Roadmap to Equality, Issue 7, January 2010

Explanation of the Barometer

The Roadmap to Equality:
Southern Africa Gender and Development Protocol Barometer is a regional e-news- letter that tracks the ratification and implementation of the SADC Protocol on Gender and Development. It is produced by Gender Links in partnership with the Southern Africa Gender Protocol Alliance and the Gender and Media Southern Africa (GEMSA) Network with support from DFID and UNIFEM.

The Barometer will enable both state and non-state actors to track progress whether governments are on the way to meeting set targets in the Gen- der Protocol which provides a road map for achieving gender equality in the region.

The new and updated Baro- meter will focus on the articles of the Protocol namely Consti- tutional and Legal Rights; Gender and Governance; Edu- cation and Training; Economic Justice; Gender Based Violence; Health; HIV and AIDS; Peace Building and Conflict Reso- lution; and Media, Infor- mation and Communication.

It is essential that gender and women’s rights activists and governments track the impact of their work in order to measure whether or not they are making a difference. The Barometer is a tool that can be used firstly, to track progress in advancing gender equality in the region and also to hold governments in Southern Africa accountable to the commitments they have made to address inequality through their obligations to international and regional in- struments and in particular the SADC Gender Protocol.

The rate of HIV infection among pregnant women in South Africa has remained high at around 29 percent for the third year running, according to government figures released in October 2009.

The infection rate among women in the 30 to 34 age group rose from 39.6 percent in 2007 to 40.4 percent in 2008. Age was found to be the most important risk factor, with women of 22 years or older significantly more likely to be HIV-infected. The information comes from the 2008 National Antenatal HIV and Syphilis Prevalence Survey.

Source: IRINPlusnews

Regional schedule of events taking place during the 16 Days campaign

• Botswana holding a taking stock meeting of the 365 Day National Action Plan on 21st January 2010
• GL, GEMSA and SOuthern Africa Gender Protocol Alliance partners will host a pre-Beijing Southern Africa caucus meeting on 4-5 February 2010. For More info contact: Kubi Rama: depdirector@genderlinks.org.za
• On 18th to 20th January at Le Meridien hotel there will be a meeting on”Re-imagining feminist politics and strategies in the global southÀ organised by DAWN.
• GL to convene first ever Gender Justice and Local Government Summit on 8-11 March 2010
• The Law, Race & Gender Unit at the Faculty of Law, University of Cape Town is hosting a closed seminar on Women and Customary Law Discussion on the 27th January 2010. For more information contact: Aninka Claassens at 021-6505640.
• The 4th Africa Conference on Sexual Health and Rights takes place between 9-12 Feb 2010 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. The conference is being organised under the theme “Sexuality, HIV & AIDS in Africa” For more information: http://www.africasexuality.org/
• Regional Conference on “Changing the river’s flow: challenging gender dynamics in a cultural context to address HIVÀ, 23 to 25 February 2010 in Johannesburg. For more information contact: petronella@safaids.net
• The Disability, Sexuality and Rights Online Training: 1 February 2010 À“ 1 April 2010. Course for Practitioners and Activists in Human Rights, Public Health and Development Organisations and Movements. For more information contact Caroline Earle at: cearle@creaworld.org; or +1-212-599-1071.
• Commission on the Status of Women Bejing Plus Fifteen review to be held in New York 1-12 March
• To celebrate March 8, Isis Centre for Women and Development (based in Fes, Morocco ) is organizing an international conference (March 8-10, 2010) on marginalized women: single mothers, divorced women, widows, household breadwinners, in brief women without men in a globalized world seriously threatened by the impact of the financial crisis. For more information contact Fatima Sadiqi at: sadiqi_fatima@yahoo.fr
  

Governance and peace building

Mozambique: First woman speaker elected

The first woman speaker in the Mozambique parliament was sworn in at a ceremony in MaputoVeronica Macamo, who was previously deputy speaker of parliament, was voted in unopposed after the main opposition Renamo and the Mozambican Democratic Movement (MDM) did not field candidates.

Macamo, who is a lawyer by training, was elected on the Front for the Liberation of Mozambique (Frelimo) ticket for the Maputo constituency where she was the leading candidate for her party. She replaced Eduardo Mulembwe who has held the position of speaker for the past 15 years.

The number of women in parliament had increased from 96 to 106 following the October 28 elections. Read more

Source: Timeslive.co.za

Security Council Resolution 1325 was passed unanimously on 31st of October 2000. It is the first resolution passed by the Security Council that specifically addresses the impact of war on women, and women’s contributions to conflict resolution and sustainable peace.

Full text of the resolution: http://www.peacewomen.org/un/sc/1325.html
16 countries have drawn up National Actions Plans for the implementation of 1325: Austria; Belgium; Chile; Ivory Coast; Denmark; Finland; Iceland; Liberia; Norway; Portugal; Spain; Sweden, Switzerland; The Netherlands; Uganda; United Kingdom.
Read more on the National Action Plans at: http://www.ifor.org/WPP/stories.htm
Read article on Women’s role in peace building by Tarja Halonen, Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, Margot WallstrÁ¶m and Benita Ferroro-Waldner at: http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20090924/opinion/womens-role-in-peace-building

Considerations are underway for the appointment of the Secretary-General’s new Special Representative on women, peace and security, as requested in Security Council Resolution 1888 (OP 4). Read the full article at: http://www.womenpeacesecurity.org/news-analysis/
Watch out for events and conferences planned to evaluate the implementation of the resolution by governments worldwide in the coming issues of Road Map to Equality.

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Economic justice, education and training

UNIFEM is organizing for two workshops to take place: the first one, from Monday, 8th February 2010 to Tuesday, 9th February 2010, and the second one, from Wednesday 10th February 2010 to Thursday 11th February 2010, to explore issues that affect Women in Informal Cross Border Trade and gain a better understanding around this industry. The workshop will endeavor to identify a collective way forward for the SADC region to assist women working in this the sector.

Informal Cross-Border Trade refers to registered or unregistered business activities which are undertaken across country borders À“ based mainly on popular economy. One of the main characteristics of this trade is that it is not mandatory to submit tax returns at the end of each financial year, so income generated through this trade is not entered into national accounts. Generally, cross-border trade is conducted by small-scale quasi-professional traders, including women, who use various means to move small quantities of goods across national frontiers.

The workshop aims to engage with different stakeholders who have an interest in this issue:
– The first workshop (8th February – 9th February) will focus on providing training to participants from selected NGOs from Mozambique, South Africa, Zimbabwe, Swaziland and Botswana who are providing services to women involved in Informal Cross Border Trade. The objective of this training is to provide information on the rights and entitlements of women involved in cross border trade, and to develop the skills of the NGO participants in the provision of services to these women.
– The second workshop (10th FebruaryÀ“ 11th February) shall involve customs and government officials from Mozambique, South Africa, Zimbabwe, Swaziland and Botswana on issues around Informal Cross Border Trade. The workshop aims to provide a platform for the sharing of information on Women in Informal Cross Border Trade in Southern Africa, and an opportunity for discussion around the topic with a focus on gender relations and the empowerment of women. Countries who feel that they have developed and are currently exercising initiatives that contribute to the situation of women in Informal Cross Border Trade are invited to provide brief presentations on their initiatives with a view to identifying principles of good practice for use throughout the region.
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By Joyce Jenje Makwenda

WOMEN’S careers are mostly determined by how they have been allowed to dream as they grow. There are limits to how far a woman can go regards dreaming which leads to her career choices. Patriarchy controls women’s minds by limiting women’s aspirations by the way they control their ability to dream.

Access to education which is a stepping stone to dreaming big can be limited to women depending on whether the resources available can accommodate them.
Formal education is often made available to the boy child more than the girl child.
Further, boys are allowed to experiment and if they fail, they are still encouraged and given support.

Girls are generally not supposed to fail, therefore women become afraid to try out new things including getting access to knowledge and skills
She might not go to school depending on the family’s resources, which usually favours the boy child to have formal education, and she can be deprived of education. Read more
Source: AllAfrica.com

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Health, HIV and AIDS

New research has concluded that the vaginal microbicide gel, PRO 2000, does not prevent HIV infection in women, a study released on Monday said. “The researchers agree that while the results mean the end of the road for PRO 2000 – and the entire ‘second generation’ of microbicide formulations – they are upbeat about next-generation microbicides, which are already in trials,” a statement said. The trial involved 9 385 women in East and Southern Africa, and though the gel was safe, it did not prevent infection.”This was a large and important trial, and while it’s disappointing that PRO 2000 did not show an effect against HIV infection, nonetheless the product was safe and the trial was well conducted,” said Professor Helen Rees, e xecutive director of the Reproductive Health and HIV Research Unit, one of the participants in the trial. Microbicides are gels, foams or creams used to prevent the vaginal sexual transmission of the HI virus and other sexually transmitted infections when applied inside the vagina. Read more
Source: http://www.safaids.net

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Media, information and communications

Women and media section of Beijing Platform for Action neglected

Gender and media activists feel that governments, United Nations bodies and other interested parties need to draw more attention to Section J (Women and media) of the Beijing Platform for Action. This section has previously recieved less interest compared to other issues contained in the Declaration. Section J of Bejing Platform for Action has two strategic objectives:

• Strategic objective J.1. Increase the participation and access of women to expression and decision-making in and through the media and new technologies of communication.
• Strategic objective J.2. Promote a balanced and non-stereotyped portrayal of women in the media.

Research shows that while there has been progress in a few countries women voices are still way lower than man in mainstream media. The third Global Media Monitoring Project report of 2005 shows that on average women comprise only 21% of news sources. Women’s points of view are rarely heard in the topics that dominate the news agenda; even in stories that affect women profoundly, such as gender-based violence, it is the male voice (64% of news subjects) that prevails. When women do make the news it is primarily as ‘stars’ or ‘ordinary people’, not as figures of authority. As newsmakers, women are under-represented in professional categories.

Byerly CM, (2009, Fall) poses a theory of feminist social responsibility with regards to news organisations that they should at all times seek to:

• Provide coverage of issues and events that affect women’s status and well being
• officer a forum for exchange, commenet and criticism on gender related issues
• include equal representation in all levels of professional practice, governanceand ownership.

This has not yet been fully achieved. Nonetheless there are visible efforts by non-governmental organisations (NGOs) in the global south that have been working with newsrooms to develop inhouse gender and HIV and AIDS policies to provide a framework that will help them address the disparities between women and men in news content and the work place. Gender Links has worked with 138 out of 204 media houses located in Southern Africa to develop HIV and AIDS newsroom policies that are gender sensitive. The next phase involves developing gender policies with the media houses.

If government and UN agencies at global level, could get section J into their mainstream programming there would be more hope of achieving the strategic objectives set out in the Declaration.

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Integrated Approaches/Monitoring and Evaluation

Regional: Gender Justice and Local Government Summit, 8 À“ 10 March

Gender Links will be holding the first Gender Justice and Local government Summit from 08 – 11 March 2010 in Johannesburg, South Africa. Under the banner “365 Days of local action to end gender violenceÀ the summit will include key note addresses and parallel seminars by international and local experts in the field of gender violence at local government level, and gender justice.

The first gender justice and local government summit aims to bring together local government councillors andofficials, relevant government ministries and NGOs that work with local government from the region. The summit will feature awards on good practices in ending gender violence, provide an opportunity to document and disseminate these good practices as well as give incentives to local authorities to innovate new and effective strategies for combating violence against women. Parallel seminars on promoting women’s representation and effective participationin local government structures will be a key feature at the summit.

2010 marks the beginning of the African Women’s Decade (2010 -2020). On the Roadmap for the African Women’s Decade: 2010-2020, aimed at advancing gender equality by accelerating implementation of Dakar, Beijing, and AU Assembly Decisions on Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment (GEWE), a meeting held at the end of 2009 in Banjul, the Gambia agreed to implement it via three phases.

• The first phase would run through 2010-2014. The activities during this period would include, conducting a baseline survey on the status of women at the national level. The launch of the African Union Fund for Women would be done at national level through the creation of National Gender Equality Fund. The period will focus on gender based corporate social responsibility to re-engineer the private sector to concentrate on issues that affect women and allocate resources to meet such needs.
• The second phase will focus on the continuation of implementation of the decade activities. The thematic identification and selection of themes to reflect the emerging issues such as violence against women, climate change and collaboration with men on gender equality processes will be crucial. A mid-term review of the Decade activities will be envisaged and indicators developed to measure progress
• The third phase would be the final review and evaluation of the Decades’ programmes and output
  Source: www.AfricaFiles.org

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