Category: Blog

Over the years, The Gambia Committee on Traditional Practices Affecting the Health of Women and Children – GAMCOTRAP has been engaged in consistent grassroots activism and social mobilisation through training and sensitization activities to raise consciousness of men and women on the Effects of FGM on the reproductive health rights of women and girl-children. The organization has worked closely with the communities through an empowerment process to be able to bring about change. As a result of the series of activities, the organisation has been able to register immense success leading to the first Public Declaration was made by 18 Circumcisers and 63 Communities to protect their children from FGM, on the 5th May 2007.

Sustained advocacy engaging the duty bearers at the community level has resulted to yet another success story. GAMCOTRAP will be marking the 2nd Dropping of the Knife event through a Public Declaration by 60 Circumcisers and 351 Communities in the Upper and Central River Regions of the Gambia.

As part of this land mark achievement, GAMCOTRAP will be organizing a great celebration to honour the ex-circumcisers and their communities on the 5th December 2009 at the Basse Stadium in the Upper River Region commencing at 9.00am. The Public Declaration has very strong support and commitment from their traditional rulers and Council of Elders as well as the Local Government Structures across the regions.

The activity will be presided over by Her Excellency, Doctor Isatou Njie-Saidy the Vice President and Secretary of State for Women’s Affairs. Also Secretaries of States and local and international dignitaries and young people will be in attendance.

October 8 was world sight day and I am wondering how many of us heard about it and for those of us who heard about it, what kind of consideration we gave to it. The second Thursday in October every year has been set aside globally for awareness creation on blindness, visual impairment and the rehabilitation of the visually impaired. This year the theme for World Sight Day 2009 was “Gender and Eye Health – equal access to care”. The theme sought to highlight the fact that globally two-thirds of the people who are blind are women and girls.

According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), globally about 180 million people are visually impaired, of whom 45 million are blind with nearly two-thirds of people affected by vision loss being females. 80% of all cases of blindness could have been avoided with 20% being preventable and 60% being treatable.

Visual impairment is most prevalent in women and men 50 years and older. The majority of eye conditions for this age group, such as cataract, can be easily treated. However, women who form the majority of people with visual impairment do not benefit from this treatment as a result of inequal access to eye health care. In many places men have twice the access to eye care as women due to a number of reasons including accessibility in terms of cost and distance as well as lack of the power to take decisions affecting their own lives. However equal access to eye care for women and men could greatly reduce cases of visual impairment especially in developing countries.

It is ironic that in many parts of the world women do not have equal access to eye care despite the critical role they play in health care including eye health care. Women work as ophthalmologists, ophthalmic nurses, community workers, etc. Again at home it is usually women who carry the burden of care for family members who have lost their sight. In recognition of the role of women in eye care, the World Health Organization has pointed out the need to acknowledge the role of women in the prevention of blindness and visual impairment.

The causes of avoidable blindness are frequently associated with poverty and lack of access to quality eye care services. Avoidable blindness is more common amongst the poorest of the poor, women and marginalized populations. Data shows that 90% of the world’s blind people live in developing countries and that people who live in the developing world are 5 to 10 times more likely to go blind than people who live in highly industrialized countries. Poverty therefore is a critical contributory factor to blindness.

Vision health could be maintained through improved access to health care, including regular, comprehensive dilated eye exams, which would facilitate early detection and treatment of eye diseases. Weight reduction is also a good strategy to prevent eye disease since obesity is a risk factor for diabetic eye disease.

It is therefore pertinent for women to take their health care into their own hands and seek regular medical care for all diseases that affect their lives especially their eyes. We all have a right to see this beautiful world.

Beatrice Boakye-Yiadom
Acting Grants Manager
AWDF

I could not agree more with Arun Agrawal in his paper on the Social Dimensions of Climate Change, prepared for the Social Development Department, The World Bank, Washington DC, March 5-6, 2008 in which he stated “Climate change will be pivotal in redefining development in the twenty-first century. How nations, societies, communities, and households respond to the impacts of climate changes and variability to which the world has already been committed will in many instances determine their prospects for growth, equity, and sustainability”.

People’s (poor) response to emergencies and situations in general vary and this is more so when it is around issues of poverty and livelihoods. In Africa for example, it is a daily struggle for women and girls to address food security and livelihood issues. Women largely depend on natural resources such as land and water bodies for their survival and they have adopted different coping strategies and utilized varied networking systems to survive on these resources (which are depleting at a fast rate) and yet they have little or no control over these resources.

Today, the world is confronted by another huge challenge; the impacts of climate change and unfortunately this is not receiving the attention it deserves. The international community has failed to seriously and fully address the causes and consequences of climate change, which now poses a major threat to lives and livelihoods of people living in poverty, the majority of whom are women. It is indeed incredible and unacceptable to see, hear and read daily about the damage of climate change.

Climate change is environmental change, which is also driven by humans – it is fundamentally a human problem. The impacts of climate change are expected to seriously (and disproportionately) affect the livelihoods, health, and educational opportunities of people living in poverty. Those with special burdens and/or vulnerabilities such as women, ethnic minorities, and people living with HIV/AIDS are feeling yet another pressure in global warming – one that is fundamentally unjust.

It is time for institutions, governments and individuals and indeed each and every one of us to collectively and individually work at addressing or reducing the impact of climate change on people living in poverty who mostly have not contributed to the problem.

The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) was adopted at the 1992 UN Summit for Environment and Development in Rio de Janeiro. This agreement established the “Conference of the Parties” (COP) and the “UNFCC Secretariat” as the institutional frameworks to support an international process to promote and develop relevant strategies on climate change negotiations to ensure that participating countries commit to a universal objective of reducing emissions .Similar to other international processes however, these discussions have not sufficiently articulated the gender issue as critical for mitigating climate change. This is inspite of the increasing visibility of women’s agency in critical arenas at all levels and sectors of society. Even though some gender analyses have been done, especially around Clean Development Mechanisms (CDMs), the tendency has been to focus exclusively on women in developing countries . A huge gap therefore needs to be filled.

I will therefore like to recommend the following;

• A paradigm shift in the conception of economic growth and development for Africa. Dependence on western models should be transformed into context specific analysis of the real needs of different groups of women and men that builds on local knowledge and resources to promote the wellbeing and security of women and men. .

• Women’s experience and knowledge of climate change processes is critical. Their different relationships with men on natural resource issues must be acknowledged, harnessed and utilised in mitigation and adaptation measures. As well, their specific vulnerabilities must be well articulated so that appropriate responses and interventions can be made to enhance their well-being. In this regard, women’s own coping strategies in times of crises should be identified as sources of strength that could serve the basis for evolving innovative policies to strengthen their security in areas such as food, water, health, land capital and technology.

• The UN has mandated countries to promote gender equality and women’s rights in all processes of development. It is therefore important for the women’s movement in Africa to take full responsibility and ownership of the gender and climate change discourse to ensure the full implementation of UNFCCC and Kyoto Protocol (KP) measures take women’s specific concerns into account. This requires that greater knowledge and awareness is crated around gender and climate change issues at all levels.

• While more work needs to be done around gender and climate change in industrialized countries, it is equally important to deepen analyses around gender equality issues and climate change in developing countries, especially Africa. This will create greater understanding about its implications for human security and promote alliance building for articulating critical priorities for women in local national, regional and international decision-making.

Nafi Chinery
Capacity Building Officer
AWDF

P.S: This post is AWDF’s contribution to Blog Action Day’s focus on Climate Change

I had a fun time yesterday on Radio Universe being interviewed by hostess Justina Agozie Yesutar with her all woman production team – Bara Yunus Khadija and Asah Daniella. The programme is appropriately dubbed “Yaa Asantewaa” (after the famous Ashanti Queen Mother who led the Ashanti’s in battle against the British in 1900.

I was impressed (but not suprised) with the dynamism, professionalism and enthusiasm of the Yaa Asantewaa Team. Yesterday’s programme was an organisational profile of AWDF and is part of a series highlighting women’s rights organisations in Ghana

(Nana with hostess Justina)

(Nana with hostess Justina and Producer Bara)

(AWDF’s Programme Officer for Fundraising & Communications, Nana Darkoa Sekyiamah)

Women in Senegal are in general confined to traditional roles. They are married at a young age; half of them live in polygynous unions and are subjects to multiple childbirths. According to genderindex.org, “Up to 20% of girls undergo Female Genital Mutilation. Most women in Senegal have no educational opportunities. Only 23 percent of females over 15 years of age are literate, while the rates for males over age 15 are 43 percent.”

Additionally, discrimination against women is pervasive, especially in rural areas. The Government frequently does not enforce anti-discrimination laws.
It is against this context that the Senegalese feminist forum was held between 7th-9th August 2009. The meeting brought together 30 women from different back grounds including community based women’s representatives, women’s human rights activists, writers, film makers, lecturers and women from the development sector.

The objectives of the Forum were:

• To create an effective feminist movement in Senegal as well as a safe and autonomous space for feminist organizing.
• To discuss critical issues affecting the women’s movement in Senegal.
• To develop strategies to promote feminist leadership in women‘s organizations in Senegal and to look into how best the charter of feminist principles can be domesticated by women’s organizations in Senegal.

The Forum was held because there is a need to strengthen the feminist movement in Senegal, create feminist spaces and to put the feminist movement of the country on a solid ground. Feminists in Senegal want the women’s movement to be dynamic, the forum was to help strategize to include the youth in the feminist struggle as the leadership believes, the youth are the future and they should take up the work of fighting for women’s rights. In spite of constant struggle, Senegalese women are still oppressed by patriarchy. Patriarchy can be defined as a social organization marked by the supremacy of the father in the clan or family, the legal dependence of wives and children, and the reckoning of descent and inheritance in the male line; broadly : control by men of a disproportionately large share of power or simply a family, community, or society based on this system or governed by men. In Senegal, patriarchy cuts across every sector of life; socially, economically and culturally. Women in Senegal are raised in a society that sees the male as the head and only occupant of a leadership position, women are taught to revere their male counter parts and always put them first. With this kind of outlook gaining access to strategic positions in the country becomes difficult. According to www. afrol.com “Senegalese law stipulates that women and men should have equal access to bank loans, but in reality women often struggle to obtain loans.” In Senegal, women are seen as second class citizens. “Senegalese law grants equal property ownership rights to men and women. Women are legally entitled to access to land, but tradition makes it impossible for them to inherit land. Similarly, women may be in a financial position to have access to property other than land, but their husbands can restrict their ability to exercise this right.”

Senegalese women are demanding and claiming their rights, organizations like Groupe de Recherche sur les Femmes et les Lois au Senegal(GREFELS )and Association of African Women for Research and Development (AAWORD) are leading the way by supporting to increase the autonomy of women and linking them with feminist and progressive groups, to build a powerful African women’s movement linking human rights to the theory and practice of development and to bring forth African Women’s contribution to sustainable and democratic development. The Senegalese feminist Forum sought to re-echo the voices of these women. During the meeting challenges of the feminist movement in Senegal was bought to the fore. A key challenge is the issue of religious fundamentalism. The religious system of Senegal hinders women from being bold enough to express them selves and their views.

Another challenge that came up during the meeting was the inability of people or women to affirm that they are feminist. Women identifying them selves as feminists is a challenge in Senegal, according to Marjorie Mbilinyi, board member of Tanzania Gender Networking Programme “feminist are fine with the feminist struggle as long as there is no struggle” these women do not want to own their identity as feminist, they do not own the challenges, threats, difficulty and opportunity that goes along with owning an identity as a feminist.

In solidarity, the AWDF funded the forum with a grant of US$20,000. The AWDF made a presentation on the charter of feminist principles. The charter serves as an accountability mechanism for feminist organizing on the continent and is a tool for peer review amongst African feminist organizations.

The general belief behind the African Feminist Forum is to create an autonomous space for feminists with no, ”ifs”, “buts” and “however”. The Senegalese feminist forum provided a safe space for feminists in Senegal to dream and do things differently by creating an autonomous space for Senegalese feminist, to domesticate the charter of principles in Senegal, to have a body of knowledge reflecting feminist agency that can be shared with feminist s around the region.

Thelma Owusu-Boakye (Programme Assistant, Fundraising & Communications)
with Rissi Assani-Alabi (Programme Officer, Francophone Programme Officer)

My mother was a kitchen girl, kitchen girl…
My father was a garden boy, garden boy…
That’s why I’m a feminist, feminist…
That’s why I’m a feminist, feminist…

(Song sung by Siphiwe Hlope, Executive Director of Swaziland Positive Living (SWAPOL) at the CEO Forum in Kampala, Uganda)

The women are coming, around the corner
The women are coming, around the corner
Bisi is coming, around the corner
Usu is coming, around the corner

(Song sung by Siphiwe Hlope, Executive Director of Swaziland Positive Living (SWAPOL) at the CEO Forum in Kampala, Uganda)

Did Obama say anything we did not already know?

I thought I had heard all about the Obama speech (I have said on several occasions that he did not say anything I did not know) until recently when I heard two well educated and learned professionals discussing some of the ills in our society. They spoke specifically about:

• Corruption in the public sector
• The slow economy since the change of government in Ghana ( which took place in January)
• The sudden fall of the cedi against the dollar and
• President Obama’s recent statement calling on Africans to take responsibility for themselves – which in turn will garner further support from America.

This statement by President Obama was hailed as the solution to the numerous issues confronting us as a nation.

I have heard several people allude to Obama’s speech, making reference to this one statement and made it seem as if “Prophet Obama” has spoken and this is it. I was most impressed with the choice of Ghana for the visit and happy that President Obama came to Ghana but the truth is he did not say anything I did not know and I did not expect him to. Did Africans not know they have to take responsibility for themselves? In each and every ethnic African tribe there is a saying or proverb that alludes to this. So why are we applauding Obama for repeating what we know? Or for some it is the wisest saying in their time? I find so many people including my two learned friends hail this as “the speech” of our time. I have also seen so many think we were insulted on our own land and yet applauded the insults.

For most of us President Obama did not say anything we did not know. He only echoed and emphasized what we know, what we have said amongst ourselves and in our own small ways are implementing in a bid to enable us achieve greater heights. Several individuals and tons of Ghanaians are daily engaged in taking responsibility for themselves in a bid to create a better place and an enabling environment for themselves and for others to thrive. These are genuine hard working people with no political leverage. However as a nation the state and government hardly offers an enabling environment to buffer the efforts of individuals. We are daily confronted with painful bureaucratic and slow institutions which includes negative attitudes and poor ethics displayed in the workplace – this we encounter both at the public and private levels.

Perhaps one major statement which I think Obama should have demanded as a condition for USA support is the statement that “Africa does not need strong men but strong institutions”. Yes we need strong institutions to enforce law and order. We need strong institutions to implement policies, to check corruption and to enforce good practices in order to move our country forward. As for the issue of strong men we are all witnesses of how they have failed us and have led us to our present predicament as a nation. Maybe having strong women would make a difference. Let us consider this and work towards bringing on board strong women as we build strong institutions. I am certain we will see a difference.

I thought I had heard all about the Obama speech (I have said on several occasions that he did not say anything I did not know) until recently when I heard two well educated and learned professionals discussing some of the ills in our society. They spoke specifically about:

• Corruption in the public sector
• The slow economy since the change of government in Ghana ( which took place in January)
• The sudden fall of the cedi against the dollar and
• President Obama’s recent statement calling on Africans to take responsibility for themselves – which in turn will garner further support from America.

This statement by President Obama was hailed as the solution to the numerous issues confronting us as a nation.

I have heard several people allude to Obama’s speech, making reference to this one statement and made it seem as if “Prophet Obama” has spoken and this is it. I was most impressed with the choice of Ghana for the visit and happy that President Obama came to Ghana but the truth is he did not say anything I did not know and I did not expect him to. Did Africans not know they have to take responsibility for themselves? In each and every ethnic African tribe there is a saying or proverb that alludes to this. So why are we applauding Obama for repeating what we know? Or for some it is the wisest saying in their time? I find so many people including my two learned friends hail this as “the speech” of our time. I have also seen so many think we were insulted on our own land and yet applauded the insults.

For most of us President Obama did not say anything we did not know. He only echoed and emphasized what we know, what we have said amongst ourselves and in our own small ways are implementing in a bid to enable us achieve greater heights. Several individuals and tons of Ghanaians are daily engaged in taking responsibility for themselves in a bid to create a better place and an enabling environment for themselves and for others to thrive. These are genuine hard working people with no political leverage. However as a nation the state and government hardly offers an enabling environment to buffer the efforts of individuals. We are daily confronted with painful bureaucratic and slow institutions which includes negative attitudes and poor ethics displayed in the workplace – this we encounter both at the public and private levels.

Perhaps one major statement which I think Obama should have demanded as a condition for USA support is the statement that “Africa does not need strong men but strong institutions”. Yes we need strong institutions to enforce law and order. We need strong institutions to implement policies, to check corruption and to enforce good practices in order to move our country forward. As for the issue of strong men we are all witnesses of how they have failed us and have led us to our present predicament as a nation. Maybe having strong women would make a difference. Let us consider this and work towards bringing on board strong women as we build strong institutions. I am certain we will see a difference.

Grantee Spotlight: Rural Women’s Movement in Swaziland

An email update sent to Nafi Chinery, AWDF’s Capacity Building Officer: Feedback from Rural Women’s Movement (RWM), an AWDF grantee in Swaziland on their experiences at the recent International Resource Mobilisation Workshop (IWRM) held in Bangalore, India. AWDF supported RWM and 4 other grantees to attend the IWRM.

Dear Nafi,

On behalf of RWM I wish to thank AWDF for its support.

My being part of the 9th IWRM in Bangalore was an eye opener for me. I have always been too scared to ask for financial assistance. Since I initiated RWM in 1998 I have been getting like 30% of my salary because asking for money for me has always been difficult. Even working on a budget has been difficult it has always felt like we are asking for too much. But after participating in the 9th IWRM I feel confident enough to ask for financial assistance without feeling like we are a burden.

My expectations were met and I had an opportunity to meet with fundraisers who have been in this field for a long time. All the sessions were relevant for me. But of course there were some that did not really meet my expectations. The sessions that I really liked were the sessions that were tackling issues about how to raise funds in the time of this recession. Those covered topics that prompted me to start looking for local support and not depend on international financial support. It also prompted me to look into making financial requests to Business sector. As the RWM we have not looked into the sector and have not tapped on the local resources. So the sessions were great in opening these potential opportunities for RWM.
The lesson I learned was that it is important for organizations to create space to reflect on our work and share our experiences. It was very informative for me to learn from other people’s experiences. Sitting and listening to presenters sharing their experiences was inspiring.

Some of the stories were painful like the one where a local man (I have forgotten )his name was talking about starting a sanitary towel organization, in communities where women had no material to use as sanitary towels and were using sand. But because of his passion he raised funds and mobilized resources for the program and the program is now making 6,000 sanitary towels a day and women have not have to suffer using sand which is cold in winter and very hot in summer. In his presentation he says after raising awareness about the plight of women in his area funders poured financial support in such a way that he had to ask them to channel money to other organizations because it was too much money for his organization. The lesson I learned on his presentation is that it is good for one to follow ones heart and try something that has never been tried before. And that if a proposal is clear and it responds to the communities needs and aspirations it is not a challenge to get financial support for the program/project.

I also learned that in most situations it helps to make a request for what [the] organization needs and not the money. Like in the issue of a presentation on sanitary towels the fundraiser was not asking for money to buy the sanitary towels but he was asking for pieces of materials so those who had unused pieces [of] material donated material/fabrics and those who did not have fabric/material donated money. When writing a proposal I have always been asking for money. I learned that it’s a great idea to ask for a computer rather than asking for money to buy a computer because the funder might know someone out there who might be desperate to give away computers and not money. Also I learned that the funding communities do not have time to read lengthy proposals its good to prepare a short proposal and it must be clear and to the point.

The challenge was that there was a lot going on, very good sessions happening at the same time. I think the program was a bit too tight there was no time to connect with other participants and engage on the issues coming out of the sessions and learn from one another’s experiences.

If the resources allow it would be good to keep a bit of time for reflection and for the participants to connect and share ideas, even just for half an hour a day. The participants are a very good resource in events like the IWRM; they have a lot to share with other people and to learn from other people. The sessions did not create much of that space because of time constraints.

The idea about having this kind of event in India was great. I think India has a lot to teach other developing countries about how they dealt with their own development challenges. From the experience I learned at 9th IWRM, after listening to my report RWM has started looking at resources within RWM. The RWM Committee is suggesting to the members that members should contribute about $1-50 per year. We are also working on a strategy on how we are going to approach the business sector and individuals who are sympathetic to RWM work.

I feel honoured to have been part of the IWRM event and would like to thank AWDF for making this opportunity available to RWM. It would be very good for me to learn from other participants experiences, how they found the IWRM and how it has changed their approach in their respective organizations. We did not have time to connect this might be a space for us to share our experiences.

Sizani Ngubane, Rural Women’s Movement

An email update sent to Nafi Chinery, AWDF’s Capacity Building Officer: Feedback from Rural Women’s Movement (RWM), an AWDF grantee in Swaziland on their experiences at the recent International Resource Mobilisation Workshop (IWRM) held in Bangalore, India. AWDF supported RWM and 4 other grantees to attend the IWRM.

Dear Nafi,

On behalf of RWM I wish to thank AWDF for its support.

My being part of the 9th IWRM in Bangalore was an eye opener for me. I have always been too scared to ask for financial assistance. Since I initiated RWM in 1998 I have been getting like 30% of my salary because asking for money for me has always been difficult. Even working on a budget has been difficult it has always felt like we are asking for too much. But after participating in the 9th IWRM I feel confident enough to ask for financial assistance without feeling like we are a burden.

My expectations were met and I had an opportunity to meet with fundraisers who have been in this field for a long time. All the sessions were relevant for me. But of course there were some that did not really meet my expectations. The sessions that I really liked were the sessions that were tackling issues about how to raise funds in the time of this recession. Those covered topics that prompted me to start looking for local support and not depend on international financial support. It also prompted me to look into making financial requests to Business sector. As the RWM we have not looked into the sector and have not tapped on the local resources. So the sessions were great in opening these potential opportunities for RWM.
The lesson I learned was that it is important for organizations to create space to reflect on our work and share our experiences. It was very informative for me to learn from other people’s experiences. Sitting and listening to presenters sharing their experiences was inspiring.

Some of the stories were painful like the one where a local man (I have forgotten )his name was talking about starting a sanitary towel organization, in communities where women had no material to use as sanitary towels and were using sand. But because of his passion he raised funds and mobilized resources for the program and the program is now making 6,000 sanitary towels a day and women have not have to suffer using sand which is cold in winter and very hot in summer. In his presentation he says after raising awareness about the plight of women in his area funders poured financial support in such a way that he had to ask them to channel money to other organizations because it was too much money for his organization. The lesson I learned on his presentation is that it is good for one to follow ones heart and try something that has never been tried before. And that if a proposal is clear and it responds to the communities needs and aspirations it is not a challenge to get financial support for the program/project.

I also learned that in most situations it helps to make a request for what [the] organization needs and not the money. Like in the issue of a presentation on sanitary towels the fundraiser was not asking for money to buy the sanitary towels but he was asking for pieces of materials so those who had unused pieces [of] material donated material/fabrics and those who did not have fabric/material donated money. When writing a proposal I have always been asking for money. I learned that it’s a great idea to ask for a computer rather than asking for money to buy a computer because the funder might know someone out there who might be desperate to give away computers and not money. Also I learned that the funding communities do not have time to read lengthy proposals its good to prepare a short proposal and it must be clear and to the point.

The challenge was that there was a lot going on, very good sessions happening at the same time. I think the program was a bit too tight there was no time to connect with other participants and engage on the issues coming out of the sessions and learn from one another’s experiences.

If the resources allow it would be good to keep a bit of time for reflection and for the participants to connect and share ideas, even just for half an hour a day. The participants are a very good resource in events like the IWRM; they have a lot to share with other people and to learn from other people. The sessions did not create much of that space because of time constraints.

The idea about having this kind of event in India was great. I think India has a lot to teach other developing countries about how they dealt with their own development challenges. From the experience I learned at 9th IWRM, after listening to my report RWM has started looking at resources within RWM. The RWM Committee is suggesting to the members that members should contribute about $1-50 per year. We are also working on a strategy on how we are going to approach the business sector and individuals who are sympathetic to RWM work.

I feel honoured to have been part of the IWRM event and would like to thank AWDF for making this opportunity available to RWM. It would be very good for me to learn from other participants experiences, how they found the IWRM and how it has changed their approach in their respective organizations. We did not have time to connect this might be a space for us to share our experiences.

Sizani Ngubane, Rural Women’s Movement