Diversity Exchange, Issue 21, October 2011

Date: October 11, 2011

Diversity Exchange

Issue 21 | October 2011

Contents

Editor’s Note

by Saeanna Chingamuka

We have just come back from the Pan African Conference on Access to Information and Highway Africa Conference that took place from 17 to 19 September 2011 in Cape Town. All those who attended the conferences can attest to the robust discussions as well as ‘serious’ networking among participants. It is also important to mention the range of outcomes at personal level (gaining of knowledge) and at regional level (the adoption of the African Platform on Access to Information). Read more…


		GMDC News

Africa Platform on Access to Information

On 19 September 2011, the Africa Information and Media Summit (AIMS), which brought together the Pan African Conference on Access to information and Highway Africa, adopted the African Platform on Access to Information (APAI). Access to information has not been on the top of the agenda for African countries. Read more…

15th Highway Africa sets the stage for COP 17

This year’s Highway Africa (HA) Conference ran under the banner “African Media and the Global Sustainability Challenge.” HA is a meeting that brings together African journalists in the world to discuss pertinent media issues and development in Africa in the face of ICTs. Read more…

UNESCO Centres of Excellence colloquium

The journalism and media educators continue to meet at Highway Africa conferences. This year, the educators from Africa and beyond discussed pedagogical methodologies in journalism education, enhancing gender in journalism education and supporting science journalism in Africa. Read more…

The power of campaigns: Secrecy Bill in South Africa

While positive signals elsewhere in the continent show that governments are embracing principles of free access to information, South Africa (SA) seems to be retrogressing. The controversial Protection of Information Bill dubbed as “Secrecy Bill” by critics is one major cause of SA’s “sad” development. Read more…

Think with me: Fungai neni

Fungai Neni is a blog that discusses life issues from the perspective of a young Zimbabwean woman, Fungai Machirori. With a particular focus on gender issues in Zimbabwe, the blog is both daring and honest in a society that tends to be conservative and unwilling to open up to discuss the realities of life. Read more…

Reporting Gender Based Violence

This month, Gender Links will conduct training workshops on covering gender based violence for media in the Southern African Development Community (SADC). These capacity building workshops are part of on-going media support and capacity building initiatives under the centres of Excellence for gender in the media project. Read more…

Creative memorials in honour of Wangari Maathai

In her memory, environmental activists and feminist groups in Africa are inviting people all over the world to plant trees in memory of Wangari Maathai. There can be no better tribute to her work. Everyone is being invited to plant a tree in the memory of this courageous, humane and tireless advocate of the natural environment in Africa Read more…

Media and Gender Community of Practice (UNESCO)

UNESCO is setting up a Media and Gender Community of Practice within the framework of WSIS and the priority on gender equality and women’s empowerment. This community will become the major and first point of contact for consultation/ advice on media and gender. Read more…

Cybercrime on the agenda of the Sixth Annual Internet Governance Forum (IGF)

Media monitoring is part of my day to day activities at Gender Links. Last week I came across a front page headline “Hunt for facebook rapist” in the Daily Sun, a national tabloid in South Africa. The article reported of a man who has been using facebook to con young women aspiring to go into competitive modelling for five years, and recently raped one of the girls. Read more…

International: India’s media women network for change

As the media in India evolves, women within the media want to focus on harnessing technology to ensure their own professional growth and build an equal partnership with their male colleagues, writes Manipadma Jena. Read more…


		Partner News

Lusophone commentary service takes off

The Gender Links Lusophone service is taking off in October 2011. The service will be covering Angola and Mozambique and Paola Rolletta, a distinguished journalist is the editor. Read more…

Mainstreaming gender in media education

After the exercise to mainstream gender in the curriculum, the Polytechnic of Malawi successfully mainstreamed gender in four modules this past semester. These are: Media Criticism; Media Regulation, Policy and Law; Media and Society; and Communication Studies. Read more…

The GMDC @ work: Hosting Gender and Media scholar

In November, I will be visiting Gender Links again for a much-needed shot of inspiration and know how. I first learned of Gender Links in 2004 when I searched for a dissertation topic at the University of Texas at Austin in the USA. I wanted to do something about journalism and women in a global context. I became interested in the gender mainstreaming policy of the Inter Press Service Read more…

Call for applications: Internship January-June 2012

A leading regional NGO working on gender equality offers an exciting opportunity to work as an intern in one of its programme areas. Gender Links (GL) is providing a six month long internship programme, which commences on the 13th of January 2012. Read more…


		GL Opinion & Commentaries

Southern Africa: Zambia misses the 5050 by 2015 target

At the very moment that women’s representation in parliament should be shooting up, Zambia took a nose dive in its recent elections in which women’s representation plummeted from 15% to 11.3%. Zambia is now one of the several Southern African Development Community (SADC) countries that will not achieve the gender parity target by 2015 as required by the SADC Protocol on Gender and Development. Only 17 women out of 150 who contested seats (11.3%) managed to get into parliament. Newly elected Zambian President Michael Chilufya Sata also dismally failed the 50/50 test when he appointed only two women to his 19 member cabinet (10.5%) on 29 September 2011. Read more…

Southern Africa: Congratulations Mr Sata, but too few women are in your boat!

My letter to you is based on what the Patriotic Front (PF) manifesto for 2011-2016 says about the plight of Zambian women. You rightfully acknowledge that the ââ‚¬Å“gender policy has been a complete failure as women have continued to be marginalised or excluded from the mainstream decision making organs.ââ‚¬ I remember that you were the one during the former Frederick Chiluba’s Movement for Multiparty Democracy (MMD) government that responded to the women of Zambia and tabled the Gender Policy for adoption. Congratulations for that. I believe that your commitment to attaining gender equality is still embedded in you and that you will revive the gender agenda in government and all its processes. Read more…

Africa: Celebrating Professor Wangari Muta Maathai

As I searched for quotes by Maathai on the Internet, I came across one that says ââ‚¬Å“African women in general need to know that it’s OK for them to be the way they are ââ‚¬” to see the way they are as a strength, and to be liberated from fear and from silence.ââ‚¬ For me, this is the quote that resonates most with Maathaiââ‚¬â„¢s life that defied the patriarchal values of our global village. Read more…


		Seminars

Gender, peace and security: The case of Resolution 1325 in Southern Africa

In the year 2000, The United Nations passed Resolution 1325 that seeks to address challenges that women and girls face in armed conflict. The resolution emphasises on armed conflict a thing which from the time it got passed to-date “rules-out” Southern African countries except Democratic Republic of Congo. Read more…


		Upcoming Events

Reporting Gender Based Violence, October 2011
Botswana, Lesotho, Madagascar, Malawi, Mauritius, Namibia, South Africa, Swaziland, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe

Gender and Media Literacy, October to November 2011
Botswana, Mauritius, South Africa


		GMDC Databases

Clippings

Criminals target women and children-The Times

Though South Africa’s overall crime statistics have decreased for the second consecutive year, women and children are still among the hardest hit by violet crime. While violence against women and children has been declared a priority by the police, statistics show that there was a 5.6% increase in the number of women murdered last year. Read more…

Forced to prove Gender-Daily Sun

Labour Minister Mildred Oliphant has condemned the case of a woman being forced to take off her clothes….To that she wasn’t a man! The woman, Precious Msibi (51), is a single mum of two grown-up children. She said the manager of a wholesaler in Mbombola, Mpumalanga, forced her to strip naked in full view of her male coworkers. Precious opened a case of indecent assault with the cops in her area after the incident. Read more…

Speak out about women abuse!-Daily Sun

“DON’T stay silent on woman and child abuse,” deputy minister of health, Dr Gwen Ramokgopa, told the Atteridgeville community yesterday. She was referring to a case where a man allegedly burnt to death a woman and her two daughters, aged 14 and 18, last week at their home in the Tsunami informal settlement. Read more…

Research

Recognizing Gender-Based Violence against civilian men and boys in conflict situations

While gender-based violence has recently emerged as a salient topic in the human security community, it has been framed principally with respect to violence against women and girls, particularly sexual violence. In this article, I argue that gender-based violence against men (including sexual violence, forced conscription, and sex-selective massacre) must be recognized as such, condemned, and addressed by civilian protection agencies and proponents of a ââ‚¬Ëœhuman security’ agenda in international relations. Men deserve protection against these abuses in their own right; moreover, addressing gender-based violence against women and girls in conflict situations is inseparable from addressing the forms of violence to which civilian men are specifically vulnerable Read more…

Media in Africa 20 years on: Our Past, present and future

To assess the 1991 Windhoek Declaration in terms of African media history requires recognising that this seminal document came from the hearts of journalists. Generally around the world, but in Sub-Saharan Africa especially, journalism is bound up with idealism. This is notwithstanding the many persuasions and pressures that can lead its practitioners to fall short of the ideal. The desire to strive for the best applies to even the most constrained journalists, who – when they set aside any self-rationalisations – would invariably prefer to do the right thing journalistically. To this end, they hunger to be free of distorting controls by government officials, politician owners or unscrupulous bosses. This idealistic motivation includes even the most underpaid reporter on a private outlet who persistently supplements his or her erratic income with bribes. It is also something which supercedes most other senses of identity that an African journalist may have, at least in terms of aspirations. Read more…

Is HIV/ AIDS epidemic outcome of poverty in Sub-Saharan Africa

Undisputable fact is that 14 000 people in Sub-Saharan Africa are being infected daily with HIV and 11 000 are dying every day due to HIV/AIDS related illnesses. In this region more than 60% of the people live below UN poverty line of US$ 1 per day. Some studies have shown that poverty and HIV infection are in correlation, but none has shown whether HIV/AIDS in Sub-Saharan Africa is an outcome of poverty. This article, therefore, shows that HIV is an important outcome of poverty, with sexual trade, migration, polygamy, and teenage marriages as its predictors in the Sub Saharan region. Read more…

Case Studies

A greater need for female condoms

Global Health Council statistics put women aged 15-25 (sexually active group) as one-and-half times more likely to contract HIV than young men. We need to find alternative ways that can enable and empower women to protect themselves from contracting the virus. One initiative has been advocating the use of the female condom. Read more…

Gender and Justice: Police “shoddy” investigations exposed

A 5.6% increase in the number of women murdered last year shows that law enforcers still have a daunting task to make sure that women’s right to life is protected. This calls on the police to provide enough security and making sure that justice takes its course on everyone infringing upon this right. On the contrary, the police seem not to be doing enough. Read more…

Sexist, racist ad pulled down in Mozambique

The latest advertisement for the popular dark beer Laurentina Preta shows a headless and legless black woman, generous hips and bosom, tiny waist, clad in tight bodysuit with the Laurentina logo right on her pubis. A popular myth in Mozambique is that dark beer enhances sexual potency, hence the brand’s association with sex in its ads. This one appeared in the first week of September on billboards and as full page ads in daily newspapers. The umbrella of women’s group Foro Mulher and the League for Human Rights jointly called a press conference to denounce the ad. Two days later, Cervejas de Mocambique announced its withdrawal, “given that the ad is creating a polemic in the midst of society.” Read more…

Publications

So this is democracy?

This edition of So This Is Democracy? documents numerous media freedom and freedom of expression violations that MISA recorded in southern African during the course of 2010. The documentation and exposure of these media freedom alerts help turn the spotlights from around the world squarely on those responsible for human rights violations and this can make a significant difference as those who violate human rights often rely on the cover of darkness. This publication represents joint effort and in particular a collective input from various diverse specialists, media professionals and researchers in the SADC region. Read more…

Making every voice count

This handbook takes us from theory to practice. It shows that as the Yes we can! Generation we can create a different kind of future for our children. Daring to be different takes leadership and courage. Those who have signed onto this initiative have shown that they are willing to be part of a media that is just not about what is but what could be. They are fourth estate in the very real sense of the word: setting the agenda, rather than simply following the path of least resistance by acceding to a flawed agenda. GL and all who believe in a region in which women and men are free to take their rightful place stand ready to support such visionaries. Read more…

In pursuit of justice: 2011-2012 Progress of the World’s Women

This book looks at the current state of affairs of women throughout the world in relation to legal systems. The report covers the following main issues: legal frameworks, the justice chain, legal pluralism and justice for women, and justice for women during and after conflict. The report also looks at gender justice and the millennium development goals. The report goes into detail on each of the issues listed above in relation to women and their role in improving justice for women. It starts with a paradox: the past century has seen a transformation in women’s legal rights, with countries in every region expanding the scope of women’s legal entitlements. Read more…


		Internships				Members

Internships

Tapiwa Alvin Zvaraya

Tapiwa Alvin Zvaraya is the Zimbabwe intern working with Priscilla Maposa, the Gender Links Zimbabwe Local Government and Gender Justice Facilitator. He attained his education in Gweru and holds a BSc Honours Degree in Local Governance Studies obtained in May 2011 from the Midlands State University. Read more…

Members

FEMNET

The African Women’s Development and Communication Network (FEMNET) is an NGO based in Kenya. Set up in 1988, it seeks to share experiences, information and strategies among African women’s non-governmental organisations (NGOs) through advocacy, training and communications so as to advance African women’s development, equality and other human rights. Read more…

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Diversity Exchange, Issue 21, October 2011

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