Opening of the 54th Commission on the Status of Women. Credit: Bomoon Lee/TerraViva

By Thalif Deen and Anna Shen

UNITED NATIONS, Mar 12 (IPS/TerraViva) – When a two-week meeting on gender empowerment concluded at U.N. headquarters Friday, there were several lingering questions crying out for answers. Continue Reading

Banana vendor in Nairobi: creating - and funding - adaptation strategies to protect food security is an urgent priority for Africa. Credit: Julius Mwelu/IRIN

By Christian Benoni

UNITED NATIONS, Mar 12 (IPS/TerraViva) Any strategies to ensure food security must address women’s access and right to land ownership, stress experts and activists meeting on the sidelines of the CSW in New York.

“Women cannot be net food producers and yet they lack land rights,” said Augustine Mahiga, the permanent representative of Tanzania to the United Nations.

The U.N. Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) says women produce between 60 and 80 percent of the food in most developing countries, yet they lack control of land.

New research on food insecurity in Africa shared at the CSW indicates that while women are the mainstay of small-scale agriculture, from wage labour to day-to-day family subsistence farming, they have more difficulties accessing resources such as land and credit, as well as productivity-enhancing inputs and services.

The research involved nine countries in southern, eastern and western Africa and was commissioned by the Hairou Commission, which supports the advocacy work of grassroots women.

“The government should come up with an initiative to ensure that women are given loans to buy land. It has been a tradition that the issues of land are a preserve of men, [but] women can do a lot more if given the same opportunities like men,” says one of the respondents from Kakamega, western Kenya, who is quoted in the report.

Similarly, in Gambia, land is communal, and men determine who uses the land and how, according to Isatou Njie-Saidy, the women’s affairs minister. However, the government has now embarked on a subsidy programme to provide fertiliser and seeds to smallholder farmers, mostly women, to increase food production, according to Saidy.

The same subsidy programme has helped the Malawian government transform its agricultural sector by providing subsidised hybrid maize seeds and fertilisers to farmers. It has since moved from having a serious food deficit to becoming a net maize exporter.

“We are happy because the programme has empowered most women to produce sufficient food for the family, and for sale,” said Luciana Kuboma, a Malawian farmer.

However, erratic weather patterns have made farming difficult, with prolonged drought contributing to massive crop failures. The priority now is for governments to invest in irrigation systems.

“We need our governments to put money into irrigation where women can be able to farm throughout the year. The current weather patterns have shown that we cannot continue to depend on rain-fed agriculture,” said Violet Shivutse of Groots Kenya, a grassroots women organisation in Kenya.

The country is still far from harnessing its full irrigation potential. There are plans to increase the land under irrigation from the current 120,000 hectares to 400,000 hectares, with a long-term vision to achieve the full potential of 1.3 million hectares.

According to the International Food Policy Research Institute, African countries “produce 38 percent of their crops from about seven percent of their cultivated land, on which water is managed.” This means that more investment in irrigation would see greater returns in terms of food security, and end the cycle of food crises in the continent.

The CSW trade union delegation.

Selina Rust interviews GEMMA ADABA of the International Trade Union Confederation

UNITED NATIONS, Mar 12 (IPS/TerraViva) Thirty women union delegates representing a million working women in their membership came to the CSW here to advocate on behalf of women’s rights at work around the globe.

TerraViva correspondent Selina Rust spoke to Gemma Adaba from the ITUC about the progress of women’s rights in the workplace.

TV: While working women have made significant progress in getting decision-making jobs in the industrial world, they are still lagging far behind men in the developing world. How wide is this gap, and how could it be rectified?

GA: It varies a lot from country to country. Even in the developed world, women feel that there is still progress that needs to be made. In governments as well as in the public services and in the private sector, we have to work very proactively on affirmative action in the professional life and put it equally in decision-making.

The developing countries have not really instituted systems of affirmative action but they have made progress. So many developing countries have begun to look at procedural instruments they can use to advance gender equality in decision-making.

TV: How successful are trade unions in protecting the rights of women in the workplace? Are there still any major institutional barriers to overcome?

GA: In pretty much all countries we still have basic structure discrimination. Whereas men are situated manly in the productive sector, women work in both the productive and the reproductive sectors. Basically, you would find that men have all the time that they need to focus on advancing professionally in the world of work. But women have to combine those concerns about advancing in the world of work with all of the concerns of caring for their children and other family members. And of course, that takes away a lot of their time. It is also unpaid work.

TV: Many countries offer paid parental leave for the husband and/or the wife to care for their children at infancy: a privilege mostly practiced in Scandinavian countries. Will this trend ever catch up with the rest of the world?

GA: We certainly hope it would catch up. With the trade union movement we have been promoting the ILO convention 156, which is the convention dealing with equal responsibilities between women and men in terms of family care. This convention sets out the whole framework, and it is necessary for countries to ratify this convention, to incorporate it into their legislation and then implement it.

We think that there will be progress. We have been doing a lot of work in that area, like sensitising people and governments about pay inequity, gaps and structure discriminations.

TV: What has changed in terms of women’s rights at work since Beijing 15 years ago?

GA: I think this is manly about awareness of structure discrimination against women. I think a lot of analysis has been done which actually demonstrates that policies are not gender neutral. We have to incorporate gender equality objectives in order to advance gender equality. This message now is catching on among men who oftentimes are the decision makers. I think this awareness-raising and consciousness-raising is something that has been advanced.

TV: Have working women benefited from the current two-week session of the Commission on the Status of Women?

GA: We faced major challenges and obstacles to engage within the U.N. during this two-week session.  Lots of people came to this meeting with great expectations and the U.N. was just not equipped with the necessary physical structure to receive all these people. Due to the renovations, we had a lot of access restrictions, which means that we have not been able to engage as meaningfully as we could have.

But within the trade union movement we have been following in particular the resolution on the economic empowerment of women. We have tried to put in some amendments that focus on the issues of women’s rights and women’s rights at work, like the right for collective bargaining, and the right to access to resources, education, training, health as well as credit.

TV: In which sectors has gender equality been largely achieved and in which are there still barriers to overcome?

GA: In the teaching and health sector for example, we do have a majority of women. But in highly professional fields, like doctors and engineers, we still have to bridge the equality gap between men and women.

The segregated sectors, like the mining sector, the car-making industry, machinery and the transport sector, are still dominated by men. But there are women’s committees that are trying to find ways to advance women in sectors that have been traditionally segregated in favour of men.

In the face of widespread poverty, South Africa is increasing social grants, which will benefit about 2.4 million more South African children. Credit: Kristin Palitza/IPS

By Chryso D’Angelo

UNITED NATIONS, Mar 12 (IPS/TerraViva) Fifteen years after the landmark Beijing Declaration on women’s rights, the gender gap is not narrowing in most developing countries, according to the “Gender Equity Index (GEI) 2009, Beijing and Beyond: Putting Gender Economics at the Forefront.”

Presented during the 54th Session of the Commission on the Status of Women, which concludes Friday, the report revealed which countries have an improved rate of equity (Rwanda topped the charts) and which rank among the worst (Yemen and Cóte D’Ivoire).

“All around the world the women’s movement has expressed its disappointment with the fact that states are very quick to sign onto human rights instruments and endorse different policies at the international and regional levels, but extremely slow in delivering on their commitments and implementing legislation,” according to the report, compiled by the NGO Social Watch.

A devastating highlight of the findings is that the global financial crisis has virtually wiped out the economic gains that have been made by women over the last few years.

“We’re seeing a regression in all of our indicator categories (economics, education, and empowerment),” Natalia Cardona, Social Watch’s advocacy coordinator, told TerraViva. “Every time there is a crisis, the developing world is hit very hard.”

As a result, countries are turning to loans from the IMF and the World Bank in large doses, but many are voicing concerns over the past failings of these structural adjustment policies.

“Most of them who left the IMF and the World Bank are saying that the policies are wrong, but who is being held accountable? They are washing their hands,” said speaker Emily Sikazwe, executive director of Women for Change of Zambia. “It’s left to our countries to clean up the mess – in education and so many other areas.”

According to Cardona, the loans are a double-edge sword because they stipulate that countries cut public entities in order to balance budgets. In the end, women pay a high price, and the equity gap closes further.

“Education and healthcare are women-friendly industries,” Cardona told TerraViva. “They employ teachers and nurses, whom are usually female.” With programmes cut, women are unemployed and girls are uneducated, continuing the cycle.

In addition, women are depended upon to step in where healthcare has been cut. They must take care of the children and elderly, inhibiting them from finding paid employment.

Finally, a side effect of economic turmoil is systemic violence, which Cardona fears will put women in increased jeopardy.

“For next year, we’re predicting that the economic gain women had will be completely wiped out,” Cardona told TerraViva. “We’ll see a total regression of the progress for women.”

Credit: IPS TerraViva

By Selina Rust

UNITED NATIONS, Mar 11 (IPS/TerraViva)- Whenever Yusriya saw her neighbours leaving for school, she would cry.

“I wanted to read signs, understand ads, read the news and even write my name,” she explained.

The 13-year-old girl lives in Abu Teeg, an Egyptian city that hasn’t changed much over the years: the vast majority of women are uneducated, focus on the needs of their families, and even require their husband’s permission to leave the house. Continue Reading

Margot Wallström, special representative on Sexual Violence in Conflict, says that women's security is the best measure of national security. UN Photo/Mark Garten

By Marguerite A. Suozzi

UNITED NATIONS, Mar 11 (IPS/TerraViva) There is little disagreement among United Nations member states that involving women in peace processes is crucial to their success.

But despite of this consensus, manifested in the unanimous support of Security Council Resolution 1325, passed in October 2000 and which addresses the impact of war on women, challenges remain for the international community to debunk many prevailing attitudes about gender, and to achieve gender parity in conflict prevention, resolution, and peacekeeping efforts.

In January, the gender statistics of the U.N. Department of Peacekeeping Operations (DPKO) indicated that women constitute just over three percent of peacekeeping personnel in its 19 missions, employing nearly 97,000 male military and police personnel, versus less than 3,000 female personnel.

In Nepal, women have been largely left out of peace negotiations since 2006, according to Bandana Rana, the regional coordinator of the South Asian campaign for gender equality and the executive president of Sati Organisation, an NGO working on violence against women and children in Nepal.

After Nepal’s 13-year civil war, where women constituted approximately one-third of the armed rebel army, it was not until the last stage of drafting Nepal’s new constitution that four women were included in the drafting committee.

“All the peace agreements and peace negotiations and the talks that took place between different political parties did not see women’s participation at all,” Rana said.

“Women were more or less perceived as passive victims of war, rather than active agents of change, where they had actually gathered and got a lot of knowledge and expertise and experience,” she said, “That was not recognised.”

At the most rudimentary level, sustained threats to women’s dignity and security hinder their active participation in the peace process.

In her first presentation as Special Representative of the Secretary General on Sexual Violence in Conflict, Margot Wallström cited the Democratic Republic of Congo as the epicentre of the crisis of sexual violence against women.

 ”My message to the guardians of global public opinion in the global peace and security sphere: rape is never inevitable, it’s a crime of concern to the international community. And the U.N. estimates that over 200,000 women have been raped during 12 years of war in the DRC,” she said.

“In my view, women’s security is the best measure of national security,” said Wallström.

“Strategies to protect women, are also strategies to protect women’s participation. If women are unable to safely access fields, or go to the well, marketplaces, or polling booths, if girl’s are unable to safely get to school, then social-economic recovery will be stalled.”

Audun Lysbakken. Credit: Bomoon Lee/TerraViva

Christian Benoni interviews AUDUN LYSBAKKEN, Norway’s first male minister for Gender Equality

UNITED NATIONS, Mar 11 (IPS/TerraViva) Gender equality in all its aspects has been the primary issue on the minds of delegates attending the two-week U.N. Commission on the Status of Women. And one factor that has emerged clearly is the need for involvement of men in this fight.

Audun Lysbakken, Norway’s first male minister for Gender Equality and Children’s Affairs, is the epitome of this fight. The 32-year-old deputy leader of the Socialist left party has sought to revitalise the gender equality debate in Norway, where he is involved in a spirited campaign to raise men’s awareness about the importance of women empowerment.

He has successfully advocated for mandated paternity leave, one of the most extensive parental leave schemes in the world – 46 weeks, with 10 weeks for the father – fully paid. He is a firm believer in men staying at home to help in the upbringing of their children.

Lysbakken speaks candidly with Terraviva’s Christian Benoni about his campaign.   

TV: How do you feel being the first male minister for a ministry that has in most instances been headed by women?

AL: I am very proud to be a minister of gender equality and children, and I believe it is important that men know and understand the necessity of gender equality. My point here is that if we are to have development, if we are to have economic recovery, equality is extremely important. If we continue to sideline half of the world’s population – women – then we will not see development. We see that the countries that invest in women and girls are improving and developing, whereas the countries that do not are lagging behind; they are slowing down their development.     

TV: What is the role of men in gender empowerment; and are they performing it?

AL: Overall, men today are not performing that role, but we are trying to encourage men in Norway to do it. I think more and more men are beginning to build an interest in gender equality and are realising it is a common good for our society. It means that our economic performance will do better, we will have more welfare if we use the resources of women as well.

But then I believe also, for a lot of men in our country, the right to choose to be at home with children when they are small, to be fathers the same way that women are mothers, is something more and more men are beginning to embrace.

Then lastly I believe men need to mobilise other men to change their culture and attitude when it comes to issues about violence against women, because all men have a responsibility to do something about this problem. As long as violence against women persists, we can never reach full gender equality.

TV: You are an advocate for mandated paternity leave. How has the response been in your country, and what lesson does it carry for developing nations?

AL: The response has been tremendous in my country. It means that it is possible for women to combine careers and having children, and it is even easier with the support of men who also stay at home for some time helping with taking care of the children. This creates more room for women in working life. I believe this is an important investment for countries.

Norway did not invest in paternity leave schemes after it got prosperous. We are prosperous because we invested in gender equality and it is important that all nations see that equality is a prerequisite for development, not the other way round.

 TV: How practical is this in the developing world considering the issue of affordability?

 AL: Of course there will always be a relation between what you can achieve and the economic situation. My point is that we must not see equality as something that we should create after a nation has become prosperous because equality is important to make a nation prosperous. This means that if we do not invest in the female population, a lot of problems will persist.

For instance, education for the girl child is probably one most effective investment for development. Over the last 15 years since we adopted the Beijing Platform for action, more girls across the world have access to education. But there are other areas where little progress has been made.

TV: Like which ones?

AL: In many parts of the world, the most dangerous thing a woman can do is to give birth. There has been practically no progress at all in reducing maternal mortality since Beijing. The same political will that has seen investment in education should be applied to addressing maternal mortality so that women have access to basic health services.

We need to ensure the right policy change, and back such change with adequate funding. If we neglect this, we will be treating women as second-class citizens despite all the international treaties and resolutions we have solemnly adopted.

Women informal cross-border traders negotiate a minefield ranging from bus drivers, customs officials and dangerous and unfamiliar environments. Credit: IPS

By Thalif Deen

UNITED NATIONS, Mar 10 (IPS/TerraViva) Whenever gender empowerment is a vibrant topic of discussion internationally, some of the countries in Europe, Asia and Latin America are invariably singled out for their success stories in politics, education, health care or civil liberties even as Africa is mostly left out of political reckoning – and wrongly so.

Rwanda has provided global leadership in terms of women holding elected office, with more than half of all its parliamentary seats filled by women, says Litha Musyimi-Ogana, director of women, gender and development directorate at the 53-member African Union (AU), the largest single coalition of African nations.

Cape Verde, another African high achiever, has “had the highest level of cabinet ministers in the world:” at last count, about 12 out of 17.

But still, Musyimi-Ogana points out, the AU is aware that although 70 percent of its members have gender policies, there are “huge implementation challenges”.

The reason why most of these policies are not implemented is primarily lack of financial resources.

As a result, the AU has set up an African Women’s Development Fund to tide over “resource constraints”.

At the same time, it has also established a protocol – an addendum on the ‘Rights of Women’ ratified by 27 countries – to the existing African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights.

Lalla Ben Barka, deputy executive secretary of the U.N. Economic Commission for Africa (ECA), claims Africa has made “impressive gains” in closing the gender gap in primary education, largely due “to free, universal, compulsory education” – continent-wide.

She told the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW), which concludes a two-week session Friday, that 65 percent of the region’s countries were conducting research on the situation of girls, and some countries had revised school curricula to present positive images of women.

Still, there were gaps in several areas: inheritance rights for women, higher education and the elimination of cultural practices and barriers to women’s advancement.

She said Liberia has had the distinction of having elected the first female African president, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, who took office in January 2006.

Ben Barka also said that 47 percent of countries had enacted laws to combat female genital mutilation (FGM), and many offered comprehensive services for victims.

According to Tsegga Gaim Misgun of the National Union of Eritrean Women, efforts to abolish FGM began as far back as the late 1970s  – even before the formal independence of Eritrea in 1993 – by the then de facto government, the Eritrean People’s Liberation Front.

As a result of these efforts, the people of Eritrea had initiated community laws banning FGM. On the basis of these initiatives, the government of Eritrea banned the practice in March 2007.

“The proclamation made female genital mutilation a criminal offence,” Misgun said.

Noluthando Mayende-Sibiya, South Africa’s minister for women, children and persons with disabilities, told delegates that although violence against women and girls remains a “major concern of government”, the country is in an advanced stage of developing a comprehensive framework to address gender violence.

These include, among others, legislation on sexual offences; trafficking in persons; domestic violence; and the children’s act.

The Thuthuzela Care Centre, described as a comprehensive one-stop service centre for victims of domestic violence, was hailed as an example of “best practice” in the 2007 report by U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on violence against children.

“These are replicated and piloted in some countries at the global level,” she said.

Mayende-Sibiya also said that South Africa was proud of the high number of women deployed in peacekeeping missions, averaging about 40 percent of peacekeepers from her country.

Alphonsine Mbie N’na, Gabon’s minister of health and social affairs, said her country had created a poverty reduction strategy as well as an exam to promote socio-economic activities among women, with winners receiving 40,000 dollars and an overseas trip.

 In the field of employment, Gabon has no hiring or salary discrimination. Schooling and text books were free.

In Ethiopia, the ministry of women’s affairs was an integral part of the executive branch of the government.

And to boost gender equality in agriculture – the country’s main economic sector – Ethiopia registers names of spouses for land certification in order to ensure that women can own their economic assets.

Maria Suarez (center) after being presented with an award for her activism.

Credit: Stop the Traffik website

By Chryso D’Angelo

UNITED NATIONS, Mar 10 (IPS/TerraViva) — Maria Suarez was 15 years old when she crossed the Mexican border and entered the U.S. legally to live with her sister in the states. A few months later, she was a slave.

“A man bought me for 200 dollars,” Maria told TerraViva. She was lured to his house by a woman promising work. “He told me that if I ever tried to leave, he’d kill my family. He said he knew witchcraft, then he cut my long hair and made dolls and put them around the house and in the cemetery. He said the only way I would get out was dead…and I believed him.”

After enduring five years of rape, torture, and emotional turmoil, Maria’s captor was killed by a neighbour, but she was arrested for the crime and sentenced to 25 years to life. 

There is no way of knowing exactly how many people like Maria are bought and sold on the black market. According to Soroptimist International, A Global Voice for Women, the numbers are estimated to be between 12.3 and 27 million.

However, representatives of the group sent a message of hope on Monday at a conference titled “Stop Trafficking – 44……Action, Advocacy and Progress Around the World Through Local and Global Efforts” during the 54th Session of the Commission on the Status of Women, which runs from Mar. 1 to 12.

One sizeable triumph against human trafficking is the improvement of legislation, according to Leigh Ellwood-Brown, president of Soroptimist International for the Federation of the South West Pacific.

The number of countries that have implemented the U.N. Protocol Against Trafficking in Persons has doubled over the last few years, according to the United Nations Global Report on Human Trafficking, 2009. The number of convictions against traffickers has also risen.

“Those countries that have implemented the appropriate legislation are moving the trafficking and Commercial Sex Industry (CSI) out of their borders,” Ellwood-Brown told TerraViva.

Maria Suarez agrees that law enforcement has come a long way since her capture in 1976. The 50-year-old was freed in 2004 after her case was reopened and she was acquitted in a new trial. Today, she speaks to groups throughout California that include victims of trafficking, police, fire officials, and district attorneys in an effort to educate.

Ellwood-Brown stresses the importance of women sharing their stories, as long as they feel safe to speak out. She referred to the success of a Soroptimist programme in Thailand during which former slaves returned to their villages to talk to men and women about the harsh realities of human trafficking.

“The presence of these women in the villages sent a powerful message because there was a visual – a real, human story about what traffickers do to women – to that woman standing right there,” Ellwood-Brown told TerraViva.

But, there is still a long road ahead. Ellwood-Brown noted the growing organised crime network run by both male and female traffickers, which are becoming even more deceptive.

“If a victim of trafficking is offered ‘release’, it is usually on condition to go home to their town/village and recruit a specific number of new members,” she said. “They usually have blackmailed them with the security & lives of their families.”

Norma Ramos, Esq., executive director of the Coalition Against Trafficking in Women, added that many programmes strive to generate income for women by teaching them a craft or skill so they can avoid prostitution to survive, but it’s not enough to fix the problem.

“Ending poverty helps, but there will always be a demand and there will always be greed,” she said. “So as long as that triangle exists, there will be trafficking.” Ramos called for more people to come forward and speak out.

Maria Suarez is answering that call – and taking it seriously. “My dream is to make videos in different languages and go to villages where people don’t know about human trafficking,” she says. “I want to do something productive for people who are in the same shoes I was in thirty years ago when all my goals and dreams as a teenager were taken away. I want girls to have a good life and not be like me. The only way I can keep living is to keep working and educating others to make sure this ends.”

Liberia’s new farmers like Jeanet Gay do not have husbands to support them and their children. Credit: Rebecca Murray/IPS

By Christian Benoni

UNITED NATIONS, Mar 10 (IPS/TerraViva) The African Union’s declaration that 2010/2020 is the African Women’s decade will mean little if governments fail to ratify and implement the Protocol to the African Charter on Human and People’s Rights on the Rights of Women.

Delegates at the Beijing +15 meeting in New York say implementation of the protocol, popularly known as the African women’s protocol, holds the key to advancing the rights of women on the continent. So far, only 27 countries, half of the continent’s nations, have ratified the instrument, regarded as progressive in safeguarding women’s rights.

The protocol, which came into force in 2005, requires state parties to eliminate sexual violence, discrimination and other harmful practices against women, and ensure gender equality and reproductive health rights, as well as the right to inherit property. While some countries have ratified the protocol, lack of implementation has seen continued human rights violations against women.

“The rights to cultivate and transfer customary land in Malawi are still granted by traditional chiefs who do not allow women to own land,” says Luciana Kuboma, a smallholder farmer in the southern African country.

“Women are in the process left poor and cannot even access credit at microfinance institutions because they have nothing to present as collateral,” she adds.

In most parts of Africa, women lose land or matrimonial property to in-laws upon the death of their husbands. Many become destitute because they are unable to use the land to feed their children.

Addressing such traditional practices calls not only for implementing the protocol, but urgent budgets to support the implementation.

“We must now move from rhetoric to action. Our governments must put money into awareness-creation programmes, and building partnerships with religious and cultural institutions so as to change their attitudes towards such practices,” says Elizabeth Musoke of Maarifa Community Women’s Group, based in Nairobi.

Training is also crucial for police and magistrates who handle rape and other sexual violence cases. According to Tina Musuya, executive director of the Centre for Domestic Violence Prevention in Uganda, negative attitudes and blame towards survivors of sexual violence discourage them from reporting crimes.

“We have unsupportive law enforcement officers who mock rape, blaming women for having been scantily dressed at the time of the rape occurred. Also, magistrates reduce jail sentences on rape on pretext that if the head of the house is in jail, the family will have no provider,” she notes.

The situation is similar in neighbouring Kenya, where despite the Sexual Offences Act stipulating a minimum sentence of 10 years imprisonment and a maximum of life imprisonment, offenders are sometimes released after a few months, making the law far less effective as a deterrent.

Kenya is among the countries that have signed but not yet ratified the African women’s protocol. The heat is on now for such countries to “put their money where their mouth is” to ensure women enjoy their human rights, says Musuya.