Category: press
Women’s Funds continue to fund change: 101 grants awarded for First Round of LFS
Women’s Funds continue to fund change: 101 grants awarded for First Round of LFS
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In early 2017, four women’s funds joined forces to launch the first calls for proposals for Leading from the South- a new funding stream dedicated to funding advocacy and lobbying by women’s rights organisations in Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean, and the Middle East. The fund was initiated with support from the Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs as part of their commitment to the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals, in particular SDG 5 oriented to achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls. The LFS fund is being implemented by four women’s funds; three regional funds: African Women’s Development Fund (Africa and the Middle East Region), Fondo Mujeres del Sur (Latin America and the Caribbean) and South Asia Women Fund (Asia); and one global fund: AYNI – the Indigenous Women’s Fund.
The first calls for proposals was met with tremendous response from women’s rights organisations across the global South. After a rigorous assessment process, the four funds are pleased to announce a total of 101 grants, representing 7.9 million Euro awarded to southern women’s organisations working to transform society towards equality and full exercise of rights for all women. Funded organisations are based in a total of 50 countries and will be implementing initiatives in 67 countries.
To read the press release in full click the links below
PRESS RELEASE_LFS 1st round 2017_ENGLISH
Press Release Aug 2017 FRANCAIS Final logo
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Au début de l’année 2017, quatre fonds d’appui aux femmes ont conjugué leurs efforts pour lancer les premiers appels à propositions dans le cadre du projet « LE SUD AUX RÊNES DU LEADERSHIP », un nouvelle initiative de financement destinée à financer les activités de plaidoyer et de lobbying des organisations qui oeuvrent pour la défense des droits des femmes en Afrique, en Asie, en Amérique latine, dans les Caraïbes et au Moyen-Orient. L’initiative a été lancé avec l’appui du Ministère Néerlandais des Affaires Etrangères dans le cadre de leur engagement pour la réalisation des objectifs du développement durable, en particulier le ODD 5 qui vise à soutenir l’égalité des sexes et l’autonomisation des femmes et des filles. Le projet« LE SUD AUX RÊNES DU LEADERSHIP » est exécuté par quatre fonds d’appui aux femmes dont 3 fonds régionaux à savoir Le Fonds Africain pour le Développement de la Femme qui couvre l’Afrique et le Moyen-Orient, Fondo Mujeres del Sur qui couvre l’Amérique Latine et les Caraïbes et South Asia Women Fund qui prend en compte l’Asie. International Indigenous Women’s Fund – AYNI quant à elle, est une organisation internationale.
Plusieurs organisations de femmes dans les pays du Sud ont postulé dès le lancement des premiers appels à propositions. Après un processus rigoureux d’évaluation des dossiers reçus, les quatre organisations ont le plaisir de vous annoncer un total de 101 subventions d’une valeur totale de 7,9 millions d’Euros. Ces subventions ont été octroyées aux organisations de femmes dans les pays du Sud qui oeuvrent en vue de construire une société où règne l’égalité et où les femmes jouiront pleinement de leurs droits. Les organisations bénéficiaires sont sises dans 50 pays mais réaliseront leurs projets dans 67 pays.
Cliquez sur le lien ci-dessous pour la version complète du Communiqué de Presse.
LE SUD AUX RÊNES DU LEADERSHIP: Communiqué de Presse
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Call for Creative Designers: Design and Layout of AWDF’s African Feminist Futures Report
Call for Creative Designers: Design and Layout of AWDF’s African Feminist Futures Report
TERMS OF REFERENCE
About AWDF
The African Women’s Development Fund (AWDF) is the first African-wide grant-making foundation which was established to provide grants, capacity building and technical assistance to African women’s organisations. The vision of AWDF is for African women to live in a world in which there is social justice, equality and respect for women’s human rights.
To this end, our mission is to mobilise financial resources to support local, national and regional initiatives led by women, which will lead to the achievement of this vision. AWDF raises money and makes grants for the support of non-profit African women’s organisations working for social justice, equality, respect and peace.
Background to the project
In 2016, AWDF developed a new strategic plan directing the organisation’s focus, strategies and program activities over the next four years from 2017 – 2020. As part of the strategic plan process, AWDF conceptualised a scenarios project in order to have a conversation about how the future of women’s rights in Africa might evolve over time. This report, therefore, highlights the process of the scenarios building exercise, examines the trends, issues and opportunities available and describes the different futures that could occur in Africa regarding women’s rights and empowerment. The scenarios point out critical issues to look out for in the sector. Scenarios are stories describing alternative futures and how they might come about. Scenarios also act as signals to watch out for in the future.
The scenarios, therefore, responded to the question:
What is the future of women’s organising in response to these trends by 2030 and what is AWDF’s role in this context?
Scope of Work
• To develop a concept for the design and layout of the African Feminist Futures report for digital dissemination
• To design and layout of the report for digital circulation (PDF)
Original text length = approx. 59 page Microsoft Word document
Qualifications and expertise
• Proficiency in professional, compelling and innovative graphic design and layout packages.
• Demonstrated experience of design and layout of publications. • Ability to read/write fluently in English.
• Support for women’s rights and feminist principles desirable. African women designers are particularly encouraged to apply.
Timeframe
Design should be ready for digital distribution by the 22 March 2017.
Location
This assignment is desk-based.
To apply
Please send a Design CV, a quotation for estimated costs of design and samples of relevant work and to Sionne Neely, Knowledge Management Specialist at AWDF, sionne@africlub.net/awdf. Submissions should be emailed by Wednesday 22 February, 2017.
Supporting Arts, Culture and Sports for the promotion of Women’s Human Rights
Supporting Arts, Culture and Sports for the promotion of Women’s Human Rights
The African Women’s Development Fund will be hosting a thematic convening on arts, culture and sports from October 22-24th under the theme “Weavers of Intersectionality: Amplifying Women’s Rights, Social Justice and Feminist Narratives in Arts, Culture and Sport.”
The first of its kind, this convening will bring together key women creatives from multidisciplinary fields of art, cultural production and sports to talk about their experiences, connect with one another and devise new strategies to strengthen the voices of women within their industry and on the continent as a whole.
It is no secret that the multidisciplinary fields of arts, cultural production, and sports have a huge impact on how people across the world engage with one another and the African continent is no exception. Over the years, African traditions rich with oral history, visual imagery, poetry, proverbs, dance, theatre, and sports have used these tools for education, entertainment, conflict resolution and community building. However, these cultural industries have historically been dominated by men which limit women’s participation in these spaces.
Women’s engagement in arts and in sports has led to the birth of radical ideas, beliefs and attitudes about the immense value and contributions of women. It has also invigorated connections and possibilities for communities across the continent and the world at large. Through both the arts and sports, women have challenged and broken stereotypes, amplified the demands of women and feminist movements, raised resources, and spread messages of social change.
In spite of this work, women practitioners in arts, cultural production and sports face persistent restraints from intimidation, harassment, and theft of work to isolation, immobility, burnout and limited access to networks of care, support, and resources of sustainability. By working through a lens of intersectionality, African women are in a key position to speak out against multiple oppressions – gender, sexuality, disability, race, class, ethnicity, geography, etc. – within their fields of work. This convening will help connect women whose work has been instrumental in telling the stories of african women’s lives and who have used their various mediums to amplify women’s rights, social justice and feminist narratives. The multidimensional nature of the convening will promote cross learning and solidarity. It will be a creative, engaging space that will help spark new momentum for change within various creative industries on the continent.
THIRD FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT TRAINING ANNOUNCEMENT
THIRD FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT TRAINING ANNOUNCEMENT
THIRD FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT TRAINING FOR AWDF GRANTEES IN
LAGOS, NIGERIA
16 – 18 AUGUST, 2016
“I am once more excited that The African Women’s Development Fund (AWDF) is able to organise this important training with support from Comic Relief. Since 2014, thirty-six (36) organisations have benefited from our Finance Management Skills Trainings. Of these, 22 have already reported steps put in place toward sound financial systems. As feminist grant makers we understand the need for accountability and results and therefore work towards building robust organisations by investing in human resource development of our grantees. This skills enhancement training on finance management for finance officers and managers in Nigeria is one of the ways by which we do this.” Nafi Chinery, Capacity Building Programme Specialist, AWDF
Second Financial Management Training held in 2015 in Uganda.
The Capacity Building Unit of AWDF is organising its third Finance Management Training programme for finance officers and managers of grantee organisations. This skills enhancement training will be held from 16 – 18th August 2016 in Lagos, Nigeria.
This training forms part of AWDF’s mandate to provide technical skills to grantees in order to ensure sound and prudent financial management of resources for results in their organisations.
The three-day (3) training will bring together nineteen (19) finance managers and officers from twelve (12) grantee organisations from seven (7) states in Nigeria including Lagos, Akwa Ibom and Gombe states. The training will cover budgets and cash flow projections, grant management, internal controls and checks, compliance with statutory requirements, and financial reporting among others.
It is our hope that participants will gain insights and skills into developing sound financial systems that meet minimum international standards for any financial management including donor reporting. Below are some expectations expressed by some participants ahead of the Lagos training.
“My main expectation from the training is to gain additional best practice procedures to include in our Financial and Accounting Manual which is currently being developed. I expect to strengthen my knowledge on NGO regular financial recording and management.” Ms. Joy Ngwakwe, Executive Director at Centre for Advancement of Development Right (CEADER) in Lagos.
“Knowing the logic in allowable and unallowable expenditures and developing the ability to analyse financial reports as well as develop skills in prudent financial resource management” Lucy Auwalu, Executive Director, Women and Children of Hope Foundation, Lagos.
To learn financial management best practices that will promote HELIN in her dealing with donors and how to harmonise the management of finances from diverse donors.” Doris Brendan, Executive Director, Heal the Land Initiative Nigeria (HELIN), Uyo
Joining the conversation: Theo Sowa at Women Deliver 2016
Joining the conversation: Theo Sowa at Women Deliver 2016
This week, AWDF CEO Theo Sowa will be speaking and moderating a series of panels at Women Deliver in Copenhagen, Denmark. The annual conference brings together global leaders to move forward the agenda for women’s rights. Women Deliver 2016 focuses on building will and knowledge to impact on women and girls’ lives through the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).This global platform provides an opportunity for African Women to be at the forefront of global agenda setting and change.
Bringing through the voice of AWDF grantees, Theo Sowa will be moderating a series of panels on women’s health and education. She kicks off with a session on May 16, “Delivering as One- Global Partnerships for Global Goals” with panelists from government, civil society and the private sector including Tedros Adhanom, Ethiopian Minister of Foreign Affairs; Catherine Russell, U.S. Ambassador-at-Large for Global Women’s Issues; Jan-Willem Scheijgrond, Global Head of Government Affairs B2G at Philips; Susan Myers, Senior Vice President of the UN Foundation and Vagn Berthelsen, CEO of Oxfam IBIS.
Watch Theo Sowa on May 17 at 11 am CET when she will be moderating the official Women Deliver press conference featuring Philanthropist Melinda Gates and Canadian First Lady Sophie Grégoire-Trudeau .
On May 18, Theo Sowa will moderate the press conference on the Amplify Change fund that AWDF co-manages. The press conference includes H.R.H Crown Princess Mary of Denmark and Danish Minister Kristian Jensen speaking to the role of Amplify Change in transforming Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights advocacy.
Follow Theo Sowa’s updates on Twitter @awdf01. To join in the conversation check the tag #WDlive ., You can also register for the virtual conference and watch an exclusive livestream of the events at http://wd2016.org/media-resources/virtual-conference/.
STANDING ON AFRICAN FEMINIST LAND : A reflection by Nana Darkoa Sekyiamah
STANDING ON AFRICAN FEMINIST LAND : A reflection by Nana Darkoa Sekyiamah
The African Feminist forum was an event full of revolutionary love and heated discussion. It was a time of growth, and a time of healing. It was a time for us as Feminists to just be. Below is a reflection on the experiences of an AFF alum, and renowned blogger and the media co-coordinator for AWID. Find out more about AWID and the original piece here.
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STANDING ON AFRICAN FEMINIST LAND
On my first day in Zimbabwe I visited the National Museum of Science. Above the doorway of the anteroom hung a picture of Nehanda Charwe Nyakasikana, with the caption ‘MAPFUPA ANGU ACHAMUKA’. This was translated to me to mean, “my bones will rise”. Nehanda was a spirit medium active in the first Zimbabwe Chimurenga [1]. She inspired her people in the liberation struggle, refused to convert to Christianity and was sentenced to death by the colonisers. The story is told that Nehanda went singing and dancing to the gallows declaring, “my bones will rise” to win freedom.
An image of a poster at the National Museum of Science, Harare. (Photo: Nana Darkoa)
I have always felt strongly that Zimbabwean women embody resistance. Women in Zimbabwe took active part in the liberation struggles for independence as fighters and comrades. In my 2008 interview with Margaret Dongo, a former freedom fighter, she emphasized, “there were no rubber bullets for women”. On the warfront, women and men were trained in a similar manner, women did not get preferential treatment.
A Milestone on the #AfriFem Journey
The resistance, creativity and strength of Zimbabwean women resonated in the fourth African Feminist Forum (AFF) held in Harare from 10-12 April 2016. The presence of over 160 African feminists from 32 African countries and the Diaspora amplified and multiplied the energy of the Zim sisters.
Sisters from South Africa sang, “…this land is women’s land…” and right there, in the hall of Rainbow Towers, it felt as if we were standing on African feminist land.
As someone who has been lucky enough to attend three consecutive AFFs, I felt a different energy at #AFFZim. The space felt more radical, it was clear that the AFF had been on a journey, and suitably on its 10th anniversary had grown into a more formidable space. A space that confidently said, “We are feminist. No ifs. No buts”. A space full of young feminists, queer bodies, academics, differently abled women, sex workers, older women… A space with sisters from all parts of our continent across our various arbitrary colonial divisions – activists from Egypt, Senegal, Kenya, Nigeria, Mali, Botswana, Angola, South Africa, Mauritania, Uganda… emphasizing the need for us to continue to build solidarity across our movements, and to create spaces which welcome us in all our diversities.
from left to right: Bella Matambanadzo, Everjoice Win, Thoko Matshe and Margaret Dongo. (Photo: Nana Darkoa)Nurturing the Body and Soul
Wellness was weaved into the entire AFF programmeof the AFF with some of us waking up early to shake what our collective Mamas gave us at Zumba classes with Kuda whilst the more zen sisters worked on their downward dog poses. We did not forget about the importance and benefits of sexuality and its links to well being. In an evening session on ‘Sexuality and the Well of Being’ we shared about a variety of sexual experiences and I had the pleasure of passing dildos around the room with Iheoma Obibi and Prudence Mabelele, my collaborateurs in sex positivity.
Highlights & Lowlights
We spoke about the continued need to dismantle patriarchy in all its forms. Sisters from Zimbabwe shared that they had nicknamed patriarchy ‘Patrick’. In speaking on ‘New Faces of Patriarchy’, Bisi Adeleye Fayemi extended the metaphor and reminded us that we needed to work against both ‘Patrick’ and ‘Patricia’.
In a session on ‘Protest Movements’, we heard from Thenjiwe Mswane about the #FeesMustFall movement, its non-hierarchical leadership structure and the recent exclusion of feminist and queer bodies within the movement. Marian Kirollos spoke about the ongoing struggles in Egypt, and the prominent role that women continued to play in the continued uprising. Dorothy Njemanze reminded the audience that the secondary school girls abducted from Chibok, Nigeria represent a tiny fraction of the thousands of girls captured and forced into sexual slavery by terrorists and militias.
In breakout sessions, we discussed the importance of creating feminist cultural spaces, documenting our stories by writing and blogging, and the connections that need to be made amongst our feminist diasporas for Pan-African organizing across the world.
As with every gathering of passionate, strong-minded sisters, we had our moments of tensions and disagreement. I was with the crew that felt, ‘what is this respectability politics?’ when one too many Aunties sighed about how ‘young women are showing all their breasts and vaginas on social media’.
Kampire Bahana from Uganda challenged this eloquently, pointing out that this was part of a purity narrative. Some younger queer sisters spoke up about feeling a level of discomfort and silencing in the space. We were all reminded that we needed to be conscious and attentive to the various forms of privileges that we carry.
As in all previous AFFs that I have attended, I left feeling inspired and reinvigorated to continue in my life of activism, knowing that I have sisters all over the continent and globe who stand with me, and whose work and dynamism continues to blaze a path for those to come.
Ebola: Local efforts were key in Sierra Leone
Ebola: Local efforts were key in Sierra Leone
Chuku Emeka Chikezie is a writer we commissioned to write a piece that focused on the ways in which women were involved in responding to the Ebola Crisis. The piece was originally posted on the Journalist but has been re-posted below.
Ebola: Local efforts were key in Sierra Leone
Lessons can help in battle against Zika virus
Hot on the heels of the Ebola outbreak that gripped Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone in 2014 and 2015, experts are now reflecting on the experience of the battle with Ebola to inform the Zika virus fight. The lesson? Keeping it local pays off.
The biggest lesson after the Ebola outbreak, certainly in Sierra Leone, was the centrality of community participation, ownership, mobilisation, and engagement in ending the epidemic; however a recent Harvard Business Review article highlighted four lessons from the Ebola crisis with relevance to the recent spreading of the Zika virus: pinpoint hotspots with widespread testing; implement targeted control measures; prevent widespread transmission; and integrate research with immediate action.
It isn’t that the four conclusions the experts draw in their HBR article are necessarily wrong, the problem is that they tend to overstate technical solutions that rely upon foreign expertise at the expense of locally adapted, people-centred solutions that, when applied early enough, are less costly and disruptive.
I worked for nearly a year on the Sierra Leonean Ebola response and found that there were many lessons at the end of the outbreak. For instance, upon visiting one northern district in Sierra Leone, which was at the epicentre of the outbreak, the research team was intrigued to learn that one Member of Parliament, Isata Kabia, had organised awareness raising activities as early as April 2014, a month before the first confirmed case in the region.
Kabia was an MP in the Port Loko district of Sierra Leone. A cosmetic chemist by profession, Kabia is one authority figure who knew she had a massive role to play in mobilising her constituents. “I told them, I’m a scientist,” Kabia recalled reflecting on those early days, “I’m more scared of Ebola than you are.”
Kabia proved to be an unstoppable force during the first few months of the spread of Ebola. Using $600 of her own money, a matching sum from donors, and six phones donated by a local telecoms company, she set up a communications network linking health authorities with some of the most remote settlements that she had identified when elected in 2012, through a citizens’ parliament she had initiated.
“In 2013, right after elections, we did a citizens’ parliament and this was my way of making sure the people were involved and owned their own development track,” recalled Kabia. “We sat down, we highlighted the issues, agriculture, business opportunities, jobs, the mines, the health and education issues in the constituency. We prioritised. We decided among ourselves, what is a priority? Which area should we focus on?”
This hands-on approach helped in mounting an effective Ebola response in the constituency. “What we wanted to do was to make sure that within the interior where the burials are going on that you don’t know about, where the sick don’t have any hospitals so they’re going to be cared for at home, had a way to reach the CHO [Community Health Officer] in Lunsar,” Kabia explained. “The CHO had the command phone, and then the phones within the interior are to call him in case of any suspected case or any suspected symptoms so somebody could go and verify instead of them trying to move the person.”
Kabia explained that many of the areas were inaccessible by even the motorbikes (known as Okadas) commonly used for transportation, let alone cars. “You can’t imagine somebody sick and trying to get out to a main hospital because there’s no hospital within their own area,”said Kabia.
Significantly, this early engagement with the local community signaled a warning which, had it been heeded, may have averted huge loss of life and economic disruption later. Kabia recalled how young people from the area put on a play “using the first messages we got from the Ministry of Health about not touching sick people, not touching the dead and certain foods. So the message right there on that day in Marampa was zero touch. Zero touch for bat foods, zero touch for sick people, zero touch for dead people,” she said.
At the time, Kabia had alerted health authorities, however, due to the levels of resistance around burials and the touching of dead bodies, which is the prime cause of infection, the warning wasn’t sufficiently heeded. “When we said zero touch for dead bodies, there was such a ruckus around the room, we just knew it was going to be a big issue,” she said.
Prior to the Ebola outbreak, Kabia had championed women’s causes and concerns in her parliamentary work. “Most of my focus is on women, they need the most assistance and assisting them has greater impact for the whole society,” she said; further noting that ‘women’s concerns are everybody’s concerns’.
The distribution of power in a patriarchal society such as Sierra Leone’s typically disempowers women and Kabia notes that this is an important social point in the fight against any infection. “With Ebola and what happened we reaffirmed, with any disease, it’s the women who are the caregivers at home,” Kabia argued. “Usually, when the women themselves are sick at home, they don’t even have the power of choice. As a woman, you can’t decide when/if you go to a hospital. Somebody has to allow you, by giving you money to go to a hospital. That extends all the way through to maternal care. Somebody’s deciding for you when you go to a hospital when you’re sick. When sick at home, you are the doctor, you are the nurse. Women have the potential to be much much more affected by this disease just because of that culture,” she said.
For these reasons, Kabia had a hunch that women would play a key role in the response as informers and first responders. In the end, she worked with older women as well as young men and women. Kabia believes this mobilisation effort paid dividends: “I think, because immediately they felt included. Immediately, they felt maybe saving lives could be their responsibility. You give people that kind of power, they respond,” she said.
And respond they did. The former MP recalls how her constituents approached her and said “Honourable, how can we help?” Young people became the de facto surveillance officers, the contact tracers, the first responders. “I think that community ownership helped tremendously in my constituency and I’m sure in other areas as well. I couldn’t be everywhere so the natural thing was to set up teams where we’d have people in the local areas. We didn’t import anybody to say you go and manage that particular area,” Kabia said.
Her approach paid off. Local leadership in other districts, such as Koinadugu in the North and Pujehun in the Southeast, helped to either stave off the worst effects of the Ebola outbreak or to end it. And a lot of this happened before the massive international mobilisation joined government efforts to tackle what eventually became its peak in November 2014, with an outbreak producing a staggering 500 cases a week.
Yet we hear so little of the efforts by the MP Kabia and other local leaders whose tireless efforts undoubtedly made a decisive difference at significant points in the 18-month outbreak. It is partly understandable that the international media pays disproportionate attention to foreign medical workers who risk their lives (as frontline Ebola response workers undeniably did) to help out in a faraway land. But unless we pay greater attention to local agency, we may inevitably arrive at flawed conclusions that poor countries like Sierra Leone are totally dependent on overseas assistance; lack resilience to handle crises (even if they need additional support); and that their entire leadership is inept, ineffectual, or corrupt.
Worse, if citizens of Sierra Leone and other developing countries internalise such faulty insights, they will miss vital opportunities to build on all the positive things they achieved under extremely challenging conditions. There’s something there for Brazilians and Latin Americans to take away too.
International Women’s Week: A celebration of Voices and Truths.
International Women’s Week: A celebration of Voices and Truths.
At AWDF we recognize the importance of celebrating women in our daily lives and during the month of March we especially invite the public to join us in this joyous task. This year, we marked the day with three special events, each of which had a strong recurring theme: Voices and Truth.
AWDF believes conversations like these are vital to changing stereotypical notions about African women and their role in society.
Renowned Ghanaian photographer Nana Kofi Acquah’s photo exhibit “Don’t Call Me Beautiful,” was a work that focused on displaying the complexity and variety of the African woman, and in that vein it definitely succeeded. AWDF held a panel discussion at the close of the exhibition, on 8th March – International Women’s Day – to explore these themes and to question the relevancy of the word resilience in connection to the African woman. The event took place at Alliance Francaise Accra.
The room was filled with members and staff of Alliance Francaise Accra and an engaged public. At times contentious, never dull, the panel, which was moderated by Kinna Likimanni, discussed notions of beauty, colour and skin bleaching, with active participation from the audience.
Our second panel discussion organized jointly with the Centre For Gender Studies and Advocacy ( CEGENSA) on Friday March 11 was another opportunity to tackle thorny issues.
The theme “About Last Night,” focused heavily on student relationships, date rape, and sexual abuse on Legon Campus and the ways in which victims are treated both by the institution and their peers. The room was full of students from the University and some students from SOS-Hermann Gmeiner International College. A few young undergraduate women were brave enough to share harrowing stories of their own abuse that they’d suffered on Legon Campus and the lack of response that followed it.
“He walks around here like this untouchable, charming guy and no one knows that this is what he really is,” said a young woman about the male student friend who assaulted her.
And she was not the only one– many students and people in the room expressed the unfairness of society’s expectations for young girls and the need for women to be the ones who guard themselves from sexual assault. It was clear that there was much to discuss, and the event ended on a note of bittersweet hope for all involved.
One high note was the presence of the SOS students (all female), whose vocal and confident contributions underlined their heightened self-awareness and knowledge of women’s rights and feminism.
“They were the real stars of tonight. They absolutely made my day – and the entire programme,” said Prof. Audrey Gadzekpo, who acted as moderator for the discussion.
We wrapped up the week with a celebration of music at Accra’s cultural mecca Alliance Francaise, where the Francophonie festival began with a concert by Malian singer Fatoumata Diarawa.
At AWDF we recognize the importance of the arts as a tool to promote social justice and a medium to nurture and raise the profile of African women and their achievements. Teaming up with Alliance Francaise and other partners for Diawarra’s concert was a way in which we could salute one of the continent’s brightest talents.
After a soulful curtain opener by AWDF’s communications staffer “Suga” and high-energy Ghanaian musician Sherifa Gunu, Fatoumata hit the stage for an unforgettable night of music and dance. Two of Fatoumata’s songs, “Oumou” which celebrates African Female Artistes and “Boloko,” a song with a strong anti FGM message, reinforced the power of music as a tool for social change.
From the various ways in which we portray women in art to the lives women lead in silence, these events examined the truth of African women, finding it painful, complicated and inspiring.
African women and their achievements and struggles must be celebrated and discussed. And the spirit of International Women’s Day, that week and month must be carried through the entire year if we are to reach the goal of gender parity. For us at AWDF we will continue to strive to see that women are understood as deserving of recognition, celebration and a voice.
International Women’s Day 2016: AWDF In Conversation
International Women’s Day 2016: AWDF In Conversation
To mark International Women’s Day this year, AWDF will host two special public events examining the status, role and contribution of African women. Join us as we explore “Don’t Call Me Beautiful,” a photo exhibition by Nana Kofi Acquah and tackle sex and relationships at the University Of Ghana campus.
Panel Discussion: Don’t Call Me Beautiful
Date: Tuesday 8th March, 2016 Time: 6pm Venue: Exhibition Hall, Alliance Francaise Rate: FreeRenowned Ghanaian Photographer Nana Kofi Acquah’s photo exhibition “Don’t Call Me Beautiful,” celebrates the resilience of African women. In partnership with Alliance Francaise, this informal and interactive discussion will use the photo exhibit as a springboard for conversation about stereotypical depictions of women in current social media trends, women’s rights, gender, arts and culture and feminism. There will also be readings by participants of the 2016 Writivism workshop which is to be held in Accra. Moderator: Kinna Likimani, Mbaasem Foundation
Catch Nana Kofi Acquah’s thoughts on his exhibition here:
Panel Conversation About Date Rape, Sex and Relationships On Campus
Date: Friday 11 March 2016 Time: Film Screening: 4-5h30 pm, Panel Discussion: 6 PM. Venue: Institute Of African Studies Auditorium, UG, Legon Rate: FREE
In partnership with the Center for Gender Studies and Advocacy (CEGENSA) and the African Studies Department of the University Of Ghana Legon, AWDF will host an interactive panel discussion on Campus date rape, sex and relationships. The event will be preceded by the screening of a film: The Hunting Ground, a ground-breaking documentary on rape on campuses in the US. Again, there will be also be readings by participants of the 2016 Writivism workshop which is to be held in Accra. Moderator: Prof. Audrey Gadzekpo, University of Ghana, Legon
We invite you to be a part of these special events. Don’t miss.
Women Lead The Charge In Post-Ebola Guinea
Women Lead The Charge In Post-Ebola Guinea
CONAKRY, Guinea – A women’s cooperative saw its work almost reduced to ashes after years of work as the Ebola outbreak ravaged the West African country of Guinea, but the women would have the last say.Djakagbe Kaba has spent decades working towards women empowerment. Despite the setbacks during the Ebola outbreak, she is determined to reposition women at the forefront of agricultural development and lead the way to better earning power.
The women cannot be independent if they do not have the means
It is Friday in Conakry and the streets are busy. Vendors are selling their wares as passers-by haggle over prices, afternoon prayers at the mosque have already begun.
Amidst the hustle and bustle, Djakagbe Kaba, head of the women’s organisation AGACFEM (Association Guineenne pour L’Allegement des Charges Feminines), opens the boutique where the organisation sells locally-made products produced by the women they work with.
The shop is modest but Kaba is confident. She has spent the last 30 years working with women’s groups before she co-founded the AGACFEM in 1995. With a focus on training and women’s economic and political empowerment, AGACFEM has supported thousands of women living in the country’s rural areas.
One of the organisation’s early projects was a women’s leadership programme after receiving funds from the Accra-based African Women’s Development Fund (AWDF). Kaba and her team organised trainings for women to participate in local governance. By the end of the project seven women were elected as members of the municipal council.
But AGACFEM did not stop there. The programme extended to illiterate women, who were taught how to read and write and the importance of voting.
In recent times AGACFEM has pooled together a co-operative of 45 women’s groups in the rural areas Kissidougou, Guéckédou and Kankan. The Coopérative des Femmes Rurales pour l’Agriculture, la Souveraineté Alimentaire et le Développement (COFRASAD) spent the last four years training women in 10 villages in organic agricultural production and value-added processing and are currently in the process of completing the finishing touches to two processing centres. But when the Ebola virus hit in 2014 everything changed.
Kaba and her colleagues were forced to re-strategise. AGACFEM received another grant from the AWDF, this time for the fight against Ebola. The organisation decided to team up with three other Guinean NGOs – Coalition des Organisations pour le Rayonnement de L’Economie Sociale Solidaire en Guinee (CORESS), Cooperative Badembere and Association des Jeunes Agriculteurs pour le Developpement Communautaire (AJADEG) – some of whom are members of COFRASAD working in the same region that also received grants from AWDF during the Ebola crisis to put their funds together to tackle the crisis head on.
Kaba decided to leave the capital, Conakry, and base herself in Kissidougou for three months to ensure all the programmes ran efficiently. While she headed the project planning and budget organising, roles were allocated to her partners to ensure that they maximised their efforts and networks as they reached to villages across the region.
“When it came to making orders for hand-washing kits, we placed one order together to keep costs down.” Kaba points out that it was important to her that each organisation used its strengths. “For example,” she says. “Badembere is an organisation that manufactures soap, so we thought let’s put the money we have each been allocated to buy soap into Badembere to strengthen their capacities.”Kaba bought and bargained every item needed for the hand-washing kits, even down to the stickers on the bucket, to make sure the group got the best for their buck. After overseeing the manufacturing process, the kits would then go out to the villages with the women volunteers who were spreading the message about Ebola.
Though Kaba and her colleagues were successful in their efforts in distributing hand-washing kits across communities, raising hygiene awareness and communicating with people, the work they had been doing in agricultural production took a hit. Nothing was produced for a whole year, setting the whole project back.
“We had to stop production,” says Fanta Konneh Condé, the secretary general of COFRASAD and one of Kaba’s colleagues, as she overlooks one of the gardens in just outside Kissidougou. “We missed the harvest season.”
Fast-forward to December 2015 and work has restarted. Condé and her colleague, Mariame Touré of Badembere take a stroll through the garden, stopping to talk to the women, as they remark at how far they all have come. With babies on their backs and farming tools in their hands, some of the women are – for the time being – cultivating carrots, lettuce and chives. Once again working to provide for their families. Under the initiative, they also produce rice, cereals and potatoes.
Back in Conakry at the boutique, Kaba is sure of the direction she wants the co-operative to go.
“We want to increase production,” she declares, as she gestures towards the pots of shea butter and black soap on the shelves. “We would like to export these products.”
COFRASAD is expanding rapidly having grown from a co-operative of four groups after its first year, to 45 groups today, four years later.
“The women cannot be independent if they do not have the means,” Kaba says. “It is better to support a group of women, rather than just one.”
Read the original article on Theafricareport.com : Women lead the charge in post-Ebola Guinea | West Africa