Investing in women: beyond the rhetoric
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- CASE STUDY: FUNDACIÓN DESAFIO BACKGROUND
- CASE STUDY: ACEH GROUP* BACKGROUND
- CASE STUDY: WOMEN’S FORUM FOR RESEARCH TRAINING,YEMEN BACKGROUND
- Cameroon Association of University Women (CAMAUW)
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BACKGROUND: was introduced in Kenya two years ago as part of a strong commitment to meeting the Millennium Development Goal calling for all boys and girls worldwide to be completing pri- mary education by 2015. Despite the free education, far fewer of Kenyan girls complete primary and secondary school, as com- pared to boys. Project Baobab in Nairobi has introduced an entirely new curriculum into the Kenyan school system, one that promises to deliver a long-term benefit to Kenyan women and girls. The group teaches girls in secondary school life skills, job readiness, and entrepreneurial and leader- ship skills. Along with business and life skills, girls learn about gender empowerment and human rights. An important part of Project Baobab’s program is giving girls the tools to build businesses founded on values of equity and equality. RETURN More than 200 girls attend school. Sixty-eight business plans have been funded. Next year, they will reach more than twice as many girls and join with Kenyan micro-financing programs to ensure women’s economic security.
9 Investing in Health The Global Fund invested $1.2 million in 112 organizations dedicated to advancing women’s health and providing family planning services. CASE STUDY: FUNDACIÓN DESAFIO BACKGROUND: Every year, four million women in Latin America resort to abor- tions performed in secrecy and often in dangerous conditions. Five thousand of these women die annually, and 800,000 women are hospitalized with complica- tions. In Ecuador, abortion is allowed only in cases of rape and only if the raped woman is judged insane or cognitively impaired. Fundación Desafio (Challenge Foundation) is the only organiza- tion in Ecuador offering safe abortion services. Facing strong cultural and political opposition, they also provide life-saving sexu- al and reproductive health services and health-related media cam- paigns to women and men from all over the country. Recognizing their extraordi- nary position, the women of Fundación Desafio are preparing to gather and present the data needed to support a first-ever campaign to legalize abortion in all cases of rape. A Global Fund grant will help Fundación Desafio to launch a massive public media campaign urging male sexual responsibility, the use of condoms, and the prevention of HIV/AIDS.
Fundación Desafio reaches more than 250 women annually with life-saving sexual and reproduc- tive health services. The group’s upcoming media campaign will spread the message to 5,000 students that men must also take responsibility for reducing the spread of HIV/AIDS. Above:A Brazilian doctor examining a patient who wants a natural birth. Brazil practices the largest number of cesarians worldwide. 10 Investing in Peace The Global Fund for Women invested $2.3 million in 170 women’s organizations to prevent violence against women and build societies founded on justice and equality. CASE STUDY: ACEH GROUP* BACKGROUND: In modern warfare, 90% of casual- ties are civilians, and 75% of civilian casualties are women and children. More than 4.5 million women and girls are refugees. Half of all women seeking political asylum are survivors of sexual assault. In the province of Aceh in northwest Indonesia a bloody struggle has been raging for near- ly 30 years. Fourteen thousand women have been widowed. Atrocities carried out by Indone- sian security forces include rape and sexual abuse.Women have few opportunities to participate in peace negotiations or political initiatives. The three activist women who founded Aceh Group in 2002 have already been impris- oned for exposing Indonesia’s military brutality and government corruption. The group’s members must maintain anonymity for fear of retaliation. Some group mem- bers have already been killed or are in jail or missing. Operating under life-threat- ening conditions, the group facil- itates the evacuation of women’s rights defenders, provides safe houses and legal services, and assists women whose husbands are imprisoned. RETURN: Local women are trained and able to accurately document the effects of the conflict on women. This provides critical evidence for lobbying efforts that bring local women to the negotiations table. Outcomes include expanded women’s leadership and participa- tion in the resolution of a long- term civil and political conflict.
11 Investing in Leadership The Global Fund invested $2.3 million in 171 organizations which are building women’s leadership, and civic and political participation.
Yemen is the poorest country in the Middle East. A staggering 76% of Yemeni women cannot read or write.Women and children in rural areas are without access to education or health services. Shari’a codes permit marriage for young girls, and mandate that adult women obtain permission from male family members to venture outside their homes. Despite these circumstances, Suad Al-Gedsi became a leader in the Yemeni women’s movement, and director of the Women’s Forum for Research and Training (WFRT). Married off at age 12, Al-Gedsi’s husband finally allowed her to go to school when she was 16 on the condition that she com- plete all domestic work. Al-Gedsi, a mother of two boys, graduated first in her high school class, even though her husband did not allow her to do homework in his pres- ence.When Al-Gedsi enrolled in university, her husband responded with violence, and she divorced him. Al-Gedsi received no alimony and supported her boys on $25 per month as a teacher. RETURN Al-Gedsi co-founded the Women’s Forum for Research and Training in 2000. This organization is the nerve center of the women’s human rights movement in Yemen and throughout the region.WFRT has drawn member groups from across Yemen, held more than 50 trainings in women’s human rights, and published two books on poverty and human rights in Arab constitutions. WFRT offers a country-wide women’s rights education program and is documenting the human rights situation of women through- out Yemen. WFRT’s programs are now being replicated in 15 other Arab countries. Above:Women organizing in Baghdad, Iraq, before the US occupation. Our group, in partnership with the wife-beating, child molestation promoting freedom of choice in REGIONAL
My husband, Lewis T. Preston served as President of the World Bank from 1991-1994. We had both been moved by the plight of girls during our travels. After he passed away, I wanted to honor him and the World Bank by giving a gift of education to girls in developing countries so they could have a chance to make a difference in their communities and their lives. I asked the Bank if they would con- tribute to a fund.This became the Preston Fund for Girls’ Education. I looked all over for an international organization I knew would put its money where its mouth is.This is how the Preston Fund came to be a permanent endowment for girls’ education within the Global Fund for Women’s Legacy Fund.What strikes you as you travel and learn is the fundamental need for the work of the Global Fund. The Global Fund really comes through for women and girls. It is a privilege to be able to give what you can, based on what you feel, to a cause in which you believe. J.P. Morgan Chase, and other inter- national corporations and their employees, also made significant contributions to the Preston Fund for Girls’ Education. Lewis T. Preston joined J.P. Morgan Chase in 1951, where he became President and later Chairman of the Board and CEO. DONOR PATSY PRESTON New York, New York • Donor since 1998 12 13 Global Fund for Women, has been able to reduce and discrimination of girls in education while the part of Maasai lands where we operate. Emunyak Women Group, Kenya INVESTMENTS AFRICA 14
18 ASIA & OCEANIA 22 EUROPE & FORMER 26 SOVIET STATES MIDDLE EAST & NORTH AFRICA 30
Sub-Saharan Africa is the only region in the developing world where food shortages have substantially worsened over the last three decades.Women provide 70 to 80% of household food production in this region.
CALL TO ACTION: Since 2000, the Global Fund increased grantmaking by 46% to African women’s groups supporting economic independence. RESPONSE: 14
“When you say food crisis, you say women,” said Aissata Bagna in a recent interview with the UN’s news service. This prominent activist and former health minister continued: “Men can go elsewhere, they can work for food or move away from the vil- lage. But the women have to stay behind . . . to take care of the children.” Although she was referring to the terrible food crisis gripping Niger, she could have been talking about any number of African countries. The approximately 2.9 million hungry people in Niger are just a fraction of Africa’s 31.1 million people who do not have enough food. The reasons are many – international trade and economic policies that have devastated African economies, bad gover- nance, the historical exclusion of women from control of resources, desertification and decreasing access to productive land. Global Fund grantees strike at the root problems underlying these crises. They are determined to prevent future disasters—not merely respond to immediate threats. For example, the Democratic Republic of Congo’s PRODIFE
(in English, Program for Women’s Complete Development) and Action Now Kenya strengthen women’s civic participation, while train- ing them in businesses for income generation. Whereas 10 to 15 years ago, hunger was rare in the Democratic Republic of Congo, currently a signifi- cant percentage of families do not have a regular source of income, nor do they eat every day. PRODIFE provides technical assistance and training to grassroots women’s groups in the areas of health care and commercial agriculture. Next year, they will offer training in commercial poultry farming. Action Now Kenya runs programs in health, educa- tion and business development for young women in Nairobi who are either living on the street, or in shantytowns. Many of them previously resorted to survival sex work. After participating in the group’s micro-enterprise development program, the women lobbied the local government and succeeded in gaining access to credit for their small businesses. Claiming Rights
to Food Security
AFRICA 15
ADVISOR EVELYN AKEM MAFENI Bamende, Cameroon Advisor since 2004 Evelyn Akem Mafeni is a full- time high school teacher of Physics at the Govern- ment Bilingual High School in Bamenda, Cameroon, as well as the National Project Coordinator of the
a long-time Global Fund grantee. The group promotes the education of women and girls at all levels and reduces drop-out rates. Evelyn’s asso- ciation with the Global Fund began in 1997 as an administrator for our first grant to CAMAUW. Since then, she has generously and enthusiasti- cally provided information and updates on activities and changes in the environment for women’s human rights, girls’ education, and the devel- opment of women’s roles in West African civil society. As part of her women’s human rights activities in Cameroon, she has conducted and participated in national civic educa- tion programs on the eradication of female circumcision, assisted with participatory research on the legal position of women in economic life, and coordinated conflict resolution workshops for women and men in the South West province of Bamenda in Cameroon. Her extensive knowl- edge of Africa and women’s rights, together with her frank and thoughtful responses, has been invaluable to our grantmaking. DONOR KITTY KNAPP RUDMAN Lafayette, California Donor and Volunteer since 1997 In 1978, my husband and I hitchhiked across Africa from Sen- egal to Kenya. Over and over, people who had almost nothing opened their homes to us. Years later, I read about the Global Fund and thought, “Here’s a way for me to give back to the places that had given so much to me.” I helped organize one of the first house parties, where Global Fund staff, Laila Macharia from Kenya, spoke. I was so inspired I became a donor. As the Global Fund has grown, it has done an excellent job of tack- ling the major issues that face women today.
From my first days as a volunteer, I dreamt of traveling to meet Global Fund grantees. My dream came true when I joined the 2004 donor out- reach trip to India.Visiting grantees was far beyond my expectations. I saw women taking enormous risks, fighting to claim their rights and changing the world around them. Meeting Global Fund grantees has reinforced my belief in the absolute need for global support. GRANTEE FEMME DE DEMAIN Lomé,Togo Formed in 1997, Global Fund grantee Femme de Demain (Woman of Tomor- row - FDD) works with women who have been “forgotten, ” and who live on land that has been so over- farmed it is depleted of nutrients. Many of them are heads of households, widows, teen mothers, or young girls orphaned by AIDS. They cannot read, and so are subject to fraudulent levies and taxes when they take their goods to market. To combat such bleak conditions, FDD trains women in basic literacy, accounting and pricing. To address the over-dependence on agriculture, espe- cially during the dry season, a Global Fund grant of $9,000 supported FDD’s efforts to teach women other ways to earn a living. The group also trains women about their human rights, explaining that a woman who becomes economically empowered but remains oppressed within her home may “be even more miserable than she was before.” Recent events in Togo have made FDD’s work even more challenging. In February 2005, Togo’s president, a dictator of 38 years, died. Ensuing actions led to the instatement of his son, Faure Gnassingbe, as president and involved reports of electoral fraud, violent clashes and roughly 30,000 people fleeing the country. FDD was forced to suspend its activities for four months.
Although women are said to be a prime concern, the government has ini- tiated a new law that directly harms women trying to survive in the informal economy. Purporting to “cleanse the capital” the government forbids women to sell their wares on the roadside, which keeps the majority of the poorest women from being able to sell their goods at all. Above: Galkayo Education Center for Peace and Development provides primary education for 300 girls and literacy classes for 2,000 women in Somalia where 75% of women are illiterate. PROFILES 16
A UNICEF survey showed that 44% of 20- to 24-year-old women in Niger were married before they reached age 15. CALL TO ACTION: Last year, the Global Fund supported the efforts of 14 women’s groups in 8 African countries preventing child marriage. RESPONSE: No less than 28 sub-Saharan African states have been at war since 1980. Institute of Development Studies, University of Sussex CALL TO ACTION: Last year, 29% of the Global Fund’s grant- making in Africa was awarded to women’s groups working to build peace and resolve conflicts. RESPONSE: 17
In Colombia, women risk 4 ½ years imprisonment for having an abortion, under any circum- stance. In spite of this, 450,000 unsafe abortions occur in Colombia every year.
CALL TO ACTION: 40% of the Global Fund’s grantmaking in the Americas provides funding to women’s groups who are increasing women’s choices and fighting for their reproductive rights. RESPONSE: Chiapas, Mexico 18
A study of abused women in Managua, Nicaragua, found that abused women earned 46% less than women who did not suffer abuse, even after con- trolling for other factors that affect earnings. World Health Organization In Argentina, like in much of Latin America, women’s rights groups striving to promote women’s reproductive health and rights contend with mem- bers of the fundamentalist Catholic Church (Opus Dei). At the same time, they must also uproot the political notion espoused by Argentinean politicians that “to rule is to populate.” In other words, it is women’s national duty to reproduce. In that con- text,
Católicas Por el Derecho A Decidir (Catholics for the Right to Choose), in Mendoza, Argentina, is mobilizing Catholics in support of the ground- breaking National Law on Sexual Health and Responsible Procreation. The law, the first of its kind in Argentina, guarantees access to sexual health information and related health services for all. Although the law does not ensure that women can have tubal ligations, or safe abortions, the group is using the law as one step in their strategy to expand options available for women. The group educates public school youth about their rights in relation to sexuality, suggest ways to assert those rights, and provide contraception information. In Jalisco, one of the most conservative states in Mexico, the pioneer lesbian and feminist organiza- tion
Grupo Lésbico Patlatonalli runs innovative programs to foster the recognition and respect for the human rights of lesbians and their families. Formed 19 years ago, the group initially provided health services, and has now expanded its mission to emphasize public education on sexual diversity and reproductive choice.Their most recent campaign, “All Families are Sacred: The Pleasure of Politics,” will include a series of short stories written for girls and boys about lesbian families. 19 AMERICAS Declaring Our
Rights ADVISOR CRISTINA GRELA Montevideo, Uruguay Advisor since 1990 A Uruguayan doctor and femin- ist, Cristina Grela has consistently contributed her wisdom and experience to the grantmaking decisions of the Global Fund for Women. In 1998 she was elected by the women’s movement to the directive of the National Monitoring Committee:Women for Democracy, Equity and Citizenship, and served through February 2005. This year, with the inauguration of the leftist government in Uruguay, she will become a minister for the national program of women’s health and gender, which carries out public policies and intervenes in regional decisions through the political and trade coalition known as the Common Market of the Southern Cone.With her acceptance of an official government position in Uruguay, Cristina will step down from the Global Fund Advisory Council. She believes that partisan government officials should be dis- tinct from civil society. Furthermore, she intends to create space for younger women to join the Council. We are deeply grateful for her con- tributions as a Latin American advi- sor during the last 15 years.
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