not all complaints are genuine.”

Afroza Parvin, executive director of Nari Unnayan Shakti, a women’s rights NGO, told IPS, “Due to better awareness female victims have learnt to raise their voices, but stop short of seeking police help. During our 20 years of experience on VAW we have found that police often do not cooperate with victims and favour the accused.”

Leading women’s movement activist Shireen Huq says that the main difficulty is that of “establishing a prima facie case for lack of eye witnesses, evidence, etc., with the result that the accused are easily acquitted and cases are recorded as false.”

Huq, who is also a founder member of Naripokkho, a local NGO, told IPS that “no matter what the offence or what the form of violence, police and lawyers find it convenient to file the complaint under ‘torture for dowry’, and since this is a non-bailable offence we often hear of the elderly parents of the accused being arrested.”

Failure to fulfill dowry demands is a major cause for VAW in Bangladesh. On average 5,000 complaints of dowry are recorded annually. In 2010, police reported 5,331 cases of dowry, which jumped to 7,079 in 2011.

Despites the debates, official statistics show that VAW continues unabated and many complaints are dismissed without justice. Data from Bangladesh National Women Lawyers’ Association (BNWLA) show that of the 420 recorded rape cases in 2011, only 286 reached the prosecution stage.

Salma Ali, executive director of BNWLA, told IPS that one of the difficulties in establishing the rights of women is the fact that Bangladeshi society is strongly patriarchal. “This means that women suffer discrimination in respect of matrimonial rights, guardianship of children and  inheritance – often through religious injunctions or directives,” the prominent lawyer said.

Hameeda Hossain, chairperson of Ain-o-Shalish Kendra, a leading women’s rights  organisation, told IPS that if  “women are still suffering socially, culturally and politically” it is due to “social acceptance of women’s subordination, discriminatory laws and poor law enforcement.”

“Crimes against women within the family are often ignored, and the women  silenced,” Hossain said. “There is social tolerance of domestic violence and limited intervention.”

To its credit the Bangladesh government has taken a number of legal steps to  improve the situation of women, starting with the Suppression of Violence against Women and Children Act in 2000. In 2009 the National Human Rights Act was passed followed by the Domestic Violence Act in 2010.

Bangladesh is also signatory to international conventions designed to protect women and their rights. Yet, very little is being done on the ground to ensure a secure and safe environment for them, rights activists say.

When Philippines President Benigno Aquino III delivered his annual state of the union address in July, he appealed to the country’s lawmakers to break a  deadlock on progressive birth control laws in this predominantly Catholic nation.

An estimated 15 Filipina women currently die from pregnancy-related complications every day – up from a daily average of 11 a decade ago – and many of these are teenagers from among the urban and rural poor, according to a government survey.

In the decade after the law was originally proposed, unintended pregnancies have risen by 54 percent, according to the government’s ‘Family Health Survey-2011.’  The bill seeks to addresses this situation by offering contraceptive options, reproductive health care and sex education in schools.

According to the survey, the maternal mortality rate (MMR) reached 221 deaths for every 10,000 live births during the 2006 – 2010 period, marking a 36 percent increase from the 162 deaths during the 2000 – 2005 period.

In early August, the President’s allies in the House of Representatives had occasion to cheer as lawmakers in the Congress voted to end the fractious debate that had trapped ‘The Responsible Parenthood, Reproductive Health and Population Development Act’ in a Lower House parliamentary committee.

But, as the reproductive health (RH) bill makes its way through the Senate and the House for amendments, its sponsors face filibustering by a vocal minority trying to delay passage of the bill before Oct. 15 when the term of the current Congress expires.

“The anti-RH forces know that at the moment the pro-RH forces are likely to have the majority, so their strategy is to prolong the parliamentary process,” Congressman Walden Bello of the Citizens Action Party told IPS in an interview.

“Once we get to mid-October, it will be very difficult to muster quorums to take up legislation since most members of the House will be busy campaigning for reelection (for next May’s election),” Bello said.

According to Bello, the strategy of the vocal minority – about 120 members in the 285-strong Lower House –  is to leverage the political influence that the Catholic Church wields in this archipelago of 96.5 million people.

“The anti-RH forces hope that some of the pro-RH forces will waver and decide against voting for the bill for fear that the Catholic Church hierarchy will tell their Catholic constituents to vote against them,” Bello said.

The clout of the Church is playing out in the  Jesuit-run Ateneo de Manila University where some 190 academics supporting the RH bill have been threatened with heresy proceedings, according to local media.

“The first principle of canon law is that we don’t allow teaching that is against the official teachings of the Church,” Bishop Leonardo Medroso told a local radio station in an interview. “If there is somebody who is giving instructions against the teachings of the Church, then they have to be investigated immediately.”

The Church has also backed street protests against the controversial bill and one “people power” gathering drew an estimated 10,000 people in the capital.

Arguments trotted out against the bill at such meetings include loss of family values in a ‘contraceptive society’ and state interference in what is seen by many as a religious domain.

“The RH bill has become a political question because of the role of the Church in opposing it,” says Harry Roque, professor of constitutional law at the University of the Philippines. “The influence of the Church is ever persuasive.”

“But the reality is that we need this bill,” Roque said in a telephone interview from Manila. “It is important for the President to do what is right. He is deeply committed to supporting this bill.”

To do otherwise would expose the Aquino administration to charges of  being remiss in meeting United Nation’s Millennium Development Goal (MDG)  of slashing by three-quarters the maternal mortality ratio (MMR) by 2015 against what it was in 1990.

Local women’s rights groups and U.N. agencies monitoring the country’s progress in meeting MDG 5 (one of eight goals) relating to maternal health and reducing the MMR hold that the Philippines is likely to miss the target.

“The first RH bill, which was proposed in the Upper and Lower House in 2001, was meant to “respond to the various RH problems in an integrated and rights-based fashion,” says Junice L. Demeterio-Melgar, executive director of Likhaan, a centre for women’s rights and health that is backed by a national network of grassroots activists.

“It specifically wanted to call attention to existing but essentially tabooed issues like adolescent RH, post-abortion care and sex education,” Demetrio-Melgar said.

“A law was needed to mainstream the integrated health and rights-based approach, as well as to override the devolution of the Philippines healthcare system,” she told IPS. “The bill was meant to institutionalise the department of health’s RH programmes.”

The non-passage of the bill has adversely affected lingering poverty in a country  where nearly 20 percent live below the U.N.’s 1.25 dollars-a-day poverty line.

“The richest women want 1.9 children and have two; the poorest women want four children but have six,” says Demeterio-Melgar. “Unintended fertility keeps families poor and families with more than three children have difficulty feeding their children and sending them to school.”

Women in Africa spend 200 million hours collecting water. Credit: Charles Mpaka/IPS

By Thalif Deen
STOCKHOLM, Aug 31 2012 (IPS)

As the weeklong international conference on water concluded Friday, it was left to one of the keynote speakers from the United Nations to focus on a much neglected perspective on water and food security: the role of women.

Lakshmi Puri, deputy executive director of U.N. Women, told delegates that development can be neither sustainable nor inclusive if it does not free women and girls from “carrying heavy buckets of water every day”.

In Sub-Saharan Africa, 71 percent of the burden of collecting water for households falls on women and girls, says the U.N.’s 2012 report on Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

Currently, women in sub-Saharan Africa spend an average of about 200 million hours per day collecting water, and a whopping 40 billion hours per year, according to the U.N. Development Programme.

“And that’s a billion with a B,” Puri emphasised to IPS hours after she made an impassioned plea for gender equality and women’s empowerment in relation to food and water security.

Speaking at the closing session of the conference, she pointed out that although women carry, literally and metaphorically, most water-related tasks – playing a key role in food production, especially in subsistence farming, and performing most of the unpaid care work -their participation in decision-making processes on water and food management remains very low.

“This does not only result in biased and misinformed decision-making, it jeopardises the achievement of women’s human rights,” she added.

The annual conference, one of the world’s largest gathering of water experts, drew over 2,000 delegates to the Swedish capital this year.

Rita Colwell, the 2010 Stockholm Water Prize Laureate, said women in Bangladesh were using their saris to filter contaminated water, resourcefulness that has helped reduce cholera by nearly 50 percent.

“The key area of empowerment is in empowering women,” she added. “In educating women on the value of safe water, we are then educating the household, and through that the entire country, to change their behaviour.”

At a side event, “Why African Women Matter in Sustainable Food Production”, it was pointed out that women do much of the farm work, and also grow most of the food crops, yet men control most of the land, farming inputs and equipment and agricultural markets.

The bottom line: women are key actors in agricultural activities but they are not key decision makers.

There are few or no women in national water boards governing the management and distribution of water, and fewer still holding decision-making jobs at ministries for gender affairs.

In 2012, women held less than six percent of all ministerial positions in the field of environment, natural resources and energy, according to the United Nations.

Agriculture has not fared any better. “Only five percent of women in Kenya own land registered in their own names,” said Dr. Akinyi Nzioki of the Centre for Land, Economy and Rights of Women (CLEAR) based in Kenya.

Violet Shivutse of Grassroots Organisations Operating Together in Sisterhood (GROOTS) of Kenya said today’s land tenure system continues to undermine rural women’s efforts to access land when they rely so much on agriculture for their livelihoods.

She said most inherited land is transferred primarily to sons, not daughters. And there were instances of widows with HIV/AIDS who were evicted from homes and denied access to land.

Bethlehem Mengistu, regional advocacy manager for WaterAid in East Africa, told IPS that most African countries do have national legislation and are state parties to international conventions protecting the rights of women.

“We have made lots of progress,” she said, “but there is a gap between policy and implementation.”

Puri, who attended the Rio+20 summit meeting in Brazil in June, said the outcome document adopted by world leaders there set in motion a number of processes, including the development of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) which will follow the completion of the U.N.’s  Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) in 2015.

It is important not only that these SDGs include a specific goal on gender equality and women’s empowerment, but also that gender perspectives are mainstreamed in all other goals, including a SDG on water, she noted.

“This will give the goals a better chance to be achieved and, at the same time, contribute to the achievement of gender equality.”

She said the combined impacts of the recent economic and financial crises, volatile energy and food prices, and climate change have exacerbated water and food scarcity, along with their detrimental impact on women and girls. Creating a water and food secure world requires putting women and girls at the centre of water and food related policies, actions and financing.

On the positive side, the global movement towards gender equality and women’s empowerment has also shown results, albeit limited.

In Morocco, for instance, the Rural Water Supply and Sanitation Project of the World Bank was aimed at reducing the burden of girls, traditionally involved in fetching water, in order to improve their school attendance, said Puri.

In the six provinces where the project is based, it was found that girls’ school attendance increased by 20 percent in four years, attributed in part to the fact that girls spent less time fetching water.

At the same time, convenient access to safe water reduced time spent collecting water by women and young girls by 50 to 90 percent.

She said it has also been proven that improvements in infrastructure services – especially water and electricity – can help reduce time women time spend on domestic and care work.

In Pakistan, putting water sources closer to the home was associated with increased time allocated to market work. In Tanzania, a survey found that girls’ school attendance was 15 percent higher for girls from homes located 15 minutes or less from a water source than for those in homes one hour or more away.

“We need to address the multifaceted gender discriminations in accessing and controlling productive resources such as water and land, assets and services,” Puri noted.

She said evidence suggests that investing in women-owned food and agricultural enterprises could narrow the resource gap and increase agricultural yields to potentially reduce the number of hungry people by 100 to 150 million.

Laboni (left) checks product quality at her lingerie unit. Credit: Naimul Haq/IPS

By Naimul Haq
DHAKA, Aug 15 2012 (IPS)

Laboni Vhoumik’s lingerie manufacturing unit in the Gopai village of Noakhali district, about 180 km outside the capital, is a forceful argument in favour of the Grameen Bank microcredit model that fosters female entrepreneurship and also relies on it.

But the Grameen Bank is itself under threat of creeping government control sparking  a storm of protests by entities ranging from women’s rights groups to the state department of the United States.

Vhoumik, 36, started out in 2003 with nothing to commend her except tailoring skills. Today, she runs a production unit which employs 12 women and supplies quality undergarments to several major retailers in Noakhali and the adjacent districts.

Joining a local non-government organisation (NGO), Noakhali Rural Development Services (NRDS), helped Vhoumik to borrow Taka 4000 (then about 45 dollars) to buy her first sewing machine.

“We counsel and offer free training to promote such small entrepreneurships. The idea is to ensure that the borrowed money is properly utilized,” Mohammad Kaiser Alam, NRDS microcredit programme coordinator, told IPS.

Vhoumik now earns about 238 dollars a month, which is considered handsome in her village. She also has large savings and recently paid for some major repairing of her home.

Her group of 65 members discusses social and family problems as well as members’ progress with their business or problems or outstanding loans.

Members rarely default as the group is responsible as guarantor for the loans.

But this simple business model that has worked to lift thousands of Bangladeshi women out of poverty is now under threat because one of its pioneers, the Grameen Bank, is undergoing changes at the helm that will allow greater government control.

The government owns three percent of Grameen Bank, but by suitably changing the ‘Grameen Bank Ordinance’ the new state-appointed chairman will be able to appoint its chief executive officer.

“This represents a de facto imposition of government control of the bank; in other words, the poor women, who are also its owners, are being deprived of their right to manage their own bank and are being made powerless,”  says a statement issued by 60 of Bangladesh’s leading civil society representatives.

“Grameen Bank is unique in the world for being owned by impoverished women. Representatives of the 8.4 million women borrowers sit on the board of the bank and have participated over the years in its decision making, unlike any other bank in the world,” the statement said.

Shireen Huq, one of the signatories to the statement, told IPS “there is no reason to believe that the changes (to Grameen Bank) are being made with good intent.”

Huq, a leading women’s rights activist and founder of the NGO ‘Naripokkho’, said the proposed amendment to the Grameen Bank’s constitution gives the chairman of the board the authority to form a three-member selection committee. “In other words, the majority board members will be in effect disenfranchised.

“The government’s appointment of a person known for his animosity towards Prof. Muhammad Yunus (Grameen Bank’s founder) as the chairman did not bode well for the institution,” Huq told IPS.

A press statement on Aug. 5 by Patrick Ventrell, acting deputy U.S. state department spokesman, said Washington was “deeply concerned about recent actions the government of Bangladesh has taken to give the government-appointed chairman of the Grameen Bank Board control over the selection of the bank’s new managing director.”

“This move would diminish the role the largely female borrower-shareholders play in shaping the direction of an institution that has made a difference to millions of impoverished women in Bangladesh, and indeed around the world,” the statement said.

“We are concerned that the latest actions by the government could threaten the future of the bank which was founded by Nobel peace prize laureate Prof.  Muhammad Yunus,” Ventrell said.

The plan by the government to increase its role in Grameen Bank has sparked a furious debate in Bangladesh that has pitted economists who favour microcredit as a development tool against those who believe that it is not effective enough.

Prof. Abul Barkat, who head the economics department at Dhaka University’s  told IPS that microcredit reaches only small portion of the poor people. “Hardcore poor who need most attention remain out of the reach of such services and who are considered having no potential of repaying loans.”

“Out of Bangaldesh’s 150 million population, 98.9 million are poor, 47 million are middle class and 4.1 million are rich people. Out of the 98.9 million, 50 percent form the hardcore poor and remain in the lower bottom. Microcredit only reaches the upper half of the poor who are the potential target group of the NGOs,” the economist explained.

According to Barkat economically the upper half of the poor (49.4 million) who get microcredit facilities “bounce in their own orbit” and they “neither come out of poverty nor slide down to the hardcore poor group.”

Qazi Kholiquzzaman Ahmad, another noted economist, told IPS that he has rarely seen poor people getting significant benefit from microcredit programmes. “One of my own studies shows only seven percent of the borrowers actually coming out of poverty from microcredit.”

Ahmad, who currently chairs Palli Karma-Sahayak Foundation or PKSF, said his 2008 study showed that fewer than ten percent of the total 23 million borrowers in the country actually came out of poverty. “This means that microcredit programmes are not always sustainable in poverty alleviation.”

But, the PKSF itself was launched by the government in 1990 to build on the success of private players and now has over 250 partner organisations (small NGOs) and has 8.6 million borrowers.

Mohammad Hasan Ali, founder and executive director of Pally Bikash Kendra, an NGO that operates microcredit programmes in the northwestern districts, told IPS that the steady growth in borrowings and repayments showed the robustness of the model.

“Surely the poor are borrowing because they are getting some benefit in one way or another,” Ali said.

What is important, most economists agree, is that the small borrowings made through NGOs have  eliminated traditional village moneylenders who charged usuriously high rates of interest and increased the debt burden of the poor.

The real success of microcredit, economists say, lies in the fact that it integrates other programmes like health and hygiene, education, water and sanitation, social safety, legal aid, human rights and other basic issues with the lending process.

S. M. Ali Aslam, executive director of ADAMS, an NGO operating in the southwestern districts, told IPS, “There is no doubt that the NGOs took the leadership in providing financial security to the poor when the  state failed to offer any secure economic programme.”

Aslam added that that foreign donors continue to support microcredit programmes in Bangladesh “because they work.”

Despite pushes from international bodies such as the United Nations (UN) or the European Union (EU) to promote gender equality in Central and Eastern Europe, access to funding for such initiatives remains largely conditional upon national governments’ willingness to embrace this agenda.

Immediately after the fall of communism in 1989, Central and Eastern European (CEE) NGOs working on gender equality got most of their funding from U.S. or Western European private foundations or governmental agencies; following these countries’ entry to the EU, non-EU donors withdrew considering the region well covered by EU funds.

CEE NGOs, however, noted that following EU accession, it has become ironically more difficult to access funding, primarily because EU funds must generally be co-financed from national budgets and also get distributed according to priorities set at the national level. As a consequence, NGOs find themselves limited by their governments’ agendas that are not always progressive.

“Before EU accession it was paradoxically easier to get money for more radical actions and publications,” says Alina Synakiewicz from Polish NGO Feminoteka. “Now, even though money is available, it is given out via governmental intermediation, meaning that the government channels it the way it wants.”

In the best case, NGOs “get creative” and manage to fit their priorities into the governmental agenda; in the worst, they are simply denied funding for themes deemed unacceptable.

The most striking example of such marginalisation of a core gender equality theme as a result of a conservative national agenda concerns reproductive rights in Poland. In 1993, abortion was made illegal in this country and, to date, access to contraceptives and sexual education is limited, and doctors are free to invoke a “conscience clause” to refuse writing prescriptions for birth control. Gender equality activists argue that such limitation of reproductive rights in the country is primarily caused by the strong hold that the Polish Catholic Church has on both the state and society as a whole.

Last year, activists attempted to introduce a reproductive rights bill in the parliament, having as main points the legalisation of abortion, making contraceptives affordable and more accessible, introducing fact-based sexual education in schools, and state support for in-vitro fertilisation.

Their effort to gather the 100,000 signatures needed to bring the civic law proposal into the legislative failed because of a media blackout on the initiative alongside a lack of funds and help for the activists. Even some NGOs working on women’s issues steered away from supporting this effort as they did not trust the initiative can succeed.

“What has unfortunately changed in the last 20 years in Poland is that the whole public space is dominated by the terminology propagated by the Church,” says Elżbieta Korolczuk, one of the activists promoting the initiative. “Not only the general public but quite a big part of our activist circles do not believe it is possible to change the law when it comes to reproductive rights in Poland in the foreseeable future.” Korolczuk, however, says the fight will continue, even in such an unfavorable climate.

And, across CEE, gender equality activists are winning battles every day regardless of resistance or indifference from national authorities.

Some of the most difficult themes to address across the region over the past two decades have been violence against women and domestic violence. Funding from national sources remains scarce for groups working on violence against women which results not only in limited NGO capacity – highly problematic considering that it is NGOs that do most of the work on this issue — but also in an insufficient number of shelters for victims of violence.

Legislation regarding domestic violence has also advanced with fits and starts. Most CEE countries have passed such laws, yet often the texts lacked provisions for imposing restraining orders on the aggressors; arguably, this reluctance has to do with a “sanctification” of private property across the region after 1989 and hence an unwillingness to take men (usually the aggressors) out of their homes (of which often they are the owners).

But this week (Feb. 28), following over two years of intense campaigning by NGOs, the Romanian parliament finally introduced an amendment in the national legislation regulating the use of restraining orders against the perpetrators of domestic violence.

Two years back, Cristina Horia from Sensiblu Foundation, one of the main groups working on domestic violence in Romania and organiser of a strong public campaign on the theme in 2009, was telling IPS that “the involvement of state institutions with the issue of domestic violence is limited, being at most supporters and partners, but not initiating campaigns.”

Over the past two years, Horia says, national and local authorities have improved their attitudes, yet “systematic gaps” continue to prevent a proper engagement with domestic violence.

Among these gaps, Horia lists “the under-financing of the social assistance system, the insufficient number of shelters for battered women, the lack of a national strategy to address domestic violence, the authorities’ failing to assume the role of protecting victims and to implement measures to punish aggressors, insufficient training of the police and public services staff to deal competently with victims and aggressors.”

There is a sense that NGOs active in CEE are operating in quite a different reality than that described by their national authorities in reports to international bodies, full of good intentions and commitments to gender equality.

A possible test of this statement could be to look at how one of the most advanced gender mainstreaming tools proposed by the UN, gender budgeting, fares in the region. Gender budgeting means analysing and transforming national and local budgets in such a way that they allow for the advancement of women or at least that obstacles to gender equality are eliminated. It does not mean giving more money for women, but rather, using existing resources more cleverly.

According to economist Elizabeth Villagomez, who has worked for years with various UN agencies on training and assessing possibilities of introducing this tool in CEE, “gender budgeting is not strong in these countries because the idea and principles of gender equality are still weak there; in former communist countries, the idea of equality as a value in general, including when it comes to gender, is not yet very much welcomed or still misunderstood because of the recent socialist past.”

Gender budgeting has been attempted in several places across the region, from municipalities in Poland (Gdansk) and Albania (Elbasan), to the national level in the Czech Republic, but its implementation remains patchy and has not brought the results seen in the West. Villagomez adds another reason for this lack of success: “using gender budgeting depends on the real capacities of governments to use results-based budget management and also on how the political priorities reflected in the budgets are set.” (END)

In 2008, delegates meeting for the annual U.N. Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) agreed that much greater investments in women and gender equality were a critical – and overlooked – aspect of sustainable development.

For example, according to UN Women, while the international community gave 7.5 billion dollars in official development assistance to rural development and the agricultural sector in 2008–2009, a mere three percent was spent on programmes in which gender equality was a principal objective, and only 32 percent to those in which gender equality was a secondary objective.

Four years later, there has been some forward movement in a number of countries, but in many others, progress remains slow and uneven, a situation that is exacerbated by the ongoing global financial crisis.

Rural women continue to face limited access to productive resources, such as agricultural inputs and technology; only five percent of agricultural extension services are provided for women farmers.

As the CSW meets again here from Feb 27 to Mar. 9, panellists from around the world sat down Thursday to evaluate the evolution of financing for gender equality and women’s empowerment in their home countries, and chart a way forward.

“It’s time to promote gender equality and for that purpose we need a change of paradigm, we definitely need to change our way of thinking,” said Maria Almeida, vice finance minister of Ecuador.

Cambodia

Dr. Ing Phavi, minister of women’s affairs in Cambodia, cited a series of measures taken by the Cambodian government that have proved successful in enhancing gender equality across different areas.

“In Cambodia, in the context of a public administration reform, the prime minister has launched a major drive in 2008 to address the gender imbalance in the public administration,” she said.

As a result of extensive promotion across ministries and affirmative action policies, the number of female civil servants increased by 34 percent. At the sub-national level, more women were appointed as deputy governors or heads of government departments.

“In education, gender disparity has been eliminated in the primary and lower secondary education,” she noted. “Remarkably, with the focus on training and deploying female teachers, the female ratio at the primary level reached 46 percent in 2009/2010.”

However, fewer girls than boys continue on to get a higher education.

Asked what more needs to be done, Phavi told IPS, “The most important thing to understand is that gender equality is a government policy and it has to mainstream the poverty reduction strategy.

“Poverty reduction means taking care of growth, trade, agriculture development, well-being in terms of health, education and so on,” she said. “Gender is already inside all sectors so it should be part of the poverty reduction strategy.”

Morocco

Mohammed Chafiki, director of studies and financial forecasts for the ministry of economy and finance in Morocco, spoke about Morocco’s transition to equal rights and liberties for men and women.

In April 2011, the country ratified the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), a key instrument often described as an international bill of rights for women.

Morocco also adopted a new constitution in July that included many articles which expressly enshrined gender equality. For example, Article 19 affirms that men and women have equal civil, political, economic, cultural and environmental rights and liberties.

“In Morocco, we now need to continue the institutional reform. We are reforming our financial laws so it integrates gender considerations irreversibly,” Chafiki told IPS.

“But in order to move forward with gender equality, it is not all about the government. Local communities will also have to take concrete actions,” he said.

“To finance gender equality and women empowerment, we also need partnerships. We need partnerships with the private sector, with NGOs, with governments, of course, and we need international cooperation.”

Chafiki cited significant progress in reducing educational disparities as one of the country’s primary achievements.

“In 2010/2011, 96.3 percent of the girls from six to 11 years old are sent to school,” he said.

Austria

Gerhard Steger, director general of budget for the ministry of finance in Austria, explained how the government now integrates gender considerations into budgets.

The concept of gender responsive budgeting (GRB) was included in a comprehensive budget reform package that was unanimously adopted by parliament. It features a medium-term expenditure framework, accrual budgeting and accounting and performance budgeting.

“First of all, we transformed our budget from a traditional steering instrument of resources, asking the question ‘who gets what?’, into a comprehensive instrument for resources and results,” Steger told IPS.

“So we ask two questions: who gets what, and who has to deliver what for public management,” he added.

“We ask each and every ministry to define no more than five top objectives for the ministry, which are part of the budget decision in parliament, and at least one of those objectives has to be a gender objective.

“Gender is directly interpreted into the performance budgeting process in Austria. Therefore every ministry has to contribute – with no exceptions.”

Steger stressed crucial lessons that can be drawn from the Austrian experience.

“To make GRB a success, the design needs to be simple and focused on the most important aspects. If the design is too complex, GRB will very likely be a failure,” he said.

“We also have to make gender relevant and thus integrate it into the budget and to create awareness for gender issues to convince decision makers to support GRB.”

While national governments must take the lead, key agencies like UN Women are also working hard to steer funds into gender-oriented development.

On Thursday, UN Women announced it will give out 10.5 million dollars in grants to organisations working to advance economic and political empowerment of women in Africa, Asia and the Pacific, Latin America and the Caribbean, and Europe and Central Asia.

The grants will start at 200,000 dollars for initiatives that “make tangible improvements in the lives of women and girls, from enabling women candidates to run for office, to managing resources to support themselves and their families.”

“At this moment of historic change, we cannot afford to leave women out. These grants will advance women’s efforts to achieve greater economic and political equality during this time of transition,” said Michelle Bachelet, executive director for UN Women.

Since its creation in 2009, the Fund has invested a total of 43 million dollars in 40 countries around the world for projects working for gender equality.

(END)

This year’s unusually rainy season in Peru is having a negative effect on the wellbeing and health of women in rural areas who are forced, for example, to spend three times as much time walking to collect firewood and water. But the authorities continue to turn a blind eye to the problems they face.

Women washing clothes in a village in northern Peru. Credit: Elena Villanueva /IPS

“It’s very difficult for us to find firewood, but not only that – since it’s wet because of the rain, we have to dry it so it will burn well, and that is causing us bronchial and lung problems,” María Témpora Pintado, a farmer from Peru’s northern coastal region, told IPS.

Pintado, the president of the district association of women of Tambogrande, a farming valley 950 km north of Lima, described how the women, and often their young children, are exposed to smoke for hours as the firewood dries.

“These tasks are done by the women, who stay in our homes, while the men leave early and come back at night, and do not take part in the collection of water or the care of the children that we have to watch after constantly, to keep the mosquitoes brought by the rain from nesting in their eyes,” she said.

Throughout February, the rains affected 12 of Peru’s 24 departments (provinces), and according to the National Civil Defence Institute, have left more than 32,000 people homeless.

That figure was not broken down by gender, but an estimated half of the people affected are women, including Pintado and her fellow farmers in the 186 hamlets and villages in Tambogrande valley, which is 60 km from Piura, the capital of the department of the same name.

Due to climate change, the rainy season has been more intense this year. For example, rainfall in the southern Andean highlands region of Arequipa has been 327 percent heavier than normal, according to the National Meteorology and Hydrology Service.

As a result, rivers have overflowed their banks; houses, farms and roads have been flooded; villages and towns have been cut off; food shortages have set in; and access to public health services has become extremely difficult.

“Our manioc, sweet potato, plantain, corn, val beans, mango and lemon crops have been destroyed,” Pintado said. “What are we going to feed our children? We are anguished, but we don’t just sit around worrying; we go out and walk, we find a way to make soup to feed them.”

Manioc, sweet potato, plantain, corn and val beans are staples of the Peruvian diet.

Peruvian peasant women are forced to trek further and further from home for firewood. Credit: Elena Villanueva /IPS

Agriculture is the economic mainstay in Peru’s rural areas. Women take part in farming activities like planting, watering and harvesting. In addition to these tasks, they are in charge of food preparation and child care, and they also dedicate time to community organisations.

But their work is not recognised.

However, the concentration of responsibilities in their hands, which is exacerbated by the effects of climate change, is causing health problems that have begun to alarm experts and activists.

“We suffer from vaginal inflammation and dropped womb (prolapse) because we are running around all day gathering firewood, drying it out, lugging water, cooking, checking on the crops, feeding the animals, and taking care of the kids,” Pintado said.

“Is this recognised by any of the authorities? Since they’re all men, they’re indifferent to it; they tell us we were born to do all this,” the community leader complained.

The gender discrimination and poverty which rural women continue to face due to the lack of inclusive public policies are aggravated by the different impacts of climate change.

Rural women have fewer resources to deal with the effects of this global phenomenon precisely because they do not have equal access to opportunities such as education, training, or property, studies point out.

According to the latest national agricultural census, from 1994, 20 percent of farms were run by women, but fewer than five percent of these women farmers had title deeds to their property.

Blanca Fernández, a sociologist with the Rural Development Programme of the Flora Tristán’s women’s group, told IPS that the impact of gender on climate change is highlighting the lack of rights of rural women and the enormous hurdles standing in the way of the full exercise of their rights as citizens.

Fernández argued that the fourth National Agricultural Census, to be carried out in October, must urgently incorporate gender variables in order to gain an understanding of the social and economic conditions of rural women in the Andean highlands and Amazon jungle regions.

“Up-to-date data will make it possible to design sustainable public policies, with the participation of women themselves, that would promote their comprehensive development – a viable strategy to make progress in the work of climate change adaptation and mitigation,” she said.

One of the priority areas to be addressed is agriculture, the Peruvian government stated in the second national report to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, published in 2010.

The document says the megadiversity of Peru, one of the world’s 10 most biodiverse countries, is seriously endangered by the impact of climate change on agriculture, where the chief factor of vulnerability is poverty.

One-quarter of Peru’s population of 29 million is rural, and 70 percent of people in rural areas are poor.

Pintado said it is essential for local, regional and national authorities to recognise that when talking about climate change, it is necessary to ask how the phenomenon affects women, collect data on what is happening in that respect in different regions of the country, and then start adopting measures.

“When for example a government official says ‘we are going to evaluate the damage caused to homes by flooding,’ they have to include the damages suffered by women and ensure that the actions carried out will benefit our quality of life,” she said.

These and other proposals from women’s organisations in eight regions in Peru have been compiled in a national document.

The content of the agenda of rural, Andean and Amazon women of Peru will be shared at an international meeting to be held Mar. 5-9 in Santo Domingo de los Tsáchilas, in northwest Ecuador.

The third meeting of rural women of Latin America and the Caribbean is organised by a network of organisations and activists throughout the region, which was created in 1990 during the Fifth Latin American and Caribbean Feminist Meeting, to give rural women a stronger voice and give a boost to their proposals and actions in the region.

The Peruvian agenda, to which IPS had access ahead of its release, highlights three aspects related to the exercise of women’s individual and collective rights: violence, food security and sovereignty, and climate change.

The proposals are addressed to government authorities, and include a call for compliance with the law on equal opportunities between men and women, and the implementation of a national agricultural policy with an emphasis on small-scale agriculture. (END)

The right of women to participate in political life is guaranteed by several international conventions, but transforming an abstract right into a reality requires hard work on the ground, says a new study released here.

Published jointly by the U.N. Development Programme (UNDP) and the National Democratic Institute (NDI) for International Affairs, the 118-page report points out that although 40 to 50 percent of members of political parties globally are women, only about 10 percent hold positions of leadership.

And “with less than 20 percent of the world’s parliamentary seats occupied by women,” says UNDP Administrator Helen Clark, “it is clear that political parties need to do more – and should be assisted in those efforts – to support women’s political empowerment.”

Titled “Empowering Women for Stronger Political Parties”, the study aims to provide a good practices guide to promote women’s political participation, and includes 20 case studies covering countries such as Burkina Faso, El Salvador, Indonesia, Morocco, Spain, Timor-Leste, UK and the United States.

“If we want to promote democracy and empower women politically, we must engage, not bypass, political parties,” UNDP Gender Team Director Winnie Byanyima told IPS.

Unless women lead political parties, they will not lead governments, said Byanyima, a former Ugandan parliamentarian and diplomat.

Globally, the proportion of women ministers in governments is lower, averaging about 16 percent. And the proportion of women heads of state and government is lower still, and has declined in recent years, standing at less than five percent in 2011.

“The low numbers continue in the face of three decades of lobbying and efforts by the international community to eliminate discrimination and empower women,” the study notes.

And this despite the fact the United Nations recognised the central role of women in development by including the empowerment of women as one of the eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) back in 2000.

“Yet no region in the world is on track to achieve the target of 30 percent women in decision-making positions,” the study says.

Although some notable exceptions and good practices in this area are discernible, several bottlenecks remain to women’s full and equal participation as contestants, the study asserts.

According to the latest statistics released by the Inter- Parliamentary Union (IPU) and U.N. Women Thursday, the number of women as heads of state or government stands at 18 out of 193 countries.

The UNDP/NDI guidebook singles out some of the strategies to be followed during elections, such as training and mentoring women candidates and ensuring women’s visibility in campaigns.

The NDI says it has worked with more than 720 political parties and organisations in over 80 countries to create more open political environments in which men and women can actively participate in the democratic process.

“We hope this guide will contribute to this effort,” says NDI President Ken Wollack.

In the pre-election phase, recruiting and nominating candidates is probably the most crucial process for ensuring that women participate in politics. But the gender gap widens significantly as candidates for political office move from being eligible to becoming aspirants, to finally being nominated by the party, the study points out.

“It is important for parties to incorporate rules that guarantee women’s representation,” it says.

When this commitment is unwritten and informal, “it is much more difficult to devise strategies for women to break into the inner circle of power, and harder to hold the party accountable when the commitment is not realized.”

And if a party’s internal organisation is weak and the rules for recruitment are not clear, “decisions tend to be made by a limited number of elites, usually men.”

As examples of affirmative action, the study cites several examples.

One political party in Canada has a candidate recruitment committee to ensure diversity in candidate selection. In Costa Rica, one of the political parties alternates men and women candidates on electoral lists.

In El Salvador, a multi-sectoral association offers training in communications and organising skills that help women become more effective in their political work both inside and outside of parliament.

In South Africa, women party members pushed for changes to the parliamentary calendar to accommodate parliamentarians with families, and also pushed for debates to finish earlier in the evening to accommodate parliamentarians with families, and for childcare facilities to be put in place.

In India, the national executive committee of the Bhatariya Janata Party (BJP) amended its constitution in 2008 to reserve 33 percent of the party’s leadership positions for women and make the chief of the national women’s branch a member of the party’s central election committee.

In Germany, the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) adopted a 33 percent quota for party officials in 1996. And if the quota is not met, the internal elections must be repeated.

(END)