West Africa Review (2000) ISSN: 1525-4488 NEW GENDER PERSPECTIVES FOR THE MILLENNIUM: CHALLENGES AND SUCCESSFUL MODELS OF NORTH-SOUTH COLLABORATION

Madonna Owusuah Larbi

Ladies and Gentlemen, I wish to thank the organizers of the African Studies Association's Women's Caucus for inviting me to share with you gender perspectives for the millennium as well as some of the challenges and successful models of North-South collaboration.¹

As a development practitioner, my human rights activism, which spans several years and a number of continents, is now specifically located in an organization whose ideals I share. As Executive Director of MATCH International Centre, a 24-year-old women's development organization based in Canada, I am fortunate, while working in a field of personal interest, to work with several women's groups; groups whose membership and leadership cover the geographic regions of Anglophone and Francophone Africa, Asia, the Caribbean and South America. MATCH collaborates with women's groups who are committed to women's full and active participation in the development of their societies, who recognize the inequities that exists in their communities and who are finding creative ways to challenge the structures that impede the equal participation of women. Though much success has been achieved much remains to be done.

MATCH International Centre is a women's organization guided by a feminist vision of sustainable development; a vision that recognizes the diverse realities of women and respects their efforts at self-determination. This small organization, the first of its type in Canada has managed to do so since 1976.

To achieve this lofty goal, MATCH, not an acronym, matches the needs of women in the south with the resources of women in the north. This is done in a spirit of equal partnership and on the premise that women in the regions of the South are best able to identify their needs, to plan strategies in response to these needs and to implement initiatives in order to achieve their goals. It is only in recent years that the word `partnership' is bandied about more often by development workers. Consequently, more organizations are now attempting to work in true partnership. MATCH did this from its very inception and was certain that programmes that were designed and implemented by women in the south was the only way to ensure that changes initiated, from within, would occur and be sustained. Because only when there is respect, commitment and the ability to define one's own agenda can any development programme or project succeed, be sustainable and meaningful to those who are expected to benefit the most – thus avoiding the white elephants that many development initiatives have been so far.

To arrive at its programming focus, MATCH often consults with its partners and individual women in the regions of its work. And so, during a strategic planning process in 1987, women's groups asked MATCH to focus on two broad themes: the elimination of violence against women and gender and development. Women's groups/partners/ individuals in the south in subsequent strategic planning sessions in 1992 and 1998 again requested that MATCH continue to support programmes working towards the elimination of violence against women and women and sustainable human development. The terminology changed from gender and development to women and sustainable human development.

The theme: the elimination of violence against women is meant to broadly cover all forms of violence. From domestic violence to state violence to the violations of basic human rights such as the inability of women to participate fully and equally in the economic activity of their communities and societies or to be able to freely meet and participate in any political activity.

Women and sustainable human development is the broad theme for programmes such as legal literacy, human rights education, civic education and so on. Our partners told us, and we agree, that in order for women to participate fully they must be informed, knowledgeable – their social consciousness must be raised so that they can better ably dismantle the constricting structures that have denied them the practical enjoyment of human rights.

Another approach that MATCH takes to its work, is to support not only established groups but emerging groups and groups working on emerging issues. There are a variety of organizations that many northern donors prefer to work with. For example, established organizations who make communication and programming a lot easier or those groups who leave donors with a good feeling, who enable the donor agency to chalk one support or the other as another missionary task achieved. MATCH also enjoys working with established groups because working with them is indeed much easier. However, we also love working with emerging groups, full of innovative approaches to their problems and who need assistance to get their ideas off the ground but who over time will become the established group that larger donors clamour to work with. What MATCH would have achieved with such partners is that, the women's movement would be better off and would have expanded because the pool of change agents worldwide would have increased.

Armed with this request by women in the south, MATCH had the arduous task of convincing donors, the government in particular, that there is a link between violence against women and development. This did not fit the tested and failed definition of development. With persuasion and with conviction we were able to, at the very least, convince the skeptics, albeit grudgingly, that the violence women face is directly linked to their inability to participate fully in the development process of their communities. That though women have been able to sally forth in life in an admirable fashion, society as a whole would benefit even more from women's full and unimpeded participation.

So MATCH supports women's groups who are working on structural change that, while improving not only their condition but their status in their societies, will bring about benefits for society as a whole. They are analyzing the structures and mentalities that deny women full access and equal participation in their society, and dismantling systems that are antiquated and objectionable in this modern age.

What these groups are really doing is to raise the level of the debate, from one of accusing the culprit to one providing an enabling environment that allows for critical analysis of their situation. An environment where women take control of their lives and participate, from an informed and thoughtful position, in their personal development as well as the development of their societies. The result of which can only yield benefits to society.

The Continental Initiative:

Against this organizational background, I would like to talk about some of the partners we work with in Africa. I cannot possibly cover them all. However, I am sure that in the course of the question and answer period, I will be able to speak about others including a few in other regions of the south because our partners learn from each other and we in Canada in turn learn from them.

The Gender Unit of the Southern African Regional Institute for Policy Studies (SARIPS) based in Zimbabwe, in 1995, asked if MATCH could support a meeting of a number of women to discuss solutions to better position Africa for real progress and development in the 21 ^st century. It was recognized that Africa's dilemma had long been debated but that MATCH could collaborate with the Gender Unit of SARIPS to organize this meeting where solutions from the perspective of women could be discussed.

Obviously, it was an opportunity not to be missed. We asked for and received funding from CIDA with the support of one of the Vice-Presidents who instinctively saw the merit of this brainstorming session somewhere in Africa, where women from different African countries, in and out of the continent, representing a variety of activist organizations could meet. The discussions were rich and dynamic and participants not only brought their individual perspective to the discussions but those of their networks.

As a result, 23 women from Burkina Faso, Cameron, Ghana, Malawi, Mali, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Tanzania, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Swaziland and Somali participated in the meeting entitled the Continental Initiative. Those living in the continent where heads of organizations that MATCH supported or had contributed to one publication or another of MATCH. Together, they wrote a blueprint of strategies for a "Renaissance for Africa" with a commitment to see the vision through the short, mid and long-term. The term Renaissance was used long before Thabo Mbeki used it!

`Renaissance ` was the appropriate word for it. For was it not about 45 years ago that a renaissance hit the continent? That era of optimism, notwithstanding the challenge of dismantling colonialism, was indeed one of rebirth. I am optimistic that if a handful of men like Kwame Nkrumah, Nnamdi Azikiwe, Sedar Senghor, Wallace Johnson, Sekou Toure, Keita, Julius Nyerere, Jomo Kenyatta, Kenneth Kaunda etc. could plan and plot and succeed in liberating Africa from colonial rule, then these 23 women plus all the other activists who were not present at the meeting, could match the men or do much better given half the chance. The women present at the continental initiative meeting, unlike the men just mentioned have and are mentoring other women having learnt from the mistakes of Kenyatta and his contemporaries. However, these women are not going to wait to be given the chance though, they are planning on taking it. In fact they have already begun the process.

The themes the participants discussed were: 1) structural adjustment – the economics of poverty/economic reform; 2) militarization, violence and chaos; 3) women's health; and 4) good governance and democracy. These four themes, however, are among many that should be addressed.

I will speak to two of the four namely: militarization, violence and chaos; and good governance and democracy.

Regarding militarization, violence and chaos, participants recognized the military's role in supporting despotic regimes and conversely regimes' use of the military to further their goals. The proliferation of arms in several African countries does not augur well for the development of those countries.

Indeed, the continent appears to be spawning wars on a regular basis. While wars differ in intensity, from the simmering category of the Western Sahara to the wild and raging type of Sierra Leone, when peace is being negotiated, the perspectives of women, who have proven to be more peaceful than men, are not represented in adequate numbers, as they should be.

Then there is the case of the war in Rwanda, which left women and children walking, and dying in the process, to escape the ravages of war. Neighbouring countries of Rwanda suffered the effects of war refugees on their already strained national budgets. In fact, MATCH supported, on a humanitarian basis – a one-time help, the purchase of solar cookers for Rwandan refugees in the Kagera Region of northwestern Tanzania who by denuding the forest for firewood were causing an environmental disaster for Tanzania. This was an emergency aid – a move from our traditional way of working – which is slow long- term but sustainable. Relief type of aid does not allow for follow-up and impact.

So African women, themselves battling society for equal opportunity and social justice, in a non-militaristic way, find themselves providing recruits for armies, in the person of their partners or children. They again must cope mentally, physically and socially with being victims of rape and other sexual atrocities that accompany wars.

Social conscience appears to be muted in favour of economic gain, as reflected in the reaction of the international community in the case of Sierra Leone. A small country at war, whose vast natural resources seems to be its curse. A country that has not received enough international support to re-create and sustain peace. A country, the magnitude of human atrocities it now faces after war, is unprecedented and has rightly been declared a disaster area by the United Nations Human Rights Commissioner. Again, women will be expected to reconstruct society using their creativity, which is often called upon in an atmosphere of scarcity, hardship and brutality.

When talking about peace building and conflict resolution, women, who are the main victims of conflict, are expected to pick up the pieces during and after conflicts. Some possible solutions are: the support of economic development for the maintenance of peace; challenging military budgets by informing the public about these kinds of allocations; teaching peace building/keeping in the schools and families; discouraging weapon-like toys that lead to violent mentality among children-especially boys; finding ways of monitoring the glorification of globalized violence through the media; and involving the military in development initiatives in countries.

The Continental Initiative reaffirmed that the "African Renaissance" in making, will not be built on war. It will examine and apportion the role of the military in various societies; this role must be minimal and under strict civilian control. Military expenditures, and the consequent claim on scarce resources and human life in poor countries, is the greatest and most cruel scandal of our time. Military power is the major modern threat, directly or indirectly, to the process of achieving good governance.

Good governance and democracy – though not the panacea to the problems in Africa it was as agreed, is relevant to all the issues discussed and other issues for that matter. The meeting's participants admitted that accountability; transparency and a different kind of leadership are required to make the difference in African political systems and in the lives of Africans.

It was proposed that: progressive women should be identified and supported to enter politics, the women's movement be used to keep these women accountable to women in civil society; that the media be used to make political leaders visible and counter the negative representations of women in the political arena; nations ensure that through the establishment of monitoring mechanisms, constitutional provisions which protect and support women's rights and welfare of the people are adhered to; oral traditions be used to re- define existing programs; democratic traditions be developed through formal and informal education with particular attention being paid to gender sensitization; and that women and their societies be more critical of political cultism.

Again, another opportunity to be hopeful. Unlike the era of the leaders of the independence movement, where the handful of men leaders had women fawning over them, the leaders of the African women's movement have to contend with many more politically aware supporters, who are able to question and who will not be blinded by promises that cannot be supported. Women in Africa will no longer dance to the music of male politicians. Instead, women will dance to their own music and will expect leaders to place the well being of their citizens above self-interest and political posturing.

Remember I gave two of the four themes, which were part of the recommendations that came out of the five-day Continental Initiative meeting. We each parted ways knowing that the onus was on us to make sure that recommendations were implemented and that this meeting would not be another talking shop.

Well, I am proud to report that many of those recommendations, originating from the Continental Initiative meeting, have been carried out and that MATCH International Centre has not only shared the proceedings with many women's organizations on the continent, but has financially and morally supported groups to achieve these objectives.

Now a few examples of how MATCH International Centre, in partnership with women's groups in Africa, have furthered the objectives of the Continental Initiative.

Women's Voice

Women's Voice is one of the first women's organizations to be set up in Malawi after the era of Kamuzu Banda. Women's Voice was founded by Dr.Vera Chirwa. She, until the demise of the Banda regime, was Africa's longest serving woman prisoner of conscience. She was imprisoned, together with her husband Orton Chirwa, by the regime of Kamuzu Banda for opposing his spurious leadership and poor policies which they cautioned, would bankrupt Malawi. They also challenged the human rights record of the Banda government.

After her release, she shared the dream she had during her imprisonment, much like the dreams Mandela had while he was imprisoned, to start a much needed women's organization in Malawi that would offer leadership training, political awareness and legal literacy programmes. After the Continental Initiative meeting, MATCH committed support for the establishment of Women's Voice.

Today, Women's Voice is one of the vibrant organizations in Malawi conducting leadership training and civic education programmes. It encourages women to run for office and offers training so that they can be effective elected officials. Among the many topics covered is: the electoral process as it applies to Malawi, campaigning methods, organizational management (to a certain extent) and strategic thinking and planning. Unfortunately, one of the challenges facing women in Malawi is how to raise adequate funds to run for office in a country where women are so very poor. So, while Malawi is officially now a democratic country, where its citizens are encouraged to participate in the process, women, particularly at the local level, are unable to support their own candidacy. They will, for now, remain voters for male candidates though more enlightened voters compared to the Banda days.

MATCH is committed to continue supporting Women's Voice and other women's groups in Malawi. As in the past, MATCH will continue to support emerging groups as well as groups working on emerging initiatives, because we have every confidence that such groups will increase the critical mass of change agents required for sustainable development. We believe that emerging groups do invigorate the movement. We also believe that emerging initiatives also bring new ideas and energy.

As you well know, for decades in the field of international cooperation, development has been mainly financed by donors outside of the continent who often push their agenda on governments or non-governmental organizations with little or no regard for the real needs of people in the South. I wish you had been there to hear this thought enunciated so eloquently at the Continental Initiative meeting.

The Africa Women's Fund

The recent establishment of the African Women's Fund comes as no surprise and is a welcomed move by its visionary founders. The African Women's Fund intends to raise funds primarily in Africa in order to support women's initiatives that will improve both the condition and status of women. It will support research in the field and act as a clearinghouse for information exchange.

Initial start-up funds have been secured from MATCH International Centre. MATCH has committed support for five fiscal years. It is expected that MATCH's financial support will be used to leverage funding from others.

Yes, the setting up of the African Women's Fund is a new venture, risky to start of with, an exciting one nonetheless with enormous potential - just what is needed to further transform Africa. MATCH, in partnership with the African Women's Fund is prepared to venture into this uncharted course.

African Feminist Initiative

The African Feminist Initiative (AFI) is a new group based in Zimbabwe and is supported by MATCH International Centre. The African Feminist Initiative is the first feminist publishing house on the continent. It will herald in the new century with it first book publication – a conversation between African feminists. Aside from books, the African Feminist Initiative will also publish two journals each year.

AFI will publish the perspectives of writers who challenge the structures that subjugate women. The AFI journals, will be widely distributed to libraries in high schools and universities and bookshops, and will address the root causes of women's apparent powerlessness. The journals will provide a space where women can think and write on some of the systemic barriers deterring women from creatively and truthfully expressing themselves.

Association pour le Progres et la Defense des Droits des Femmes Maliennes (APDF)

APDF was founded in 1991 in Mali to focus on the social, political and economic status of women in Mali. Its main preoccupation is to defend the right to freedom from violence and to combat sexist and discriminatory laws and practices unfavourable to women. APDF offers a series of training sessions for women to raise public awareness about, among other things, the need for the government of Mali, on the one hand and civil society on the other hand, to implement the provisions of the Beijing Platform for Action. MATCH supported APDF from its infancy, walking in partnership with her to maturity! Now, APDF, with a large membership that spans the vast arid land of Mali, and all sectors of the population, is one dynamic force to contend with.

Women's Bureau, Collectif National de Pecheurs Artisanaux du Senegal (CNPS)

CNPS is a recent partner of MATCH. This is the women's branch of the fisherfolk union. MATCH had met the president of the group who wanted support for the women's wing of the union, mainly to make small loans accessible to fisher women who purchased fish for curing by traditional methods. The availability of a credit scheme that is gender-sensitive and in favour of the poor, a credit scheme which does not further humiliate women by driving them further down the deep, dark hole of poverty, is a blessing. Thus with MATCH's support CNPS members, sidestepped the loan sharks who charge usury rates of 20 - 40% per day. They have been able to stabilize and expand their business, and provide the space, which permits them to think of better ways of doing their work, and of new ideas that will transport them over the borders of Senegal. One such way, is the exportation of cured fish from Joal, Soumbedioune, Hann, St. Louis and Mbour to land-locked countries such as Mali and Burkina Faso. In other words, this group of women, who do not have much formal education, are now more secure in their micro-enterprise and are getting ready to embark, not only to the meso- level of economic activity, but are now venturing into the arena of regional trade. Women not only benefit from this activity but so does the whole nation of Senegal because fishing, a way of life, accounts for a large part of the 19% earnings garnered from its industrial sector. It is reported that 60,000 are employed in the fishing industry and 400-600,000 others depend on this industry. Among Senegal's export commodities is fish to France, the European Market, Cote d'Ivoire and other places. The potential for women associated with CNPS moving from the buying and selling of small amounts of fish to becoming fish processors for regional and international markets is enormous and exciting. Thankfully CNPS is on its way to participating in this important sector of Senegal's economy.

Women in Law and Development in Africa (WiLDAF)

Women in Law and Development in Africa is now over ten years old. It is a viable organization with an effective network that criss-crosses the continent. Again, MATCH International Centre was the first northern organization that provided funds to start the organization and which WiLDAF used to leverage for additional funding from others.

The impact of supporting nascent groups can be far-reaching and effective as is evidenced in the critical and pivotal role that WiLDAF now plays in Africa.

It is providing the venue and leadership for women's groups to: review laws prevailing in their respective countries and to strive to make them gender sensitive. WiLDAF's mandate is to advocate for changes to laws that obstruct women's full participation in the development of their countries. WiLDAF is also working with some pan- African institutions that could benefit from gender sensitive perspectives and approaches to designing and implementing their initiatives.

One such pan-African institution is the Africa Commission on Human and Peoples Rights. The African Commission on Human and Peoples Rights is a separate entity spawned out of the Organization of African Unity (OAU). Forward looking African activist leaders such as Nkrumah, Azikiwe, Senghor and Nyerere together with some academics and heads of civil society groups conceived of this idea – foreseeing the need for an independent and impartial court serving the continent. The notion for its establishment preceded even the UN's Commission on Minority Rights

This debate was started in the late 1960s and early 1970s but the idea only came to fruition in 1986. Its Secretariat is in Banjul and it meets twice a year for 15 days each sitting. The recent meeting was held in Kigali, Rwanda and will end on November 15, 1999. Funding sources for the Commission varies from the OAU itself, the Danish Human Rights Organization and others. Its function is similar to the European Human Rights Commission.

Committee members are nominated. The criteria for nomination are integrity and experience. Those nominated must be credible citizens of their country and be nominated by their respective governments. However, once the nomination has been accepted, the individual no longer represents the view of his or her government but seeking the protection of the rights of all Africans becomes her or his raison d'être. Currently, of the 11 Commissioners sitting, four are women from the Gambia, Malawi, Congo Brazzaville and Uganda. One of these four women is Dr. Vera Chirwa of Women's Voice in Malawi, whom I had mentioned earlier. Commission is supported considerably by The International Court of Jurists who helps to build the capacity of the commission itself and the capacity of non-governmental organizations who in turn will have and play a critical role in the mandate of the Commission.

Under the auspices of The Commission, the protocol to set up an African Court on Human Rights has recently been passed. 15 states are needed to ratify, five having done so already. With 15 signatures, Africa will have its own human rights court to hear, try and punish human rights abuses. This is no small feat. Particularly since the OAU has been bashed for so long and so often. No, we can't be complacent. No, the mediocre cannot be our yardstick for excellence but yes, the OAU is functioning. The very fact that it is still around is a wonder given the machinations that have gone on to undermine anything, be it person or credible ideas emanating from the continent which will benefit Africans.

Admittedly, the OAU has it share of problems. Yet, it now functions in an area that is crucial. The OAU was fundamentally set up really to ensure that every country in Africa was free from colonialist rule and that apartheid was dismantled. Those goals indeed have been achieved. It was South-North partnership that hit the last nail into apartheid's coffin. However, the contribution of countries such as Tanzania and Zambia front-line states and Nigeria and Ghana providing education and scholarships for South Africans should not be marginalized and cannot be underestimated.

The OAU of the 21^st century is focusing on regional integration, economic growth and development. As well, conflict resolution and peace keeping is another focus of the OAU – a role it is playing in resolving the conflict in Ethiopia and Eritrea., and the role former elder statesman Nyerere was playing, in behalf of the OAU, in resolving the conflict in the DRC.

And there have been other forms of partnership. MATCH supported the efforts of the Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada when it was preparing its landmark guidelines for considering women refugee claimants. The guidelines, released in March 1993, arose out of the recognition by the Board that women face different forms of abuse than men. Assault, rape and social ostracization are examples of the types of gender based discrimination women suffer. Even after the guidelines were released, MATCH continues to provide information and links researchers, of the IRB, with women's groups in the South, in the IRB's effort to be au courant with the challenges women face in those parts of the world.

Another example is one regarding the staggering Magaya vs. Magaya ruling in Zimbabwe, which pronounced that women are at best junior males within the family, still leaves us reeling. When I heard of this, I conferred with WiLDAF who sent to me as much information as they could. I then proceeded to call one of the nine justices who, three of whom are women, sit on Canada's Supreme Court to discuss this disturbing state of affairs. She informed me that, as a member of the Executive Committee of the International Court of Jurists (ICJ), it had been decided that an ICJ delegation would go at the end of September, to Zimbabwe on a fact-finding mission. Unfortunately, she did not have an up-dated report for me before my departure to the U.S. I am sure you know that such bizarre judgements are not peculiar to the African continent. In Canada, we sometimes get equally astonishing judgements passed such as the one from the judge, who a few years ago, ruled that a six-year old girl must have provoked and acted in a suggestive way and that her actions spurred an adult male, the accused, to sexually assault her.

And the recent interim judgement of a judge who awarded a five-month pregnant woman with a three year old child $1 temporary alimony because her husband, a tenured university professor, had decided to go on leave without pay. Where is justice?

To bring this presentation to a close, I would like to touch on a few other issues that I have been contemplating and which I hope will engender, amongst us here, much thought, some discussion and action.

The first order of priority is the issue of power. Who controls power? Who decides to share power? Who wields power? As women we have our work cut out for us if we want to change the status quo and bring about equitable societies. This phenomenal task can only be achieved in unity. So while we talk about the powers that be, which does not adequately include us, we should monitor how we operate within the women's movement. In true and equal partnership we can cut across class and race and power struggles to bring about much needed change in the landscape of development: change that is lasting. Because the power of the multinationals is now the giant facing us, we will have to plan a strategy to cope. For we now witness the erosion of power from the people – people in the sense of the definition of democracy – and even within strong democracies, to the conglomerates.

I humbly submit that if there is not one already, a vibrant women's lobby group in the U.S. working, in and for the interest of Africa should be created, nourished and sustained. A lobby group that will work with activist groups on the African continent. A lobby group that will help: i) frame and shepherd policies; and ii) help change, when necessary policy's that do not serve either the interest of Africa or African women well. Lobbying should be done at all levels – government – national and state, with large business conglomerates, with politicians and so on.

This is indeed another form of partnership. A partnership that is supportive of African women. Indeed the approaches for partnerships are varied but none-the-less contribute immeasurably in furthering the cause.

We are at the cusp of a new century. Successful North-South collaboration will benefit all concerned, if it is based on equality, respect, mutually agreed upon strategic goals and a sound strategy to achieve those goals, unity, transparency, accountability and effective communication. Then in the year 2000 and beyond, we can expect to further raise the status of women globally and provide the space for women to live in dignity.

And as Nellie McClung, one of five women from the province of Alberta, who fought a lengthy legal and political struggle for women's constitutional right to sit in Canada's Senate, aptly stated, let us "Never retreat, never explain, never apologize - get the thing done and let them howl."

Thank you.

© Copyright 2000 Africa Resource Center, Inc.

Citation Format

Larbi, Madonna Owusuah. (2000). NEW GENDER PERSPECTIVES FOR THE MILLENNIUM: CHALLENGES AND SUCCESSFUL MODELS OF NORTH-SOUTH COLLABORATION. West Africa Review: 2 , 1.[iuicode: http://www.icaap.org/iuicode?101.2.1.5]

	Keynote Address to the Women's Caucus of the African Studies Association, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on November 13, 1999.