Year: 2016
ACSHR 2016 Accra, Ghana: Pre Conference – Foundations of African Feminism
ACSHR 2016 Accra, Ghana: Pre Conference – Foundations of African Feminism
AWDF facilitated a women’s only pre-conference session for the 7th Africa Conference on Sexual Health and Rights which took place in Accra, Ghana, from 8-12 February, 2016.
The meeting was jointly held with Curious Minds, Ghana, which acted as secretariat and conference host for this year’s gathering. AWDF wanted to provide a safe platform for an intimate and in-depth discussion of sexual and reproductive health and rights of adolescents and youth. Aimed primarily at 15 – 30-year old women, it ended up being a mixed age group of both genders, which ignited some fiery discussion. But at the end of the day everyone agreed it had been worthwhile.
“We wanted to provide a safe space for young women to discuss the issues relevant to them around issues of SRHR,” said AWDF’s donor liaison specialist Joan Koomson.
The pre-conference session also looked at helping young women develop common strategies and messages on engaging effectively with issues during the conference, influencing outcomes and how to derive the maximum benefit from being there.
A Position Statement (see below), worked on at the close of the day’s activities, was presented at the opening session of the main conference held Feb. 11. It summed up the major concerns and aspirations of the young women.
Takeaway:
“Negotiating the space to have young women’s issues represented with government is a priority,” said Catherine Nyambura.
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.
Don’t call me beautiful: An Exhibit by Nana Kofi Acquah
Don’t call me beautiful: An Exhibit by Nana Kofi Acquah
Wed 3rd February, 2016
6:00 pm
DON’T CALL ME BEAUTIFUL
Alliance Francaise Accra – Exhibition hall, Accra
“I cannot think of a significant life moment, I have had, that didn’t involve some woman. These photographs are both a song in celebration of the African woman, and a criticism of how our societies deliberately impede their every movement.” This is Nana Kofi Acquah’s artist statement. More than a photo exhibition, this event will also feature poetry and a sound installation by the Nana Kofi Acquah himself.
Until 9th March.
Opening hours : 9am-9pm daily (except during activities)
FREE
Kenyan Women Raise Awareness About HIV With Soccer and Cultural Extravaganza
Kenyan Women Raise Awareness About HIV With Soccer and Cultural Extravaganza
Youth, parents and even grandmothers came together for a day-long sports and culture fair in Nairobi’s Kibagare district hosted by Young Women Campaigning Against Aids (YWCAA), an NGO which focuses on HIV-AIDS prevention and advocacy.
The event, held January 27, was an opportunity for fun and games showcasing the group’s activities and handiwork, as well as an education day.
The day began with a gripping opening soccer match featuring grandmothers, guardians and parents of the girls, after which YWCAA’s team faced girls from other Nairobi teams, captivating all those present.
After winning teams were handed trophies, it was time for sensitization on drug abuse, Sexual Health and Reproductive Rights and HIV/AIDS. The active participation in the sessions showed clearly that the community both appreciated the information and wanted more.
“The event was a great success, with a higher turnout than we expected. The general public including the youth and adolescents were enthusiastic and actively participated during the question and answer sessions,” said Ms. Perez Abeka the group’s Executive Director.
Perez, who noted the personal growth of the girls within the organisation, commended several of them for their hard work, ambition and commitment to better themselves. It was the same commitment that propelled the formation of the organisation.
Working in bars helped shape the mindset of the early members of YWCAA who paid for their university education through part-time work as bar waitresses. This exposure opened their eyes to the socio-economic impact of HIV and the vulnerable nature of their work environment. Although the focus of the organisation was initially on bar waitresses, they’ve expanded their coverage to the youth, orphaned and vulnerable children and grandmothers.
The cultural extravaganza is the climax of a one-year project executed by YWCAA with funding from AWDF. The project seeks to use sports, culture and the creative arts as tools for prevention and advocacy on HIV/AIDS, and to serve as a means of empowerment for young women. The group’s participants benefit from an extensive mentorship program and training in various skills including dress making, bead work, beauty, hair dressing, drama and music.
YWCAA’s work continues to serve as an inspiration to the African Women’s Development Fund (AWDF) and the world at large.
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.
5th Chief Executive Officers Forum Report, AUGUST 2015
5th Chief Executive Officers Forum Report, AUGUST 2015
AWDF’s 5th CEO Forum on Leadership and Communications for Women Leaders of Women’s Rights Organisations in Africa took place in Nairobi, Kenya between 10 -12 August 2015. The three-day convening brought together 21 vibrant women executives from 8 organisations across Africa, including Botswana, Zambia, Uganda, Zimbabwe, Cameroon, Kenya, Nigeria and Ghana. The program featured two main facilitators, Hope Chigudu and Paula Fray, who will serve as coaches leading the participants through a 10-month coaching program following the forum. Over the years, the focus of the CEO Forum has deepened and expanded. The forum and coaching program are also growing just as the participants are also developing their leadership and communications portfolio.
With each forum, the experience shared by the organisers and participants pushes the Capacity Building Program to take risks and try new and different processes. So, the forum and coaching program are interactive and responsive, shifting and changing over time like the women leaders who take part. Through this process, the Capacity Building Program is creating a unique framework that promotes African feminist leadership and coaching as a model for implementation for women’s rights organisations throughout Africa and, potentially, around the world. The idea is to mobilise more resources to support African women and organisations to build a compelling leadership practice that infuses the whole organisation. This can provide routes for the democratisation of leadership among staff and board members, so that human resource talents and skills can be adequately tapped and utilised for greater viability of the organisation. This can provide much needed support to the CEO and senior management team. With feminist leadership, leaders are built to carry the vision of the organisation into the future.
Bringing Gender Dimensions back from Obscurity
Bringing Gender Dimensions back from Obscurity
Introduction
Attempts to address the gender dimensions of governance, peace and security in Africa are often
plagued by several undermining tendencies. One tendency is that gender and, derived from this,
women’s concerns are presented as a standalone issue by an active women’s movement. This is done
without thorough engagement with the entire peace, security and governance environment. Mainstream
peace and security processes generally deal with gender and the women’s agenda as a peripheral
issue. They relegate it to the shadows of the governance and security debate. Policy interventions
aimed at achieving gender related transformation in peace and security have not delivered meaningful
change on the ground.
This policy paper discusses this disconnect between policy, scholarship and activism and the reality
on the ground; and its underlying causes. It makes proposals for relocating gender considerations in
mainstream governance, peace and security discourse and practice. Ultimately, the hope is that this
might begin to bring a systematic shift in the way all parties address gender issues. As such, this paper
brings several interrelated issues into focus:
● The relationship between governance, peace and security.
● The value of examining processes through which state and society forge a common understanding
around the protection of their citizens – and the place of gender in this. A key question is: why does
gender inequality remain relegated to the background while other issues occupy the foreground
of national conversation?
● The opportunities peace and security processes provide for reform of security governance in favour
of excluded citizens, particularly women, who are often at the receiving end of gender inequality.
The paper highlights the role of policy frameworks such as UN Security Council Resolution 1325.
● The constituency of actors who can help elevate the gender equality agenda as articulated in
Resolution 1325 in the policy and decision making arena.
● Despite efforts, the failure to achieve transformation in society and change for women toward
gender equality.
The summary section of this paper above includes three sets of recommendations for analysts, policy
practitioners and women’s organisations and activists.
Policy paper by: Dr Fumni Olonisakin
Bringing Gender Dimensions back from Obscurity (web version)17_12_15
Feminist Organizing for Women’s human rights in Africa: Current and Emerging issues
Feminist Organizing for Women’s human rights in Africa: Current and Emerging issues
Introduction
There have been some significant gains for women in Africa over the past 15 to 20 years. Women are taking positions of leadership in increasing numbers in political, economic, legal and social fields. In Rwanda, women constitute 64% in parliament, ranking it as the leading nation globally for representation by women in a legislature. In 2005, Africa witnessed the first woman president with the election of President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf of Liberia. In 2011, we had the second woman president, President Joyce Banda. There is legislation in countries such as Ghana, Kenya and South Africa against domestic and other forms of gender based violence. In 2010, the African Union (AU), launched the Decade for Women.
While these achievements are welcome, there is still a big deficit in implementation of key international and national policies and laws. Thirty years after the adoption of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), many girls and women still do not have equal opportunities to realise their rights as recognised in law.
The report below examines this in depth.
Policy Paper by: Everjoice Win
Feminist Organizing for Women’s Human Rights in Africa (final web version)
Transition: AFUA NAA LAMLE VIANA
Transition: AFUA NAA LAMLE VIANA
AWDF is deeply saddened to learn of the death of Afua Naa Lamle Viana Owoo, our first Communications Specialist who passed away in London on January 5, 2016 from breast cancer.
Naa Lamle joined AWDF in October 2001 and led communications and media work for the Africa Launch in November 2001. She directed AWDF’s first documentary Women of Substance I in 2002. Naa Lamle, a professional filmmaker, did extensive work around social justice issues.
She was a committed and meticulous worker with a great passion for documentary and filmmaking. She is survived by a 14-year old daughter and her aged mother.
Naa Lamle was an organised and meticulous person who gave detailed attention to the documentation of her work with bold labelling and captioning of every material and document arranged neatly on her desk. Additionally, Naa Lamle would be remembered for her loud hearty laughter, a doting mother to her baby- the first baby we all adored who was brought in to work daily.
Abigail Burgesson, AWDF Special Programmes Manager
World Health Organization Declares Ebola Outbreak Over In West Africa
World Health Organization Declares Ebola Outbreak Over In West Africa
January 14, 2016 – Today, the World Health Organization (WHO), declared the end of the most recent outbreak of Ebola virus disease in Liberia and says all known chains of transmission have been stopped in West Africa.
It’s a day to celebrate, yet the consequences of this outbreak – the worst the world has ever known, are devastating: over 11,000 deaths out of 28,000 infections in Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea, the three worst affected countries, and economies and lives shattered.
Liberia was first declared free of Ebola transmission in May 2015, but the virus was re-introduced twice since then, with the latest flare-up in November. The last confirmed patient in Liberia has tested negative for the disease following two consecutive 21 day incubation cycles of the disease.
“More flare-ups are expected and that strong surveillance and response systems will be critical in the months to come,” WHO said in a statement.
For us at AWDF who have been deeply involved with assisting women’s groups from the start of the epidemic, the welfare of women must continue to be a priority for local, government and regional leaders. The critical support which will be needed to get families back on their feet, children in school and health systems running, must not be denied.
“We need support for the women affected by Ebola and those involved in the fight,” says Djakagbe Kaba, who heads the Association Guineenne pour L’Allegement des Charges (AGACFEM), an AWDF grantee which was instrumental in coordinating Ebola prevention and education efforts in Kissidougou, one of the worst affected areas.
“After Ebola I hope we can help women resume their work in soap-making and agricultural production. Though the epidemic has passed, we must still be observant and remind people to always wash their hands. Preventive measures must continue,” Kaba said.
All our efforts will be needed in the months to come to ensure that the necessary prevention, surveillance and response capacity across all three countries are put in place and that more women are ready to shoulder responsibility in these efforts. Please make a donation now.