AWID’s new research provides an in-depth analysis of the current funding trends and actors impacting women’s rights organizing, the financial status of women’s organizations around the world, and the collective impact of women’s rights organizations, when supported in a meaningful and strategic way, to build women’s collective power for change and advance women’s rights.
Watering the Leaves, Starving the Roots paints the funding landscape for women’s organizations, underlining key trends and offering an updated analysis of how diverse funding sectors are supporting women’s rights and gender equality. For the first time, this third report in our FundHer series (http://www.awid.org/AWID-s-Publications/Funding-for-Women-s-Rights) also includes results from an in-depth survey of 43 women’s funds as well as findings from the 2011 FundHer survey of more than 1000 women’s organizations from all regions of the world.
One of the trends discussed in Watering the Leaves, Starving the Roots is the growing role and impact of “new actors,” including corporate sector actors, in supporting women and girls. Given the significance and prominence of this trend, we undertook expanded research, profiled in New Actors, New Money, New Conversations: A Mapping of Recent Initiatives for Women and Girls. This mapping illuminates key characteristics of 170 different partnership initiatives focused on women and girls. The report provides a preliminary analysis of opportunities, and potential challenges that many of these initiatives may encounter to create sustainable positive change in the lives of women and girls. The report also discusses considerations for forging “new conversations” with new actors going forward.
Empowering women at work advances fight to end poverty, World Bank Group says
WASHINGTON - A new report by the World Bank Group stresses the need for bold, coordinated actions to advance equal opportunities for women in the world of work, such as addressing gender biases early, expanding women’s access to property and finance, and raising legal retirement ages—with major payoffs in tackling poverty.
By virtually every global measure, women are more economically excluded than men, according to Gender at Work. Trends suggest women’s labor force participation worldwide over the last two decades has stagnated, dropping from 57 to 55 percent globally. This is despite accumulating evidence that jobs benefit women, families, businesses, and communities.
“We know that reducing gender gaps in the world of work can yield broad development dividends: improving child health and education, enhancing poverty reduction, and catalyzing productivity,” World Bank Group President Jim Yong Kimsaid. “This agenda is urgent. Failure to act represents a huge missed opportunity. Progress so far has been too little and too slow.”
“Today, many more girls are going to school and living longer, healthier lives than 30 or even 10 years ago. But this has not translated into broader gains,” Kim said. “Too many women still lack basic freedoms and opportunities and face huge inequalities in the world of work.”
The report says since women face multiple constraints to jobs, starting early and extending throughout their lives, progressive, broad-based, and coordinated policy action is needed to close gender gaps. A companion to the 2013 World Development Report on jobs, it says options should include mainstreaming gender equality into jobs and growth strategies, reforming legal systems, and engaging the private sector in innovative solutions to promote gender equality.
It also says social norms can exacerbate the deprivation and constraints women face. Nearly four in 10 people globally—close to one half in developing countries—agree that when jobs are scarce, men are more entitled to them than women. Common constraints faced by the most disadvantaged women include lack of mobility, time, and skills, exposure to violence, and the absence of basic legal rights.
“Poor women in particular are likely to confront multiple, overlapping constraints,” World Bank Group Gender and Development Director Jeni Klugman, co–author of the report with Matthew Morton, said. “Leveling the playing field and unleashing their economic potential could be a game-changer in tackling extreme poverty.”
In Latin America and the Caribbean, women’s labor force participation has risen by 35 percent since 1990. Analysis by the World Bank Group has found that in 2010, extreme poverty would have been 30 percent higher and average income inequality 28 percent higher, were it not for women’s increased income through increased labor earnings, access to pensions, and labor force participation from 2000-2010.
Country-level diagnostics are vital to help governments in determining the best policies and more involvement by the private sector—by far the largest source of jobs—is critical, the report says. The private sector can lead the way by creating family-friendly working environment and policies, attracting women into non-traditional roles and sectors, and reviewing human resource policies and systems for addressing discrimination and harassment. And more investment is needed to fill major gaps in data and knowledge.
To advance gender equality at work, the report recommends governments target actions that cover a woman’s life cycle—saying interventions that focus only on women of productive age start too late and end too early. Biases can begin very early in life, sometimes in subtle ways, making it ultimately difficult and costly to resolve inequality.
Gender at Work recommends a range of policies for governments to consider over a woman’s lifetime:
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During childhood and youth, policies can tackle inequalities through education and training, such as incentives for girls to attend school.
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For women of productive age, actions to be considered include eliminating restrictions in labor and employment; allowing and encouraging women’s ownership and joint-titling of land; and enforcing equitable inheritance laws. Other strategies include family-friendly leave and flexibility policies, affordable childcare and early child development programs, and infrastructure development to reduce burdens on women’s time for household and care work. Equal access to assets and financial services are vital. Addressing constraints outside the formal sector is particularly important in low-income countries, since most people—and more so women—do not work for wages and salaries.
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For older women, governments can support equitable old-age labor regulations combined with appropriate social protection. Retirement and pension ages for men and women should be equal and targeted programs can upgrade skills among older women willing and able to work, while pension policies can provide protection without discouraging women’s work.
The report warns that ageing populations in the developing world will become increasingly important for governments to consider. Through 2050, the old-age dependency ratio in developing countries is expected to soar by 144 percent, during which time the child dependency ratio is projected to fall by 20 percent, altering the nature of the care burden in families and societies.
“Today only half of women’s productive potential is being utilized globally. This is a waste, since gender equality in the world of work is a win-win for development and for business. The commitment must begin with fostering girls’ and boys’ skills and aspirations equally from their early years, so it stays with them long enough that they and future generations enjoy a more equitable and prosperous world,” Klugman said.
The International Labor Organization estimates almost half of women’s productive potential globally is unutilized compared to 22 percent of men’s. Closing these gender gaps could yield enormous dividends for development: A Goldman Sachs study finds that narrowing gender gaps in employment could push per capita income in emerging markets up to 14 percent higher by 2020.
Извор: WUNRN – 20.02.2014
Johannesburg - Global civil society alliance, CIVICUS, has released a revised version of what is probably the world’s most comprehensive compilation of commitments made by governments on civil society rights.
Originally released in 2008, and now fully updated, the compendium consolidates various international standards and commitments made by governments at the regional and global levels to protect civil society and ensure participation in public processes.
In addition to collating relevant portions of major UN documents, the compendium also includes commitments made by regional bodies such as the Arab League and select groupings like the Commonwealth. It supports CIVICUS’ efforts to constantly strive for new and innovative means to enhance the ability and reach of the civil society sector.
The Compendium of International Legal Instruments and Other Intergovernmental Commitments Concerning Core Civil Society Rights
Извор: WUNRN – 21.02.2014
One in 14 women around the world aged 15 or older has been sexually assaulted by someone other than an intimate partner, according to a new study by an international team of researchers.
But even that disturbing number is probably a low estimate, the study points out, because sexual violence often goes unreported as a result of women’s fear of being blamed and a lack of support from families and communities.
“Sexual violence against women is common worldwide, with endemic levels seen in some areas,” write the study’s authors.
“Our findings,” they add, “indicate a pressing health and human rights concern.”
Study's details
For the study, which was published Tuesday in the journal The Lancet, researchers from the South African Medical Research Council, the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine and the World Health Organization, examined reports and studies published from January 1998 through December 2011 that offered data on the prevalence of non-partner sexual violence against women.
Non-partners were defined as “strangers, acquaintances, friends, colleagues, peers, teachers, neighbours and family members.”
The researchers eventually identified 77 studies, published in several languages, which contained 412 estimates of violence from 56 countries. Most of the studies elicited their data by asking women a single question, such as “Were you ever forced to have sex or to perform a sexual act when you did not want to with someone other than your partner?”
Using that data, the researchers estimated that, globally, 7.2 percent of women aged 15 and older had experienced sexual violence by somebody other than a partner.
The estimates varied widely by country and region. The highest rate of non-partner sexual violence was in sub-Saharan Africa (21 percent), followed by southern sub-Saharan Africa (17.4 percent), Australia and New Zealand (16.4 percent) and Andean Latin America (16 percent).
The rate was 13 percent in the United States and Canada, 11.5 percent in Western Europe and 8 percent in Eastern Europe.
The lowest rates were seen in India, Bangladesh and Turkey, where they ranged from 3 percent to 4.5 percent.
The researchers warn, however, that regional variations need to be viewed with extreme caution. Data on sexual violence is collected very differently from country to country, and women in some cultures are much less likely to report a violent sexual assault than those living elsewhere. Indeed, for many countries, the researchers were unable to find any data.
Unadjusted and adjusted prevalence estimates for non-partner sexual violence, by region*
* Adjustment made for national-level studies, combined perpetrators, and training of fieldworkers.
Driven by headlines and need for data
As they indicate in the introduction to their study, the impetus for this study came partly from media headlines. “Reports of rapes and murders of young women in India and South Africa have focused international attention on the horror of sexual violence,” the researchers write. “Although it is tempting to view these events as isolated, they should be seen as part of a larger, daily reality of sexual violence against women.”
Although all sexual violence is traumatic to women, including assualts involving the women's partner, less research has been conducted recently on non-partner sexual violence. That lack of data, say the authors of the current study, has hampered efforts to develop effective responses to non-partner rape and other sexual violence against women.
They hope that the data from this new study will lead to urgently needed changes in attitudes — and laws.
“The study is a landmark in its scale and rigour and offers a unique evidence base that confirms the need to address this public health challenge and violation of human rights worldwide,” writes Kathryn Yount, a sociologist at Emory University who studies global gender inequality and health disparities, in a commentary that accompanies the study.
“Non-partner sexual violence has far reaching but underdocumented consequences for the social, economic, and health-related wellbeing of women and societies,” she adds. “… The data [in the new study] confirm that nonpartner sexual violence is neither rare nor geographically isolated and, thus, that existing laws and systems of accountability remain inadequate. Effective responses will require widespread legal and institutional change.”
The study can be read in full on The Lancet website.
Non-partner sexual violence against women is common worldwide, study finds (http://www.minnpost.com/second-opinion/2014/02/non-partner-sexual-violence-against-women-common-worldwide-study-finds)
Извор: WUNRN – 12.02.2014
Convention on the Rights of the Child
Distr.: General; 17 April 2013; Original: English;
COMMITTEE ON THE RIGHTS OF THE CHILD
General Comment No. 15 (2013) on the right of the child to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of health (art. 24)*
9. Gender-based discrimination is particularly pervasive, affecting a wide range of outcomes, from female infanticide/foeticide to discriminatory infant and young child feeding practices, gender stereotyping and access to services. Attention should be given to the differing needs of girls and boys, and the impact of gender-related social norms and values on the health and development of boys and girls. Attention also needs to be given to harmful gender-based practices and norms of behaviour that are ingrained in traditions and customs and undermine the right to health of girls and boys.
10. All policies and programmes affecting children’s health should be grounded in a broad approach to gender equality that ensures young women’s full political participation; social and economic empowerment; recognition of equal rights related to sexual and reproductive health; and equal access to information, education, justice and security, including the elimination of all forms of sexual and gender-based violence.
