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empowerment
‘Sustainable Development’ and ‘Youth Empowerment’ in an African context
Eyob Balcha
2011-04-14, Issue 525
cc A CThe theme of the next African Union general assembly, scheduled for June 2011, is ‘Accelerating Youth Empowerment for a Sustainable Development’. But how far do existing development policies and programmes at national and continental level take into account the ‘multiple realities that African youth are living in?’ asks Eyob Balcha.
The African Union and African youth: A ‘zero-sum game’?
Eyob Balcha
2011-03-30, Issue 523
cc T HWith the African Union set to hold a Heads of States and Governments Summit in June under the theme ‘Accelerating youth empowerment for sustainable development’, Eyob Balcha expresses serious reservations about the union’s conceptualisation of ‘youth’ and ‘young people’.
People creating change in Africa
Hakima Abbas
2010-10-13, Issue 500
In a speech given to the Africa–Canada Forum, Hakima Abbas discusses the contemporary challenges for Africa’s self-determination and the centrality of the continent’s social movements in ‘entrenching democratic principles’.
Global: Are instruments of human rights law incompatible with Islam?
2009-07-17, Issue 442
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) and subsequent instruments of international human rights law and international humanitarian law play a vital role in providing protection for refugees and IDPs. Yet the claim to universality has been d...
The world financial meltdown: What now for African women?
Hilary N. Ervin & Caroline Muthoni Muriithi
2009-06-25, Issue 439
cc hdptcarAs the global economic crisis takes its toll on Africa’s fiscal revenues and household incomes, Hilary N. Ervin & Caroline Muthoni Muriithi fear that the continent’s achievements in human rights and development may be reversed, worsening the condition of women already struggling against an ‘entrenched patriarchy’. Despite embracing commitments to gender equity on paper, Ervin and Muriithi say many countries lack the funding and resources to implement policies and legislation. Programmes focused on women, largely funded by multi-lateral donors, are likely to decline as aid dries up the authors warn, while at a domestic level many households will prioritise the education and welfare of sons over daughters, with ‘long-term consequences for overall development’. Calling for the ratification and implementation of the Protocol on the Rights of Women in Africa, Ervin and Muriithi suggest that ‘investment in women's livelihoods, particularly in African economies,’ should be ‘a central focus of governments’ economic recovery policies’.
A call to action: Implement the Africa Women's Rights Protocol
Norah Matovu Winyi
2009-06-25, Issue 439
cc Juan FalqueIn the five years since the adoption of the Protocol to the Africa Charter on Human and People’s Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa, some 26 countries have ratified Africa's first regional human rights instrument. But with 27 countries yet to do so, the challenge remains to see each African nation commit to fully upholding women's rights. Moral arguments aside, implementing women's rights offers clear social and developmental benefits for all, argues Norah Matovu Winyi, benefits which will only be realised through sustained political will.
Promoting women's land rights at the 13th AU summit
Lyn Ossome
2009-06-25, Issue 439
cc MaristellaWith Sirte, Lybia, hosting the 13th African Union summit this week, Lyn Ossome of Solidarity for African Women's Rights (SOAWR) challenges African heads of state to keep women's land rights on the developmental agenda. At a time of marked global economic difficulty, women remain acutely vulnerable to unstable food prices and restricted access to land, meaning that African governments must now more than ever challenge discriminatory laws and customs, Ossome argues. If the AU's summit is offer progress, Ossome contends, African heads of state must make strong commitments to policies favourable to women's empowerment such as subsidising non-industrial agriculture and securing women's land tenure.
Safeguarding women’s rights will boost food security
Mary Wandia
2009-06-25, Issue 439
cc Find Your FeetAfrican women play a critical role in ensuring the food security of the continent, writes Mary Wandia in the run-up to the 2009 African Union Summit (24 June-3 July), which has its official theme ‘Investing in agriculture for economic growth and development’. Highlighting that women contribute 60-80 per cent of the labour used to produce food both for household consumption and for sale, Wandia writes that improved women’s ‘access, control and ownership of land and productive resources are key factors in eradicating hunger and rural poverty’. Yet while land is ‘critical for improving women’s, social security, livelihoods and their social status’, culturally embedded discrimination continues to weaken their land rights and livelihood options, Wandia cautions. It is therefore essential, Wandia argues, for governments to ensure that women’s rights are comprehensively addressed in the AU ‘Africa land policy framework and guidelines’, scheduled for adoption at this year’s summit.
Remembering Soweto: Harnessing black consciousness
Blackwash
2009-06-18, Issue 438
cc eugene16 June was the anniversary of the 1976 uprising in Soweto, South Africa. With today's black youth in South Africa finding themselves marginalised in much the same way as those protesting against apartheid policy, Blackwash seeks to commemorate the 1976 uprising and further the development of black consciousness. Inspired by 16 June and the words of Steve Biko, Blackwash encourages young black people in South Africa to take up the struggle to put pressure on the government and create genuine change.
The dawn of the Obama era: In memory of the ancestors
Paul T Zeleza
2009-01-22, Issue 416
Paul Tiyambe Zeleza does a reflective round-up on the different opinions surrounding President Obama’s inauguration. Zeleza argues that “The biggest challenge facing President Obama is how to manage the relative historic decline of American global supremacy in a world of new emerging powers and growing intolerance against authoritarianism whether within or between nations; in short, a more global and nationalistic world impatient with the old injustices and hierarchies of power and well-being and hungry for development, democracy, and self-determination.” That Obama has reached outside the race and national boundaries in an unprecedented way is not in question and the essay goes to emphasize the different ways different peoples in different parts of the world are responding to Obama - both as a challenge and as a promise.
Steve Biko's paradise lost
Andile Mngxitama, Amanda Alexander and Nigel C Gibson
2008-09-10, Issue 395
The following is taken from the introduction to Biko Lives! Contesting the Legacies of Steve Biko is edited by Andile Mngxitama, Amanda Alexander and Nigel C Gibson and published by Palgrave Macmillan....
Censorship in Nigeria
Interview with Hausa novelist Sa’adatu Baba
Amina Koki Gizo
2008-09-10, Issue 395
While formal publishing companies in Nigeria languished through the economic crises that accompanied the structural adjustment programmes of the late 1980s and early 1990s, young Hausa writers began writing about their lives and contemporary problems they faced. Bypassing formal publishers, they self-published their novels, often with the help of a writers' cooperative....
Lost in a haystack: gender equality in aid effectiveness
Florence E. Etta
2008-08-26, Issue 394
Early in September 2008 the world will hold another one of its mega gatherings in Accra Ghana - the third high level forum on aid effectiveness. World leaders will convene to append their priceless signatures to a document now popularly called the tr...
Post 9/11 aid, security agenda and the African state
Shastry Njeru
2008-08-26, Issue 394
The nexus between aid, security and development is now beyond doubt. In fact, security is a precondition for development. The often cited ‘no development without security, no security without development’ captures this interconnectivity (Dochas 2007)...
Zimbabwe needs a political settlement
Mpho Ncube
2008-07-09, Issue 387
It is common knowledge that the Movement of Democratic Change (MDC) party won the parliamentary and presidential elections earlier this year. Based on its performance, it would therefore be fair to say that the MDC would probably have also won last week’s presidential run-off had it not pulled out at the last moment. Yet, despite these facts, Zanu-PF still remains in power today. Robert Mugabe has once again outmaneuvered his opponents in Zimbabwe and abroad, writes Mpho Ncube.
Binyavanga Wainaina: The writer in a time of crisis
Aurelie Journo
2008-07-09, Issue 386
Aurelie Journo (PhD Literature student) talks to Binyavanga Wainaina, the founder of Kwani? about this year's Kwani? Litfest that will take place in Nairobi and Lamu from the 1st to the 15th of August. As the discussion went on, they found themselves broaching several subjects ranging from the state of the media in Kenya, to the role of the writer in times of crisis, with digressions on post-colonial theories and ideology.
The bear and the dragon
Stephen Marks
2008-06-17, Issue 381
In Africa the "Russian state seems far more ‘upfront’ about pursuing its grand geopolitical projects than the more cautious and patient Chinese. Russia’s private sector too is prepared on occasion to operate with an unashamed directness where others might be more diplomatic." While all eyes are on China's growing influence in Africa, Stephen Marks argues that Russia's bear is quitely intensifying its hug.
Women, water and sanitation: going the extra mile
Catherine Irura
2008-06-10, Issue 379
This year's African Union Summit, 24th June to 1st July 2008, will be on ‘Meeting the Millennium Development Goals on Water and Sanitation’. What should African leaders take into account when thinking about how to meet these goals and those of The African Union Protocol on the Rights of Women in Africa? Catherine Irura tackes this question.
Gender perspective on water and sanitation
Roselynn Musa
2008-06-10, Issue 379
What does gender have to do with issues of sanitation and water? Roselyenn Musa gives us a multi-faceted gender perspectives that consider the role of African governments, gender awareness and water privatization amongst others. The upcoming mid-year African Union (AU) summit of heads of state and government
Burundi: Access to water is a human right
Concilie Gahungere
2008-06-10, Issue 379
If women had control over water as resource "they would be better placed to manage its use, especially in agriculture, which is the principal economic activity in Burundi, and is controlled by women." Concilie Gahungere looks at access to water in relation to gender using Burundi as a case study.
South Africa is all of us
Mukoma Wa Ngugi and Firoze Manji
2008-05-22, Issue 373
The mythologies we have constructed around us are imploding, write Mukoma Wa Ngugi and Firoze Manji looking at the background to the explosion of xenophobia in South Africa. The situation is the culmination of policies that have made the rich richer, and the poor poorer. But "the ruling elite is not South Africa. There are many within South Africa who are in solidarity with those under attack, and are opposed to the conditions that feed xenophobia."
The space for post liberation politics
Onyekachi Wambu
2008-05-22, Issue 373
Onyekachi Wambu looks at post-liberation South Africa and the contradictions of promise and reality and duly warns that the ANC government might very well be condemning South Africa to repeat Zimbabwe's mistakes.
Unhappy Highways: Economic growth, technology and alienation
John Samuel
2008-03-19, Issue 372
John Samuel cautions Africa that technology should not come at the expense of Africa's "a shared sense of community, mutual support, trust and a culture of collective approach."
Congo women - violence in war and in peace
Marie-Claire Faray-Kele
2008-03-12, Issue 354
Marie Claire Faray-kele argues that even though the bodies of Congolese women were used as battlefields in the DRC war, they are now being excluded from peace process
Tanzania activists and religious communities launch critical mining research
Salma Maoulidi
2008-03-10, Issue 353
Salma Maoulidi looks at the mining research report, "A Golden Opportunity? How Tanzania is failing to benefit from Gold Mining” and argues that it builds a powerful case for continued activism in trade and economic justice in line with various Human rights instruments that call for a country’s wealth and natural resources to benefit primarily local communities.
No to oil for land!
February 2008
Merti Range Users Association
2008-03-06, Issue 353
The following memorandum was prepared by members of the Merti Range Users Association in northern Isiolo, Kenya. It expresses their concern about concessions recently granted to a Chinese company to prospect for oil in the rangelands. It illustrates the potential threats of this kind of external investment on the ecosystem and local livelihoods, and the lack of transparency in the negotiations.
Violence against Women, HIV/AIDS and Conflict
Mary Wandia and Neelanjana Mukhia
2008-03-06, Issue 351
Mary Wandia and Neelanjana Mukhia reflect on the struggle to free women from violence, the ravages of HIV/AIDS and the effects of conflict
Tradition at the Heart of Violence Against Women and Girls in Africa
Linda Osarenren
2008-03-06, Issue 351
Linda Osarenren writes a hard hitting essay on the ways and means African cultures perpetuate sexism, patriarchy and violence against women
Kenya’s democracy on trial
Mukoma Wa Ngugi
2008-01-03, Issue 334
Mukoma Wa Ngugi argues that the dream of democracy is turning into a nightmare and suggests a recount as a possible solution.
Women’s Participation in the 2007 General Elections in Kenya
Penninah Ogada
2007-12-19, Issue 333
Dr. Penninah Ogada discusses the social, political and economic factors that impeding the full participation of Kenyan women in this year's general election.
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