Legal realities, barriers and opportunities for African women's economic rights and empowerment

REGIONAL WORKSHOP ON “RULE OF LAW AND INCLUSIVE DEVELOPMENT IN AFRICA: LEGAL REALITIES, BARRIERS AND OPPORTUNITIES FOR WOMEN’S ECONOMIC RIGHTS AND EMPOWERMENT” HELD IN LILONGWE, MALAWI, 26TH – 29TH JUNE 2018 

At a recently concluded on engaging the Rule of Law and Inclusive Development in Africa, issues of ‘Legal realities, barriers and opportunities for women’s economic rights and empowerment’ were discussed. This theme presented an opportunity to influence women’s inclusive development and address their exclusion in terms of accessing justice. The workshop was attended by women policy influencers, academics, civil society advocates and human rights practitioners. The attendees came from Kenya, Zimbabwe, Uganda, Swaziland, Tanzania, Malawi, and Zambia.

The goal of the gathering was to create a platform for participants to participate in deliberations and discussions on how progress relating to women’s economic rights and empowerment has been monitored and to highlight barriers in their specific countries, regions or sectors of work. To achieve this the participants provided updates on countries where the legal framework (including customary law) guarantees women’s equal rights to land ownership and, or control; updates on reforms (finalised and ongoing) that give women equal rights to economic and productive resources (finances, trading, water), updates on access to ownership and control over land (promotion of women’s secure rights to land, inheritance); discussions on social protection systems and how they can and have been used to counter life shocks for the vulnerable, especially women; and updates on other progress or limitations towards economic gender equity through the adoption of women-specific measures.

Regional Project On Rule Of Law And Inclusive Development In Africa: Rhetoric, Contestations And Options For Access Justice For Women Konrad Adenauer Stiftung, Rule of Law Program for Sub‐Saharan Africa, Windhoek, Namibia, 20th ‐21st January 2017

Between the 21-22 January Windhoek, Namibia was the place to be as a Regional High-Level Dialogue, or Workshop and engagement session took place involving key stakeholders and decision makers in the space of Africa women's rights. The project was organised under the auspices of the Konrad Adenauer Stiftung's Rule of Law Programme for Sub-Saharan Africa,

The workshop and networking session was a culmination of a project that has been in the making for almost a year. The intention was to reflect on how a rule of law that is inclusive can and should look like especially within the space of Agenda 2030 and the Sustainable Development Goals. The inclusiveness, prosperity, and stability underlying the spirit of Agenda 2030 is very important to the Agenda of human rights, specifically as relates to African women, who are 'the excluded of the excluded'. Thus a project that was built on engaging with challenges that these women have faced during the last 15 years or so, and discussing innovative ways on how to move forward in the next 15 years seemed not only overdue, but also necessary. 

Thus women and stakeholders, from Eastern, Western and Southern Africa gathered to set pace for such engagement and determine relevant approaches to employ in the process. The point was also to build a network of key stakeholders who can take this African agenda forward and build relationships amongst each other as the project moves forward and gains momentum. 

During the two days forum participants had an opportunity to inter alia,

 • Discuss evidence based research and policy development, as well as exchange knowledge, experience and best practices on women and access to justice in Africa;

 • Discuss innovative policy implementation options, and point out areas of improvement; 

• Lay a foundation for strong networks of stakeholders and women’s rights advocates at national, regional and continental levels; 

As a way forward, the workshop underscored the need for, 

• Building strong networks and coalitions on the continent to promote and protect women’s rights; 

• Enhance public awareness at all levels on matters women’s rights with special mentions of increased use of ICT and social media to ensure wide reach; 

• Multi-faceted approach and building synergies among various disciplines and stakeholders to advance women’s rights; 

• Benchmarking and sharing best practices across the continent;

 • Defining, identifying and strengthening legal and judicial systems that effectively and adequately address women rights’ issues as may be applicable from situation to situation and society to society provided that basic minimum standards that guarantee fairness and justice are adhered to and upheld by all.

The workshop was graced by Rashida Manjoo, Professor, Public Law Department, University of Cape Town and Former United Nations Special Rapporteur on Violence against Women, its Causes and Consequences; Hon. Dr. Nancy Baraza, Senior Lecturer and Head of Public Law Department, University of Nairobi and Former Deputy Chief Justice and Vice President of the Supreme Court of Kenya and Kondwa Sakala-Chibiya, Legal Practitioner and Vice Chair, Zambia Human Rights Commission among others.

By Dr Olivia Lwabukuna (Project Coordinator)

Global Governance Reform Initiative: Migration Governance

December is last month of the year and it has been an interesting end to a very busy year. As proponents and opposers of migration have engaged each other in various capacities, at election and political level, this ushered in Brexit and Donald Trump. Not to mention a few others on the way in Europe. At moral and economic level it provided unexpected and controversial funds for Turkey, Africa and number of summits and Valetta and elsewhere. It has been political, humanitarian and well moral struggles that have defined the response to the issue of migration.

But there are other approaches that though quietly being done, pose a possible solution, or perhaps hope. The Global Humanitarian Summit, the first of its kind, was a good drive to get the ball running, the Global Migration Compact seemed like another, though it is rid with a lot of mortal and political potholes. Lets give it a chance and see. The Global Forum on Migration and Development in Bangladesh is a continuation of these and so many other efforts.

As part of an interesting session in Hague hosted by the @HagueInstitute on a similar topic with international experts group set up as a policy advisory engagement, I heard interesting points of view. Limited points of view from the refugee and migrant producing global south, but interesting and engaging nevertheless.

The Global Governance Reform Initiative (GGRI) is a collaboration between The Hague Institute for Global Justice, the Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Observer Research Foundation (New Delhi). Its primary goal is to analyse the deficiencies of the current international system and propose policies for improving global governance in select domains. The present focus of this project is on the (global) governance of migration.

Effective global governance is one of the defining challenges of our time. Too often, key stakeholders fail to agree on or engage in concerted action to address pressing cross-border problems successfully

Localizing African Structural Transformation: Voicing Lessons from Madagascar

Localizing African Structural Transformation: Voicing Lessons from Madagascar

The 2009 uprising in Madagascar that led to the overthrow of President Marc Ravalomanana and the subsequent intervention of the African Union (AU) and Southern African Development Community (SADC) shook Madagascar to its core. The political crisis, which began with tensions and protests, culminated in violence against the opposition, a Malagasy military intervention, and the ousting of the president. President Ravalomanana’s removal was followed by an AU and SADC intervention to mediate and resolve the conflict.

Olivia K Lwabukuna | Africa Inequalities Portal

Olivia K Lwabukuna | Africa Inequalities Portal

Fighting to Live, Living to Fight: Violent Expression and the Struggle Against Dispossession in Unequal South Africa.

By Olivia K Lwabukuna, African Institute of South Africa (AISA),  olwabukuna@hsrc.ac.za A luta continua, as expressed in the form of ‘the struggle continues’ is a phrase encountered almost every day in post-apartheid South Africa. There is an unwritten and informal understanding that the democratic era ushered in by inclusive elections in 1994, has not yet yielded freedom...

Global Migration and its Discontents

Global Migration and its Discontents

Two women enter a tent at the Mentao refugee camp in Burkina Faso in 2012, a camp formed from people leaving the conflict in Mali. Many African countries host far more refugees and migrants than Europe, and the fates of refugees and migrants are linked to both European and African policies.
Photo by Pablo Tosco/Oxfam, via Flickr. Creative Commons.

The migrants and refugees streaming into Europe from Africa and the Middle East have presented European leaders and policymakers with their greatest challenge since the Eurozone crisis. The conflict in Syria continues to be the biggest driver of migration, but other factors, including instability and lack of proper governance in Libya, terrorism in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the usual mixed migration patterns from South Asian and African countries, also continue to influence migration patterns to Europe. The European Union’s collective response to this migrant influx and its policy have been ad-hoc, inconsistent, and focused more on national interests and securing the bloc’s borders than on protecting the rights of migrants and refugees.

AFRICA DAY: CELEBRATIONS, QUESTIONS AND REALIZATIONS 

As most cities and states in Africa celebrated Africa day, that is the day that the African Union was officially created, I had a lot of questions than answers. Well the OAU as it was then known has had many transformations, but in essence it remains the same. An organisation meant for Africans, run essentially, and I mean financially by non-Africans and has achieved to an extent questionable gains for Africans. So as an African I joined my fellow Africans to celebrate the day, ask questions and acknowledge realizations.