Tackling challenges confronting women

Article: Salome Donkor
A number of challenges and negative practices continue to affect the development of women in Africa and other parts of the world. Problems impeding their ability to expand their capabilities, how to attain their full freedom and dignity and also how to promote and sustain empowerment programmes, are some of the inequalities confronting African women in their daily lives.
In some African countries, women still lack access to economic rights, access to land ownership, ability to influence reproductive and family development such as who to marry, how many children to have and their spacing.
To reflect on the role of the continent’s females in the society and celebrate African women’s accomplishments vis-à-vis gender equality at all levels of African politics, the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) now transformed into the African Union (AU), designated July 31 as Pan-African Women’s Day in 1962 in Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania. This was at the first-ever Pan-African Women’s Conference, which was attended by 14 countries and eight liberation movements, during the African Women Conference.
Twelve years on, women gathered again on July 31, 1974 in Dakar, Senegal, to create a more even representative organisation called the Pan African Women’s organisation (PAWO). This day was dedicated as the ‘Day of the African Woman’ on the occasion of the first Congress of the PAWO that year, culminating in the celebration of African Women’s Day, which falls on July 31 every year.
While the AU has since moved the official celebration date to 25th September, events world-wide are nonetheless planned around its original date of July 31.
Currently, the date continues to be remembered in the African continent as the situation of women remains bleak, despite the fact that gradually they are starting to reach a comfortable economic independence and decision-making positions.
The theme for this year's celebration is “ fighting against the exploitation of women and girls” and three main topics, namely forms of exploitation suffered by women and girls in Africa, both in public life and within communities and families, awareness of the countless negative consequences of the phenomenon and government and partners' willingness to develop concrete strategies in finding an appropriate response to the phenomenon, are being addressed under the theme.
Exploitation refers to the use of human beings, women or girls in this context, for the purpose of making profit. It is reducing this human beings to an object, to a means of achieving one's goals. The result is sufferings notably physical, moral and psychological.
As such the commercial use of women and girls' image in the media, pimping, rape, excessive dowry, forced marriage, the non consideration of women's domestic production, oppressing sexual life and motherhood, discriminatory and unjust sexual division of labour, manipulation of female electorate, food taboos unjustified at scientific level, buying of economically distress women and girl's conscience and sex by socially and financially well located men etc. are illustrations of the most current forms of exploitation in the African context.
The work to mainstream gender in continental organisations has been, and continues to be, a long process. For years, Femmes Africa Solidarité (FAS) in collaboration with African Women’s Committee on Peace and Development (AWCPD) has worked to bring a gender perspective to the continent’s agenda. This work began in Lomé, Togo in July 2000 with the adoption of the Constitutive Act of the AU and continued thereafter with a series of meetings aimed at pushing forward the agenda of increasing the inclusion of women at the decision-making level.
FAS and AWCPD also organised a vigorous campaign for gender mainstreaming involving many African women’s networks.
Commemorating the 45th Pan-African Women’s Day with a panel discussion of ministers of the Senegalese Government on July 31, 2007 in Dakar, Senegal, Mme Bineta Diop, Executive Director of FAS, made a presentation on FAS’s advocacy activities – particularly, The Gender is My Agenda campaign. The Gender is My Agenda campaign was launched following the adoption of the Solemn Declaration on Gender Equality in Africa (SDGEA) by the member states of the AU in 2004. The campaign focuses on the monitoring and evaluation of the implementation of the SDGEA in African Union member states.
To mark the Day of the African Woman, The African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights (The Commission), the premier regional human right body conveys a message of goodwill to all African women and reminds member states to support the activities organised by civil society organisations and governments across the Continent. The commission highlights these events to demonstrate the historical role women played in society which is the character of women as pioneers able to build and lead in developments.
The commission urges all to continue observing the rights of women, endeavour to empower and develop women.
All of these rights are provided for women’s enjoyment and practice in the Protocol to the African Charter on the Rights of Women in Africa, of which only 25 Member States, party to the African Charter have ratified.
Against this background, the commission urges all member states who have not ratified the Protocol, to do so as member states mark the ‘Day of the African Woman’. The commission also urges member states to analyse the impact of the world economic and financial crisis on the lives of the African families and to assess the impact of the world crisis on the lives of the African families, strategies for its reduction and forms to diversify actions to fight poverty.
The commission emphasises that a delay in ratifying the protocol, delays the enjoyment of freedoms and rights enshrined in the protocol. Thus perpetuating suffering of the women of Africa, which goes against the foundation on which this day was dedicated.
Poor women suffer from poor health and a high incidence of maternal deaths. Both men and women in Africa face numerous health challenges, often related to poverty. In particular, women face an array of health issues related to their reproductive roles.
Women living in poverty tend to have poor nutrition, low access to clean water and sanitation, and less access to medical care. In particular, they tend to have less access to obstetric and gynaecological care.
Consequently, a higher incidence of poverty tends to correspond with poor health among women, and higher maternal deaths.
Even as producers and entrepreneurs, it is widely acknowledged that African women have access to fewer resources than men.
In Ghana, various programmes and projects have been put in place to promote women’s health, rights and development.
In 1992, the Ministry of Health, having observed the numerous health problems affecting women and children in particular, set a number of priorities for itself, and intensified maternal and child health services and family planning activities as part of the strategies within the framework of the national population policy.
To combat the serious impact of malaria on pregnant women and children, which according to the World Health Organisation (WHO), was a major cause of maternal and child mortality and in pregnancy, the Ministry of Health was implementing a Global Action Plan on Malaria was adopted and over possible measures to completely combat the disease. This include the identification of all malaria endemic areas and mosquito breeding zones and destroying all mosquito lava, in addition to providing intermittent preventive treatment (IPT) for pregnant women during pregnancy, and the use of insecticide-treated bed nets (ITNs) for the entire population living in malaria affected areas.
To promote access to healthcare for expectant mothers to reduce maternal mortality, the government introduced the free maternal care for pregnant women under the National Health Insurance Scheme, while the Domestic Violence and Victims Support Unit (DVVSU) of the Ghana Police Service is working strenuously to control domestic violence.
The country’s constitution also protects the rights of women and safeguard them against discrimination and exploitation.
However, daily reports in the media, as well as reported and unreported incidence of commercial use of women and girls' image by the media and publicity agencies; rape; excessive dowry; demeaning female family labour; oppressive sexual life and motherhood; sex by socially and financially well established men with distressed women and girls; female genital mutilations; sexual harassment of school girls and students by their teachers, the devastating impact of HIV/AIDS on women, etc. show that the fight against the exploitation of women and girls, is not over.
For example, a survey conducted by the World Bank found that over 95 per cent in Ghana and 90 per cent in Zambia of female workers are employed in the informal sector. This has been marked by the entrance of large numbers of women as the households have tried to compensate for the fall in men's real wages and employment. Women continue to be disproportionately employed in the informal sector, a sector which still receives little structured support in terms of infrastructure (e.g., water, power, telecommunications). Workers in the informal sector also have relatively low access to credit.
Overall, the unemployment rate of women continues to be significantly higher than that of men. Thus, although some steps have been taken to pass legislation that increases women's access to productive and other resources in some countries (e.g., land and credit), women still continue to be at a disadvantage in terms of access and control of economic structures.
There is therefore the need for an unwavering commitment to the protection and promotion of African women and girls' dignity. The woman is a human being just like a man. It is important to treat her as such.
The adoption of gender mainstreaming of all government policies and programmes, if fully implemented, is likely to improve the situation of gender imbalance in the sphere of social capital by increasing the number of women in leadership and decision-making. More gender responsive Government programmes are also likely to bring about a re-orientation of priorities, and subsequently in Government spending patterns.