Gender Equality: an activists view

Last month, Gender was a hot topic within International Development and the fight against poverty worldwide. In March it was International Women’s Day, UN Women gained some momentum and it also played host the publication of The International Handbook of Gender and Poverty edited by Sylvia Chant.  It has been great to highlight the progress and change around gender issues world-wide and the issues were even highlighted by the likes of James Bond.

March is now over, yet the issues around gender equality still have a long way to go.  Here are some key facts:

• In 2009 women on average accounted for less than 18.4 % of members of parliament. At all levels and in all sectors fewer women than men are part of decision-making processes. (IPU)
• Over two-thirds of the world’s 776 million illiterates are women and despite improvements, more than 55 percent of the 75 million out of school primary age children are girls. (UNESCO)
• Worldwide, women earn on average only 84 per cent of what men earn in formal waged work. However, large numbers of women are concentrated in informal and precarious work, associated with low and unstable earnings. (ITUC)
• Every year over 536,000 women die of pregnancy-related complications, and between 8 million and 20 million a year suffer serious injury or disability from the same causes. (WHO)
• Women are half the 31 million people living with HIV worldwide. More than three in four (77%) of adult women (15 years and older) with HIV globally live in Sub-Saharan Africa – that’s an estimated 12 million out of the 15.5 million women infected with HIV worldwide. (UN)
• Between 10 and 69 per cent of women report abuse by their intimate partner in every country where reliable data exist. Systematic rape has left millions of women and adolescent girls traumatized, pregnant, or infected with HIV. (UN)

(Source: Oxfam Issues In Depth- Gender Equality)

So as a new month starts, please try not to forget about gender equality, as its’ issues are so far-reaching and affect us all economically, socially and financially. I will be showing my support to the Oxfam Pramble which will see a pram being pushed from Manchester to all the way to London, to highlight issues of maternal health. I will be back here to share my views on the final push which ends on Londons’ Millennium Bridge on the 2^nd of April!

The UN International Year of Youth – Are Young People Valued?

January 2011 marks the fifth month of the United Nations International Year of Youth. The year commenced on August 12 2010, and represents an effort to ‘harness the energy, imagination and initiative of the world’s youth in overcoming the challenges facing humankind, from enhancing peace to boosting economic development’ (UN 2011).

The three key focus areas of the programme aim to: create awareness, mobilize and engage young people through participation and partnerships, and to increase intercultural understanding amongst youth.

Almost half way through the Year of Youth, more momentum is needed if the project is to achieve its goals. Having said that, initiatives like The DFID Civil Society Organisations Youth working Group, a network of young people and organizations concerned with youth involvement in international development, provide a good forum for these issues.

On the 15th of September 2010, a group of young people met with Nick Clegg and the Secretary of State for International Development, Andrew Mitchell, to discuss the importance of young people in pushing forward the development agenda.

Building My Platform For Yaarah Schools

Adizah Tejani, a former volunteer on overseas programme Platform2, reflects upon a busy month (and year) working for global development; from P2 to her contribution for Yaarah Schools…

As September drew to a close I took a step back to reflect upon a busy month and year. One thing that has tied together all my experiences is education…

Raising £900 to help provide a learning lifeline to children in village schools through Yaarah Schools, helping raise awareness of the MDG goals through a video that ended up having world-wide coverage and finally meeting Nick Clegg and Andrew Mitchell, to prove that there are young people who do care about development issues!

Firstly let’s start with Yaarah Schools. Yaarah Schools is a project that was set up in order to help improve the educational prospects of children in villages, by providing them with a learning lifeline. We have started in Adaklu Aziedukope Ghana.

The inability of government to provide all schools with adequate buildings led to the pursuit for a sustainable solution. A year ago I was in Kasapin, Ghana due to P2. Even though I was not at the Yaarah Schools project, my P2 experience allowed me to have a better understanding of the education system. I taught in the government school, and I split my teaching of current affairs between two classes of 14 to 18 year olds. There were about 60 students in one class and 40 in another. This was by no means an easy task to handle, but I embraced the challenge even though the teaching resources were minimal.

These children were lucky enough to have a classroom. Imagine trying to teach 60 14-16 year olds with minimal resources. The resources I had brought with me were a copy of the DFID mag, The Economist and some chalk. This experience made me understand how well resourced the education system in the UK actually is. In this day and age where education is viewed as fundamental in shaping one’s mind, and being an MDG goal, it is a shame that due to the context of a person’s situation they may not be able to have knowledge due to having inadequate classroom facilities.

So last October (2009), I arrived back home to finish my degree in International Development. I was further inspired to have a positive impact and Yaraah Schools was a way in which I felt I could do this. In the past year the team have raised over £5000 in a range of ways; from cake sales in Norwich, jewellery sales in Manchester and a fantastic cultural event called Fusionite in the heart of London.

Fusionite took place a few weeks ago, on September 6 at Avalon in Shoreditch. We had spent the whole summer bringing together musicians, designers, models and poets in preparation for a great night. However, in true London style the week before the event, it was announced that there would be a tube strike on the same day of the show… Yes, this made me really angry and annoyed; yet I knew that we had to push ahead with the show. In the end it was a great night and the Yaarah Schools team rose £900!

All the organising of rehearsals, calling acts, finding a venue and sorting out great food all worked out. And just a week ago two team members went out to build the next classrooms – check them out here.

Without my Platform2 experience I would not have been able to gain a deeper understanding of how the education system in Ghana works. So volunteering and fundraising for Yaarah Schools has led me to have a stronger belief that change is possible.

As posted on Ctrl Alt Shift

DFID, MDG’s and Young People

On Wednesday the 15th of September, I took the day off work to go and meet Nick Clegg (Deputy Prime Minister) and Andrew Mitchell (Minister for International Development) , along with 25 other young people. Above is the ‘official photograph’ and here is the ‘official press release‘ , can you spot me? I’m at the back in blue (next time I will focus more on the photo ops )  Back to the important matter of why we were there.

We were there to help represent the views of over 30,000 young people from around the UK on International Development at an event called Our Voice. This was a chance to give young peoples’ views, ahead of the two-day UN Summit in New York which starts today on the Millennium Development Goals (MDG). The MDG were set in 2000 with the task of achieving them by 2015. Our Voice it involved two mini presentations, a Q&A as well the classic politician speeches. I enjoyed the fact that the Q&A session was very intense, and the ministers did agree to have a similar event in the future.

Was it a PR stunt? Well, I think they listened, I guess the outcome of the summit will show if they did. I think that the most important point if the day, was the about the impact these goals have on all generations. A person may sit in the UK and feel detached from what is going on in other countries, yet in our globalised world, we are all effected by the outcomes of the summit this week. Right after our meeting Nick Clegg and Andrew Mitchell had another appointment at the BOND event with 370 UK NGOs working in international development.

Thank you to the great team at the DFID and VSO Youth Working Group for organising such an opportunity.

Official FUSIONITE Promo Video…!