Posted by sabina on March 11, 2010
“When we started projects in family planning we were actually thrown out of one community,” said Nsekpong Archibong Udoh, the executive director of Community Partners in Development in Nigeria and a Centre for Development and Population Activities (CEDPA) alumna.
“The men thought we were coming to teach their wives to be promiscuous. It wasn’t easy. We had to, over time, make them see that spacing children was for the good of the family and would help the men also.”
Educating the community about family planning was one of many challenges Nse faced trying to improve the situation for women in Akwa Ibom State, in the southern-most part of Nigeria. But she was determined.
“The whole thing started when I witnessed the celebrations in my community attached to burials,” she said. “I noticed that about half of the girls between 12-18 years of age were pregnant. I had a discussion with my sister and I told her that there is a need to address this issue because if we lose this age bracket, we’ll run into problems.”
She and her sister quickly moved into action by going to churches and offering to provide free skills training for the girls. The first group they worked with was made up of pregnant teens, disadvantaged youth, school dropouts and girls who had been forced into marriage.
“We started training [girls] in small skills like making soup from palm oil, using ground nuts to make snacks, and teaching sewing/typing skills,” she said.
The program was a success. Nse’s sister decided to continue helping people through politics, but Nse decided to pursue her passions for social work, community service and girls’ education. Nse became a volunteer for the Community Partners in Development, then became a program manager and ultimately headed the organization.
The organization offers diverse programs in micro credit, women’s political empowerment, and support for refugees. However, its main activities center on reproductive and sexual health.
They work with youth, sex workers, those in the prison community, and road transport workers to educate them on safe sex and STI and HIV/AIDS prevention. Nse is particularly proud of a program called “Make We Talk” (slang for “let’s talk”), which has succeeded in getting more youth to seek HIV/AIDS counseling and testing.
Nse attended CEDPA’s Global Women in Management program in 2008, with funding from the ExxonMobil Foundation’s Women’s Economic Opportunity Initiative. She had just accepted the position of executive director at her organization and was feeling the pressure that comes with a leadership position.
“I discovered I had expectations from everywhere,” she said, “from my colleagues in the office and even more expectations from the Board of Trustees.”
In the workshop, Nse and her fellow participants improved their skills and abilities in leadership, strategic communication, fundraising, advocacy, financial management, project management and building partnerships.
She says the workshop has improved her skills, especially in leading and managing.
“If I had had the training before I came, I would have done so much differently,” she said. “The workshop has given me skills to package myself differently as a leader.”
CEDPA is celebrating it’s 35th Anniversary by profiling 35 women throughout the year. You can read more here.
Posted by sabina on March 1, 2010
Pathfinder Launches Girl2Woman Challenge for Intl Women’s Day 2010: Equal Rights, Equal Opportunity
WATERTOWN, MA, March 1
On March 1, Pathfinder is launching a unique challenge in the week leading up to International Women’s Day 2010: 200 Thousand for 200 Million. The goal is to achieve 200,000 shares of the videos on the www.Girl2Woman.org site by International Women’s Day to raise critical awareness about the more than 200 million women around the world who lack access to modern contraceptives.
As 2010 International Women’s Day approaches with the theme, “Equal Rights, Equal Opportunity,” Pathfinder International believes a crucial aspect of improving women’s lives is missing in the current development dialogue: reproductive health.
“How can women have equal rights and equal opportunities to have healthy, productive lives if they do not have the ability to choose if, when, and how often to have children?” Pathfinder President Dan Pellegrom said. “It is a fundamental and basic human right to have access to a range of reproductive health care services.”
Pathfinder wants to ensure every woman can exercise that right. Girl2Woman.org features six videos showcasing the importance of reproductive health care throughout life. Every time a video is shared through Girl2Woman.org, a generous donor will give $1 to improve reproductive health services.
“This International Women’s Day we need to band together, raise our voices and insist that women around the world no longer be marginalized. It impacts the civil and economic success of communities—and to be effective, it must all begin with reproductive health care,” President Pellegrom said.
To help raise awareness and reach the 200,000 goal, Pathfinder is urging everyone concerned with women’s rights to take 60 seconds to spread the word:
* Visit www.Girl2Woman.org and share the videos with 5 friends
* Post the Girl2Woman video on your blog or website
* Tweet “200K shares for 200M women. Share videos on www.Girl2Woman.org, support women worldwide #Girl2Woman”
* Update your Facebook status with “200K shares for 200M women. Support women by helping www.girl2woman.org reach 200K video shares by International Women’s Day, March 8.”
For more information about the challenge or to help, please contact Linda Suttenfield, Director of Communications at lsuttenfield@pathfind.org or by phone 617- 955-2422.
Posted by sabina on February 26, 2010
Karama is coming in force to the UN in March 2010 with a delegation of 32 women leaders and activists from 12 different Arab states to attend the annual session of the Commission on the Status of Women. The scope reflects the collective analysis the delegates are presenting in the Regional NGO Shadow Report on Beijing+15, assessing the fulfillment of commitments made by Arab governments 15 years ago at the UN World Conference on Women in 1995.
This is Karama’s largest delegation ever of Arab women to attend CSW, and it is led by the expertise of Dr. Hoda Badran of Egypt, who was the Arab Regional Coordinator for NGO Preparation for the NGO Forum on Women in 1995, and Dr. Haifa Abou Ghazaleh, who was the Arab Region Focal Point for the United Nations for the NGO Forum on Women in 1995 and is now a Senator to the Upper House in Jordan.
In addition to our delegates issuing Oral Statements in the High-Level Plenaries and Interactive Dialogues during the official UN sessions, Karama has set up meetings for our delegates with senior UN representatives, national government delegations, and international organizations that will be present in New York to deliver the joint shadow report recommendations, extrapolating these to the ongoing efforts to fulfill the MDGs and CEDAW.
We will reinforce this by delivering Oral Statements in the High Level Plenaries and seeking Requests to Speak during the Interactive Expert Dialogues during the official sessions of CSW 54. At CSW 53 in 2009, Karama representatives won a coveted slot to issue an oral statement to the assembled governments, as well as an opportunity to speak during the Interactive Expert Dialogue, and presented a policy paper on strategies for increasing women’s access to decision-making roles in the Arab region in a high-level panel session that drew 100 representatives from parliaments, government ministries, UN agencies, and international NGOs.
The centerpiece of our week at CSW 54 will be Karama’s daylong conference “Leveraging Arab Women’s Power” on Wednesday March 3 at the UN Plaza Millennium Hotel (Riverview Room). Between 9:00 – 5 pm, we will host four separate sessions featuring prominent Arab women leaders from the League of Arab States, ESCWA, UNDP, UNESCO, the Jordanian Senate, and some of the most effective NGO activists of the Arab women’s movement, addressing the following topics:
• Progress and Challenges Implementing Beijing in the Arab States
• Using CEDAW to Accelerate Achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) in the Arab Region
• Remaining Challenges to Meet MDG3 in the Arab States Today
• The Way Forward: Accelerating the MDGs, CEDAW, Resolution 1325, and Beijing PFA in the Arab States
We ask you to join us on March 3 to learn the results of our regional analysis with regards to fulfillment of CEDAW, Beijing+15 and the MDGs and to discuss recommendations for future advocacy in the region. With the diversity of our delegation and the milestones being reached in human rights commitments, this year represents a pivotal and historic opportunity to galvanize momentum toward realization of our goals in meeting international standards of equality, justice and dignity.
Posted by sabina on
The women of Burma suffer daily at the hands of the ruling military junta. Rape, sexual violence, forced labour and portering, torture, imprisonment and forced relocation are sadly common events that these brave women face. Despite the magnitude of this crisis, it has not yet prompted meaningful action on the part of national, regional or international community leaders.
On March 2nd the International Tribunal on Crimes Against Women of Burma will put into words the crisis facing this country. For the first time ever, 12 courageous women from Burma will share their stories with the international community. The women’s testimonies will be heard by a high-level panel of ‘judges’, including Nobel Peace Laureates Shirin Ebadi and Jody Williams. In telling their stories the women represent thousands of other untold stories from across Burma — stories of fear, anguish, resistance, escape, perseverance and hope for change.
Too little is truly understood about the situation inside Burma. With elections being held in May or October of this year, and the pending release of Aung San Suu Kyi, the Tribunal will provide timely insight into what is really happening in the country. These women continue to fight for justice, democracy, and accountability within Burma—all while dealing with the realities of daily, gross violations of human rights. Their struggle reverberates with women activists globally who work tirelessly for gender equality, and those agents of change who continue to combat brutality and injustice every day.
Hosted in New York City by the Nobel Women’s Initiative and the Women’s League of Burma, this people’s tribunal will raise international visibility of the situation of women in Burma. Importantly, it will also allow the world a glimpse of the strength of the women of Burma as builders of democracy. They are testifying in the hopes that their act will lead to real change.
International Tribunal on Crimes Against Women of Burma
March 2, 2010: 9 am – 6 pm
Proshansky Auditorium
The Graduate Center
City University of New York
365 Fifth Avenue (at 34th Street)
New York
Or watch the live webcast
Posted by sabina on
When the Beijing Platform came into being way back in 1995 activists in the women’s movement was only just learning about “new” technologies like email and websites – in fact APC’s women’s programme took a forty-person team to Beijing and gave hundreds of our fellow women’s rights advocates their first glimpse of the World Wide Web. The UN Secretary General’s report on the fifteen-year review, specifically mentioned the significance of media and ICT to women’s rights, including use of media and ICT in combating violence against women.
Media and communication have been turned upside down since Beijing.
Women’s rights organisations are using social networking tools to support women whose lives are threatened, to take action that prevent violence, and seek redress for women and girls. Women’s rights activists are adapting GPS applications in mobile phones - intended for commercial purposes - to warn others of dangerous areas and document abuse. In South Africa, Women’sNet is teaching girls to avoid harrassment through cell phones and “Keep your chats exactly that!”
Survivors of violence are producing digital stories to denounce what happened to them in their own words and voices and at the same time connect with with others, build solidarity and aid the healing process.
The APC launched a global campaign three years ago to “Take Back the Tech!” to end violence against women which is growing in strength and numbers with people from tens of countries taking part.
As feminists, we are creating our own media and disrupting and challenging mainstream notions of identity and what women are or should be. We are self-representing, to recast ourselves and challenge stale notions of what women are or should be. We are demonstrating the multiplicity and diversity of who we are.
Women’s groups are also getting involved in debates around communication rights that include critical rights such as freedom of expression versus censorship and content regulation; privacy rights versus surveillance, access to knowledge versus intellectual property rights and who owns the media. We’re making our voice heard in policy spaces like the Internet Governance Forum where internet and other technology policies gets debated. Where governments can be influenced to encourage internet users to exercise their right to ensure their privacy rather than choose to regulate content.
The global fifteen-year review process of the BPFA must reflect these trends and affirm that affordable access to information and knowledge, the internet and other communications technologies are critical and fundamental to women’s rights. Women’s right to communicate must be embedded in our language and legislation. And our women’s protocols and commissions, national and global legislation should interact with other policy processes that are changing the world as we know it.
– The women’s networking support programme of the Assocation for Progressive Communications (APC WNSP)
Posted by sabina on February 18, 2010
Women’s Learning Partnership (WLP) in cooperation with The New School for Social Research presents:
2020 Vision: Mobilizing for Women’s Rights and Eliminating Violence against Women
March 5, 2010, 9:30am - 4:30pm
John Tishman Auditorium at the New School for Social Research
66 West 12th Street, New York, NY
As we enter the second decade of the 21st century, women’s rights leaders build upon our collective experience to secure our vision for a future free from violence and grounded in equality both locally and globally.
Keynote speakers will highlight major challenges to women’s empowerment and share a roadmap for success in the second decade of the 21st century.
Melanne Verveer, U.S. Ambassador-at-Large for Global Women’s Issues
Thoraya Obaid, Executive Director of UNFPA
Mary Robinson, U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, 1997-2002
Shirin Ebadi, Nobel Peace laureate, 2003
Panels:
Securing Women’s Safety and Dignity: Mobilizing for a World Free of Violence against Women
Asma Khader (Jordan), Sindi Medar-Gould (Nigeria), and Jacqueline Pitanguy (Brazil) will discuss grassroots mobilization and awareness-raising strategies including street theater and organizing men, youth, and target constituencies in academia, the media, health, and justice sectors. They will discuss connections between mobilization efforts and international conflict resolution and peacekeeping mechanisms such as UN Security Council resolution 1325.
Movement Building from the Local to the Global: What the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) Means for Women at the Grassroots
Lina Abou Habib (Lebanon), Wajeeha Al-Baharna (Bahrain), and Parvin Ardalan (Iran) will discuss the Arab regional CEDAW campaign Equality without Reservation, the Claiming Equal Citizenship campaign for equal nationality rights, and the One Million Signatures campaign to reform discriminatory family laws in Iran and how they have transcended traditional political, economic, and cultural barriers to mobilize women’s rights activists at the local, national, and international levels.
Mahnaz Afkhami, President of Women’s Learning Partnership, and Arien Mack, editor of Social Research, will moderate.
For more information:
wlp@learningpartnership.org | www.learningpartnership.org
Posted by sabina on February 15, 2010
IPS is happy to highlight some of the key events the Global Fund for Women will organise during the CSW in New York.
• March 4th, 5:30-7:30 pm at the Visual Arts Theater, 333 West 23rd Street, between 8th and 9th Ave. The event will begin with a brief Q&A with New York Times columnist Nick Kristof, moderated by Kavita N. Ramdas, followed by a panel conversation with three of GFW grantees: Pinar Ilkkaraçan from Women for Women’s Human Rights in Turkey, Deborah Kaddu-Serwadda from Icon Partners & Associates in Uganda, and Sharon Bhagwan-Rolls from femLINKPACIFIC: Media Initiatives for Women in Fiji.
They will cover a range of critical issues facing women today: gender violence, religious fundamentalism and militarism. We anticipate several hundreds of people (already over 250 RSVPs) so it should be a high-energy event.
• Women’s empowerment in Central Asia and movement building, Tuesday, March 2nd, 10 am in Church Center 11th floor. Transition to market economy was accompanied by new problems for women’s lives, but also gave new opportunities for gender equality and women’s NGOs development. Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistanand Uzbekistan women’s NGOs will share their experience of integrating women’s human rights approach and women’s rights initiatives at various levels during the last decade.
Speakers: Maksuda Aitieva, Cholpon Ergeshova, Bubumairam Sarieva, Bela Kaparova, Asipa Musaeva, Avazkan Orrmonova, Anara Nazarbekova, Evgeniya Kozyreva, Angelika Arutyunova.
• Turning Dollars into Action, Tuesday, March 2nd 1 pm at the UN Foundation
• The Women’s Movement in DR Congo: Challenging Attitudes, Violence and Militarism, Sunday March 7th, 2 pm at the Church Center (777 UN Plaza– corner of 44th & First Ave)
Posted by sabina on
Jehmu Greene, WMC President
Women’s Media Center is thrilled to announce the launch of its 2010 Progressive Women’s Voices (PWV) media and leadership training program. Now in its third year, PWV is training and mentoring up-and-coming political contributors and ensuring there are plenty of qualified, authoritative, progressive women experts available to the media.
“Women’s Media Center is changing the conversation about women in the media, making sure progressive women are visible, powerful and consistently commenting on the important issues of the day,” said WMC President and PWV alumna Jehmu Greene. “Given the caliber and popularity of the program over the past two years, we expect a diverse and experienced pool of applicants to this highly competitive program.”
Women who graduate from the program leave with a sophisticated understanding of the current media climate, effective interview presentation and techniques, and the skills to serve as thought leaders in their fields.
With PWV and SheSource – a database of more than 500 progressive women experts – WMC has become the go-to resource for editors, reporters, producers, and bookers seeking knowledgeable women commentators. Every day, PWV alumnae are making significant contributions on important issues like health care reform, national security, and most recently the devastation in Haiti.
PWV alumnae have achieved more than 5,000 media hits in national, top-tier media outlets including The New York Times, Washington Post, USA Today, Wall Street Journal, Associated Press, CNN, MSNBC, and hundreds more. To see the real impact Progressive Women’s Voices is having, watch this video.
In 2010, WMC will host three PWV classes, a total of thirty women from across the country. The application deadline for the first class is February 28, with trainings to be held April 16-18 and May 14-16 in New York City. Travel, accommodation, and training expenses are paid for completely by the WMC. Women representing diverse backgrounds, areas of expertise, professions, ethnicities, ages, geographical regions and levels of experience are encouraged to apply (including those who have previously applied). For more information, or to apply for the program, visit website.
To speak with WMC President Jehmu Greene about PWV 2010, please contact Rebekah Spicuglia, (212) 563-0680, rebekah@womensmediacenter.com.
Women’s Media Center is a nonprofit women’s advocacy organization founded by Jane Fonda, Robin Morgan, and Gloria Steinem in 2005 to make women visible and powerful in the media.
Posted by admin on December 12, 2009
CAIRO, EGYPT, December 2, 2009 – On December 13-14, 2009, in Cairo, Egypt, Karama, UNIFEM Egypt, and the Alliance for Arab Women will convene a two-day 22-country consultation to issue the Regional NGO Shadow Report on the Arab States’ fulfillment of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action (BPFA), fifteen years after it was adopted at the UN World Conference on Women in 1995.
NGO representatives from 22 countries across the Middle East and North Africa will gather in Cairo on December 13th and 14th to assess the regional progress of the BPFA, what has been implemented, challenges and obstacles to implementation, and the role of NGOs. Building from this analysis, the representatives will also issue recommendations and targets related to the Millennium Development Goals, which all UN member states adopted in 2000 and will continue to pursue through 2015.
As an outcome from this regional consultation, these women’s rights activists and experts from the countries of the Arab League will develop a set of collective regional priorities for the next five years. These priorities will be presented in addition to the Beijing+15 Regional NGO Shadow Report at the 54th Session of the UN Commission on the Status of Women in New York, where Beijing+15 will be a review theme.
The Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action was adopted in September of 1995 on the fiftieth anniversary of the founding of the United Nations. The Platform for Action sets out actions in 12 critical areas of concern aimed at women’s empowerment and advancement. These entail removing obstacles to women’s participation in all areas of public and private life through exercise of equal shares in economic, political, social and cultural decision-making. The Fourth World Conference on Women, where these commitments were adopted in 1995, was attended by 189 governments and more than 5,000 representatives from 2,100 NGOs.
Karama (meaning “dignity” in Arabic) enacts initiatives supporting women leaders and activists from eleven countries of the Middle East and North Africa building a movement to end violence against women and girls. For more information on Karama, visit www.el-karama.org or contact Zahra Radwen at +202-25272372.
UNIFEM Egypt: contact Dr. Maya Morsy, Country Coordinator, at +202-25748494 or visit www.unifem.org.jo
Posted by sabina on December 2, 2009
Worldconnector Sylvia Borren says we live in a world that treats girls, women, indigenous people, migrants, lesbians and gays very unfairly. That has to change!
Sylvia Borren, co-chair of the Worldconnectors, was a panelist at the recent IPS seminar in Rome. She took the chance to introduce a new resource on gender and diversity from this inter-disciplinary group based in The Netherlands and focused on international cooperation and the global community.
Apart from being co-chair of Worldconnectors Sylvia is also co-chair of GCAP’s Global Council and former Executive Director of Oxfam Novib.
Here is the opening presentation of the Gender and Diversity theme:
” We are extremely concerned that as a result of the global economic crisis the rights and dignity of women and minorities across the globe are under increasing threat. This trend can and must be urgently reversed. But this should not be done based on a philosophy of charity; instead, a rights based approach is needed based on universal agreements of human rights, rule of law and justice. At the same time, we also draw inspiration from enlightened self-interest, that is, securing our collective social, cultural and economic needs.”
Read the full statement here: Justice and Solutions for All: through gender and diversity.
Find further resources and links on gender and diversity in the “Quick Scan“.
Worldconnectors also links to photos and videos.
To react or comment on the statement use this contact form on the Worldconnectors site.
AFRICAN UNION SUMMIT: A CRITICAL MOMENT TO SUPPORT SUDAN 
THE PRIVATISATION OF LIVELIHOOD
WOMEN'S HEALTH - A SMART INVESTMENT IN TROUBLED TIMES
POOR COUNTRIES RAILROADED INTO WEAK COMPROMISE AT UN FINANCIAL SUMMIT
LET THE INTERNATIONAL CRIMINAL COURT DO ITS WORK
WORLD MUST KEEP UP PRESSURE ON AFGHAN LAW AGAINST WOMEN
GLOBAL CRISIS: WOMEN WORKERS WILL BE HIT HARDEST
HEALTH-SWAZILAND: 'Role Models in the Community'
GLOBAL HEALTH SYSTEM IN STATE OF ALARM
