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Scooped by
Robin Landis
September 11, 2013 3:02 AM
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...In Rwanda, the 30% quota has been exceeded ever since it was introduced, and neighbouring countries in the region are not too far behind: Burundi and Uganda have female parliamentary representation at over 30% as well. What makes Rwanda so successful? Dr Agnes Matilda Kalibata has been minister for agriculture since 2008. She puts the higher-than-average proportion of women in office down to a restructuring of Rwandan society post-genocide. "Bringing women out of the home and fields has been essential to our rebuilding," she told the Washington post in 2008. "We are becoming a nation that understands that there are huge financial benefits to equality." Elections are due on 16-18 September, and there are 204 women competing for 80 seats in the lower house. With a quota for young people and a reserved seat for a candidate with disabilities, women are expected to win more than the 24 seats allocated to them again...
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Scooped by
Robin Landis
September 8, 2013 9:59 AM
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A new publicationfrom the World Bank’s Africa Development Forum takes a hard look at gender inequality in legal rights and relates this to women’s chances of succeeding in the economic sphere. Particularly, this book looks at family inheritance and land laws, which underlie the (gender-blind) business laws. It examines the laws in all 47 Sub-Saharan countries. Although the publication does not specifically address aquaculture and fisheries, the legal matters have very similar application to those for agriculture which the book does address, especially in the case of aquaculture.
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Scooped by
Robin Landis
September 8, 2013 9:56 AM
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Primate of the Anglican Church of Burundi and Chairperson of the Council of Anglican Provinces in Africa (CAPA), the Most Revd Bernard Ntahoturi said African countries need to embrace a holistic approach to development if they are to achieve real growth..."There is need for a holistic approach to development and growth...Women's empowerment and participation, as well as environmental issues need to be addressed adequately if we are to eradicate poverty."
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Scooped by
Robin Landis
September 8, 2013 9:52 AM
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This is a statement by Helen Clark, UNDP Administrator, delivered on 3 June 2013.
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Scooped by
Robin Landis
September 8, 2013 9:48 AM
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'Justina Mutale is known globally for her humanitarian and community work. She brings substantial experience and resources to IWTT that includes her relationships with governments, international women's groups and business organizations', says Brenda Morant, Founder, Chair & CEO of the International Women's Think Tank and International Women's Center (IWTT-IWC)... Justina Mutale joins a list of highly respected international personalities from the arenas of government, education, business, agriculture, STEM and media who are serving as Honorary Ambassadors for the IWTT, and who are chosen because of their eminent name recognition and because of the respect with which they are held worldwide and their appeal as genuine humanitarians and business people.
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Scooped by
Robin Landis
September 8, 2013 9:44 AM
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[Not East Africa related, but a really good read!] ...After years of observation, administrators and professors agreed that one particular factor was torpedoing female class participation grades: women, especially single women, often felt they had to choose between academic and social success...
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Scooped by
Robin Landis
September 2, 2013 2:59 AM
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The report, which was published on July 31, says asylum seekers and refugees rose from 430,871 in 2010 to 630,097 in December last year.
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Scooped by
Robin Landis
August 19, 2013 8:25 AM
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BY MELINDA GATES In the field of development, there are too many reports to count, but last month's U.N. report on the Post-2015 Development Agenda stands out because it contains a big idea that could change the future for billions of people. It says that investments in the world's poorest people won't generate the biggest possible return until we learn how to make sure women and girls benefit from them equally.... ...You can see the gender bias inherent in development by looking closely at the recent history of agricultural development in sub-Saharan Africa. Women do a majority of the farm work in that part of the world, but many agricultural programs are instead designed to reach the minority of male farmers. For example, the government employees who train farmers tend to be men who in some cases are not allowed to train women and in many cases simply prefer working with men. As a result, women farmers are significantly less productive than their male counterparts... ...Since women are far more likely to be in charge of feeding their families, the fact that they grow less food has disastrous consequences for children across the continent -- and for development at large. If we disaggregate the data, however, we will know immediately whether particular groups are being left out. And then in-country programs can be redesigned to address the problem. We know from experience that a rising tide in development does not necessarily lift all boats. By the same token, progress toward the MDGs does not necessarily include all people. It's possible to reduce poverty for certain types of people but not for other types. Disaggregation will go a long way toward repairing this shortcoming in the next set of global goals... ...The U.N. panel points out one giant barrier to reaping the rewards of disaggregation: As it stands right now, the world doesn't have the ability to gather the necessary data or analyze it properly. Some countries simply don't collect enough data, or it's not accurate. Other countries with better data don't track it in ways that make country to country comparisons possible, which makes the data difficult to use. The report calls for a "data revolution" that takes advantage of the new digital tools at our disposal. It will take significant investment over the next two years to ensure that governments in developing countries have the capability to gather and analyze data when the new generation of MDGs comes into effect in 2015.
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Scooped by
Robin Landis
August 20, 2013 5:07 AM
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...The recent peace process for the Great Lakes has been, thus far, disappointing in terms of providing for visible participation by women stakeholders, and explicitly addressing vital women's rights issues. Indeed, other than a reference to the use of sexual violence and other serious violations as weapons of war, the Peace Security and Cooperation (PSC) Framework does not explicitly address women's protection needs nor does it include measures to secure their participation over the course of its implementation. Failing to change course could come at a huge cost. Measures that directly address the protection needs of women represent precisely the kind of urgent reforms that are needed to stabilise the region. By more aggressively pursuing the Women Peace and Security Agenda, peacemakers can have a strategic entry point from which to push for progress in areas that have historically resisted reform, particularly in the governance, security and justice sectors. Widespread insecurity in eastern DRC persists in part because of a prevailing culture of predation and exploitation by the Congolese army and police, in addition to the utter absence of state authority and rampant impunity for those responsible for the commission of past and on-going serious crimes. Responding to women's protection needs involves measures that tackle these very issues. The inclusion of women's voices in the formulation of stabilization measures serves to directly link peace-builders to realities on the ground. Women also represent an important constituency that can hold implementing actors of the PSC Framework accountable...
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Scooped by
Robin Landis
August 19, 2013 10:29 AM
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Approximately 6.5 million Somali girls and women have undergone female genital mutilation/cutting (FGM/C) -- otherwise known as female circumcision -- according to a new report by the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF). Although support for the practice is waning, the report indicates that 98% of Somali women between 15 and 49 have been cut or mutilated -- the highest per capita percentage in the world. In addition, the report states that female circumcision is higher among Somalis even in countries where the practice is less common. For instance, 74% of Ethiopian women aged 15 to 49 have undergone the procedure, although 97% of Somali women living in Ethiopia have. Only 27% of Kenyan women in the same age bracket have experienced FGM/C, but Somali women living in Kenya have a 98% rate. In Djibouti, where the majority of the population is ethnically Somali, 93% of women are circumcised. In Tanzania, 15% of women are circumcised. The report is based on Demographic and Health Surveys, supported by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), and UNICEF's Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey conducted over the past 20 years.
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Scooped by
Robin Landis
August 17, 2013 5:37 AM
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Authors Laurel Weldon and Mala Htun have painstakingly constructed the mother of all databases, covering 70 countries over four decades (1975 to 2005). It includes various kinds of state action (legal and administrative reforms, protection and prevention, training for officials), and a number of other relevant factors, such as the presence of women legislators, GDP per capita, the nature of the political regime etc. This allows them both to chart steady improvements in VaW policy and to use stats techniques to try and identify those factors most closely correlated with state action. To read more: http://www.oxfamblogs.org/fp2p/?p=15541
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Scooped by
Robin Landis
August 15, 2013 10:34 AM
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Conversations about Gender Equality with Women and Men in 20 Countries --The report synthesizes data collected from more than 4000 women and men in 93 communities across 20 countries. --It is the largest data set ever collected on the topic of gender and development, providing an unprecedented opportunity to examine potential patterns across communities on social norms and gender roles, pathways of empowerment, and factors that drive acute inequalities. --Women's agency is key to economic development and gender equality. Women and men's agency are affected by aspirations, social norms, and the set of opportunities available in the community. --Social norms on gender and gender roles are strikingly similar across countries , cultures, urban and rural settings. Women's roles tend to be rigid and closely formed around household and child care activities. --In most countries and contexts, women are gaining increased control over economic and economic decisions. Men's perceptions are that their control and well being are more stagnant.
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Scooped by
Robin Landis
August 13, 2013 3:46 AM
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Evidence from several African countries suggests that female farmers are as efficient as male farmers, but are less productive because they are denied equal access to productive inputs and human capital. If their access to these inputs were at par with men’s access, total agricultural output in these countries could increase by up to 30% and increase agricultural output by up to 4%. Integrating gender in programs, policies and projects thus aims to reduce gender disparities and enhance women’s participation in the economic development and their empowerment. In 2012, the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) adopted a gender strategy to guide the integration of gender in its work. The purpose of this manual is to provide operational guidance to ILRI staff and partners on how to integrate gender into the project cycle in accordance with the gender strategy. The need for this manual arises both from the evidence that gender plays an important role in determining economic growth, poverty reduction, and development effectiveness, and from the less-than-systematic integration of gender concerns into livestock projects and programs. The manual is organized into two main sections. The first section covers the key concepts of gender, the rationale for gender mainstreaming in livestock development projects and programs and raises the key issues in gender and
livestock development. The second section covers the integration of gender into the project cycle, from problem and context analysis, project design, implementation, monitoring and evaluation.
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Scooped by
Robin Landis
September 11, 2013 2:58 AM
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...Although maternal deaths have been declining in Uganda, latest WHO figures show that up to 438 mothers die for every 100,000 delivered babies. This means Uganda will not beat the fifth Millennium Development Goal set by the UN in 2000 that seeks to cut back expectant mothers' deaths to at least 135 per 100,000 live births by 2015. International health experts now say Uganda will most likely attain that target in 2031... Asia Russell, the director of international advocacy at Health GAP, a US-based health rights NGO says there are four major drivers of deaths of expectant mothers in Uganda; unsafe abortions, haemorrhage, obstructed labour and sepsis...These occur because hospitals lack transfusion blood, manual vacuum aspiration kits, and critical medical personnel like midwives and nurses. But another cause of women dying, especially in the rural areas is, according to Dr Kiggundu, due to the irresponsibility or negligence of their partners who do not understand the gravity of the problem when for instance a woman goes into labour. Community involvement:
...Uganda is largely male-headed, the time to bring men to fully participate in the reproduction process is now..."We need each other to reproduce and we need each other's support to reproduce safely. Men and women have complementary roles as far as the reproduction process is concerned..." ...Since women carry the burden of pregnancy and motherhood, men must carry the burden of fatherhood with its responsibilities...the government needs to identify and regularly remind men of their fatherhood roles. Men involvement, he says, could help women space children, access pre-natal, obstetric and post-natal care...
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Scooped by
Robin Landis
September 8, 2013 9:58 AM
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Wife of Ekiti State Governor in South West Nigeria, Erelu Bisi Fayemi, has said that the country’s hope of attaining the Millennium Development Goals by 2015 remains a pipe dream except women are economically empowered to contribute their quota...promotion of the well-being of women should top the agenda of government at all levels for the country to catch up with the rest of the world.
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Scooped by
Robin Landis
September 8, 2013 9:54 AM
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[This is a Community of Practice on Gender and Evaluation] This is part of Engendering Policy through Evaluation project at Institute of Social Studies Trust (ISST) funded by IDRC and Ford Foundation. The project aims to strengthen understanding of gendered implications of policies and programmes and to enable formulation of more gender sensitive approaches to evaluation. We are interested both in the 'doing' of evaluations as well as reflecting on the practices of evaluation. Learn more about our project at www.feministevaluation.org/ This community was launched on 16 January 2013. Over the next two years, we hope to build a wider network of people interested in gender, research and evaluation. Post a blog or start a discussion or share about your documents, events, photos and videos. For any query contact rituubnanda[@]feministevaluation.org or see the help page http://gendereval.ning.com/page/help
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Scooped by
Robin Landis
September 8, 2013 9:49 AM
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This week, we launch a brand new video series on Africa.com. “Thought Leaders,” in association with The Africa Business Club – A student-run organization of the Harvard Business School, is a showcase of Africa’s brightest minds. In this series, we sit down with Africa’s leading thinkers, innovators and trailblazers to address key topics affecting the continent’s economic future. In the first installment of ‘Thought Leaders,” we tackle the subject of African Women in Business, and share the experiences of four dynamic women entrepreneurs.
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Scooped by
Robin Landis
September 8, 2013 9:46 AM
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This meeting brought together policy makers, gender practitioners and negotiators to discuss the status of gender and climate change in Africa with a view to identifying options and ways of advancing the goal of gender balance in the UNFCCC and informing gender-sensitive climate policy from Africa’s perspective. The meeting included delegates and representatives of around 10 African countries, including countries participating in WEDO’s Women Delegates Fund program.
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Scooped by
Robin Landis
September 4, 2013 11:39 AM
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“The Kenyan experience on gender responsive budgeting reflects that there has been little success in pushing for change in the budget making process. Inclusion of women in the process can promote big change... ...Civil societies have to step up their work in ensuring there is balanced gender participation in the budget making process. This will promote creative ideas and enhance development.
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Scooped by
Robin Landis
August 20, 2013 5:10 AM
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In Africa, where women are sometimes subject to prejudice, microfinancing has emerged as a tool for economic empowerment...Now lenders are finding that women are often better borrowers than men, and tend to be more fiscally responsible...As in any developing region, microfinance is proving to be a powerful tool in helping communities lift themselves out of poverty... “There are huge populations in need of help in Africa, and the process of encouraging micro-entrepreneurs becomes a self-feeding cycle, which can alleviate a lot of the political and systemic problems. The social improvements filter down to help entire communities, not just individuals.” See more at:http://afkinsider.com/11694/empowerment-tool-microfinancing-opens-entreprenuism-to-african-women/#sthash.zy27wQGp.dpuf
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Scooped by
Robin Landis
August 15, 2013 10:36 AM
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This handy pocket guide is a quick reference for users interested in gender statistics. The book presents gender-disaggregated data for more than 200 economies in an easy country-by-country reference on demography, education, health, labor force, political participation and the Millennium Development Goals. The book’s summary pages cover regional and income group aggregates.
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Scooped by
Robin Landis
August 20, 2013 3:42 AM
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Scooped by
Robin Landis
August 19, 2013 2:13 AM
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The UN Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNISDR) recently published the Proceedings from the Fourth Session of the Global Platform for Disaster Risk Reduction – Invest Today for a Safer Tomorrow: Resilient People – Resilient Planet, which was held in Geneva from 19-23 May, 2013. The Global Platform generated critical and substantive advice for the preparation of the post-2015 framework for disaster risk reduction, commonly called “HFA2”. A key theme was that “engaging communities achieves results” (pg. 13). By employing culturally sensitive and inclusive programs, sustainable resilience building is possible. In a specific session entitled “HF2 – Women Making a Difference”, panelists expressed their disappointment that grassroots women activists in disaster risk reduction are invisible. They suggested that this was because of the disconnect between policy and practice. The panelists also lamented the fact that there is an over emphasis on women and girls’ vulnerability in disasters and not enough attention paid to their contributions and capacities. The session articulated the logic chain as follows: “there is no development without stability; there is no stabilization without social cohesion; there is no social cohesion without the active participation ofwomen” (pg. 34). The participants offered several recommendations including: --Recognize and work with grassroots women’s organizations --Increase and improve the collection and use of sex and age disaggregated data --Engage women leaders and promote women’s leadership
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Scooped by
Robin Landis
August 15, 2013 10:40 AM
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Most of the refugees are refusing to move, despite facing serious safety and hygiene issues at an overcrowded transit site near the border; they want to stay put to better monitor and asses the unrest in their home areas...
...The mainly refugee subsistence farmers hope the low-level fighting and instability that forced them out of the Kamango area in the northernmost part of North Kivu Province, will soon stop, allowing them to return to their farms... ...“They can’t continue to want to live in the transit centre. If they don’t want to move to the designate settlement camp, let them pack and seek asylum elsewhere.” [Uganda’s commissioner for refugees]
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Scooped by
Robin Landis
August 13, 2013 3:53 AM
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Just for fun. Italian photographer Gabriele Galimberti realized that trying to not overeat over at your grandma's place has got to be a universal thing, and set out to explore what grandmothers cook around the world.
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