Institutions involved in matters of war, peace and security have traditionally excluded women. When women are not involved in negotiating and drafting peace agreements their priorities and rights are less likely to be taken into account during the ‘post-conflict’ implementation period.
The CPF 2018 session Women negotiating peace discussed the importance of taking gender into account in high-level peace negotiations. The session shared stories of women who have managed to overcome the barriers to working in male dominated environments and take the lead in negotiations. The session also sought to demonstrate the transformational value of inclusion, and to identify clear recommendations for institutions at all levels to achieve it.
‘Economic policies impact different segments of the population, including men and women, in different ways. In turn, gender inequalities impact on trade policy outcomes and economic growth. Taking into account gender perspectives in macro-economic policy, including trade policy, is essential to pursuing inclusive and sustainable development and to achieving fairer and beneficial outcomes for all.’- United Nations Conference on Trade and Development’ (UNCTAD)
The recent public forum of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) in October 2018 with the theme Trade 2030 addressed the issues of sustainable trade, technology-enabled trade, and a more inclusive trading system.
The inclusion of civic voices in the forum was important. Coalitions and organisations such as Third World Network, Our World is Not for Sale, Women at the Table and Consumer Unity and Trust Society International curated and facilitated important sessions debating the intersection and implications of trade justice (or lack thereof) on: human rights gender, agriculture, food security, and climate justice, among others.
Two issues that stood out for me were ‘gender-responsive trade policies’ and the notion of technology as an enabler of trade.
Trade experts from around the world presented on options for sustainable trade
In 2017, the Ministerial of the WTO in Buenos Aires endorsed the Buenos Aires Declaration on Trade and Women’s Economic Empowerment. The views on the Declaration were contrasting. One argument asserted that the Declaration does not need to assess the negative gendered impacts of trade liberalisation in multiple sectors such as agriculture, industries, service and garment sectors, among others. However, Ranja Sengupta of Third World Network in her paper, Addressing Gender and Trade Issues in Trade Agreements: Creating more problems than solutions? suggests the need to explore the question as to which space is best suited for achieving gender equality or readjustment to address the adverse impacts of trade policy and liberalisation. She posed the question: ‘Is it [gender equality] in trade agreements or should it be done in other enabling spaces such as through human rights mechanisms or should it be done through domestic policy…?’
‘Women entrepreneurs and producers not only benefit less proportionately from trade liberalisation but also bear a much higher share of the adverse impacts.’
In the current climate of ‘hyperglobalisation’ where trade negotiations are driven strongly by large and complex corporate and commercial interests, there are indeed serious questions that persist: what policies are likely to have an effect on gender equality and how can such policies be influenced? How can civic voices and development workers advocate for gender equality and better support women’s access to the benefits of trade? And how robust is the process of identifying and addressing gender-based constraints that impede inclusive development?
The dominance of neo-liberalism, which is focused on creating a set of rules, arguably works against women’s rights and equality and excludes women. The questions that resonate are: how can the rules be rigged to make the system more inclusive? How can women in the global south and in the margins of developed countries in the north truly benefit from inclusive and enabling trade policy? What does this look like and what will it take to make this happen? And is the claim that countries should and will be enabled to ‘trade their way out of poverty’ viable?
Over 1500 participants attend the forum each year
Trade 2030 also highlighted technology as a driver of innovation for development. But civic voices said this cannot come at the expense of other imperatives such as social justice and environmental protection, which must also be considered when industrial policy is being formulated. While there is healthy scepticism about technology as a panacea, it would be wrong to discount the potential for technology to enable inclusion. For example, women entrepreneurs and producers use technology as part of their business solutions. But even as this is the case, access to technology is differentiated and the result is often making the gulf between haves and have-nots even greater – in an already divided and polarised world. For instance, women entrepreneurs and producers not only benefit less proportionately from trade liberalisation but also bear a much higher share of the adverse impacts due to their unequal access to resources and their location in the power structure. And at the macro level, economic empowerment of women in developing countries must be analysed within the broad context of development in these countries. How can a global ‘free’ trade agreement benefit women if their countries are not able to realise their domestic economic, social and human development plans and outcomes?
The answers to these questions can begin to rebuild trust in institutions- but only if voices less heard in trade debates are listened to.
Myn Garcia is Deputy Director-General at the Commonwealth Foundation. Image credit: WTO
Gillian Cooper investigates one partner’s decade-long effort to secure greater female representation in decision-making in Malawi.
Emma Kaliya is Board Member of Gender Links, Chairperson of FEMNET, and the Southern Africa Gender Protocol Alliance in Malawi and a women’s rights activist of many, many years. We had the pleasure of speaking to Emma Kaliya about her life’s work and her role in the Gender Links project Making the Post-2015 agenda work for gender equality in Southern Africa, which is supported by the Commonwealth Foundation.
I was struck by the continuous challenges and her unwavering dedication, over more than a decade, to increase the numbers of women in political decision-making roles. Emma’s story highlighted the highs and lows and continuous struggle that gender equality advocacy requires the world over. I was pleased to learn that the global ‘50-50 campaign’ had started in Malawi as a national, grassroots campaign.
Back in 2008, after many years of lobbying and negotiations by the Southern Africa women’s movement, the SADC Protocol on Gender and Development was adopted by Heads of States and Government. Civil society alongside Ministries of Gender/Women affairs had fought long and hard to get SADC leaders to agree to the Protocol – transforming a non-binding Declaration into a more robust Protocol agreement.
Civil society fought to include the protocol target that at least 50 per cent of decision-making positions in the public and private sectors are held by women. (Since the Protocol’s revision in 2016/17, this target has been revised to be met by 2030).
‘Emma’s story highlighted the highs and lows and continuous struggle that gender equality advocacy requires the world over.’
Adoption of the Protocol was a significant achievement, but civil society recognised that the Protocol’s adoption was just one step in a long journey to implementation. In Emma’s words: ‘We were not going to sit quietly! We know there are tricks!’ Pushing for implementation required tracking progress, and this would be done using the SADC Gender Barometer.
An important first step in the introduction of the Barometer was to popularise it and to show its usefulness to improving gender equality. Fortuitously, Malawi’s elections closely followed the Protocol’s adoption in 2009; Malawi had not yet ratified the Protocol. So in the run up to elections, Emma and other civil society actors used this opportunity to translate the target of 50-50 female representation in political decision-making into action. The ‘50-50 campaign’ was born.
The campaign was able to gain momentum and really took root with Malawians. Mini-buses and roadside rest houses painted with the 50-50 campaign slogans are still visible today. While we chatted, Emma challenged us: ‘Ask anyone what 50-50 is and they will tell you.’ And so I asked a couple taxi drivers and the receptionist at our Lilongwe hotel – both male and female – if they knew about the 50-50 campaign. Though not a representative sample, of course –each was able to tell me that it was about increasing numbers of women in politics.
Late Bingu wa Mutharika, the President at the time, was eager to demonstrate that Malawi would make progress on its regional and international commitments to increase the numbers of women in decision-making spaces. And Emma was given a number of platforms to present the movement’s agenda. She was clear: ‘We have come for one agenda. Women want to be in Parliament and local councils.’ Sure enough, in that year, the President provided small but significant funding for the campaigns in each constituency where there was a female candidate. The campaign paid off. At the time, Malawi had the highest number of female candidates it had ever had and 43 seats out of 193 seats were eventually won by women.
‘Mini-buses and roadside rest houses painted with the 50-50 campaign slogans are still visible today.’
Three years later Malawi got its first female President. Previously Vice-President, she took office following the sudden death of Mutharika. Expecting to build on the progress over the last few years, instead the 50-50 campaign faced some of its biggest challenges in the 2014 election cycle.
Those unhappy with her leadership promoted a campaign in the 2014 elections to discriminate against all women in political office. The campaign against women leaders saw the number of women representatives drop from 22% to 17%. ‘We were really let down…I never expected it’; Emma’s body language showed the toll the discriminatory campaign had.
In 2017, Emma was one of the Commissioners on the Special Law Commission on the Review of Electoral Laws in Malawi. One of the recommendations of the Commission was the institution of a quota for women in each of the 28 electoral districts. Such a quota system would open up a seat in each district, guaranteeing 28 seats for women, but would not challenge seats in existing constituencies where women would still be eligible to stand.
While President Peter Mutharika was supportive when he made a statement at an EU-Brussels meeting, his Cabinet decided to reject the recommendation for the ‘28 seat initiative’, siting technical implementation challenges once adopted. Emma was understandably frustrated.
Malawians go to the polls in 2019, and campaigners have been told that the 28-seat-initiative will not be considered. However, the 50-50 campaign lives on and is gearing up again.
Gillian Cooper is Programme Manager for Knowledge, Learning and Communications at the Commonwealth Foundation.
Patience Ayebazibwe led research in Southern Africa on the policies and conventions governing women’s access to land. Here’s what she found.
The status of women in Africa as a whole, and the extent to which the regulatory environment promotes gender equality across different spheres of life, provides an important backdrop for understanding and addressing gender imbalances in land and investment governance. Moreover, patriarchal attitudes and practices persist, particularly in rural areas, which means that women continue to be marginalised in terms of access to land and productive resources.
A 2017 study conducted by Akina Mama Wa Afrika in Malawi, eSwatini and Zambia, with support from the Commonwealth Foundation, revealed that deliberate restrictions on women accessing, controlling and owning land are common to all three countries. The study also showed that most dominant legal systems are strongly gender discriminatory. This is attributed to an unenforced policy regime on land guided by patriarchal cultural beliefs that do not regard women as custodians of land, discriminatory laws and policies, expensive legal justice, and low representation of women in senior leadership positions, largely as a result of persisting patriarchal attitudes and practices at both community and household levels.
Land is a critical tool of production and remains a social asset that is central to political and financial power, cultural identity and decision making. In Africa women’s customary land rights are more vulnerable. Even where customary tenure systems recognise land rights of both men and women, women’s names are rarely on the documents, making them more vulnerable to losing their rights.
Study after study has shown that women’s access to and control of land, and other productive resources, is central to ensuring their right to equality and to a decent standard of living. This is emphasised in Sustainable Development Goals 1 and 5. While Goal 1 recognises that to end poverty, it will be crucial to ensure equal rights to ownership and control over land, as well as equal rights to inheritance of productive resources (target 1.4), Goal 5 on Gender equality and women’s empowerment calls upon governments to carry out legal and policy reforms to give women equal rights to economic resources, as well as access to ownership and control over land and other forms of property, financial services, inheritance and natural resources (Target 5a). Indeed, evidence shows that a woman who has land has a degree of security; she is less likely to tolerate domestic violence and is in a better position to leave a violent relationship and negotiate safe sex, so the importance of ensuring women’s land rights goes far beyond economic security and access to resources to the imperative goal of ending violence against women.
Why is it then that while women’s land rights are well-recognised as an important pathway for achieving poverty reduction at individual, household and national levels, as highlighted above, many African countries continue to deny them ownership and control of land and other productive resources?
‘Land is a critical tool of production and remains a social asset that is central to political and financial power, cultural identity and decision making.’
The Akina Mama wa Afrika study showed that the situation of women and ownership of land has been worsened by the increased rush for large scale land acquisition by both international and national investors. While contexts differ, investor interest in large-scale land deals for agribusiness has raised commercial pressures on land and livelihoods across sub-Saharan Africa. Admittedly such projects can potentially benefit local communities, but research suggests that investments can often have negative consequences on vulnerable groups, indeed women suffer disproportionately. This is because such investments tend to reinforce, or even exacerbate, existing attitudes and practices. Further denying women’s access to land.
In partnership with women’s movements in Swaziland with support from @commonwealthorg, we sought to contribute to securing women’s land rights in the wake of large scale land acquisitions. Today, we launch the report of the study in Swaziland.
Understanding these customary norms, as well as the opportunities and challenges presented by existing statutory laws relating to land and investment, is crucial in developing appropriate and effective interventions to strengthen women’s voices and accountability in land and investment governance.
Today, we are launching the report on Securing Women’s Land Rights in Malawi
Chief guest is the Permanent Secretary for Lands, Housing and Urban development, Dr. Janet Banda. pic.twitter.com/ENBqj8ZaJ8
Going forward, advancement of women’s economic rights, their control and participation in the land economy can no longer be ignored if we are to attain gender equality and reduce poverty. The study reveals that Malawi, eSwatini and Zambia need to push for accelerated land reform, particularly to address the duality of the land tenure system which is governed by traditional and statutory norms. This should involve increasing access, control and ownership of land by women in order to address the historical injustices that women have faced over land. The research also points to the need to strengthen women’s livelihood opportunities by increasing their ability to hold agricultural investors in their countries to account. This will not happen overnight and will require organising so that there is a critical mass of activists demanding policy change. This point was well articulated by one of the participants in the research project: ‘land is power, and it won’t be given away easily by those who have it. We need to build a strong movement so that collectively we take actions to challenge the barriers…our voices from the ghetto must be heard. We need land: it’s capital and it’s life’.
Patience Ayebazibwe is Programmes Officer at Akina Mama Wa Afrika. Women’s Land Rights in the Wave of Land Acquisitions in Malawi, eSwatini and Zambia is available for download here.
Gender is not just about men and women, it’s about correcting the power imbalance and eradicating the factors which lead to one group being more vulnerable to the effects of climate change than the other.
This was a major theme at the recently concluded Exploratory Discussion on the Intersection of Gender and Climate Change, hosted by the Commonwealth Foundation and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in Bridgetown, Barbados (4-6 June).
Civil society organisations from across the Caribbean region came together to discuss and learn about gender issues as it relates to climate change and share knowledge on best practices.
Above: Participants in the discussion on the intersection between gender and climate change in the Caribbean.
I was extremely pleased to meet a wide array of professionals involved in climate change action. From the media and communication specialists to the technical experts, and representatives, community-based and indigenous organisations, the participants were excited to partake in the discussions as we dived into the topic of gender relations in the Caribbean.
How is Gender linked to Climate Change?
Common opinion was that Caribbean society is not fully aware of the relationship between climate change and gender. According to the representative from the Institute of Gender and Development Studies at the University of the West Indies (Mona Campus), Kimberly Carr-Tobias, the core of the problem is the disproportionate access to the resources available to adapt to climate change impacts. She identified a clear gender gap in the Caribbean, which propagates the vulnerability of women.
‘Gender analysis allows for understanding gender roles and relations, recognition that there are gaps, identification of gaps, and leads to policymakers and practitioners using gender mainstreaming to achieve gender equality goals,’ Carr-Tobias highlighted.
‘The fact that women are traditionally placed at the bottom of the barrel increases their vulnerabilities to climate change.’
Imbalanced power dynamics between men and women determines who has what rights and who has what access to resources; resources needed to address climate change impacts.
The fact that women are traditionally placed at the bottom of the barrel increases their vulnerabilities to climate change. This affects how women are able to respond to climate change as their access to the necessary resources are restricted to their gender roles; roles which lack fluidity in the Caribbean.
Above: Participants in the discussion on the intersection between gender and climate change in the Caribbean.
Women from developing countries witness the nexus between climate change and gender issues on a first-hand basis. They are oftentimes highly dependent on the land and water resources for survival and are left in insecure positions. Climate change is not just an environmental issue, but links to social justice, equity, and human rights, all of which have gender elements.
Gender roles feed into the existing inequality and therefore the ability to deal with climate change impacts.
Group sessions allowed participants to benefit from in-depth analysis of the challenges which arise in dealing with gender and climate change in the region. A popular one identified – Human Resources. There needs to be the development of a pool of regional resources to deal with the issues at a regional level. Brain drain affects the ability of Caribbean people to address Caribbean issues at a regional level. In addition, due to the newness of gender/climate change as a concept in the Caribbean, many organisations are forced to look outside of their country for the experts to assist.
‘ Group sessions allowed participants to benefit from in-depth analysis of the challenges which arise in dealing with gender and climate change in the region. ‘
Above: Participants in the discussion on the intersection between gender and climate change in the Caribbean.
Above: Participants in the discussion on the intersection between gender and climate change in the Caribbean.
Correcting the imbalance
Vijay Krishnarayan, Director General of the Commonwealth Foundation, stated that governments on their own are not equipped to handle the issues related to climate change. Forging partnerships and collaboration is critical.
‘There needs to be dialogue, learning, and listening. The power relationships determine how action on climate change is played out and the success rate of projects to deal with climate change.’
We want to achieve meaningful involvement of vulnerable people in national discussions on climate change. People who are set to feel it the most are not involved.
As such, the Foundation’s goal over the two days was to ensure that less heard voices are put to the fore.
Gender is an all-encompassing subject which affects our society and must be included in the development of policy to boost effectiveness and broaden representation.
Strategic Gender Mainstreaming was also identified as a way forward.
Gender mainstreaming, established as a major strategy for the promotion of gender equality in the Beijing Platform for Action from the Fourth United Nations World Conference on Women in 1995, requires stakeholders to bring the perceptions, experience, knowledge and interests of women as well as men to bear on policy-making, planning and decision-making.
Key to addressing the gender and climate change issue therefore, is dealing with the detrimental disparity between men and women’s access to economic resources and the means of production.
As pointed out by David Bynoe, National Coordinator GEF SGP Barbados during the discussions, ‘It’s not about fragmented work but about building to make the overall impact better.’
I am certain I speak for my fellow participants when I say that the discussions were enlightening and necessary to help in the regional sharing of information as we continue to work together toward achieving participatory Caribbean governance.
Dizzanne Billy is the Caribbean Outreach Manager at Climate Tracker.
Vijay Krishnarayan, Director-General of the Commonwealth Foundation, discusses how the Foundation took a step towards achieving its goal, of mainstreaming gender equality into its mission to advance participatory governance, through a discussion with civil society on the intersection between gender and climate change in the Caribbean.
As the Caribbean hurricane season rolls around, memories of last year’s devastation stir throughout the region. Living with recovery is a harsh reality in Antigua and Barbuda, the British Virgin Islands and Dominica in particular. The costs of hurricanes Irma and Maria are estimated to be in the range of between 7 and 15 billion US dollars. Every Caribbean person felt the events of September 2017, because we all have memories of a storm over the past 30 years that has touched our lives. From hurricane Gilbert in 1988 onwards, living with category 4 and 5 storms has become a new normal.
What we talk about less is the way that those storms impact us differently. There is undoubtedly a strong sense of coming together and pride in people’s stoic ability to deal with devastation. This narrative of community resilience raises several questions though. While we all might be at risk, are some not at greater risk than others? While we all have to clean up afterwards, are some not called on to clean up more than others? While we all have something to gain from effective climate advocacy, might some not have more to gain than others?
Above: Participants in the discussion on the intersection between gender and climate change in the Caribbean.
These are questions that the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) had not engaged with until relatively recently. When it was established in 1992 it was the only one of the conventions agreed at the Earth Summit in Rio that did not explicitly make reference to gender. The Conferences of the Parties (COP) that have convened annually since 1995 to take commitments further have attempted to retrieve this situation – albeit incrementally. The establishment of a Gender Action Plan at COP 23 in Berlin last year sent an encouraging signal but since then there’s been less agreement about how this space might be used.
‘There is undoubtedly a strong sense of coming together and pride in people’s stoic ability to deal with devastation.’
The Commonwealth Foundation’s current strategic plan places greater emphasis than before on mainstreaming gender equality in our mission to advance participatory governance. In practice this means identifying the ways that gender intersects with societal disadvantage. In global climate change discussions, small states and the Caribbean in particular can be marginalised. Gender equality considerations doubly so.
— Vijay Krishnarayan (@vkrishnarayan) June 4, 2018
Having taken soundings from civil society organisations and others in the region we convened an exploratory Caribbean discussion on the intersection between gender and climate. This set out to understand what the region’s needs might be and determine how we might add value to civil society’s policy advocacy in this area. In partnership with the UNDP Global Environment Facility’s Small Grants Programme in Barbados, we invited more than 40 civil society colleagues from each Commonwealth Caribbean country to focus on the issue.
The group that convened had many strengths – not least its diversity. There were established civil society advocates like Sandra Ferguson from Grenada’s Agency for Rural Transformation and Renwick Rose from the Winward Islands Farmers Association in St Vincent and the Grenadines as well as emerging leaders like Cordelia Shal from the Toledo Maya Women’s Council in Belize. There were colleagues from the environment movement like Suzanne Stanley from the Jamaica Environment Trust and those who were not like Chelsee Merchant and Bernard Warner from the Association of Persons with Disabilities in Antigua and Barbuda. The Foundation’s own focus on creativity as a catalyst for social change saw cultural practitioners like Kendel Hippolyte and Oonya Kempadoo also participating.
The three days of discussion were expertly facilitated by Janice Cumberbatch of the University of the West Indies’ (UWI) Centre for Resource Management and Environmental Studies in Barbados. It benefited from an introduction to gender by Kimberly Carr Tobias from UWI’s Institute for Gender and Development Studies in Jamaica. Dizzanne Billy of Climate Trackers in Trinidad and Tobago relayed key messages via social media throughout: ‘Gender is not just about men and women, it’s about correcting the power imbalance’; ‘Gender power dynamics determine who has what rights and what access to resources to deal with the impacts of climate change’ she tweeted.
Above: Participants in the discussion on the intersection between gender and climate change in the Caribbean.
Colleagues also made the connection between governance and effective action on climate change. Some called for transparency in the institutions vested with responsibility for addressing the issue. Others cited what they called ‘transactional governance’ (governance based on incentives and disincentives) as a barrier to broader engagement with the development challenges facing the region. The need for new language to communicate the issues of climate change and gender to a wider audience was called for – not least by the writers that were present.
The meeting closed concluding that while there were opportunities for training and workshops there were not enough spaces for civic voices to gather and consider the big issues facing the region. It was agreed that this gathering had enabled colleagues to learn from each other and so improve their understanding of the issues. While there was value in having civil society talking to each other it was also recognised that there was a need for engagement with policy makers to shape a regional agenda. The Commonwealth Foundation took this message to CARICOM colleagues in Georgetown afterwards and it was warmly received. There’s an emerging area of work for the Foundation here, which could resonate across the Commonwealth.
Vijay Krishnarayan is Director-General of the Commonwealth Foundation.
Gender inequality in the East Africa region is manifest at all levels: in the social spheres, at the domestic level, and in public institutions. Gender based violence is particularly problematic. While there has been increased representation of women in politics – Rwanda leads the world in women’s representation in parliament at 61.4%, progress has been uneven.
Until recently there was a lack of harmonized policies and legislation to deal with gender inequality across the region. But in March 2017, the EAC Gender Equality and Development Act (also called the Gender Bill) was passed by the East Africa Legislative Assembly. While the Act awaits to be assented to by the Heads of States and to take effect nationally, there is a clear need for a harmonised framework for action, to track success, and to make cross-national comparisons.
Project
The Eastern African Sub-regional Support Initiative for the Advancement of Women (EASSI) is monitoring the implementation of the Gender Bill at both the regional and national level to gauge progress toward gender equality.
EASSI is a civil society network working through National Focal Point member organisations in eight countries of the region: Burundi, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, Somalia, Tanzania and Uganda. Its Secretariat is based in Uganda.
The Commonwealth Foundation has supported EASSI’s advocacy on the Gender Bill by enabling interaction between EASSI and members of the East African Legislative Assembly. The project also includes the development of a gender barometer which will provide an annual report that assesses progress of government’s actions, such as formulating policies that remove gender based discrimination, guaranteeing women’s rights, and providing the necessary services for the realisation of these commitments. These actions require financial resources, institutional mechanisms and accountability frameworks that should be integrated in national plans and budgets.
Citizens views on government performance are a fundamental component of the barometer that integrates the use of a ‘Citizen Score Card’. The barometer offers evidence based information for holding governments accountable to their gender commitments.
‘Citizen-generated and evidence-based data’ are terms we hear more and more about in the discourse around monitoring and accountability of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
I joined Mansuriah alongside other colleagues from the Foundation and EASSI on the learning visit to Gender Links earlier this month and thought the Gender Barometer they have developed was an excellent example of citizen-generated data. It was clear the barometer had become a powerful accountability tool in Southern Africa, influencing discourse and provoking change across the region around gender equality.
‘It was clear the barometer had become a powerful accountability tool in Southern Africa’
After South Africa, I continued to East Africa where I met with Foundation grant partners KELIN and the Africa Platform for Social Protection (APSP) who work with some of Kenya’s most marginalised communities. What approaches to citizen-generated data did they find effective?
Citizen-generated data is defined as ‘data that people or their organisations produce to directly monitor, demand or drive change on issues that affect them’ . Here are a few of the approaches to citizen-generated data that our partners are using to ensure inclusion of marginalised people in holding duty-bearers to account.
Mixed methods approaches that harness different knowledge sources
The SADC Gender Protocol barometer effectively pulls together and ‘houses’ data from a variety of monitoring and evidence measures. Referred to as an ‘omnibus’, it uses two main measures: An Index and the Citizen Score Card.
The Index draws on data from readily available statistics, an attitude survey and a media monitor tool.
The Index is complimented and compared with data collected from a Citizen Score Card – a perceptions measure administered to a representative sample of women and men in each of the 15 SADC countries.
Each of the organisations also use a variety of participatory methods to harness data and knowledge from communities to bring evidence and voice into decision-making spaces:
Providing testimony on the lived experience and challenges faced by service-users and marginalised communities, if presented in a participatory decision-making space, such evidence can be a powerful stimulus for change and strengthens voices at the grassroots.
multistakeholder dialogues that bring together service-users with service providers and other governmental decision-making bodies into a participatory space where voices can be heard and progress towards change and solutions can be discussed.
case studies are used to capture more in-depth analysis of experiences.
Choosing indicators that really question the change
In March 2017, the Gender Protocol Alliance revamped its index so that it would result in ‘better data for better decisions’. Rather than using indicators that relied on data which was readily available, indicators were revised to really get at the nub of the issue and to ask difficult questions on gender equality. Gender Links’ Executive Director, Colleen Lowe, explained that indicators have been chosen for their potential to provide critical evidence; not simply about monitoring for the sake of data capture but about demonstrating the change that needs to happen.
‘Rather than using indicators that relied on data which was readily available, indicators were revised to really get at the nub of the issue’
Examples of indicators aimed at measuring some of the more hard-to-measure areas around women’s voice and gender-based violence, which have remained intractable and hidden issues for women, are:
• % who say if a woman works she should give her money to her husband
• % who say if a man beats a woman it shows that he loves her
• % who say a woman has a right to insist on a man using a condom
• % women sources on economic topics
Aligning with policy and validating data
The SADC gender barometer is aligned to an existing policy. It follows the nine sectors of the Gender Protocol: constitutional and legal rights, governance, education and training, the economy, gender violence, health HIV and AIDS, the media and climate change. Aligning the protocol to SDG 5 (Gender Equality) has given additional leverage for government to sign up to the protocol and meet the targets. Joan De Klerk, Head of Public Education and Information at South Africa’s Commission for Gender Equality confirmed that the Commission uses data from the barometer to cite in their own reports.
Validation of data with government has been critical for buy in and credibility of the evidence presented by civil society. APSP have validated data that showed that the people in need were not accessing the cash transfers, thus compromising its impact, by bringing government officers into the field to see the reality. Partnering with academic bodies to help in determining what is statistically acceptable is also another way to avoid data being discredited by government.
Popularizing the accountability tools, the results and building rights awareness
Each of the three organisations have gone to great lengths to popularise and breakdown technical policy documents and assessment criteria into simple language. This approach is critical to creating interest around the accountability process as it helps to build rights awareness and demonstrate how individual and community-based issues fit into a wider rights-based policy framework.
KELIN’s publication, Monitoring the Implementation of the Right to Health Under the Constitution of Kenya, outlines the constitutional provisions on Kenya’s right to health. As Allan Maleche, KELIN’s Executive Director noted, people living with HIV ‘must be able to know how to plug into questioning the broader rights to health issues. Unless they understand how the right to health and the health system works then the advocacy [and accountability measures] will be useless’.
The use of infographics and data visuals has also been a powerful way in which Gender Links has communicated the results of the barometer. These can be more easily shared via social media and to tell the story in accessible yet powerful ways that can build interest to engage.
We were happy to have had the @commonwealthorg team over and had good discussions on learning, knowledge management and communications. We look forward to integrating these into our programs. pic.twitter.com/0jdwq8Z9DI
Strong networks to capture perceptions in the margins and support advocacy
The Southern Africa Gender Protocol Alliance has been a critical vehicle for advocacy. Gender Links has sought to embed the protocol provisions in the work of each of its Alliance members. Gender Links’ networks also include working relationships with 430 local government councils who play a critical role in data capture.
‘[KELIN] is also building its network to include journalists who […] can also act as advocates to provide further evidence.’
KELIN is working to identify community champions and strong CSOs in each of the counties where its project operates. It is also building its network to include journalists who are passionate on community issues and who, with some additional training on health rights, can also act as advocates to provide further evidence.
Looking ahead
It’s not yet clear what strictly is or isn’t citizen-generated data but the visit and discussions showed that evidence and data used for accountability needs to have credible data and information that ask difficult questions, ideally using measures validated by duty-bearers but backed by a strong rights awareness among affected communities. Those affected need to see how their experiences fit into a wider policy and rights-based framework so that evidence collected is accountable to them.
A challenge that always exists is negotiating and judging how best to use the data and evidence in the accountability space. Describing the challenges of complimenting government interests while also advocating for change, Samuel Obara, of APSP said: ‘this [advocacy] space is fragile because [our work relies] on political will and this is a will that we are trying to protect’. Colleen Lowe from Gender Links described the relationship between government and civil society as ‘creative tension’. I would like to thank our partners in South Africa and Kenya for hosting rich discussions and sharing experiences.
Gillian Cooper is Programme Manager for Knowledge, Learning and Communications at the Commonwealth Foundation.
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