Gender & Women's Rights

Call for Proposals on Strengthening Women’s Movements in Crisis and Transitional Countries (Angola, DRC, Swaziland and Zimbabwe)

(Também disponível em Português/ La version francaise est disponible)

The Open Society Initiative for Southern Africa (OSISA) is calling for project proposals from women’s rights organisations in Angola, DRC, Swaziland and Zimbabwe. OSISA will support proposals that seek to define and drive clear gender and women’s rights agendas in these countries. OSISA will provide programme and institutional support to the organisations to build their capacity and enable them to take leadership in strategic planning, articulating, implementing and advocating for women’s rights in their countries. Selected organizations will become core partners that OSISA will work closely with for the next three years, to support its broader objective of building and sustaining vibrant women’s movements at national and regional levels in Southern Africa. The overall goal of this initiative is to build and sustain vibrant women’s movements that are equipped to define and firmly keep women’s rights issues on national agendas in contexts where these are often lost and placed at the peripheries of national priorities due to other more pressing national struggles.

Appel à Propositions pour le Renforcement des Mouvements Féminins dans les Pays en Crise et en Transition (Angola, RDC, Swaziland et Zimbabwe)

(Também disponível em Português/ Also available in English)

L’Initiative de Société Ouverte pour l’Afrique Australe (Open Society Initiative for Southern Africa (OSISA)) appelle à des propositions de projet de la part des organisations des droits de la femme en Angola, DRC, Swaziland et Zimbabwe. OSISA apportera son aide aux propositions qui visent à définir mettre en œuvre des programmes clairs de droits des sexes et des femmes dans ces pays. OSISA fournira aux organisations un support institutionnel et de programme pour renforcer leur capacité et leur permettre de prendre le leadership en matière de programmation de stratégie, expression, amélioration et plaidoyer pour les droits des femmes dans leurs pays. Des organisations sélectionnées deviendront les partenaires de base avec lesquels OSISA travaillera étroitement au cours des trois prochaines années, pour assister son objectif plus large de constituer et soutenir les dynamiques mouvements des femmes au niveau national et régional en Afrique Australe. Le but global de cette initiative est de construire et soutenir les dynamiques mouvements des femmes qui sont nécessaires pour définir et maintenir les problèmes des droits des femmes sur les programmes nationaux dans des contextes où ceux-ci sont souvent perdus et placés à la périphérie des priorités nationales.

Zambia: Fight Against Gender Violence
AllAfrica.com - Washington,USA

VIOLENCE against women has surprisingly taken an upward turn to what is now alarming propositions demanding drastic remedial measures. This is despite vigorous campaigns by women and men's lobby groups on the barbarism of gender violence, which unfortunately has claimed a number of lives over the last few weeks. In the past week alone, two women have died at the hands of their husbands in Kazungula, Southern Province and Ndola, respectively, while another, heavily-pregnant for that matter, was shot in the stomach in Chingola. There have been other incidents of women being burnt by their spouses and others clobbered, forcing Zambia to join the international community and condemn this inhuman treatment ... President Mwanawasa has also added his voice to the worrying levels of gender violence. The President, addressing women and men who participated in the launch of the 16 Days of Activism Against Gender Violence in November last year, said the Government was worried about the negative effects gender violence had on society and the economy. As a result, the Government was planning to enact laws and domesticate international conventions against gender-based violence ... violence against women is barbaric, primitive and has no place in modern society.

Mozambique: Guebuza Launches Initiative On Mother And Child Health
AllAfrica.com - Washington,USA

11 Mozambican women die every day due to complications arising during pregnancy and childbirth. In a year, the death toll adds up to 3,840 women - for every 100,000 live births, 480 women die ... It is true that some other African countries have worse maternal mortality rates than Mozambique, and Guebuza mentioned the case of Mali, where 1000 women die for every 100,000 live births. Yet there is nothing inevitable about shockingly high death rates. In developed countries, death during childbirth is extremely rare. Guebuza cited Ireland, where there are now just two maternal deaths for every 100,000 live births, "Of all health indicators, it is the maternal mortality rate that most reveals the gulf between developed and developing countries" ... "The death of a mother is a tragedy in a family, and a great loss in the community, because she is the moral, social and economic support of the family and the community", declared Guebuza ... As for the infant mortality rate (deaths among children before their first birthday), Guebuza put it at 178 per 1,000 live births. Almost 30 per cent of these deaths (48 per 1,000 live births) took place in the first month of life. The main cause of this neonatal death rate, Guebuza noted, were premature births, low weight at birth (often caused by malnutrition of the mother), asphyxia, sepsis, congenital syphilis, and other illnesses inherited from the mother ... A document from the Health Ministry notes that among the social factors contributing to maternal deaths, are the premature marriage of girls, and high levels of violence against women and children "practiced in the home, but tolerated by the community". One aspect not mentioned in this document, but which certainly plays a significant role in maternal mortality, is back-street abortions ...

Namibia: Maternal Death Rate Shoots Up
AllAfrica.com - Washington,USA
Namibia is experiencing reversals on child, infant and maternal health despite being one of the leading countries in reporting progress on child survival. Infant and under-five mortality rates have increased, while the number of women who die during pregnancy, delivery or shortly after giving birth has doubled ... The data that the Ministry of Health and Social

Botswana: Yet Another Saved By the Abused
AllAfrica.com - Washington,USA

A young woman who was publicly beaten, undressed and left naked by the father of her child has pardoned the abuser because she has no means of supporting their baby. On Friday last week, desperate Seane Lejahe of Maun, on bended knees, begged the Maun magistrate court to drop charges of indecent assault that she had previously laid against her lover Special Constable, Modimoosi Banyatsang of Maun Police Station. Poverty was the reason ... Shocked by the woman's reasons for withdrawing the case, Magistrate Rebbeca Motsamai asked her if at all it was worth surrendering to maltreatment because of the baby's financial support ... The incident, according to Prosecutor Ogomoditse Soonyane, took place on the 2nd of October last year, at Pakis Bar, Botshabelo ward in Maun ... Gender activist Kelebonye Ntsabane finds the whole saga troubling, especially since cases of withdrawal of cases by abused women were on the rise in Botswana, and were mainly mitigated by poverty and dependency on the abuser. She warned that usually the abuser temporally reforms fearing prison sentence, but once free the circle of violence continues. Abuse, Ntsabane warned, does not only wreck the victim psychologically, but also affects the performance of children in all aspects of life, including school ... Counsellor Mpho Mohopolo from Women Against Rape (AR), in Maun, supported Ntsabane's position but advised that counselling was the first and important step to those who opt out of prosecuting culprits of violence ...

Congo-Kinshasa: Congo Army, Gen. Nkunda in 'Worst Form of Human ...
AllAfrica.com - Washington,USA

DR Congo government forces and rebels loyal to dissident Gen Laurent Nkunda are heavily recruiting and using children traficked from Rwanda and Uganda to fight their wars, the latest UN report on the issue has indicated. The movement of armed groups across borders to recruit children from refugee camps continues to be alarming ... Since January 2007, the report says, there has been a surge in the recruitment and use of Congolese and Rwandan children in North Kivu from refugee camps and communities in Rwanda by forces loyal to Laurent Nkunda. Ugandan children living in the DR Congo-Uganda border areas have also been targeted. As for how the DRC army (FARDC) comes into the equation is in a way that in November 2006, government and Gen. Nkunda agreed to mix their forces in a process known as 'mixage'. This would later create mixed brigades. This process has since fallen apart. The mixage, according to the report resulted in the de facto presence of many children among the ranks of the new FARDC mixed brigades and their use for active combat against the Forces démocratiques de libération du Rwanda (FDLR). Reports also indicate that increased recruitment activities were carried out in North Kivu, as well as in Rwanda and Uganda, prior to and throughout the mixage process ... The transportation of vulnerable children by both the Government and rebel groups across borders during armed conflict constitutes one of the worst forms of child trafficking, the report by the UN Secretary General's envoy on children in armed conflict, Radhika Coomaraswamy ... A total of 4,182 children, including 629 girls, were separated from armed forces and groups in the eastern region of the Democratic Republic of the Congo last year. In Ituri - North eastern DRC, 2,472 children, including 564 girls, were separated from MRC, FRPI and FNI militia forces and 10 boys were separated from Mai-Mai forces in the remote area of Opienga in Oriental Province. In North Kivu, 1,374 children, including 52 girls, were separated primarily from mixed brigades loyal to Laurent Nkunda and government forces and Mai-Mai militia forces ... some 250,000 children globally are being recruited to fight in armed conflicts ...

Angola: Namibe - Death Prevention Committee Set Up
AllAfrica.com - Washington,USA
A provincial committee on prevention of maternal, infant death was set up Wednesday in Namibe province, southwest Angola ... The 13-member committee will operate under coordination of provincial vice governor, Maria dos Anjos Mahove, who will be assisted by the province's director for public health and control of endemics, Pedro

Botswana: Stop Teacher-Student Sex!
AllAfrica.com - Washington,USA

The pervasiveness of teacher-student sexual affairs is alarming. In the late eighties and early nineties, such cases were prevalent but the authorities moved in and instituted drastic measures to arrest the situation. However, lately, there are increasing reports of teacher-student "love" affairs. Surely, love does not form the basis of such a union ... Just last week, we reported complaints by some University of Botswana students who accused some lecturers of demanding sexual favours in exchange for good grades. We are just wondering whether what is traditionally known as a "cooperation fee" in some West African tertiary institutions, is also becoming institutionalised in Botswana. The behaviour of these teachers and lecturers are not only psychologically destructive to our children but also expose them to infectious diseases such as HIV/AIDS ... Botswana Secondary School Teachers' Union (BOSETU) president, Eric Ditau, reportedly said they "can only take action if the members violate the union constitution". But a constitution can be amended to make it bite. The least that unions can do right now is to take the approach as explained by Botswana Teachers' Union president, Japhta Radibe. The union embarks on own investigations and should the concerned members be found to have erred, then the union offers them no protection. But we still believe the unions should also compile a register of convicted teachers and ban them from getting close to students ever again. We cannot agree more with UB Professor Richard Tabulawa's wish that the "nation could come up with a law to restrain elders, not just teachers, from engaging in sexual relationships with students ... 

DRC: "The rapists roam the streets"
Reuters AlertNet - London,England,UK
BUNIA, 21 January 2008 (IRIN) - Rape and other forms of sexual violence remain prevalent in northeastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), despite the cessation of military activities and the disarmament of militias in the region, according to aid workers. Before, this was mainly attributed to men in uniform, but now civilians comprise a significant number of the perpetrators.