Sustaining Responses on Gender Equality in West Africa, Accra Symposium

The first day of the conference “Sustaining Responses on Gender Equality in West Africa,” has just ended and the power of the voices that have expressed themselves, voices that are impassioned, committed, and hopeful about the future of women and their status in the world are still resonant within the walls of the conference room as the people wander out. All walks of society are represented here, from Ministers of Gender and Finance from many of the ECOWAS countries to Ms. Olivia Sugri, the Permanent Queen Mother of Sekati, a traditional upper east region of Ghana (see photo).

TrustAfrica is one of the major sponsors of the conference, run by UN Women, flying in women from several of the civil society organizations it funds. During the opening ceremony, Program Director Bheki Moyo mentioned the Enhancing Women’s Dignity project, which over the last two years has allocated a total of 39 grants to civil society organizations working to combat violence against women. He also reminded people that in 2010, the African Women’s Decade was launched, and that the conference, therefore, was a timely event that “fit squarely within the roadmap” of strong and implementable solutions to the challenges women face.

Also during the opening ceremony, Ruby Sandhu-Rojan, UN Resident Coordinator for Ghana, raised several interesting points in relation to the struggles gender workers face in achieving their objectives for fulfilling the MDG3 goals. Among the issues she mentioned: turning rhetoric into action, closing the gender gap, deepening democratic practice, policy coherence, finding adequate resources, land rights and assets, protection from violence and increasing gender budgeting to ensure women are not left behind in socio-economic development. A number of speakers have mentioned that across the continent of Africa there will be many elections this year, a prime opportunity for women to increase their participation and representation in government. Others, such as Sierra Leone’s Human Rights Commissioner, Yasmin Jusu-Sheriff, urge women to go beyond government institutions to those organizations that directly interface with government. As she says,

“Don’t underestimate the importance of leadership of women in our human rights institutions as they relate to the judiciary.”

Perhaps one of the most eye-opening presentations came from Dr. Josephine Odera, Regional Director for UN Women West Africa. “We must not do as the Romans do,” she exhorted. She told the story of how she had started doing morning walks in an effort to stay in shape. One day, as she was taking her regular morning walks, she looked up and saw her boss running past her. When she came home and told her family, her young son reminded her that, if she wanted to get ahead, just “walking” wasn’t enough.

”If we are walking, we must start running because we will not get to the top doing things the way we have always done them.”

For too long, women in West Africa have heard the excuse that “This is our tradition, this is our culture,” she explained. It has become a way out, an excuse for not making positive change. “If we want to sustain positive responses to gender equality, we must change. We must not do as the Romans do,” she said.

She then offered the following statistics to demonstrate the problem with allowing tradition to determine behavior:

-Despite the progress of CEDAW in West Africa, inequality rates in West Africa are among the highest in the world.
-West African countries are at the lowest end of the Gender Equality Index. The best West African country on the list is 32nd from the bottom worldwide.
Six of the top achieving the MDGs however are from West Africa.
-In terms of political participation, women comprise less than one third of the legislators in all of the countries in West Africa. Senegal is among one of the few WA Countries that boasts greater than 20% participation of women. Senegal has a parity law and five other West African countries have some form of quota in place.
-Eight West African countries have not yet reach 75% ratio male to female enrollment in schools. At this rate, it will be hard to reach the MDG goal of gender parity by 2015.
-Female literacy rates are staggering low in West Africa. As a region West Africa has the lowest female literacy rates. Out of the ten lowest literacy rates in the world, seven of the countries are in West Africa. There is definitely a case for addressing illiteracy in general and female literacy in particular, particularly since not having literacy skills keeps women from participation in decision making.
-Last but not least: In the US, the risk of dying during childbirth is 1 in 250,000, in Sweden, it is 1 in 30,000, and in West Africa is up to 1 in 10.

Enough said. On Day Two, we start making a plan! Stay tuned.