Who does what
Applying good intentions
A body of international legislation recognises gender equality as a fundamental right and of importance in combating poverty - although implementation has often fallen short of targets, notably the Millennium Development Goal (MDG 5) on improving maternal health. Progress often depends on individuals who take up the mantle such as Sweden’s Minister for International Development Cooperation, Gunilla Carlsson, who has put women’s participation in peace and security talks on the agenda of the Swedish Presidency of the EU. President of Liberia, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, is also leading by example in having organised a women’s international leadership conference in Monrovia in March 2009.
A refugee-camp area de-forested by Sudanese refugees in Chad. Women have to trek far from the camp to find fire wood, increasing their risk of being attacked 2009.
© Reporters
The development community’s approach to gender empowerment has evolved since the 1970s when the United Nations’ International Year of Women in 1975 and international women’s decade (1976-85) saw the formation of a rash of women’s ministries and the adoption of ‘Women in Development’ policies by governments and non-governmental bodies, although such projects had limited success since they did not include issues of land ownership and access to markets, credit and information.
The mid-1970s brought in a move towards a more strategic approach to empowering women, encompassing legislative change. The 30 articles of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), adopted by the UN General Assembly in 1979 was based on the principles of equality, non discrimination and state obligation. CEDAW’s obligations are binding although reservations (meaning non-compliance) are permitted on individual articles. One hundred and eighty five states are currently party to the Convention.
The Beijing Action Plan, adopted following the Fourth United Nations’ Conference on Women in 1995, confirmed the move from projects under the banner of women in development to mainstreaming of gender empowerment policies. It highlighted the inequalities where action was required across all branches of governments who signed up to the plan from unequal access to health care and related services to the effects of armed conflict on women.
“Best practices”
But as President of Liberia, Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, said at European Development Days in Stockholm, Sweden, national plans post-Beijing have ”fallen below expectations”. In Stockholm, she made an appeal to look at “best practices”. She told the conference she had placed women in strategic cabinet positions such as Justice, Finance (traditional male preserves) and put the girl child at the centre of her strategy which had included bringing in a tough rape law to stamp out the violence against women which was rife when she became Head of State, post-conflict, in 2006
Progress lags on the attainment of some of the specific United Nations’ Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) adopted by governments at the turn of the century relating to women, highlights the United Nations' own 2009 Millennium Goals Report, notably MDG 5 on improving maternal health. The number of maternal deaths per 100,000 live births has hardly fallen in sub-Saharan Africa declining from just 920 in 1990 to 900 in 2005, and half of all maternal deaths (265,000) annually occur in sub-Saharan Africa, says the report. Progress on MDG 3 - the promotion of gender equality and female empowerment – meant to eliminate gender disparity in primary and secondary education, and in all levels of education not later than 2015 is also wanting. “In the developing regions as a whole, 95 girls were enrolled in primary school for every 100 boys in 2007, compared to 91 in 1999. However, the target of eliminating gender disparities in primary and secondary education by 2005 was missed. Ensuring the opportunity is not lost again in 2015 will require renewed urgency and commitment”, says the report.
The same report has rosier figures for the proportion of seats held by women in single or lower houses of national parliaments in sub-Saharan Africa which stands at 18 per cent, compared with 9 per cent in 2000 and in Latin Amercica and the Caribbean, 22 per cent, the highest regional average recorded..“Sub-Saharan Africa continues to make strides, with Rwanda out in front: it made history in September 2008 when its lower chamber elected a majority (56 per cent) of women members, reads the report. But nine chambers – mainly in the Pacific islands and Arab Gulf States – have no women members of parliament at all. The report also says that the 2008 global financial crisis has created new hurdles to women’s employment.
Peace and security – a woman’s affair
All 11 of the EU’s Special Representatives (Foreign Affairs) are men, fewer than 10 per cent of international peace negotiators are women and out of 300 peace agreements, only 10 mention sexual violence. The statistics were given by Margot Wallström, the Swedish EU Commissioner for Institutional Relations and Communication State during the European Development Days event in Stockholm, Sweden, 22-24 October.
The Swedish government draws attention to the fact that governments are trailing in the implementation of United Nations resolution 1325, adopted in 2000, which deals with the impact of war on women and foresees women’s central contribution to conflict resolution and achieving sustainable peace. Sweden has its own action plan and wants other EU countries to follow suit (only 8 out of 27 member states currently have similar plans).
The EU’s own European Development Report on ‘Overcoming Fragility in Africa’ highlights the case of the indiscriminate use of rape as a weapon of war in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Between 1998 and 2003, 51,000 cases of rape were reported in the provinces of South Kivu and Kalemie.
The EU’s current Swedish presidency is seeking the participation of a higher proportion of women in international peace and security building operations and for the protection of women and girls in conflict situations to be strengthened and to ensure that women participate fully and on equal terms with men at all levels in mechanisms and institutions for conflict prevention. All EU representatives must have knowledge of resolution 1325, says Gunilla Carlsson.Visits to conflict areas must include meetings with national and local women’s organisations. The Swedish government suggests that development cooperation funds be used to strengthen women’s participation in post-conflict situations and that women benefit from loans, credit and other financial services for education and vocational training in post-conflict situations.
