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Pride, pilgrims and parades: Africa's top shots

BBC Africa - Fri, 03/08/2024 - 03:15
A selection of the best photos from across the African continent this week.
Categories: Africa

Stepping Up Investment in Latin American Women is Imperative

Africa - INTER PRESS SERVICE - Thu, 03/07/2024 - 22:51

Women's demonstrations to demand respect for their rights are held in Latin American cities on Mar. 8, International Women's Day, calling on governments in the region to invest in promoting gender equality. The photo shows a march in Lima on Mar. 8, 2023. CREDIT: Walter Hupiú / IPS

By Mariela Jara
LIMA, Mar 7 2024 (IPS)

Time is running out to achieve gender equality in Latin America and the Caribbean by 2030. The autonomy of women and girls in the region is threatened by hunger, poverty and violence, and countries must urgently step on the gas.

For Mar. 8, International Women’s Day, United Nations agencies have focused on progress made towards the gender targets of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of the 2030 Agenda approved in 2015."In the context of low and volatile economic growth in the region, it is necessary to invest in women, because there is a historical debt to their rights and because this kind of spending has the potential to accelerate sustainable development." -- Ana Güezmes

“In our region, only 25 percent of the targets for which information is available in the SDG monitoring indicators allow us to foresee their fulfillment by 2030,” said Ana Güezmes, chief of the Division for Gender Affairs of the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC).

From ECLAC headquarters in Santiago, Chile she told IPS that 48 percent of the goals have seen progress, albeit insufficient, in the right direction, while there has been backsliding on 27 percent.

The slogan set by the United Nations for this Mar. 8 is “Invest in Women: Accelerate Progress”, calling for greater spending by governments to achieve SDG 5, which has a global deficit of 360 billion dollars per year.

In the region, there are both progress and concerns regarding SDG 5, which refers to achieving gender equality and empowering women and girls.

Güezmes said the region is moving ahead in terms of strengthening policies and laws, but that the challenge is to accelerate the implementation and enforcement of government measures in order to increase the rate of progress towards substantive equality.

Ana Güezmes, chief of the Gender Affairs Division of the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), stressed to IPS the need to ensure investment in women to achieve gender equality. CREDIT: ECLAC

She said improvement has been slow towards other SDG 5 targets, such as the elimination of violence against women and girls, the eradication of child marriage, and the recognition and valuation of unpaid domestic and care work. And she added that the region continues to lag behind in technology for the empowerment of women.

Güezmes, a physician by profession, and an advocate for women’s human rights, a care society and gender equality, has held senior positions in the region at UN Women, the UN Population Fund (UNFPA), the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Pan-American Health Organization (PAHO) over the past 30 years.

 

Greater inequality among poor, indigenous and rural populations

Latin America and the Caribbean, which in 2022 was home to 334.627 million girls and women, 50.8 percent of the regional population according to the World Bank, are facing several crises.

The region was one of the hardest hit by the Covid-19 pandemic and for the last 10 years has averaged a meager 0.8 percent annual economic growth rate, affecting its population, which is suffering from poverty, food insecurity and lack of employment, all of which hit girls and women harder.

In Latin America, only 27 percent of the targets of Goal 5 of the Sustainable Development Goals, which promotes gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls, have been met. In this context, rural women – like this Quechua mother from the Peruvian Andes – are part of the most unequal female population in the region, affected by poverty, food insecurity and violence. CREDIT: Mariela Jara / IPS

On Feb. 28, ECLAC, in partnership with UN Women, presented a study on the state of progress towards gender equality in the region, which highlighted the gaps that hinder the rights of women, girls and adolescents.

Three out of 10 girls and women live in poverty and one out of 10 in extreme poverty, with higher rates among indigenous, black and rural women. Likewise, four out of 10 women suffer some level of food insecurity and hunger.

Of those over 15 years of age, 25 percent have no income of their own, a proportion that rises to 40 percent among those in the lowest socioeconomic quintile.

Nayda Quispe, from the Peruvian department of Cuzco, is one of the 3.4 million rural women in the Andean country. She has dedicated her life to agriculture and, at 62 years of age, is well aware of the harsh reality of rural life for women.

“We constantly experience inequality here. Women work all day, but are not paid or recognized for their efforts, continue to be pushed to the back burner, and because of economic dependence stay in violent relationships,” she told IPS during a meeting ahead of Mar. 8 in Cuzco, the capital of the southern Andean department.

Nayda Quispe, a Peruvian farmer from the department of Cuzco, pointed out the state of the soil as a result of the 2023 drought. She regretted that the authorities do not invest in the development of rural women who need access to education and technical training to be able to work and generate their own income. CREDIT: Mariela Jara / IPS

Quispe is one of the few women in her rural environment who managed to continue her studies, graduating as a biologist and working for a few years in her profession without losing her link with agroecology, to which she is now fully dedicated.

She criticized governments for building cement works instead of investing in education and training for women that would allow them to have decent jobs and earn their own money. “As long as this does not change, we will continue to be the forgotten ones as always,” she complained.

The ECLAC study shows that in Guatemala and Honduras, more than 50 percent and 43 percent of women, respectively, have no income of their own – among the highest levels in the region.

Güezmes stressed the impact this has on women’s economic independence, a necessary condition for physical autonomy and a life free of violence.

“Gender-based violence against women and girls occurs systematically and persistently in the region, in both the domestic and public spheres,” she said.

She highlighted the problem of early and forced child marriages and unions, which affect one out of every five girls in the region. Suriname, Nicaragua, Honduras, Belize, the Dominican Republic and Guyana lead with percentages above 30 percent. Only four countries have percentages below 20 percent: Costa Rica, Argentina, Peru and Jamaica.

In addition, the ECLAC study reports that in this region, considered to have the highest levels of gender-based violence, an average of 338 women per month and 11 per day are victims of gender-based homicide, or femicide. In 2022 at least 4050 women fell victim to this crime, 70 percent of whom were of reproductive age between 15 and 44 years.

María Eugenia Sarrias, head of Lxs Safinas, a lesbian feminist organization in Argentina, complained about the setbacks in the rights of women and minorities under the administration of far-right President Javier Milei. CREDIT: Lxs Safinas

Achievements at risk

The weakening of democracies in the region has had a direct impact on women’s rights. Achievements in gender institutionality in Argentina, for example, are in marked decline, including the right to abortion, under the government of far-right President Javier Milei, thus affecting progress towards the SDGs.

“Under Milei, women and minorities are heavily harassed. The era of rights is over; the right wing has arrived to cut back on the advances we had made in sexual and reproductive rights, gender equality and LGTBIQ+ rights,” María Eugenia Sarrias, president of Lxs Safinas, a lesbian feminist organization based in the Argentine city of Rosario, told IPS.

She added from that city that the setbacks in social policies have caused shortages in soup kitchens and school lunches. “They’re trying to pay the debt with the hunger of the people. The freedom they talk about is only for those who hold power and have money. We, women and minorities, are facing a very big risk,” she warned.

In El Salvador, President Nayib Bukele announced this month, as his first measure after his landslide reelection, the elimination of all vestiges of the gender perspective in public education, shortly after participating in a gathering of far-right leaders with former U.S. president and candidate Donald Trump.

There is also great concern in Ecuador, where emergency measures are in place to deal with organized crime.

“There are many more women who are impoverished, migrants and victims of violence not only from their partners but also from groups linked to crime,” Clara Merino, coordinator of the Luna Creciente National Movement of Women from Popular Sectors, told IPS.

She argued from Quito that if things continue the way they are going, it will not be possible to achieve gender equality by 2030. “The budget for education, health, human rights and women has been cut. It is impossible for government action to reach the territories where indigenous and black women live, where hunger, child malnutrition and migration of young people are on the rise,” she stressed.

The decriminalization of abortion is one of the demands of Latin American women. In the picture, a sign warns about the danger of clandestine abortions, at a demonstration during a meeting of the Organization of American States in the Dominican Republic, which criminalizes abortion in all circumstances, despite having the highest teenage pregnancy rate in the region. CREDIT: Mariela Jara / IPS

Investing in care

Güezmes said that “in the context of low and volatile economic growth in the region, it is necessary to invest in women, because there is a historical debt to their rights and because this kind of spending has the potential to accelerate sustainable development.”

She gave as an example investment in the care system to break the vicious circle of exclusion and transform it into a virtuous one with multiple positive social and economic effects such as generating employment, higher income and well-being.

“We are the only region in the last 45 years that has promoted an ambitious and comprehensive Regional Gender Agenda that, through the Buenos Aires Commitment, says care should be seen as a right, a need and a job. Addressing it in these three dimensions is essential to achieve the profound change that our societies need,” she underlined.

Excerpt:

This feature is part of a series to mark International Women’s Day, March 8.
Categories: Africa

Into the Abyss: The Scramble for the Ocean Floor

Africa - INTER PRESS SERVICE - Thu, 03/07/2024 - 19:41

By James A Michel
VICTORIA, Republic of Seychelles, Mar 7 2024 (IPS)

Beneath the vast expanse of the ocean surface lies another world. At first, around the shores, the continental shelf is little more than an extension of the adjoining landmass. But then one reaches the edge of the abyss and, with the sudden drop that follows, everything changes. Remarkably, in view of what is known about the rest of the planet, and even outer space, most of the ocean floor remains largely a mystery. The scientific consensus is that only 5% of the deep sea has been explored in any detail. When a passenger jet was lost somewhere in the Indian Ocean in 2014, rescuers floundered without definitive maps of the maritime space and its currents at different depths that might have helped in their search.

James A Michel

At least we have a broad impression of what lies there. There is an average depth of some 3800 metres before one reaches the ocean floor, a surface every bit as diverse as the terrestrial landscape. Here, one finds mountain ranges and peaks that match and even surpass the height of those on land; a mid-ocean ridge that wends its way over a length of 40,000 kilometres between continents around the globe; seemingly endless plains and deep ravines; unexpected gradient falls that plunge in one location to more than 11,000 metres below the surface; scattered eruptions of warm waters (known as hydrothermal vents) emanating from the earth’s interior, which create their own ecosystems; as well as much larger, active volcanoes capable of upsetting the rhythms of the sea far beyond their own points of turbulence; and, in contrast with hydrothermal vents, cold methane seeps which also give rise to their own (albeit very different) micro life systems. Underlying these individual features is a dynamic platform of tectonic plates, responsible for varied geological formations in the past and still capable of causing further movement.

Such is the remarkable physical backcloth for a new era of underwater activity – mining for an array of metals – that is currently high on the commercial and political agenda for ocean development. There is growing pressure from multi-national consortia working with individual countries, small as well as large, to go beyond the present limits of exploration, with a view to widespread excavation. On the basis of a series of targeted explorations, the list of minerals to be found in the deepest parts of the ocean is becoming irresistible for countries and corporations alike. The potential costs of extraction will be enormous but so, too, the returns. Gold, platinum, copper, cobalt, nickel, manganese, lead, lithium, titanium and zinc are amongst the treasures that might soon be brought to the surface. Reserves include rare earth elements that are used in products such as memory chips, batteries for electric vehicles and solar panels. Paradoxically, some of these seabed minerals can help to reduce dependence on fossil fuels.

There is, however, a very high price to pay in terms of ocean sustainability. What is already known about the seabed reveals a unique ecosystem that has been intact throughout human history. In the deepest reaches, myriad creatures have adapted to an inhospitable world without sunlight. Some have developed their own forms of illumination, others survive in total darkness. They are extraordinary creatures, most of which we still know little about. Yet this fragile environment that has taken millions of years to evolve could be devastated in a short burst of mining, where science-fiction machines are lowered to scrape and collect for a new generation of mobile phones and smart gadgets in the home. In the words of David Attenborough:

    The rush to mine this pristine and unexplored environment risks creating terrible impacts that cannot be reversed. We need to be guided by science when faced with decisions of such great environmental consequence.

The United Nations’ agency, the International Seabed Authority, has granted exploration licences but has so far been constrained by international pressure from going to the next stage of allowing excavation. A moratorium is urged, at least until we understand the implications of what is proposed, and so far the agreement is just about holding.

My own view is that it would be tragic to destroy such an enthralling wilderness, containing so many unique features and on this vast scale. There are too few undeveloped areas of the world and this of one of the last. Surely we have a responsibility to do what is right for the planet, putting ethics before raw profits. Options need to be properly explored, asking if we really need these metals and whether the price can be justified. There is still time to pull back, but only just.

It is humanity itself which is now on the edge of the abyss.

James A Michel is Former President of the Republic of Seychelles.

IPS UN Bureau

 


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Categories: Africa

Celebrating Tenacity of Women Farmers: an Incredible Catalyst for Socio-Economic Transformation

Africa - INTER PRESS SERVICE - Thu, 03/07/2024 - 14:21

Agathe and her two children cleaning the harvest of groundnuts produced from her 3 hectare plot. Credit: SADC-GMI

By Thokozani Dlamini
PRETORIA, South Africa, Mar 7 2024 (IPS)

International Women’s Day 2024 serves not only as a celebration of women’s achievements across different sectors but also as a reminder of the persistent obstacles hindering gender equality. In line with the 2024 theme, “Inspire Inclusion,” it is imperative for every individual and organization to actively engage in promoting inclusive environments. The adoption of such initiatives fosters safe and respectful spaces where women’s contributions are valued and celebrated.

This International Women’s Day, we shine a light on Agathe, a 25-year-old smallholder farmer from the outskirts of Kilimwandu, in the Democratic Republic of Congo who was introduced to farming at the tender age of 15.

Agathe epitomizes the diligence and resilience of women who are at the forefront of ensuring regional food security and driving socio-economic transformation.

Smallholder women farmers like Agathe make up an estimated 60-80% of the agricultural labour force in Africa, highlighting the significant reliance on their effort for the continent’s sustenance.

Tackling critical barriers, such as secure land ownership, access to finance, comprehensive training, and robust market connections, is fundamental. Such support would not only empower women farmers, increasing their productivity but would also contribute to heightened food security and improved household incomes

Batanayi Gwangwawa, SADC-GMI
It’s widely recognized that about 80% of the poorest people in the world live in rural areas, with agriculture being their primary means of livelihood. These farmers, mostly women, sustain their families by cultivating crops and rearing animals on small plots of land.

For millions of women, particularly in rural Southern Africa, Groundwater remains a lifeline, underscoring its importance not just for consumption, but as a critical resource for food production and community stability.

On a recent field visit to Kimpangu, the team from SADC-GMI gained firsthand insights into the pivotal role women play in agriculture and the myriad of challenges they confront, as related by Agathe herself.

Today, we honour Agathe and countless other women like her who are the unsung heroes of the agricultural sector, sustaining economies and nurturing communities with their toil and passion.

Agathe dedicates herself to the three-hectare plot of land entrusted to her by her family, nurturing groundnuts, and diverse crops to support herself and her two young children. “As a devoted mother, my day starts early ensuring that my two children have breakfast and well taken care of, after which I head to my farm. On the field, I invest approximately seven hours each day, toiling to ensure a stable livelihood for my family”, she continued.

Despite her dedication, the income she derives from her small-scale farm is insufficient to afford education expenses, leaving her children’s future uncertain.

“My story is exemplary of the challenges faced by numerous women farmers: I lack ownership of the land I farm, have no direct access to markets to sell my produce, and endure the absence of reliable transportation means” she highlighted as she was narrating her story.

This predicament is compounded by the lack of an alternative water source for irrigation, forcing her to depend solely on natural rainfall, which is increasingly unpredictable. Her resilience in the face of these adversities is a testament to the strength and tenacity of countless women who persist in smallholder agriculture under similar constraints.

Climate change threatens the already erratic rainfall that Agathe relies on, endangering her livelihood and regional food security.

This makes groundwater a more sustainable option for smallholder farmers like Agathe and Southern Africa region. SADC-GMI’s mandate is to promote the conjunctive use and management of surface and groundwater through developing water infrastructure and services, such as wells, and solar pumped irrigation systems.

Supported by the Global Environment Facility (GEF) and the Cooperation in International Waters in Africa (CIWA) through the World Bank, SADC-GMI has been able to and continues to establish community groundwater supply schemes which are contributing to regional food security, access to potable water and climate resilience and adaptation for the vulnerable. Women became an integral part and main beneficiaries of these projects.

Ms. Batanayi Gwangwawa –Environmental and Social Management Specialist for SADC-GMI believes that as a collective we can reinforce the essential role of women by championing sustainable groundwater management, implementing policies and initiatives sensitive to gender needs, and enhancing women’s skills in agriculture.

She continues to say that tackling critical barriers, such as secure land ownership, access to finance, comprehensive training, and robust market connections, is fundamental. Such support would not only empower women farmers, increasing their productivity but would also contribute to heightened food security and improved household incomes.

Acknowledging the progress made in women’s empowerment is vital. However, it’s clear that gender parity, particularly in leadership and decision-making roles, remains an area where further effort is necessary.

In the groundwater sector, for example, the representation of women in decision-making positions is disproportionately low, with only one in five roles occupied by females.

This highlights the ongoing need to promote equal opportunities for women and create systemic changes that enable them to participate fully and equally in sectors that are essential for community development and resource management.

SADC-GMI is steadfast in advancing the implementation of its Gender Equality and Social Inclusion strategy (2021- 2025) , which is built on the fundamental goal of amplifying women’s participation across all our projects to maximize impact.

Empowerment of women is not just about equity—it’s about enabling them as powerful agents of socio-economic change, critical for the sustainable transformation of our communities.

 

Thokozani Dlamini is SADC-GMI Communication and Knowledge Management Specialist

Categories: Africa

African Bloc Can Pursue Feminist Foreign Policy in Global Governance Reform Push

Africa - INTER PRESS SERVICE - Thu, 03/07/2024 - 12:06

Africa has recently displayed unapologetic intentionality about its rising emergence from a historically marginalized position in international politics. Credit: United Nations

By Stephanie Musho
NAIROBI, Mar 7 2024 (IPS)

The United Nations Commission on the Status of Women will this month bring together government, civil society, and the private sector to strategize on the acceleration of gender equality, through strengthening institutions and financing from a gender perspective.

This comes a few months after a UN report indicated that it will take almost 300 years to attain gender equality. There is however renewed hope emanating from the efforts of African states – who just like women and girls around the world, have for years been working tirelessly to overhaul an unfair international system and bring down depressing statistics that have become synonymous with them.

Africa has recently displayed unapologetic intentionality about its rising emergence from a historically marginalized position in international politics.

African governments can bolster the acceleration of the attainment of gender equality through the mainstreaming of intersectional feminist values in their evolving yet gallant foreign policy positions

Recently, Egypt and Ethiopia joined South Africa as the only African countries in the BRICS – a geopolitical bloc set up to counter the political and economic dominance of the wealthier nations of North America and Western Europe.

In 2023, the African Union also successfully negotiated its permanent position as a member of the G20 – a leading intergovernmental platform on economic stability and cooperation. Collectively, the G20 controls more than 85% of global gross domestic product, around 75% of global exports, and about 80% of the world’s population.

In this sense, after a 7-year lobbying mission, Africa engineered an overdue shift from a tokenistic and extractive model of engagement that was in operation prior to its recent ascension to meaningful engagement at the decision-making table on a wide range of fiscal and economic issues.

This however remains the reality for women and gender minorities who are habitually included not to contribute to strategy formulation towards solving problems which they experience first-hand, but for the implementation of pre-determined activities often for the compliance with ‘standard form’ gender checklists for the sole purpose of fulfilling diversity quotas.

African Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors have also been putting up a united front in global financial architecture reform efforts, towards new sources of development financing while deconstructing existing exploitative structures that have the continent in perpetual debt traps.

Parallels could be drawn with discriminatory labor practices and unequal pay, further compounded by unequal education opportunities and harmful traditional practices which push women and girls into vicious poverty and dependency cycles, ultimately cutting off their prospects of self-actualization.

African heads of state and government have reiterated the African position that calls for at least two permanent representative seats on the United Nations Security Council that is mandated to maintain international peace, globally.

Presently, Africa only holds temporary rotational membership despite decades of advocating for meaningful inclusion in this powerful decision-making UN organ. Albeit, given that historically the continent has been used as a battlefield for proxy wars by western states.

Moreover, African nations are increasingly taking up bold foreign policy positions. For example, South Africa recently brought Israel to the International Court of Justice for violation of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, against Palestinians in Gaza.

While it could take years for a final ruling from the Court – and with others arguing that the move was merely symbolic; preliminary orders which stopped short of a ceasefire were in favor of South Africa.

Not only does this set precedent in a longer judicial process as it contributes to the jurisprudence of international criminal law. It also establishes the rising influence of the BRICS member-African state in the global political landscape.

There is then opportunity for more African states to follow this lead on the over 110 active conflicts classified under international humanitarian law, towards accountability for violations occurring in wartime.

These have often been found to disproportionately affect women, girls and non-binary persons including by way of their sexual brutalization.

African governments can bolster the acceleration of the attainment of gender equality through the mainstreaming of intersectional feminist values in their evolving yet gallant foreign policy positions.

This is certain to encompass and integrate all their diversities and tailor suitable and sustainable interventions for their different contexts. Herein lies the promise of feminist foreign policy.

The same exclusive and abusive colonial structures that have for years sidelined the continent in global governance structures including international finance institutions, are the same ones upon which patriarchal structures are founded upon.

Hence, a cross-learning opportunity for civil society and the African bloc of states towards the pursuit of feminist foreign policy with sovereign states and multilateral organizations towards sustainable development. Without this, women, girls and gender minorities will continue suffering systemic inequalities that violate their human rights and freedoms for at least, three centuries.

Stephanie Musho is a human rights lawyer and a Senior New Voices Fellow at the Aspen Institute. 

Categories: Africa

Ngannou is 'like a king' in Cameroon

BBC Africa - Thu, 03/07/2024 - 11:12
People in Francis Ngannou's hometown in Cameroon, Batie, are confident their man can beat Anthony Joshua when the two fight in Saudi Arabia.
Categories: Africa

International Women’s Day, 2024Rural Tajik Woman’s Road to Empowering Women Living with HIV

Africa - INTER PRESS SERVICE - Thu, 03/07/2024 - 10:45

Takhmina Haidarova, Tajik advocate for the rights of women living with HIV.

By Ed Holt
BRATISLAVA, Mar 7 2024 (IPS)

Born and raised in a rural area in a traditional Tajik family, Takhmina Haidarova managed to finish high school with excellent grades and wanted to go to university.

“[But] it was compulsory for my family to give higher education to boys, and girls were trained to be housewives,” she says. Her dream of higher education was instead replaced by an arranged marriage to a cousin.

“I was strongly against this wedding, but my father decided for me and married me to him. I hadn’t even seen him before the wedding,” she tells IPS.

She became pregnant soon after the wedding, but her husband, who had worked in Russia before he wed her, left to return to his work there two months into the pregnancy. She gave birth to a daughter, who, however, died after falling ill a year later.

Haidarova was referred to doctors, who ran tests and discovered she had HIV.

“When I told my husband about it, it turned out he had known he had HIV for a long time and had hidden it from me,” she says.

Not long after, her husband returned to Tajikistan. He was seriously ill and was admitted to the hospital. When he died soon after, both his and Haidarova’s families found out they both had the disease, and the stigma and discrimination she has faced for many years since then began.

“None of my relatives communicated with me; they all avoided meeting with me,” she tells IPS. “Society in general refuses to recognize people with HIV,” she says.

But Haidarova decided to take a stand against it.

“When I found out I was HIV positive, my life changed dramatically. I lost my family support, my home, my health, and my sense of peace. It was very difficult and painful. But I decided that I would not let this virus define my life or the lives of other women.

“My husband died, and I started to work at an NGO while at the same time pursuing my higher education. Right from the start, I was open about my HIV status and never hid it,” she says.

“I started helping women with HIV because of my own experience of living with the virus. I know how difficult it is to deal with this diagnosis, especially when resources and support are limited,” she adds.

Today, Haidarova is a prominent advocate for the rights of women living with HIV (WLHIV) in Tajikistan, heading the Tajik Network of Women Living with HIV, based in the capital, Dushanbe. The organisation conducts information campaigns, organizes group sessions, and provides psychological and other support services to WLHIV.

“Starting an organization to support women with HIV was a natural step for me. Together with other women, we started to fight for our rights, for access to quality health care, for public education about HIV, and for support for those in the same situation. My goal is to make life easier for women and girls with HIV,” she says.

So far, she says, the work of her organization and others is making some progress. Through years of determined lobbying and cooperation with the government, official policy on HIV/AIDS has moved towards a greater recognition of the need to ensure rights for people living with HIV (PLHIV)—this is specifically set out in the country’s National HIV/AIDS Plan.

One of the most obvious signs of this, HIV advocates say, is a recent ruling by the Supreme Court.

Article 125 of Tajikistan’s Criminal Code currently criminalizes HIV transmission and exposure, carrying a two-year prison sentence, which rises to up to five years for transmission by someone aware of their status, and as much as ten years when committed against multiple people or a minor. Prosecutions can be brought against PLHIV on the basis of just a potential threat of HIV transmission. In some cases, this can be simply the fact that someone is HIV positive.

Women living with HIV make up 70 percent of all convictions under Article 125, according to UNAIDS.

“WLHIV are more often prosecuted [under Article 125]. As a rule, they do not have money for a lawyer [to defend themselves against the charge],” Larisa Alexandrova, an expert on HIV and human rights at the Centre for Human Rights, told IPS.

However, at the end of December last year, the Supreme Court issued a ruling on Article 125 under which the judicial system should in the future take into account other factors apart from simply HIV status, such as whether someone is on antiretroviral treatment and has an undetectable viral load, condom use, and if both parties are fully aware of the other’s HIV status.

Haidarova is optimistic that the ruling will bring positive change and believes it is an important first step towards decriminalizing the disease, which should help WLHIV.

But as some HIV activists in Tajikistan told IPS, what is written on law books is one thing, and what actually happens in practice is another.

“There are laws on paper that guarantee human rights equality for people in marginalized communities, including women. But the public, the police and judiciary, and even wider society break these laws on a regular basis,” one HIV activist who works with marginalized communities in Tajikistan told IPS.

People living with HIV, especially women, routinely report discrimination in the healthcare sector. Haidarova says she is no stranger to such experiences.

In 2019, doctors told me the baby I was carrying was dead, and I urgently needed to terminate the pregnancy, but the doctors at the polyclinic kept me in the hallway for two hours and eventually said they would not perform the procedure because I had HIV and they wanted to refer me to another facility. I eventually managed to call a doctor who knew me, and she came and performed the procedure herself.

“Then, when I gave birth to a child last year, when it was time for delivery, I came to the maternity hospital, and they took me from the general maternity ward to the isolation ward. None of the doctors would come to me, and I had to call a doctor I knew who was on vacation at the time and explain the situation. She came to deliver the baby herself.  We live in the 21st century, when medicine is so advanced, but despite all this, women’s rights are violated at vulnerable moments when they are powerless,” she said.

Takhmina Haidarova is hopeful that changes to the law that criminalize HIV exposure and transmission in Tajikistan will ensure women living with HIV are not unfairly targeted.

Meanwhile, in wider society, issues around stereotypes and prejudices about gender-based violence (GBV), in part related to religious beliefs among the majority Muslim population, deepen stigma and discrimination, she says, warning that these are having a dangerous impact on the spread of the disease.

“People who are at risk and in need of HIV information, counseling, and testing face barriers to accessing appropriate health care and services. Many of them fear discrimination and negative attitudes from doctors and other health care providers, so they prefer to go without the help they need,” she says.

Law enforcement is another area where WLHIV faces disproportionate discrimination. Activists say that many women living with HIV are victims of GBV but fear reporting the assault to the police or will often withdraw an allegation not just out of fear of finding themselves without economic support—the overwhelming majority of women in Tajikistan are economically dependent on their husbands—but also because of concerns that their HIV status may be disclosed.

Activists say that in some cases, when police attend incidents of GBV and find the woman involved is living with HIV, they will look to take action against her under Article 125 rather than investigate the assault.

The discrimination and stigma women and others living with HIV face is deterring them from accessing prevention, testing, and treatment services and impacting efforts to tackle the disease, activists say.

Tajikistan has over 15,000 people living with HIV, but the number of new HIV infections has increased by 20% over the past 10 years, and the percentage of new HIV cases among women has risen from 31% in 2011 to 36% in 2022, according to UNAIDS.

Haidarova says the government is committed to strengthening rights for people living with HIV, but that more needs to be done to educate people about it and protect vulnerable groups from discrimination.

As she is keen to stress, her own experience shows that stigma and discrimination around HIV can be overcome.

“My story is a painful one, but  everything is slowly getting better for me now. I started a family of love—my husband is HIV negative, and we have two beautiful, healthy children.

“I proved to my family that people with HIV can live a full life, be happy, start a family, and give birth to healthy children. When they found out I wasn’t dead and that everything was fine with me, they quietly began to communicate with me and invite me to their events. It took some time, but they understood that while HIV is scary, you can live with it,” she says.

IPS UN Bureau Report

 


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Excerpt:

This feature is part of a series to mark International Women’s Day, March 8.
Categories: Africa

International Women’s Day, 2024Why Legal Equality Is Key to Women’s Economic Rights and Well-Being

Africa - INTER PRESS SERVICE - Thu, 03/07/2024 - 09:15

Credit: Equality Now, Tara Carey

By Antonia Kirkland and Bryna Subherwal
NEW YORK, Mar 7 2024 (IPS)

Women’s economic opportunities, rights, and well-being are being denied worldwide by sex-discriminatory laws and policies that curtail women’s access to employment, equal pay, property ownership, and inheritance.

Governments need to take urgent action to repeal or amend sex-discriminatory legislation that is hampering not only the socio-economic progress of women and their families but also of their countries.

The World Bank’s Women, Business, and the Law 2024 report, released this week, finds that none of the 190 countries surveyed has achieved legal equality for women, not even in the wealthiest economies. Women have only 64% of the legal rights that men enjoy, and globally, they earn just 77 cents of each dollar a man earns.

Closing the gap could raise global gross domestic product (GDP) by over 20%, the report says. But at the current pace of reform, the UN estimates it will take until 2310 to remove discriminatory laws against women and close the gender gaps in legal protection.

Sex Discrimination in Economic Status Laws

The 68th Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) provides an important opportunity to hold governments to account for their effectiveness in protecting and advancing women’s rights, including economic rights.

CSW is held annually in March at the UN in New York, and the theme for 2024 focuses on accelerating the achievement of gender equality and empowerment of women and girls through addressing poverty.

To shed further light on discriminatory laws that impinge on women’s economic choices and financial independence, a policy brief by Equality Now, Words & Deeds: Sex Discrimination in Economic Status Laws – 2024 Update, highlights examples of economic status laws that governments promptly need to reform or remove. These laws are found around the world – including in countries considered to be progressive. A few of the many examples are:

    In Brazil, women are required by law to retire earlier than men.

    • In Cameroon, a husband can legally administer and dispose of his wife’s property.

    • In Chile, there is a legal presumption that a husband will have full control of all marital property, as well as any property owned by their wives.

    In China, women are legally prohibited from engaging in certain trades, including any which the State specifies female workers “should avoid.”

    • In Ireland, fathers can only access 2 weeks of paternity leave, considerably less than mothers. Although an improvement from the law prior to 2016, which stipulated that the mother had to die before a father could obtain benefits, all parents should be treated equally.

    • In Madagascar, women are forbidden by law from undertaking any form of night work, except in family establishments.

    • In Sri Lanka, a married woman is restricted from disposing of and dealing with property, such as land, without the written consent of her husband.

    In Tunisia, laws exist that limit women’s inheritance rights and stipulate sons inherit twice as much as daughters.

Sex-discriminatory laws disadvantage women in many ways

By restricting women’s full economic and social participation, sex-discriminatory laws trap many in poverty and dependence, making them more vulnerable to exploitation and mistreatment by relatives, partners, employers, and the wider society.

Discriminatory family laws can limit women’s ability to consent to marriage and divorce, retain custody of their children following divorce, and access their fair share of wealth in matrimony and inheritance. For example, 43 countries do not grant widows the same inheritance rights as widowers, and 41 prevent daughters from inheriting the same proportion of assets as sons.

Equitable ownership promotes wealth creation and provides economic stability, but 77 countries have at least one constraint on women’s property rights.

In some countries, the law stipulates women must “obey” their husbands and/or male guardians. This puts them at greater risk of domestic abuse, including marital rape, and makes it harder to access justice when their human rights are violated.

A lack of constitutional equality also harms women. In the United States, the US Constitution does not explicitly prohibit discrimination against women. Supporters are calling for the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) to be incorporated, as this would effectively categorize sex as a “protected class” alongside race, religion, and national origin, giving women greater economic rights.

Impacting women’s career and earning potential

Occupational freedom is associated with better job opportunities, earning potential, and professional advancement. Yet 59 countries have laws preventing women from working in specific jobs, and 19 countries allow husbands to legally prevent their wives from working.

Stereotyped traditional gender roles can also leave women shouldering the burden of unpaid domestic labor. Childcare falls almost exclusively on mothers, with women performing 2.8x more unpaid care and domestic work than men. And only 55 countries have paid parental leave laws available to either parent.

Care responsibilities can prevent women from engaging in paid work, limit their career progression, and reduce their income. Additionally, it can make it harder for women to enter or re-enter the labor force, start or run a business, or access retirement funds.

All this contributes to women being overrepresented in insecure, low-paid, and unregulated jobs. It also fuels the gender pay gap, with women often earning less than men for equivalent work. Deplorably, 92 countries fail to guarantee equal pay for equal work. This inequity is compounded when women are denied equal access to pensions on the same basis as men.

Meanwhile, legal systems and social norms frequently undervalue non-financial contributions to family welfare. This is particularly common when marital assets are divided upon divorce oror death, as family laws in many countries only take account of monetary contributions by each spouse.

These obstacles are exacerbated when women’s reproductive rights are curtailed through measures such as abortion bans. Countries like France, which just this week enshrined guaranteed access to abortion in its Constitution, will be better able to leverage women’s economic participation by ensuring their right to bodily autonomy.

Investing in women’s rights benefits everyone

Economic and gender inequalities are intimately linked, and it’s not an exaggeration to say inequality kills. The relationship between gender inequality in the law and peace and economic prosperity is well documented.

The COVID-19 pandemic caused skyrocketing rates of unemployment and damaged the global economy. Although the shock reverberated across industries and communities, women bore the brunt. Preventing future global crises and recessions requires prioritizing changes now to achieve legal equality for women.

Investing in this isn’t just the right thing to do, it’s smart economically. Full legal equality would maximize economic participation by women, adding up to $28 trillion of wealth into the worldwide economy every year, McKinsey estimates.

Holding countries to account for advancing women’s rights

The CSW is a space for governments, civil society, UN bodies, and other stakeholders to discuss challenges and formulate strategies and policies that set best practice global standards on gender equality.

Part of this entails reviewing the implementation of commitments made by countries in various international agreements, such as the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, which was agreed by 189 UN member states in 1995. The Platform for Action clearly outlines what governments must do to guarantee equality and non-discrimination under the law and promote women’s economic rights.

As governments come together once again at CSW, it’s time to tell them: unlock women’s potential by investing in legal equality. Governments need to address the whole ecosystem of laws and policies to ensure women are not concentrated in the lowest-paid or unregulated jobs and aren’t effectively forced to leave the workforce to take up (unpaid) care responsibilities. And once progressive laws – such as equal pay for equal work – are adopted, governments must robustly implement them.

Ending legal discrimination will enable women to flourish and communities to thrive, boosting global productivity and stimulating economic prosperity across all nations, and for the benefit of all.

Antonia Kirkland is Global Lead, Legal Equality & Access to Justice at Equality Now; Bryna K. Subherwal is Global Head of Advocacy Communications at Equality Now.

Equality Now is a feminist organization using the law to protect and promote the human rights of all women and girls. Since 1992, it’s international network of lawyers, activists, and supporters have held governments responsible for achieving legal equality and ending sexual exploitation, sexual violence, and harmful practices.

IPS UN Bureau

 


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Excerpt:

The following opinion piece is part of series to mark International Women’s Day, March 8.
Categories: Africa

The town in Nigeria where Joshua reigns supreme

BBC Africa - Thu, 03/07/2024 - 08:11
As Anthony Joshua prepares to face Cameroon's Francis Ngannou, the Nigerian town of Sagamu will be rooting for the man it sees as its own.
Categories: Africa

Ghana's LGBT terror: 'We live in fear of snitches'

BBC Africa - Thu, 03/07/2024 - 01:42
A bill that will impose jail terms for simply identifying as LGBTQ+ is terrifying the gay community.
Categories: Africa

New Attempts to Reduce Gender Inequality in Brazil

Africa - INTER PRESS SERVICE - Wed, 03/06/2024 - 22:30

Women march for their rights on Mar. 8, 2023, in Brasília. Every International Women's Day, Brazilian women take to the streets in towns and cities to protest against sexism, racism and other factors of gender inequality. CREDIT: Lula Marques / Agência Brasil

By Mario Osava
RIO DE JANEIRO, Mar 6 2024 (IPS)

Brazil is beginning to test the effectiveness of a gender pay equality law passed in July 2023, a new attempt to reduce inequality for women in the world of work.

This Friday, Mar. 8, International Women’s Day, is the deadline for companies with more than 100 employees to publish their first half-yearly salary transparency reports, with comparative data on remuneration and the distribution of hierarchical functions between men and women, and between different ethnic groups, nationalities and ages."If you are a black woman, your chances of suffering inequality increase. Restrictions pile up for women who are black and poor from the outlying urban neighborhoods, who are over 40 years old and have had little to no education." -- Marilane Teixeira

To break down the inertia of gender inequality, the United Nations agency that promotes women’s rights, UN Women, decided that this year’s theme for International Women’s Day would be “‘Invest in Women: Accelerate Progress”, which the global community has pledged to achieve by 2030.

The wage equality law “is a measure that just remains on paper, not a practical one,” said Hildete Pereira de Melo, an economist who has been studying gender inequality for more than 40 years and doubts the effectiveness of the new legislation.

Equal pay has been legally established in Brazil since 1943, when the Consolidation of Labor Laws was approved, but it is not enforced, she argued. Even in the courts, women accept any agreement as “the weaker party,” she told IPS in an interview in Rio de Janeiro.

Wage inequality is now punished

But now it is different: a penalty will be imposed on companies that do not publish their semi-annual report, a fine of up to 100 minimum wages, totaling 141,200 reais this year (28,500 dollars), argued Marilane Teixeira, a researcher at the Center for Trade Union and Labor Economics Studies (Cesit) of the University of Campinas.

With the reports from the companies and the data it obtains through other means, the Ministry of Labor and Employment will be able to publish the first results, with an overview of how the more than 50,000 large companies in Brazil deal with the issue of gender- and race-neutral wages.

Previously a company was subject to penalties in the case of “inequalities motivated by segregation,” identified through inspection by the authorities. But now there is a new requirement of a public report, Teixeira told IPS from Brasilia.

The new exposure of companies triggered widespread complaints and arguments that improper data would be revealed, but the report does not include “any stealth data, just averages and percentages of women employees and their positions” in the corporate hierarchy, she explained.

Reactions from businesspersons and repercussions in the media reflect “the impact of the measure” and the changes it will foment, said the economist, who helped the government draft the new law.

“It is a step forward and we hope that it sticks” and is effective, unlike many laws that remain only on paper, said Isabel Freitas, a social worker and technical advisor of the Feminist Center for Studies and Advice (Cfemea).

 

In a Jul. 30, 2023 demonstration, black women in Rio de Janeiro protest against racism, violence and inequalities of which they are the main victims. CREDIT: Tania Rêgo / Agência Brasil

 

Legislative advances

Her positive assessment is based on the “two novelties”: the requirement of the half-yearly report, which constitutes a “public transparency tool” and fosters equality, and the fine imposed on companies that do not comply, of three percent of the total wages and salaries paid by the company.

But the law has limits. It only applies to companies with more than one hundred employees, which means its effect does not reach the small and micro businesses that provide 70 percent of formal sector jobs nor the informal ones that account for about 40 percent of the total number of workers. And the fine cannot exceed the equivalent of 100 minimum wages.

It does not benefit, for example, domestic workers, who number six million in Brazil, mainly black women, who suffer the worst discrimination, Freitas lamented.

But the law is “one more step” that could help in the fight against “the basket of inequalities” affecting Brazilian society, especially women, she told IPS by telephone from Brasilia.

“If you are a black woman, your chances of suffering inequality increase. Restrictions pile up for women who are black and poor from the outlying urban neighborhoods, who are over 40 years old and have had little to no education,” she said.

Inequality suffered by women is not just a matter of wages. They are concentrated in lower paid activities, such as domestic work, basic education and the poorest paid parts of the health care system.

The scarce representation of women at all levels of power is a major obstacle. There are only 91 women in a lower house of 513 deputies and 15 women senators out of a total of 81. In other words, they make up only 17.8 percent of the current Congress (2023-2026) dominated by conservative legislators.

One of the main causes of these inequalities is the sexual division of labor, which assigns to women practically all the work of social reproduction and care tasks, the three interviewees concurred.

A meeting of women ministers of the current Brazilian government with 42 female mayors of large towns and cities to discuss women’s participation in politics and the Brazilian economy. CREDIT: Ministry of Health

 

Cultural hurdles

Added to this is a cultural heritage that uses promotion evaluation criteria that favor male workers, said Teixeira.

When it comes to promotions, companies generally take into account activities “that exclude women, such as weekend courses, trips and dinners with clients,” which are unfeasible for those who have to take care of the house, the children and sick members of the family, she said.

“In Brazil 42 percent of women are solely homemakers, and the other half who are in the labor market are also homemakers,” said Pereira de Melo.

The basic solution to the tangle of factors leading to inequality against women are full-time basic education schools and day care centers providing care for 10 hours a day, with universal coverage for all children in order to neutralize disadvantages for women in the workplace, she said.

The ideal would be full-time school for adolescents as well, but it should be available at least in the first stage, until students are 14 or 15 years old and the absolute need for maternal care is reduced, she said.

In addition, a broad cultural transformation of society would be necessary, especially in relation to the role of women, but culture is something that changes very slowly, she acknowledged.

Initiatives on several fronts are underway in Brazil to drive these changes.

On Mar. 5 the   launched, for example, the campaign “Justice for all women”, to highlight women’s rights in general, including girls, adolescents, pregnant and disabled women, and to promote a gender perspective in all the country’s courts.

Violence against women, reflected in the increase in rape, domestic violence and femicides – gender-related murders of girls and women – is currently a priority of the campaign and the judicial system.

The Articulação das Mulheres Negras do Brasil (Network of Black Women of Brazil) is working to coordinate the action of 45 organizations distributed throughout the country that in the month of March this year are planning 140 demonstrations.

For November 2025, it is preparing a “March against racism, violence and for the good life”, a national mobilization that will culminate in Brasilia, repeating the first march of its kind that took place in 2015, with about 100,000 participants, to demand the rights of 49 million women, that is, a quarter of Brazil’s population of 203 million.

It is a global struggle. “The global economy is based on the systematic exploitation of women,” concludes a study by Oxfam, a confederation of 21 social organizations around the world.

According to its data, women earn only 51 percent of what men earn, as they are concentrated in precarious and poorly paid jobs.

Related Articles

Excerpt:

This feature is part of a series to mark International Women’s Day, March 8.
Categories: Africa

Meet the woman helping to keep the taps on

BBC Africa - Wed, 03/06/2024 - 18:37
Mariam Ibrahim, one of the few female borehole engineers in north-east Nigeria, has built over 200 boreholes.
Categories: Africa

International Women’s Day, 2024

Africa - INTER PRESS SERVICE - Wed, 03/06/2024 - 18:24

By External Source
Mar 6 2024 (IPS-Partners)

 

On March 8th, we celebrate International Women’s Day.

A day to honour the resilience, achievements, and potential of women worldwide.

The world faces crises—geopolitical conflicts, poverty, and climate change.

These exacerbate the global plight of women everywhere.

Furthermore, the global economic and financial systems perpetuate gender inequality.

Less than 50% of working-age women are in the global labour force.

Women spend about three times as many hours on unpaid domestic work as men.

Globally, women in the paid workforce earn 20% less than men on average.

In some countries, this gap jumps to 35%.

More than half of women in the workforce are in the informal economy, often vulnerable in precarious situations.

Unpaid care work by women accounts for over 40% of GDP if valued.

If current trends continue, more than 342 million women and girls could be living in extreme poverty by 2030.

Ironically, there’s a powerful solution: investing in women.

Recognizing women’s rights as an investment issue is critical for creating transformative solutions.

Investing in women enables them to escape a systemic cycle of poverty and truly thrive.

An additional $360 billion is needed per year to achieve gender equality.

But closing gender gaps in employment could boost GDP per capita by 20 per cent.

Closing gaps in care and expanding services with decent jobs could spark almost 300 million jobs by 2035.

This International Women’s Day let’s champion gender equality. “Invest in Women: Accelerate Progress.”

IPS UN Bureau

 


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Categories: Africa

Zanzibar bans music star over 'inappropriate' show

BBC Africa - Wed, 03/06/2024 - 15:51
Officials objected to a performance which featured sexually explicit language and gestures.
Categories: Africa

Dozens of women feared abducted by Nigeria jihadists

BBC Africa - Wed, 03/06/2024 - 15:34
Some 200 displaced people were collecting firewood outside their camp when they were attacked, residents say.
Categories: Africa

The first Arab woman with two Oscar nominations

BBC Africa - Wed, 03/06/2024 - 14:15
Tunisian filmmaker Kaouther Ben Hania has received her second Oscar nomination.
Categories: Africa

The first Arab woman with two Oscar nominations

BBC Africa - Wed, 03/06/2024 - 14:15
Tunisian filmmaker Kaouther Ben Hania has received her second Oscar nomination.
Categories: Africa

South Africa police question four over missing girl

BBC Africa - Wed, 03/06/2024 - 10:06
Police say arrests are on the cards, following the six-year-old's disappearance on 19 February.
Categories: Africa

UNWRA Chief Warns Agency’s Fate ‘Hangs in the Balance’

Africa - INTER PRESS SERVICE - Wed, 03/06/2024 - 10:00

Philippe Lazzarini, Commissioner-General of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), briefs reporters at UN Headquarters.

By Naureen Hossain
UNITED NATIONS, Mar 6 2024 (IPS)

UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini asked the UN General Assembly to urge member states to support the organization’s mandate during this period of unprecedented crisis for the region and the agency. He also called for member states to facilitate a “long-overdue political process” for the two-state solution for Israel and Palestine. Only then, in this context, should UNRWA be allowed to transition.

He was speaking at an informal session of the General Assembly on the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA). This was convened to discuss the ongoing situation with UNRWA’s capacity as a humanitarian and human development agency in Gaza.

Despite its existence for 75 years, UNRWA’s presence was always intended to be temporary. “It is a stain on our collective conscience that for 75 years, UNRWA has had to fill a vacuum left by the lack of a political solution and genuine peace,” said Lazzarini.

The ongoing hostilities in the Gaza Strip and the resulting destruction of UNRWA facilities, which have disrupted humanitarian services in the region, have led to calls to seek alternatives that can deliver on the scale of the agency or to raise concern about whether other agencies can deliver the necessary humanitarian aid.

“UNRWA is facing a deliberate and concerted campaign to undermine its operations and ultimately end them,” said Lazzarini.

Lazzarini argued that dismantling UNRWA during the current crisis would be shortsighted, given that the agency was designed to provide public services such as education and primary healthcare in a region without state authority. “The notion that the Agency can be dismantled without violating a host of human rights and jeopardizing international peace and security is naïve at best,” he said.

Speaking at a press briefing that same day, Lazzarini told reporters, “We can only feel that the worst is yet to come.” He remarked that since January, aid delivery to Gaza has decreased by 50 percent. Since then, famine has become all but inevitable.

Remarking on the dual investigations into UNRWA’s operations, Lazzarini stated that the investigations were necessary as an accountability measure. These investigations were announced after it was revealed that he had terminated the contracts of 12 staff members who were allegedly involved in the October 7 attacks. Lazzarini added that the “swift decision” to terminate the contracts, as well as the investigations, would likely reflect the agency’s ability to follow through on recommendations from a risk management review.

Lazzarini admitted, however, that he had not anticipated the swift action that 16 donor countries took to suspend their funding in the wake of the allegations, which he revealed were conveyed to him in an oral manner.  “I have no regret,” he said, referring to his response to the allegations, “but to be honest, I did not expect that… over the weekend, 16 countries would take that decision.”

The UNRWA chief also indicated that most donor countries would consider resuming their support. For those donor countries, the pressure to pull support came from domestic or public opinion that seems divided over UNRWA rather than foreign policy considerations.

There is some promise that UNRWA will continue to deliver on its mandate with the help of donor states, as was seen with the European Commission’s decision to continue funding the agency, starting with a pledge of 50 million euros. However, this will only go partway into filling the gap of 450 million USD left by the 16 donor countries. Lazzarini warned that without additional funding, the agency would be in “uncharted territory” and would have “serious implications for global peace and security.”

The atrocities that were committed on and since October 7 have only resulted in increasing devastation and tragedy. The international community, as embodied by the General Assembly on Monday, seems largely united in their calls for a humanitarian ceasefire in Gaza and for the safe release of all hostages.

Yet the ongoing hostilities in the region have prevented the UN and its agencies from fulfilling their mandate to safely provide critical emergency aid. Five months on, there is a seeming lack of forward momentum within the Security Council to deliver a ceasefire resolution. UNRWA has been contending with compounding existential questions about its survival as an agency from hostile forces in the Gaza Strip and beyond who call for its dissolution.

IPS UN Bureau Report

 


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Categories: Africa

International Women’s Day, 2024Spare Us the Token Flowers: International Women’s Day is a Call to Action

Africa - INTER PRESS SERVICE - Wed, 03/06/2024 - 09:54

By Dana Abed
BEIRUT, Lebanon, Mar 6 2024 (IPS)

Marking International Women’s Day as a mere day of celebration is to strip it of its true meaning, a stab in the back of the generations of feminists who fought to make it a cornerstone for gender justice.

This day is a call to action, a collective demand for substantive change. It must insist on our deepest reflection about how the patriarchy creeps into every aspect of our lives, including into the policies that govern our macroeconomics.

Beyond the flowers and tokenism of celebrating International Women’s Day lies a stark reality, which is the persistent struggle that women face within the confines of a neoliberal economic system. Recent statistics paint a grim picture of the dwindling financial flows that aim to advance gender justice.

According to the latest data, rich governments allocate only 4% of their Official Development Assistance to programs that have “gender equality” centered as their principle objective, with less and less of those funds going directly to the local feminist movements at the forefront of the fight towards gender justice.

There is a continuing alarming trend of governments privatizing public services and cutting away social protection. Along with their dwindling support for feminist and women’s rights organizations, this poses a direct threat to the lives and well-being of women, girls, and non-binary individuals.

The capitalist system is perfectly geared to funnel all the money into men’s pockets. Globally, men own $105 trillion more wealth than women. This is equivalent to four times the size of the entire US economy. The regional differences also showcase how women from the majority world are the most impacted under these exploitative neoliberal systems.

Women make up 75% of the global workforce, particularly in essential health care services, yet it would take 1,200 years for a female worker in the health and social sector to earn what a CEO in the biggest Fortune 100 companies earns on average in one year.

Meanwhile, of course, the sheer amount of unpaid care work that falls upon women’s shoulders hinder their engagement in paid work, and education, among many other spheres. Compared to men, who spend on average around 90 minutes a day on unpaid care work, women spend three times that, on average 4.5 hours.

Our governments around the world urgently need to build a feminist economy and invest in national care systems to address the disproportionate responsibility for care work done by women and girls and ensure access to public services and living wages for carers.

The system we live under is engineered by colonialism, run by capitalism, and supported by the patriarchy. And when those three actors conspire together, it is women in all their diversities, especially women of color who pay the highest prices.

On this International Women’s Day, we demand concrete actions to dismantle and reconfigure the economic structures that are perpetuating gender-based inequalities. It is time to pivot our advocacy towards three crucial asks that can drive substantive change.

First and foremost, international financing institutions and governments must shift power to centre feminist movements and promote the advancement of gender justice. We can do that by decolonizing aid and unconditionally supporting local grassroots feminist and queer movements.

Their voices, often marginalized, deserve amplified recognition and unwavering backing. Funding for these movements needs to be flexible and sustainable to ensure their continued leadership.

Secondly, we need a gender-transformative approach to how we fund the crucial areas of social protection and public services. These are incredibly important in the struggle for women’s equality.

The implementation of progressive taxation, including a substantial wealth tax, is key to funding universal public services that cater specifically to the needs of women, girls, and gender non-binary individuals. This would be a game-changer.

Lastly, we need to guarantee living wages and protection across all sectors, particularly in the care economy. This too is a non-negotiable. This entails introducing fair taxes, including wealth taxes on those who made fortunes on the backs of the rest of us, and legislate them in favor of fair compensation for care work, prioritizing the well-being of communities within and beyond professional spheres.

This International Women’s Day, let us rally for these essential shifts, advocating not only for a day of celebration but one of tangible and equitable progress, too.

Dana Abed, Oxfam, Lebanon’s Influencing Lead in Beirut

IPS UN Bureau

 


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Excerpt:

The following opinion piece is part of series to mark International Women’s Day, March 8.
Categories: Africa

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