Tag: GHANA

[tp lang=”en” not_in=”fr”]You’re invited to a conversation with Dr Yaba Blay on Saturday 30th August from 5pm-7pm at the AWDF resource centre in East Legon, Accra.

Dr Blay is a professor, producer, and publisher.As a researcher and ethnographer, she uses personal and social narratives to disrupt fundamental assumptions about cultures and identities. As a cultural worker and producer, she uses images to inform consciousness, incite dialogue, and inspire others into action and transformation.

This conversation with Dr Blay will focus on her work including a discussion on 1)ne Drop: Shifting the Lens on Race which explores potential disadvantages related with having light skin, particularly among people of African descent – racial ambiguity and contested racial authenticity. As well as a focus on ‘Pretty.Period’, a transmedia project created as a visual missive in reaction to the oh-so-popular, yet oh-so-offensive “compliment” – “You’re pretty for a dark-skinned girl.” A few copies of )ne Drop: Shifting the Lens on Race will be available for sale.

For directions to AWDF house please click here[/tp]

[tp lang=”fr” not_in=”en”]Vous êtes invité à une conversation avec le Dr Yaba Blay le samedi 30 Août à partir de 17 heures à 19 heures au centre de ressources AWDF à East Legon, Accra.

Dr Blay est professeur, producteur et éditeur. En tant que chercheur et ethnographe, elle utilise des récits personnels et sociaux afin de perturber les hypothèses fondamentales sur les cultures et les identités. En tant que travailleur culturel et producteur, elle utilise des images dans le but d’informer la conscience, susciter le dialogue, et inspirer les autres à l’action et à la transformation.

Cette conversation avec le Dr Blay se concentrer sur son travail, y compris une discussion sur 1) ne Goutte: Décalage de l’objectif sur la race qui explore les inconvénients potentiels liés à avoir la peau de la lumière, en particulier chez les personnes d’ascendance africaine – l’ambiguïté raciale et l’authenticité raciale contestée. Ainsi que l’accent sur ‘Pretty.Period‘, un projet transmédia créé comme une missive visuelle en réaction au”compliment” oh-so-populaires, pourtant oh-so-désobligeant- “Vous êtes assez jolie pour une fille à peau foncée”A quelques copies de) ne Goutte:. Décalage de l’objectif sur la race sera disponible à la vente.

Pour les directions à la maison AWDF s’il vous plaît cliquez ici[/tp]

[tp lang=”en” not_in=”fr”]AWDF as part of its investment into its long term sustainability is pleased to announces the availability of premises to rent. Details are as follows:

A five bedroom house located at Plot no. 78, Ambassadorial Enclave, East Legon, Accra, Ghana (near Galaxy international school), It has a swimming pool and a standby generator.

Rent is negotiable.

All interested persons should contact Grace Amenyogbeli, Human Resource Manager, via telephone +233-302-521257; or via e-mail: grace@africlub.net/awdf[/tp]

[tp lang=”fr” not_in=”en”]AWDF dans le cadre de son investissement dans sa viabilité à long terme est heureuse d’annonce la disponibilité de locaux à louer. Les détails sont comme suit:

Une maison de cinq chambres situé au Plot no. 78, Ambassadorial Enclave, East Legon, Accra, Ghana (près de Galaxy international school), il a une piscine et un générateur de secours.

Le loyer est négociable.

Toutes les personnes intéressées doivent communiquer avec Grace Amenyogbeli, directeur des ressources humaines, par téléphone +233-302-521257; ou par e-mail: grace@africlub.net/awdf [/tp]

[tp lang=”en” not_in=”fr”]I am excited that Yari Yari Ntoaso, an international conference focusing on African women writers is coming to Ghana from the 16th-19th May. Our very own Ama Ata Aidoo is one of the founding members of this initiative and the conference will bring together numerous inspirational women writers of African descent. Women like Angela Davis and Carole Boyce Davis who helped shape my thinking around the intersection of race and gender. Nnedi Okorafor, whose book is currently in the pile of ‘books to read’ on my bedside table. Bibi Bakare-Yusuf who started the Cassava Republic Press, and who I had the privilege of interviewing for ‘Women Leading Africa‘.

I am honoured that I have been invited to speak on a panel about ‘Writing Sexuality’. The entire Yari Yari programme is FREE and the general public are invited to attend, participate and learn from all the resource people who will be there.

Click links below for the full programme and press release

YYN DRAFT Schedule YYN GHANAPress Release[/tp]

[tp lang=”fr” not_in=”en”]Je suis heureuse que Yari Yari Ntoaso, une conférence internationale axée sur les femmes écrivains africaines se tienne au Ghana du 16 au 19 mai. Notre chère Ama Ata Aidoo est l’un des membres fondateurs de cette initiative et la conférence rassemblera de nombreuses femmes écrivains inspirantes d’origine africaine. Des femmes comme Angela Davis et Carole Boyce Davis, qui ont contribué à façonner ma pensée autour de l’intersection de la race et du sexe. Nnedi Okorafor, dont le livre est actuellement dans la pile des «livres à lire» sur ma table de chevet. Bibi Bakare-Yusuf, qui a commencé la Cassava Republic Press, et que j’ai eu le privilège d’interviewer pour ‘Women Leading Africa‘.

Je suis honorée d’avoir été invitée à prendre la parole lors d’une discussion sur “Ecrire la Sexualité”. L’ensemble du programme Yari Yari est libre et le grand public est invité à y assister, à participer et apprendre de toutes les personnes ressources qui seront là.

Cliquez ci-dessous pour le liens programme complet et communiqué de presse

YYN DRAFT Schedule YYN GHANAPress Release[/tp]

[tp lang=”en” not_in=”fr”]The African Women’s Development Fund (AWDF) congratulates all women parliamentarians elected in Ghana’s 2012 elections. The 30 women who were successfully elected into Ghana’s next parliament represent the highest number of women parliamentarians in Ghana’s Fourth Republic, and an increase of 11 women parliamentarians compared with the previous parliament.

In total, 133 women contested this year’s general election, for various roles, including Vice Presidential candidates and aspiring women parliamentarians. AWDF takes this opportunity to congratulate all these women for exercising their rights to political participation and demonstrating to all Ghanaians the importance of women to Ghana’s democratic process. Theo Sowa, CEO of AWDF states, “ We should all be happy with the record number of women who contested the 2012 general elections as aspiring parliamentarians and Vice-Presidents and the increase in the number of elected women parliamentarians. It is important that our young people see women aiming for the highest decision making positions in the land. We should acknowledge the many women’s rights activists and organisations that have advocated long and hard for women to have equal access to the highest public offices. The increased numbers are a tribute to their hard work, yet the low overall percentage of women in Ghana’s parliament shows how much further we need to go. ”

It is our hope that in the next Government women will be more equitably represented in various decision-making positions including in the cabinet, ministerial positions and on various boards. Ghana has been widely referred to as one of Africa’s strongest examples of democracy. Yet the percentage of women in Ghana’s parliament continues to lag far behind percentages in many other African countries with far newer democracies, including Rwanda (56%), Mozambique (39%) and 42.3% in South Africa. AWDF looks forward to the newly elected women parliamentarians, and their male counterparts, working together to achieve true equity for the women of Ghana[/tp]

[tp lang=”fr” not_in=”en”]Le Fonds Africain de Développement de la Femmes (AWDF) félicite toutes les femmes parlementaires élues lors les élections de 2012 au Ghana. Les 30 femmes qui ont été élues avec succès lors des dernières élections parlementaires du Ghana représentent le plus grand nombre de femmes parlementaires de la quatrième République du Ghana, et une augmentation de 11 femmes parlementaires par rapport à la législature précédente.

Au total, 133 femmes ont concouru pour les élections générales de cette année, pour les différents rôles, y compris les candidats présidentiels et vice aspirants femmes parlementaires. AWDF saisit cette occasion pour les féliciter toutes d’exercer leurs droits à la participation politique et de démontrer à tous les Ghanéens l’importance des femmes au processus démocratique du Ghana. Theo Sowa, directrice générale d’AWDF déclare, “Nous devrions tous être heureux avec le nombre record de femmes qui ont concouru pour les élections générales de 2012 en tant que parlementaires en herbe et vice-présidentes et l’augmentation du nombre de femmes parlementaires élues. Il est important que nos jeunes voient des femmes visant les plus hauts postes de prise de décision dans le pays. Nous devons reconnaître les militants et les organisations qui ont prévu une route longue et difficile pour les femmes pouravoir un accès égal aux fonctions publiques les plus élevées au même titre que les hommes. L’augmentation du nombre est un hommage à leur travail acharné, mais le faible pourcentage global de femmes dans le parlement du Ghana montre que nous devons aller beaucoup plus loin . ”

Il est notre espoir que dans le prochain gouvernement les femmes seront plus équitablement représentées dans les différents postes de décision, y compris dans l’armoire, des postes ministériels et à divers conseils. Le Ghana a été largement considéré comme l’un des plus forts exemples d’Afrique pour la démocratie. Pourtant, le pourcentage de femmes dans le parlement du Ghana reste à la traîne loin derrière les pourcentages de nombreux autres pays africains avec des démocraties bien plus récentes, dont le Rwanda (56%), le Mozambique (39%) et 42,3% en Afrique du Sud. AWDF attend avec impatience les femmes parlementaires nouvellement élus, et de leurs homologues masculins, qui travaillent ensemble pour atteindre une véritable égalité pour les femmes du Ghana. [/tp]

AWDF is proud to support the participation of women artists in the 2012 edition of High Vibes produced by Creative Storm, Pidgin Music and Alliance Francaise (Accra).

For details of events please see poster below

We have had a most active first half of the year over here at AWDF, from launching an ambassador for our new thematic area, to celebrating International Women’s Day in memorable style, to fundraisers, to organisational events for grantees.

Finally, here is a modest compilation of these months for your reading pleasure: Our Newsletter – January to June 2012

We look forward to your feedback.

In May this year, I found myself in an inspiring and thought-provoking event in Los Angeles, USA. It was the annual summit for Women’s Funding Network, and the theme was “Women Economics and Peace”. It was a most refreshing experience for me. This was mostly on account of the worth and quality of the presentations done during the event, and I share a particularly stimulating one with you today.

It was a presentation by Jeff Kudash on “Catalytic philanthropy to collective impact- How funders effect large scale systemic change’’, which led me subsequently to read the article “Catalytic Philanthropy”, written by Mark R Kramer. This article discusses why the traditional approach to philanthropy cannot possibly be effective in the long term and highlights the need to paradigm-shift to catalytic philanthropy. Reading Kramer’s article brought to mind some challenges I had observed over the years, working in Fundraising and Financial Management at AWDF, and led to this desire to share my understanding of Kudash’s presentation, Kramer’s article, and their mutual relationship to the challenges hounding women’s organisations in Africa.

Traditional vrs Catalytic Philantrophy

In traditional philanthropy, what happens is that women’s organisations apply for funding from donors; the donors decide which women’s organisations to support, and how much money to give. What this means is that, the organisations are responsible for devising the solutions to their idetified social problems. However, considering the size and the budgets of most of these organisations working on women’s issues, they persistently face a lot of project and financial limitations, even though they are able to help thousands of people in need.

This is because generally, women’s organisations on the African continent tend to have a low institutional capacity. Some attribute this low capacity to the fact that the organisations do not have the required resources to attract and retain the necessary qualified staff, which eventually renders them inefficient. They are also not financially sustainable, partly because a lot of donors do not provide enough core support, but rather, prefer annual funding to medium-to-long term ones that consider three to ten year commitments. As a result of this challenge to secure long term funding, women’s organisations tend to spend a lot of their time, energy, and resources looking for financial resources rather than focusing on their key objectives, which ultimately makes them ineffective.

Additionally, a lot of women’s organisations tend to work alone, using strategies that they deem fit, with very little opportunity to learn from one another’s best practices, to develop the clout to influence government, or the scale to achieve national impact. This means that however generous the donors, or hardworking the staff, there is no assurance that these underfunded, non-collaborative, and unaccountable approaches of these countless women’s organisations will actually lead to workable solutions for large-scale social problems:

“The contributions of conventional traditional donors and the good work of effective women’s organisations may temporarily improve matters at a particular place and time but they are unlikely to create the lasting reforms that the African society so urgently requires. (modified from Kramer’s article)

Catalytic Philanthropy is therefore proffered as the new approach to philanthropy, already being practiced by some donors with great benefits and impact. These exceptional donors are acting differently, using these four approaches:

1. Taking responsibility for achieving results

Catalytic philanthropists have the ambition to change the world, and the courage to accept responsibility for achieving those results. This emphasizes the fact that funders have a more influential role to play than merely supporting these organisations. Foundations and corporations have the clout, connections and capacity to make things happen in a way that most non-profits do not, and by getting directly involved and taking personal responsibility for theory results, they can leverage their personal and professional relations, initiate public-private partnerships, import projects that have proved successful elsewhere, create new models, influence government(s), draw public attention to an issue, coordinate the activities of different non-profits, and attract fellow funders from around the world. All these powerful platforms are dissolved when donors confine themselves to writing cheques.

2. Mobilising campaign for change

Catalytic philanthropy stimulates cross sector collaborations, consequently mobilising stakeholders to create shared solutions. Funders should therefore seek and engage others in compelling campaigns, empowerment of stakeholders, and creation of collaborative and innovative tools. This is because systematic reforms require relentless and unending campaigns which galvanize the attention of the many stakeholders involved, and unify their efforts around the pursuit of common goals.

3. Using all available tools

Catalytic philanthropists use all tools available for the creation of change, including unconventional ones, and ones external to the non-profit sector such as corporate resources, investment capital, advocacy, litigation and even lobbying.

4. Creating actionable knowledge

Catalytic philanthropists gather knowledge; they create actionable knowledge to improve their own effectiveness and to influence the behaviour of others. Actionable knowledge is one that can impact government spending, and is not limited to compiling and analyzing data. In this same vein, funders must not rely solely on grant applications and grantees for information about social problems they are tackling, but must look beyond, answer their own enquiries through research, and have a broad perspective of the issue(s) at hand rather than focusing narrowly on it in financial terms. The information must also carry emotional appeal to capture people’s attention, and practical recommendations to inspire them to action.

In conclusion, women’s organisations on the African continent need more catalytic philanthropists than traditional philanthropists. These catalytic philanthropists can be institutional funders, corporate institutions or individuals who exhibit the four attributes highlighted above, and can work with the women’s organisations to continuously build their capacities, commitments, communications, connections, networks, and to learn from each other so as to create the large-scale lasting solutions we all want to see. And we do need lasting solutions.

Gertrude Annoh-Quarshie

The Finance Manager

AWDF (African Women’s Development Fund)

It is the pleasure of African Women’s Development Fund to announce that they are now accepting proposals for grants concerning HIV/AIDS. Below is a link to the proposal document which applicants may download.

Please remember to fill in the Guidelines AS WELL AS the Financial Management Assessment Document, both downloadable from here:

CALL FOR PROPOSAL – HRR & ACS Thematic Areas

Grant Application Guidelines

Financial Management Assessment Guidelines AWDF

Applicants can also send a request to AWDF at grants@africlub.net/awdf titled “HRR AND ACS Call for Proposals” to be emailed the guideline documents, if for any reason, they are unable to download it from the website.

It is the pleasure of African Women’s Development Fund to announce that they are now accepting proposals for grants concerning HIV/AIDS. Below is a link to the proposal document which applicants may download.

Please remember to fill in the Guidelines AS WELL AS the Financial Management Assessment Document, both downloadable from here:

CALL FOR PROPOSALS – HIV&AIDS Thematic Area

Grant Application Guidelines

Financial Management Assessment Guidelines AWDF Grant Applications 2012

Applicants can also send a request to AWDF at grants@africlub.net/awdf titled “HIV/AIDS Grants” to be emailed the guideline documents, if for any reason, they are unable to download it from the website.

In recent months, AWDF has noticed with deep concern, a rise in the frequency of violence-related deaths and injuries, and domestic violence cases being reported by the various Ghanaian mediahouses. Not only does it seem that violence has increased, it also seems that it comes in a wider variety of instances, some increasingly brutal and others startlingly fatal.

In reaction to this, three of our staff put together this personal blog piece on a call to action against violence against women very recently. Barely two weeks after, the Ghanaian celebrity representative to the popular South Africa-based Big Brother Africa, a very visible and internationally broadcasted reality show, slapped a fellow female housemate in a shocking act of violence which had them both expelled from the show, and left the entire continent debating. Our Communications Officer, Nana Sekyiamah issued an emphatic disapproval of this action of violence by a male against a female, and this was captured on leading radio stations and by Big Brother’s website.

These events have prompted us on the need to always ensure the availability of educative and preventive materials for victims and potential victims as well as perpetrators, on Domestic Violence and Violence Against Women. Hence, this resource paper on what defines Domestic Violence and places to go to for safety, counselling, protection and violence-related support in several countries all over the continent of Africa.

Violence rates are rising everywhere, for a variety of reasons, and as Mr. Freeman Tettey, DOVVSU (Domestic Violence and Victim Support Unit) Public Relations Officer said in an interview with The Times newspaper in Accra in March this year, there were 15, 495 reported cases of violence against women last year in Ghana, and 2,474 cases of woman-to-man violence cases in the same period. It is about time we increase public awareness and education of this negative situation in our societies.

For the Resource Paper on Violence Against Women (What to do, Where to go), please click the link below:

VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN

END

About the African Women’s Development Fund

Over the past ten years, the African Women’s Development Fund (AWDF) has blazed a trail for women’s rights and philanthropy across the African continent. AWDF is an African, not for profit, grantmaking organisation. Since the start of operations in 2001, AWDF has provided US$19 million in grants to 800 women’s organisations in 42 African countries.

AWDF’s grant making processes are uniquely designed to meet the needs of African women and activities include the provision of small and larger grants to African women’s organisations, capacity building support and a strong focus on advocacy and movement building.