Category: press
Diane Abbott Meets With Ghanaian Women’s Rights Activists At AWDF House
Diane Abbott Meets With Ghanaian Women’s Rights Activists At AWDF House
“Change can happen quicker than you thick. We have to have the courage to seize opportunities,” Abbott said.
A moment with Joan Koomson
A moment with Joan Koomson
Joan Koomson, AWDF’s Donor Liaison Specialist spoke with Ghana’s Metro TV about the International Conference for Family planning in Bali Indonesia held 25-28 January. She discussed some of the steps that have been taken in Ghana to move forward policy on Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights (SRHR). She also touched on some of the shortfalls and the need to strengthen the country’s policy and implementation strategies.
Women’s Rights Activists Protest Sierra Leone Safe Abortion Bill
Women’s Rights Activists Protest Sierra Leone Safe Abortion Bill
By Moiyattu Banya
A group of over 50 Sierra Leonean women have marched on the nation’s parliament house to affirm their support for a Safe Abortion Bill passed last year.
Authorities prevented the women from invading a meeting convened by Christian and Muslim leaders on Wednesday to discuss the bill which was brought before parliament in December 2015, but is yet to be signed into law by the president.
The bill would legalize abortion for women and girls with pregnancies of up to 12 weeks and even after 13 weeks under special circumstances which include sexual assault, rape, incest or medical complications which might put the life of a mother or child at risk. Legislators have worked closely with women’s activist organizations and key stakeholders to debate the benefits of the bill for women as well as the healthcare system in Sierra Leone.
The women, who were from a coalition of different women’s rights groups, have championed the bill as a victory for reproductive rights saying it would reduce illegal and unsafe abortions. Sierra Leone has the world’s highest maternal mortality rates in the world according to the World Health Organization, with a high proportion of deaths resulting from unsafe abortions.
“It is not a fight against morality or religion,” Jayne Flynn-Sankoh, an activist said. “It(the bill) is a pathway to the independence of women …the Bill seeks to protect the sexual and reproductive health rights of women.”
“We are not saying that we don’t want to have babies, we are saying let us make a decision.We need to protect our women and girls who are getting pregnant through rape, incest or have a medical condition that may put her life or the fetus in danger. It is about safety and choice,” Ajara Bomah, another activist, said.
The activists say they will continue to organize more advocacy efforts around the Bill.
Click here
to listen to Nassau Fofana, a former gender advisor to the President’s interview on BBC radio about the bill.
16 Days Of Activism: November 25 – December 10, 2015
16 Days Of Activism: November 25 – December 10, 2015
The United Nations defines violence against women as “Any act of gender-based violence that results in, or is likely to result in, physical, sexual or mental harm or suffering to women, including threats of such acts, coercion or arbitrary deprivation of liberty, whether occurring in public or in private life.”
“Hannah was raped. It does not end there. Hannah was disembodied; skull fractured, glue found in her eyes, broken bones in multiple areas of her body, her spinal cord – shattered. When Hannah was found, only a pink brassiere covered the top part of her body. Her legs were sprawled apart, the only cover came from the beach’s sand and seaweed. Hanna was raped and her murder, an inhumane act of violence.” – Fatou Wurie – CEO Conceptor, Innovator of The Survivor Dream Project, Sierra Leone
Fatou’s chilling account of a brutally murdered teenager found on a beach in the Sierra Leone capital this August was particularly disturbing because it appeared to highlight an alarming rise in the number of unsolved assaults on women and young girls in the west African nation. The incident led to a massive street protest by activists and civil society groups calling on the government to take a stand and to halt the violence.
“Hannah’s death reminds us all that women’s bodies in Sierra Leone are under heavy siege. That Sierra Leone’s highly patriarchal society still subjugates with structural discrimination in practice, custom, and law, with a plethora of women still facing suppression in education, employment and politics. Sexual violence has always been rampant in Sierra Leone – the rhetoric that Ebola has induced a spike in sexual violence undermines the reality that little has been done to improve social and economic options for women.” – Fatou Wurie
In Ghana, women make up just over half of the population, yet they still play a subservient role to men despite the constitution guaranteeing equal roles. According to the Gender Studies and Human Rights Documentation Centre, under our customary systems women are expected to give precedence to men in all things creating a position where Ghanaian women are equated to children…this has meant that many women have accepted the situation which allows men to “punish” them for their alleged disobedience.
Daily reports of murder, abduction and rape or defilement of women and minors, a member of Parliament’s remarks about punishing adulterous women and two high-profile alleged rape cases involving media celebrities, are a painful reminder of the distance we still have to cover in order to push against the denigration of women, persistent disregard for women’s sexual and personal rights and the prejudices and injustices suffered by women corageous enough to charge men with rape.
Last December Daboya Mankarigu Nelson Abudu Baani, a member of parliament in northern Ghana spoke against a new intestate succession bill saying that it could cause “customary anarchy” and recommended that women who cheat on their spouses be stoned or hanged. The bill was aimed at giving more rights to women with regards to the property of their deceased husbands.
His remarks were condemned by women’s rights activists and members of the public who called for his resignation but he refused to do so, clinging to his seat until he lost a re-election bid this past weekend.
Nineteen year old Ewuraffe Orleans Thompson accused Ghanaian television celebrity Kwesi Kyei Darkwa of raping her in a hotel bathroom in March, but withdrew her case against him a few weeks later, citing pressure from the media frenzy the story generated.
A few weeks later, a radio presenter’s report of her abduction and gang rape, while pictures of her nude body allegedly taken during the rape were circulated widely on the internet, caused a similar furor. The abduction story was condemned by the government and caused public outcry, but a police investigation into the case of Miss Ada, a popular host of YFM radio station in the western, ran into problems when she was unable to provide evidence for her abduction.
What all three incidents had in common were the profusion of hateful, sexist and misogynistic reactions they generated among the Ghanaian public.
Elsewhere on the continent, comments by Grace Mugabe, wife of Zimbabwean leader Robert Mugabe last week, sparked off a twitter stream of protest.
“If you walk around wearing mini skirts displaying your thighs and inviting men to drool over you, then you want to complain when you have been raped? It’s unfortunate because it will be your fault,’ Grace Mugabe said during a political rally this month.
As we join in the UN’s 16 Days of Activism against Gender-Based Violence Campaign this year, we invite you to tell your stories, highlight atrocities in your countries and tweet your comments, opinions and thoughts to our website, facebook page or twitter feed @awdf01 using the hashtags: #orangetheworld #16days
Sincerely,
Amba Mpoke-Bigg AWDF, Communications and Fundraising Specialist
Key Dates during the 16 days campaign:
- November 25: The International Day For the Elimination of Violence Against Women
- December 1: World AIDS Day
- December 3: International Day for Persons with Disabilities
- December 10: International Human Rights Day
Every year AWDF supports women’s groups over the continent to highlight the 16 Days campaign with a small grant. This ensures that we are are constantly keeping the fire burning and fulfilling one of our main missions of advocacy and the promotion of women’s rights.
AWDF will also support initiatives by women’s groups to address the stigma and discrimination against women living with HIV-AIDS. This year we are proud to support 40 organizations in their campaigns to mark 16 Days and World AIDS Day
African Women’s Development Fund Validates Research Study on Market Women in Four West African Countries
African Women’s Development Fund Validates Research Study on Market Women in Four West African Countries
PRESS RELEASE
19th November 2015
African Women’s Development Fund validates Market Women’s Research Study: Accelerating the Contributions of Market Women to National and Regional Development in West Africa
Accra, GHANA – The African Women’s Development Fund (AWDF) has called on West African governments to enact policies supporting market women at both national and regional levels following a new report analysing conditions of market women in four West African countries.
The report entitled “Accelerating the Contributions of Market Women to National and Regional Development in West Africa,” is based on field research of market women in Ghana, Liberia, Nigeria and Sierra Leone. It aims to boost support for market women and to recognize the pivotal role they play as development stakeholders on the continent.
“This study represents yet another milestone in achieving gender justice for those women who still experience marginalization despite their immense contributions to the economies of their countries,” Liberian President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf said in the report’s foreword.
The study identifies three main channels through which market women can strengthen their voice and advocate for policy changes: internal market associations; mainstream labour organizations and national and regional advocacy and rights-based organizations.
The report singles out development partners as being particularly well placed to support market women by enhancing their coalitions and network-building. In this regard, the fact that market women serve as an integral part of the expanding informal economy in countries across West Africa, and in some cases trade beyond their national borders, presents opportunities for enhancing their contributions to regional development, the report said.
The report recommends the adoption of a “regional lens” relevant for policy formulation in the interests of market women. Whilst acknowledging the significance of the launch of the Ecowas Free-Trade area in 2010, the report nonetheless calls for additional policy interventions to streamline cross-border trading procedures and address specific challenges facing women who are engaged in this trade.
Other recommendations included supporting the establishment of a West African market women’s association to facilitate on-going dialogue with policymakers, expanding and adapting the SMWF model to the four countries to respond to some of the challenges identified by market women through the research study, investing in training for market women leaders, and the institution of a scholarship scheme for children of market women.
The report was conducted by a team commissioned by the African Women’s Development Fund, in cooperation with the Sirleaf Market Women’s Fund and was funded by the Ford Foundation /West Africa. In addition the team received technical and institutional support from the African Women’s Development Fund.
- ENDS –
To obtain a copy of the report and for all media enquiries please contact Amba Mpoke-Bigg: amba@africlub.net/awdf, or Hamda Zakaria: hamda@africlub.net/awdf tel: + 233 28 966 9666
The Sirleaf Market Women’s Fund (SMWF)
The Sirleaf Market Women’s Fund (SMWF) is an international, independent, charitable organization committed to restoring the livelihoods of Liberian market women and women farmers, as investing in them means investing in Liberia’s future. It was established in 2007
The Ford Foundation (West Africa) focuses on projects that promote democratic values and engage citizens in advocating for their social and economic rights. It funds scalable programs that stimulate private enterprise, with a focus on developing small- and medium-sized businesses. The foundation also funds regional projects that help strengthen regional integration across West Africa.
The African Women’s Development Fund (AWDF)
The African Women’s Development Fund (AWDF) is a grant-making foundation that supports local, national and regional women’s organisations working towards the empowerment of African women and the promotion and realisation of their rights.
The vision of the AWDF is for women to live in a world where there is social justice, equality and respect for women’s human rights.
Brazil Black Women’s March: African Women’s Development Fund Says No to Racist and Sexist Violence
Brazil Black Women’s March: African Women’s Development Fund Says No to Racist and Sexist Violence
As African women we stand in solidarity with Afro-Brazilian women as you take to the streets in the Marcha das Mulheres Negras [Black Women’s March] and raise your voices to say NO to racist and sexist violence, and to affirm that you, as all women, have a right to live with full choice, dignity, well-being and respect.
We are across an ocean but our histories are connected. We are inspired by your activism and your bravery, and we will always work alongside you for equality, justice and a transformed world.
–Staff of the African Women’s Development Fund
AWDF SPECIAL FOCUS ON EBOLA AND WOMEN: Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea – One Year Later
AWDF SPECIAL FOCUS ON EBOLA AND WOMEN: Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea – One Year Later
After more than a year of unimaginable suffering, West Africa looks cautiously ahead to the end of the most devastating outbreak of the Ebola virus the world has ever known. Yet the road for the three worst affected countries is still one of tough challenges.
Whilst Liberia is celebrating a second round of being declared Ebola-free, the announcement of new cases in Sierra Leone this week is seen as a real setback to national efforts to get rid of the disease. The new outbreaks, in the northern part of the country have led to a fresh round of enforced quarantines for thousands of people.
The first case of Ebola broke out in Guinea in December 2013, but the disease went undetected for four months until it crossed the border into neighbouring Sierra Leone, reaching its peak in August 2014. To date Ebola has claimed over 11,200 lives in Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea. Thousands of others died of other causes due to the shutdown of emergency and regular health care services as hospitals closed their doors in the wake of the epidemic.
At AWDF, our Ebola relief support for 52 women’s organizations in Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea, underscores our concern for women who play the role of frontline responders in emergency situations on our continent. Within weeks of the outbreak we disbursed $450,000 to these women’s groups in the three countries.
Given the brutal impact on their already battered economies and the acute shortage of healthcare professionals, getting the countries completely Ebola-free and restoring what remains of virtually non-existent healthcare infrastructure will require the efforts of regional and national governments, individuals and the international community.
Early evidence from this outbreak has shown that women were disproportionately affected. Women’s livelihoods, security and lives came under direct assault as the epidemic waged its war.
For the next two weeks, we would like to salute the courage of the healthcare professionals, doctors, workers and ordinary everyday citizens who survived the unimaginable and through whose efforts the halt in the epidemic’s advance was made possible.
Through stories, features, reports and photographs we will tell the story of the impact of Ebola on women over the past year. Women who have demonstrated courage, resilience and the ability to survive the outbreak of one of the deadliest viruses on earth.
Click here for featured stories.
AWDF’s 3rd Resource Mobilisation Strategy Development Boot Camp, 14-17 September in Johannesburg
AWDF’s 3rd Resource Mobilisation Strategy Development Boot Camp, 14-17 September in Johannesburg
The African Women’s Development Fund (AWDF) will be organising another Resource Mobilisation Strategy Development (RMSD) Boot Camp from 14-17th September 2015, in Johannesburg, South Africa. The programme is one of AWDF’s flagship capacity building activities, which has become popular with fundraisers within grantee organisations as a critical step in developing their organisational financial sustainability. This year, 15 fundraisers from 15 organisations from South Africa, Botswana, Malawi, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Kenya, Ghana and Uganda will be participating in the 4-day boot camp in Johannesburg.
“I am particularly excited about this event because for the first time we have Malawi and Botswana attending this important event and hopefully they will also find the skills useful for strengthening their organisation’s financial sustainability efforts.” says Nafi Chinery, AWDF’s Capacity Building Programme Specialist. “AWDF is also grateful to the African Capacity Building Foundation for their continuous financial support to this project which is aimed at financial sustainability of women’s rights organisations in Africa”
Since its inception in 2013, 43 of AWDF’s grantee organisations from across the continent have participated in the RMSD bootcamp training aimed at helping them to develop effective fundraising strategies. The training has proven to be an invaluable resource to participants, a number of whom have experienced measurable improvement in their resource mobilisation:
“Amidst the unprecedented outbreak of the deadly Ebola Virus Disease, PIPA-SL Board and the Resource Mobiilsation Strategy (RMS) Committee have taken various steps towards marketing the RMS including organising four community engagement and dialogue forums targeting local authorities/stakeholders [.] [W]e have also engaged the local council authorities and have successfully discussed joint action plans geared towards marketing our RMS.” People’s Initiative for Poverty Alleviation-Sierra Leone (PIPA-SL), Sierra Leone and 2014 participant.
“Our annual operating budget before the RMS boot camp in 2014 was US$ 55,502. The RMSD training in early 2014 enhanced our capacity to increase our operating budget in three folds to US$ 171,387 [and] we are also in negotiations with donors to finance our 2015 operating budget of US$395,000.” Foundation for Integrated Development, Sierra Leone, and 2014 participant.
“We did not have efficient skills for writing good proposals and approaching partners. The RMSD boot camp gave us [the] insight that we don’t need to wait for calls for proposals [and] that we should look for funding and resources within our communities, which [can be] sources of support to our fundraising journey. We have secured new funding of US$53,295.5 from the World Bank through Akwa Ibom State Agency for the Control of AIDS (AKSACA) to provide an HIV prevention program in Akwa Ibom State” Heal the Land, Nigeria and 2014 participant.
This year’s would be AWDF’s third installment of the programme.
Op-Ed : Ghana’s frustrated youth are vulnerable to the radical call of ISIS
Op-Ed : Ghana’s frustrated youth are vulnerable to the radical call of ISIS
Students at University of Ghana (AP Photo/Gabriela Barnuevo)
Read published article here: on Qz.com
BY Amba Mpoke-Bigg
Over the past couple of decades Ghana has won a hardearned reputation as a stable and settled democracy.
Yet, as news broke last week that a young university graduate from Ghana had left home to join Islamic State of Iraq (ISIS), it was hard not to dread the prospect of a mass exodus, or worse, deadly jihadist violence on our shores.
Those concerns were heightened when an investigative report by popular local radio station Starr FM reported that ISIS agents in Ghana are enticing unemployed youths with promises of cash and a gateway to heaven.
“They are promised initial spending fee and luxurious life before they travel to Syria and Iraq. Again their immediate families are assured quality life after they have left, so many of the young guys are considering it, especially in the Zongos (a slang term for neighborhoods populated by majority northern Ghanaian Muslims),” it quoted an interviewee as saying.
Twenty-five year old Nazir Alema Nortey, a graduate of one of Ghana’s leading universities sent a WhatsApp message to his family telling them he left the country earlier this month to join the Islamic extremist group, leaving behind a devastated family. The University Of Science and Technology graduate, is described by his father as a gentle, well-mannered man. Nortey was an active student on campus and showed no signs of being radicalized. He had a girlfriend. He was an ordinary man. Sketchy details of a second recruit, identified only as Rafiq also emerged this week at an official media briefing but there are already unconfirmed reports of a third—a young woman whose name has been given as Shakira Mohammed.
“Anyone is a potential recruit,” National Security Co-ordinator, Mr Yaw Donkor, told reporters at the briefing.
Donkor said would-be members were being headhunted from mainly tertiary institutions in Ghana where students were drafted into WhatsApp and Facebook social media forums in which radical discourse and indoctrination took place.
Among the many questions a shocked nation is asking itself is what might happen if radicalized youth return home. A look at what’s happening across Africa and around the world shows a sharp rise in the number of youth joining ISIS.
Ghana prides itself on its stable democracy and social harmony, but it was surely only a matter of time before the specter of Islamist militancy touched our shores given how close we are to troubled regional neighbours like Nigeria to the east, Mali to the northwest and Niger and Chad to the northeast. These are all now hotspots for militant Islam and terrorist activity.
Boko Haram, which has launched massive attacks in Nigeria since 2009, is the most troubling. The group which initially had links to al-Qaeda, pledged allegiance to ISIS in March. With little in place in terms of anti-terrorism measures in Ghana, what is there to stop us following the lead of our volatile neighbours?
Back in June there were angry demonstrations in Accra when city authorities ordered security forces to raze part of one of the largest slums, largely inhabited by Muslims, leaving thousands homeless.
One placard brought home the frustration: “Before 2016 , you will see Boko Haram in Ghana,” the sign read.
While some are blaming the internet and the accessibility of radical social media sites, there is an increasing possibility Islamic disaffection with Christian fundamentalism might be on the rise.
Christians make up 70% of the population of Ghana and Muslims 18%, according to official census figures from 2000. This has been disputed by Ghanaian Muslim leaders and other official sources who set the number at between 18% to 30%. Relations between the two religions have been peaceful in Ghana. But it’s often noted development and education have spread much faster in the predominantly Christian south than in the mainly Muslim north.
Ghana’s main political parties are not organised primarily on religious or ethnic lines, as happens elsewhere on the continent, and the country has had several Muslim vice presidents. Yet in the wake of these revelations the potential for Islamophobia against its Muslim minority is real.
We need to ask ourselves what the attraction is for an ordinary, middle-class Ghanaian young man, or woman, in joining the most dangerous jihadist group in the world. Words like radicalization seem almost incongruous with moderate Muslim youth. Yet it is true that education and liberalism aren’t foolproof armour against radicalization.
Neither can the economic factor be overlooked, given that Ghana, once Africa’s star economy, has turned to the International Monetary Fund to help it resolve its financial crisis.
President John Mahama says growth needs to be at least 8% to provide jobs for its young people, but growth has shrivelled in the past two years and it is expected to stand at 3.9% in 2015—below average for subSaharan Africa.
Unemployment data in Ghana is not collected, but Desmond Biney, director of the Unemployed Graduates Association Of Ghana sets the figure for unemployed graduates over the last five years at around 287,000. Current membership of the group which was set up as an advisory and placement service has doubled in the last two years.
And in further evidence of the impact of current economic conditions, Ghanaians have joined the hundreds of thousands of migrants risking their lives on the Mediterranean to seek work in Europe.
It is important not to overstate the problem. So far this is a tiny handful of people in a nation of 26 million. But for the majority of Ghanaians their decision to join ISIS should set alarm bells ringing. The question that needs answering is: how far will they go?
Aspen New Voices Fellowship Announces Call for 2016 Nominations
Aspen New Voices Fellowship Announces Call for 2016 Nominations
Aspen New Voices Fellowship Announces Call for 2016 Nominations
The Aspen Institute seeks nominations for one-year non-resident media skills and coaching program for next generation of global development leaders from the developing world
WASHINGTON, DC September 1, 2015– The Aspen Institute’s New Voices Fellowship today announced a call for nominations for the 2016 Fellowship class. The Fellowship initiative, supported by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, offers development experts from Africa and other parts of the developing world a year-long program of media support, training, research and writing under the guidance of experienced mentors and trainers.
Candidates for the 20 Fellowships awarded next year must be experts in fields relating to global development. The Fellowship welcomes specialists from all development fields, and this year is particularly interested in professionals with backgrounds in food security, polio and/or infectious diseases and development finance.
Fellows must be from a developing country, and ideally work and live in their country of origin or another developing country.
Over the course of a year, the Fellowship works to prepare and support Fellows to become recognized thought leaders, helping amplify their insights and ideas rooted in experience on the ground. They will be given training and support to speak at major events; write conversation-starting op-eds and think pieces for major outlets; and build their social media platforms. The Fellowship is non-resident, but includes travel to training workshops as well as opportunities for travel to select international conferences.
Current Fellows have had their work featured in media sites ranging from the New York Times, Washington Post, CNN and Al Jazeera to the Huffington Post, Africa Report, and AllAfrica.com. Fellows have been interviewed by news organizations including the BBC, CNBC, and National Public Radio (NPR) and been invited to speak at events including TED and the Aspen Ideas Festival
Application to the Fellowship is by nomination only through the program website at http://www.aspennewvoices.org/Nominations. The nomination period will close on November 1, 2015 and the incoming class will be announced in January 2016.
The New Voices Fellowship
The New Voices Fellowship at the Aspen Institute is a groundbreaking initiative designed to bring more expert voices from the developing world into the global development discussion. Launched in 2013 with support from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the New Voices Fellowship is part of Aspen Global Health and Development. For more information, visit www.aspennewvoices.org.
The Aspen Institute
The Aspen Institute is an educational and policy studies organization based in Washington, DC. Its mission is to foster leadership based on enduring values and to provide a nonpartisan venue for dealing with critical issues. The Institute is based in Washington, DC; Aspen, CO; and on the Wye River on Maryland’s Eastern Shore. It also has offices in New York City and an international network of partners. For more information, visit www.aspeninstitute.org.
Contact: Andrew Quinn
Director, New Voices Fellowship
The Aspen Institute
202-736-2291
Andrew.Quinn@aspeninstitute.org