By Itai Madamombe, United Nations Africa Renewal
Things are starting to change for women in Africa and women themselves are behind the move. So says Ms. Anne Marie Goetz, who heads a team working on governance, peace and security issues at the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM).
“The status of women in many countries is improving,” she recently told Africa Renewal.
“Women are making it clear they will not put up with the situation anymore and governments are creating opportunities for women to contribute skills and talent to national development.”
When the African Union launched the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD) in 2001, women found little mention of themselves in the new blueprint for the region’s development. Women’s groups protested what they saw as ‘insensitivity’ to gender issues and demanded that women not be frozen out of the social and economic benefits promised by the initiative.
Ms. Litha Musyimi-Ogana is an advocate for women’s rights and was among those asking for change. “I got the NEPAD document into my hands,” she recalls. “I saw that empowering women was a priority. I got excited. Then I flipped to the plan of action to see NEPAD’s concrete plans for women. There was nothing there.”
The once skeptical activist today works for NEPAD, based in Johannesburg, South Africa. She heads a team which ensures that NEPAD’s policies, programmes and activities take women’s perspectives and needs into account. The team was set up in 2004 in response to pressure from women’s groups and others who felt NEPAD must address the interests of all groups.
“Our attitude in protesting was: if you see something missing, help add to it,” Ms. Musyimi-Ogana reflects. “Don’t just complain. While NEPAD was far from perfect, I saw it as a commitment. I saw a spirit in it. It is the first time that our heads of state were committing themselves voluntarily to helping Africa. It was an historic moment.”
One of NEPAD’s most innovative features -- the African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM) – calls on governments to review the progress they have made to promote democracy, good governance and sound economic management. They must also report on actions to promote and protect women’s rights. About half of the governments have signed on to the APRM, which is a voluntary programme.
The peer review report on Rwanda, released in 2006, noted that Rwanda has taken positive steps to change the constitution and “created a plethora of institutions and development programmes to enhance the status and welfare of women in all walks of life.” It hailed the strong push made to support women candidates in elections for the legislature, which had resulted in females winning almost half of the seats.
However, the review panel also noted that Rwandan women still face many hurdles. Before a married woman can engage in commercial activities, it noted, she must have her husband’s permission. This makes women inferior to men and the government was asked to change this.
Similar peer reviews have been done in Ghana and Kenya. Both countries received suggestions for how they could further improve the status of women and opportunities available to women and girls. Another 24 countries are at various stages of review.
“Getting women into key positions is critical,” Ms. Goetz states. “Women in public office tend to be more sensitive to the needs of female citizens – though that is not always the case,” she adds. “The ability of women to bring about real change, however, depends on the policies of their parties and the calibre of the representatives themselves.”
Overall in sub-Saharan Africa, women hold an average 16.8 per cent of parliamentary seats, close to the global average of 17.1 per cent, according to the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU), an international forum for dialogue among legislators.
Women produce more than half the food grown in Africa. But despite this dominant role, both modern laws and traditional customs make it difficult for women to own land or obtain credit.
NEPAD’s 2003 Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme states that “special attention must be given to the vital food-producing and entrepreneurial roles of women in rural and urban African communities.” Augustin Wambo is an agriculture policy expert with NEPAD. He says that ‘noble’ goals are meaningless unless people in power are made aware of women’s needs. “Unless we empower law-makers to unblock resources from national budgets and put in place the necessary means and policies to support women, the initiative [CAADAP] is not going to fly,” he stresses.
In March 2007, NEPAD briefed members of parliament in southern Africa on how they can help achieve NEPAD’s agriculture goals, emphasising the significance of gender and describing what can be done to support women farmers.
NEPAD staff consults with a wide range of experts to make sure that women’s interests are fully taken into account. The civil society organisations’ think tank, a group of some 60 experts on gender issues, was set up in 2005 as a result of a proposal from the Kenya-based African Women’s Development Communication Network (FEMNET) which is active in some 40 countries.
Such willingness to consult experts, notes Roselynn Musa, a member of the think tank, shows that African leaders now realise that NEPAD’s goals cannot be achieved unless women and girls are able to participate fully in their societies. By making a positive impact in their daily lives, Ms. Musa says, NEPAD can only become more relevant and credible to African women.