GEMSA Newsletter August 2004

Mauritius
‘Women in decision-making positions’, was the subject of a successful workshop hosted by MWO, Soroptimist International and the Association des Femmes Chef D’Entreprises Mauricienne (AFCEM) on August 11th. Women in prominent and senior positions in Mauritian society attended the workshop and shared their experiences. These included the first woman to ever hold the position of Registrar of Companies in Mauritius, Pouba Chinien, and Jyoti Jeetun, the first ever woman Chief Executive of the Mauritius Posts, who is also a director on the boards of several companies.

Interestingly, most of the women who participated in the workshop said that they had never experienced discrimination…

Read more at: https://www.genderlinks.org.za/newsitem.asp?nid=34

Botswana
A press conference hosted by BOMWA in July provided the opportunity for women politicians and the media to engage with each other and begin a dialogue around the importance of proper media representation of women politicians.

A number of important issues were raised by the women politicians who provided practical examples on the consequences of negative and stereotypical representation in the media. Journalists and media practitioners then had a chance to put their issues forward and a productive discussion took place about how the two groups could work together.

A concern raised by a number of women politicians was that the coverage they received was very negative and often related to their personal, as opposed to professional lives. The media on the other hand said that women politicians were reluctant to work with them and to respond to requests for information.

Swaziland
The Swaziland GEM team have begun a process of media monitoring – both print and electronic media, as part of Gender Links’ Mirror on the Media project. The monitoring has focused primarily on news and current affairs bulletins and content and the first report is based on monitoring done in July.

Results from the initial analysis indicate that coverage is gender-blind with sources dominated by males. While weekend print publications did cite women as sources, they have been related to scandals and often depicted as ‘hopeless’ characters. Another initial observation is that journalists assigned to cover hard news are most often men, with women journalists featuring only very rarely.

The monitoring project is being undertaken in Swaziland, South Africa and Mauritius and will be completed in May 2005.

Zambia
Excitement ran high in Zambia in August as Zambian media came out in force to witness the launch of the Zambian GEM Network – ZAMWATCH. The Zambian Minister of Education was the guest of honour at the launch which took place at the Pamodzi Hotel in Lusaka. The event was widely covered by national electronic and print media, including community media.

ZAMWATCH has also just completed a training workshop for 20 mainstream and community journalists from four provinces on Gender, HIV/AIDS and the Media. The workshop was funded by the Zambia National AIDS Network. A key training tool for the workshop has been the 2003 Gender and Media Baseline Study. ZAMWATCH is also in the process of finalising the gender policy for the Times newspaper.

Gearing up for Sixteen Days
Johannesburg: Government, civil society and business in South Africa have joined forces to end violence against women with the official launch of the 16 Days of Activism on Gender Violence on August 23rd 2004.

The 16 Days Campaign, said Deputy Minister of Correctional Services, Cheryl Gillwald, will “start people thinking and debating about issues which make us uncomfortable. We need to introduce violence against women as an issue for critical discussion in areas not traditionally linked to the gender-based violence sector.” Read more at: https://www.genderlinks.org.za/newsitem.asp?nid=35

Dialogues in cyberspace
Southern Africa will be joined in cyberspace for the 16 Days of Activism on Gender Violence through cyber dialogues connecting South Africa to the region, those in urban areas to those in rural localities, and decision- and policy-makers to their constituencies.

The cyber dialogues, a joint project of the Department of Correctional Services, the Government Communication and Information Services (GCIS) and Gender Links, will provide the opportunity to harness ICTS – which are cheap and have tremendous reach – in the campaign against gender violence. Read more at: https://www.genderlinks.org.za/newsitem.asp?nid=36

SADC prepares for Beijing +10
Efforts to prepare for effective participation of Southern African NGOs in the African NGO Forum are underway. A preparatory meeting for Beijing +10 and beyond saw the establishment of a Southern African Coordinating Committee for the African NGO Forum. The meeting also defined the issues to be addressed beyond the Africa NGO Forum and developed preliminary strategy for the implementation over the next three years.

Acknowledging the positive influence of NGOs in the Beijing +10 Africa regional review process, UNECA has solicited the participation of at least five NGOs per country in the a number of related meetings to be held in October. Organisations interested in participating need to send their motivations to the SADC working committee.

Darfur: Rape as a weapon of war
The use of rape as a method of destroying the social fabric of the ‘enemy’ has increasingly become a strategy of warring parties.

In the Sudan, women have described a pattern of systematic and unlawful attacks on civilians in North, West and South Darfur states, by a government-sponsored militia mostly referred to as "Janjawid"(armed men on horses) or "Arab militia" and by the government army, including through bombardments of civilian villages by the Sudanese Air Force.

For the full report by Amnesty International go to: http://web.amnesty.org/library/index/engafr540762004