PROGRESS MADE, BUT WOMEN STILL FACE CHALLENGES

It is said that normative gains made in implementing the Beijing Platform for Action has not yet translated into substantive changes in the lives of African women.
African women met in Banjul, The Gambia, last week where they made a review of the implementation of the Beijing Platform for Action (Beijing +15), following their 2004 review.
The participants from 43 African countries, including Swaziland which was represented by the Deputy Prime Minister’s representative, Natural Resources and Energy minister Princess Tsandzile and Principal Secretary at the DPM’s Office Khangeziwe Mabuza.
The review was carried out on all the 12 thematic areas that formed basis for the Beijing Declaration in 1994.
Ask any ordinary member of society about what the Beijing Platform for Action entails, they will tell you that it was a gathering of women who wanted to take control of their husbands or usurp men’s powers. They will tell you how much they hate these women’s movements and that such will not work here or in any African society because it defies our cultural beliefs.
Those who have been at the forefront of women’s empowerment are probably to blame for that perception as they have done very little to explain the true objectives of the Beijing Platform for Action.
Coming from the 8th Africa Regional Conference on Women (Beijing +15) held in Banjul in The Gambia, I have a different view of what Beijing was all about.
In fact, it was spelt out clear by speakers at the women’s conference that gender is not about women.
They challenged women activists around the Beijing agenda to be more engaging and accept that men are partners and not enemies in the attainment of the Beijing Platform for Action goals.
They do accept all the challenges still being faced by African women and are calling upon governments to scale-up women’s empowerment initiatives.
But for purposes of appreciating the whole concept of Beijing Platform for Action and the Africa regional conference review, let me take from their report what the 12 thematic areas are and how we have performed as African countries;

Women and Poverty:
In Africa, poverty has a female face, affecting almost all aspects of women’s lives and their basic human rights. Responses from member States show that while recognising poverty as a feminised development challenge, governments have rarely adopted a feminised approach in responding to this challenge. The main strategies being adopted by countries to address poverty among women include micro credit and social protection programmes.
However, while micro credit is useful for addressing immediate household needs, it does not lead to transformative women’s economic empowerment. Furthermore, small scale women’s businesses remain focused on traditional jobs such as embroidery, sewing and the sale of food items. Women’s micro-credit schemes are funded largely by Civil Society Organisations.
Few countries have re-allocated public spending in favour of programmes and projects aimed at supporting women and social protection programmes are usually not well targeted to meet the needs of women.
The global economic crisis is having negative impact on African women and is likely to increase the number of women living in poverty. Many women are being forced to manage shrinking household incomes due to loss of employment and remittances. This is likely to worsen the poverty level among women with major repercussions on children’s food security, education and health and maternal mortality.
National gender-aware policies and strategies have not resulted convincingly in curbing the feminisation of poverty in Africa. Besides, data on the extent and depth of poverty in the region do not enable much insight into the gender nature of causes and implications of poverty. They are rarely disaggregated by sex and, therefore, do not reflect gender-based inequalities within households.
Governments should increase public sector funding to economically empower women; and put in place wealth redistribution mechanisms that reach out to the poor, especially women, so that they benefit from the economic growth.

Education and training of women:
Primary education is one of the successes of what Africa can boast about. The Africa Economic Outlook (2009) notes that 67.9% of countries have already reached the gender parity target in primary education. The main challenges are primary school completion by girls, their progression to secondary and tertiary levels of education and the deteriorating quality of education, due to under-funding, shortage of trained teachers and lack of basic infrastructure.
Governments have taken noteworthy measures to eliminate barriers that hinder boys and girls’ access to education (for example: free and compulsory education for primary level in many countries; strategic plans for girls’ education; campaigns to reduce girls’ school drop-out rate; increase in the education budget, etc). Efforts were made to create girl-friendly school environment and implement a teenage pregnancy education policy in some countries.
Measures were taken to increase tertiary enrolment and retention of women and girls, especially in sciences, mathematics and technology-related disciplines (affirmative action measures, special quotas for girls, preferential treatment for placement in university residences).
Member countries should put in place measures to accelerate the progression of girls and boys from primary to secondary school levels through further subsidisation of secondary and technical education. They should also plan action and interventions to maximise retention enforcing laws that encourage early marriages for girls and intensify sensitisation on educating the girl child.

Women and health:
 Countries are implementing and monitoring gender-sensitive health programmes, including affordable sexual and reproductive health care services and education for women and girls and increasing resources for women’s health.
In all countries, health programmes have been designed to include sexual and reproductive health issues such as maternal health and safe motherhood, pre and post natal care. Effective measures were also taken to reduce maternal morbidity and mortality, unsafe abortions and address harmful traditional practices.
Maternal mortality in Africa remains the highest in the world.
Africa has prioritised addressing HIV and AIDS. According to UNAIDS, the pandemic in sub-Saharan Africa appears to have stabilised, although often at very high levels. In a growing number of countries, adult HIV prevalence appears to be falling (Botswana, Zimbabwe, Malawi, Zambia) while it is rising in Lesotho and Mozambique.
However, HIV and AIDS prevalence is consistently higher among females than males, reflecting gender related vulnerability to infection, as well as the effect of age differences between sexual partners.
In some countries, budgets allocated to the health sector are increasing from year to year, whilst in others only a small increase is made, thereby jeopardising the realisation of expected results and rights.
Countries should develop strategies to address the high levels of maternal mortality through improved equity in access and service delivery, especially with respect to emergency obstetric care.
Countries should also address health financing; the shortage of medical personnel and the gender dimension of HIV and AIDS.

Violence against women:
Violence against women (VAW) continues to be a serious problem in many African countries, although many of them have taken various measures to combat it. Human trafficking is also becoming a scourge on the continent.
At least 14 African countries are either in the process of completing or have completed law reform processes in the area of domestic violence.
Measures against VAW continue to be victim-focused, leaving offenders and perpetrators out of the process. Moreover, the needs of vulnerable groups such as women with disabilities are often overlooked in policy formulation.
Commitment to combat VAW needs to address a number of challenges such as multi-sectoral coordination, comprehensive data collection and monitoring mechanisms, strengthen enforcement of laws, as well as the involvement of boys and men.

Women and armed conflict:
Due to the chaos and anarchy of open conflicts, women and girls continue to be vulnerable to attacks, especially sexually-based violence (in Cote d’Ivore, 52% of women have been displaced by war and 21% among the displaced are women heads of households).
Low is the level of awareness and implementation of the United Nations Security Council Regulation (UNSCR) 1325 on women’s participation in conflict prevention, peace negotiation and keeping and post war reconstruction. Although the resolution calls upon all sides in armed conflicts to protect women and girls, they remain vulnerable targets in conflict situations.
Only 12 countries have adopted Action Plans to operationalise UNSCR 1325. Namibia integrated this Resolution into its revised National Gender Policy in 2008. In Cote d’Ivore, for example, the defence and security forces are being trained on UNSCR Resolution 1325, while in Chad, a project was designed to assist displaced and refugee women who are victims of violence.
Even in those countries that have emerged from conflict, involving women in policies, plans and activities remains a challenge. Besides, women are not involved in high-level conflict resolution, or in peace management and peacekeeping initiatives.
Recommendations to address women in conflict include increased sensitisation on the existence and contents of UNSCR 1325 in all countries; develop and implement plans of action to effectively implement UNSCR 1325; and build and reinforce capacities of women at all levels to effectively participate in peace-making, peacekeeping and peace building/post conflict reconstruction programmes.

Women and the economy:
Countries reported that women’s participation in the formal economy has increased at all levels and that both women and men are benefiting from capacity building programmes and support to set up business in almost all of the responding countries. Countries have implemented gender responsive employment policies, non-discriminatory labour laws and affirmative action policies.
However, women are still poorly represented in economic decision-making, including the formulation of fiscal, commercial and other economic policies. They remain confined to low paying jobs; are more likely to be among the working poor and without any protection; and persistency of customary and traditional norms limit their effective access, control and utilisation of productive resources.
Increased attention is being given to engendering national budgets and ensuring public resources support to gender equality and women’s empowerment in many African countries. However, these efforts call for scaling up technical and analytical expertise and recommitting to achieve gender equality and equity.

Women in power and decision-making:
The election of the first African woman president in 2006 in Liberia has set precedence and provided a role model on the continent. In Algeria, a woman has run as a candidate for presidency, and in Gabon, a woman in her capacity as President of Senate was made interim president of the Republic till elections.
Countries have adopted different plans, programmes and measures to encourage and promote the representation of women in decision-making. For example, Ghana implemented a 40% quota and the government of Burundi and Burkina Faso adopted a 30% minimum quota in government and parliament. Morocco is providing financial grants to parties to encourage women representation in their electoral lists.
However, Africa is faced with a challenge of reaching a 50/50 gender parity target set by the African Union in the Solemn Declaration on Gender Equality in Africa (SDGEA). The modest number of women is still a closed circle and any significant breakthrough requires innovative measures, affirmative actions and further determination from women themselves.

Human Rights of women:
African governments keep undertaking action at all levels to achieve the strategic objectives set in the Beijing Platform for Action, which are the full implementation of all human rights instruments (especially the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW); ensuring equality and non-discrimination under the law and in practice; and achieving legal literacy.
All African countries, except Sudan and Somalia, have ratified CEDAW and in 2009 and Morocco has withdrawn the reservations made in 2003 upon ratification of the Convention.
In addition, 17 African countries have ratified the CEDAW Protocol on the Rights of Women and 27 others ratified the Protocol to the African Charter of Human and People’s Rights (ACHPR) on Women’s Rights.
Achievements are notable in legal reforms to enforce women’s rights and eliminate discriminatory laws as member countries have reformed existing laws or enacted new laws and regulations to this effect. Efforts have been made to address the unequal relations between men and women within national gender strategies to fight violence against women (e.g Algeria, Botswana, Cameroon, Congo, Cote d’Ivore, Malawi, Mauritius, Morocco, Namibia, Nigeria and Tunisia).
However, the major real challenge facing Africa in this area remains the effective and sustainable enforcement of these laws and solving the existing contradictions in customary and religious law on the one hand, and codified laws on the other hand. Such contradictions are persistently undermining progress achieved to promote and protect women’s rights.

Women and the media:
The media is still dominated by men and this adversely affects the way women are portrayed. Even though women’s presence in the media has increased, their presence in key decision-making positions is still very low. Women’s views and voices continue to be grossly under represented in the media and women’s activities are not considered newsworthy and, therefore, are not widely discussed in the media.
Gender imbalance in the recruitment of media staff is still pervading despite recently formulated policies in many countries to encourage recruitment of female staff. However, associations of women journalists are flourishing in many countries to echo women’s voice and views and advocate for maintaining of gender in the media.
Women’s machineries are deploying efforts to contribute to the promotion of research on women and media. In addition, many programmes and initiatives were put in place to enable more and more women to access ICT resources and use them to promote their activities.
Efforts to improve the participation of women in the media should include raising awareness of the importance of giving access to ICT at both rural and urban levels through appropriate policies, laws and pilot schemes; and ensuring equal representation of women in decision making positions in all media houses.