Dia Internacional para a Eliminação da Violência contra as Mulheres

O dia 25 de Novembro, Dia Internacional para a Eliminação da Violência contra as Mulheres, está próximo e estamos a organizar uma Marcha pelo Fim da Violência Contra as Mulheres, em Lisboa, com o objectivo de sensibilizar mais a sociedade para este crime terrível.

Apesar das várias campanhas já realizadas nesse sentido, muitas são as mulheres que continuam a ser sujeitas a violência de género, conjugal e doméstica, sendo constantemente assediadas, violadas, traficadas, mutiladas e, mesmo, assassinadas.

Como se não bastasse, frequentemente, culpam a própria mulher pelo crime, ficando o verdadeiro criminoso  impune, ou é-lhe aplicada uma pena absolutamente insultuosa para a vítima e para o próprio combate à violência.

Estas e outras razões (que poderá verificar mais detalhadamente no Manifesto, em anexo) traduzem profundas injustiças face às mulheres - que constituem 90% das vítimas. Por isso, no dia 25 de Novembro, sairemos à rua para dizer que a violência contra as mulheres não faz o nosso género!

Não somos cúmplices nem indiferentes! Nem mais uma... estamos vigilantes!

Assim, vimos, por este meio, solicitar o vosso apoio, através da participação no dia da marcha, bem como através da divulgação de apoio e mobilização, caso se identifiquem com os princípios que orientam esta iniciativa.

Ficamos a aguardar uma resposta que, desde já, agradecemos.

No caso das Instituições,  se decidirem apoiar esta Marcha, enviem-nos, por favor, o vosso logótipo, para divulgação.

Agradecemos que façam circular este mail por potenciais apoiantes.

Os nossos melhores cumprimentos,

A organização:

UMAR - União de Mulheres Alternativa e Resposta // Movimento SlutWalk Lisboa // ComuniDária - Associação de Integração de Migrantes e Minorias Étnicas

Para mais informações, contactar Maria Helena Santos (962788690), Magdala de Gusmão (964354042)

Rural Women and Development

©FAO/Alessandra Benedetti  

Rural Women and Development

Supporting Rural Women to Cope with High Food Prices
During the 2006-2008 food crisis, international prices for staple foods rose dramatically, pushing more people worldwide into hunger and undernourishment than ever before.
Prices declined in the second half of 2008 but spiked again in 2010 and will likely remain high and volatile over the next decade.

As in previous global crises, poor rural households in developing countries were the hardest hit. Poor rural women were particularly affected because they lag behind in access to resources like credit, land, technologies and infrastructure, which reduces their purchasing power. The crisis has drawn attention to the vulnerability of poor countries and populations to global shocks and to the need for countries to put in place better mechanisms to protect the most vulnerable populations.

The impact of high food prices on poor rural households

Rural households have little to no resources—such as savings or access to credit—to help them face high food prices, and the poorer the household, the more its members have to change their way of living to cope: they reduce spending on non-food items like healthcare and education; eat smaller or fewer meals and less expensive, less nutritious food; borrow money to buy food; and work longer hours or take on additional work to earn more money.

How do rural women cope with high food prices?

Rural women adopt specific behaviors and measures to soften the effects of high food prices on their families:

As traditional food providers and carers for their households, they tend to act as ‘shock absorbers’, giving their food to their children and their husbands to prevent them from going hungry, and spending more time caring for sick relatives as households cut back on health expenses.

Women also look for more part-time employment or work longer hours on top of their existing jobs and household responsibilities to earn more money for their families. They may also look for additional credit to afford food and other basic necessities, and are susceptible to get into debt because their lack of access to formal credit may force them to turn to moneylenders, pawn brokers and other sources of expensive credit.


To cope with higher food prices, poor households at times have to sell assets, like livestock, seeds, or tools, which are very difficult to regain. Women’s traditional assets, like jewellery and small livestock, tend to be sold first because they are easier to recover later than men’s assets such as land and large livestock.

Children are also affected—they may be taken out of school to either be sent to work to supplement the family’s income or to help with household chores while their mothers take on additional work. The former is more likely for boys and the latter for girls.

What can governments do to support rural women and rural households to deal with high food prices?

Countries can support rural households, and especially rural women, to cope with high food prices by putting in place or expanding food assistance and social safety net programmes that take into consideration men and women’s different roles and responsibilities within households and the different behaviors they adopt in times of crisis.

Through food assistance schemes, governments provide households with food rations to compensate for lacking food supplies. This includes giving households food stamps or vouchers that people can exchange for food, implementing school feeding programmes where meals are given to children in school, and food-for-work programmes where people are given food rations in exchange for their work on public projects like building roads.

Social safety net programmes work similarly, except that they provide households with cash to buy food and other necessities instead of food rations. These programmes include cash transfers where governments give periodical payments to households, and public work programmes, which are similar to food-for-work programmes, except that they compensate people in cash.

Food assistance programmes are advantageous for rural women who are traditionally responsible for obtaining food and ensuring good nutrition for the family. These programmes may reduce women’s need to take on additional work to obtain more income to buy food and, in some cases, increase their decision-making power in the household. For example, in Ethiopia, women working in public work schemes indicated that they preferred being paid in food rations rather than cash as this prevents their husbands from spending earned resources on non-food items.¹

School feeding schemes are also a helpful measure because they motivate parents to keep children in school in times of crises, ensuring that they receive the nutrients they need and maintaining their chances at better opportunities later in life. These schemes are particularly important for girls, who tend to be pulled out of school before boys.

Cash transfers are also instrumental in supporting women, especially when the transfer is directed directly to them, and public work programmes that are designed to include them have many beneficial effects, including improving their access to credit since their participation in the programme is often viewed as a guarantee of repayment.

By building programmes that take into consideration rural women and men’s differentiated needs and resources, governments can better strengthen rural communities’ resilience and ability to cope with high food prices and food price sparks in the long run.

Contributed to Womenwatch by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), October 2011

Girls and Population: The Forgotten drivers of Development

New world, new ideas
“It’s time to listen to girls”
                                     Parliamentary Appeal
                                     Global Summit of Parliamentarians ahead of the G8 and G20 Summits
                                     Paris, 17th May 2011
       1. A new world has arrived and it contains 7 billion women, men, girls and boys.
But out-of-date ideas are still with us, which belong to a world where many
despise young women and girls, either through cruel behaviour or because
they have been forgotten. New ideas are within reach of the G8 and G20
leaders and they are fair, simple and realistic. These ideas stand to improve
the performance of development assistance and will target those who need it
most – girls and young women - by investing in activities that are affordable
and will bring about many positive results. These ideas also have the
potential to transform many lives, families and societies, breaking the cycle of
inter-generational poverty, and this will all come about thanks to greater
access to family planning.
    2. We, Members of Parliaments of G8 and G20 countries, and from countries across
Africa, the Americas, Asia and Europe, have come together at the French National
Assembly ahead of the forthcoming G8 Summit in Deauville. France, the cradle of
human rights, currently holds the G8 Presidency, and accordingly we wish to draw the
world’s attention to two aspects of human rights that are among the most neglected at
present – the situation facing girls and young women and the challenges posed by
global population dynamics.
   3. These challenges are major:
   3.1. In 2011, for the first time in its history, the global population will
reach 7 billion. Out of this total population there are 1.2 billion young people who
will soon start their own families. Their reproductive choices will play a crucial role
in determining the future of the planet.
   3.2. 600 million girls and young women in the developing world today are
in a vulnerable situation, facing injustices, inequities and inequalities, such as
forced domestic work, which constitute a major obstacle to social and human
development, both at a personal and at a societal level. This situation is
exacerbated in post-conflict situations.
   4. Rapid population growth in developing countries is seriously damaging our chances of
achieving the Millennium Development Goals, by making it impossible to provide
adequate healthcare, education, nutrition, jobs etc. for a population that is ever
increasing. For the 72 countries that are currently experiencing a decline in their
2
population, this inability of generations to renew themselves will have major
ramifications for their society, which will require reorganising in the years to come.
   5. We, Members of Parliaments, are convinced that the violations of the human rights
suffered by girls and young women are severely impeding global development. It is
their right to become actors in a world that is progressing: their future is our
challenge, and their wellbeing is our priority.
  6. We, Members of Parliaments, commit ourselves to supporting our governments in
achieving their promises to guarantee health, dignity and human rights to every
human being, and to fight against poverty in a sustained manner. Every woman,
regardless of where she comes from, has the right to have the number of children she
wants, and to achieve this she must have access to information, services, technologies
and the means she requires that will enable her to exercise this right. For this reason
we reaffirm the human rights of the individual, and thereby the necessity – whilst
respecting individuals’ personal beliefs – to separate religion, culture and traditions
from politics as the first condition for achieving this end.
7. We, Members of Parliaments from all regions of the world, call upon the members of
the G8 and the G20, upon partner governments, funding organisations, and
development banks and agencies to :
7.1. Invest substantially in projects and policies that aim to protect girls.
These should have the following aims :
7.1.1. To find out where girls and young women are, by gathering local
information about their situation that is both precise and reliable, most
notably in matters pertaining to their education, in order to make their
vulnerabilities more visible, to reveal where they are being excluded, and to
establish how much (and which part) of development policy is being
addressed to them.
7.1.2. To develop their potential, making the completion of their secondary
education and the access to professional training and a job a priority, whilst
investing in strategic programmes tailored to meet their specific needs and
bring about their personal development.
7.1.3. To defend their autonomy, by putting an end to forced and child
marriages, and all other forms of violence towards girls and young women,
as well as assuring them equal and quality access to healthcare services,
education, social assistance and legal protection, by providing special rights
through legislation where it is necessary.
7.1.4. To create the necessary infrastructure of safe and accessible
spaces where the social, health and economic assets can be built to prepare
girls and young women to enter adulthood safely and well-equipped.
3
7.2. To make the challenges posed by the world’s current population
dynamics a development priority. This should be achieved by :
7.2.1. Providing universal access to sexual and reproductive health. This
should be achieved by ensuring that contraceptives are freely available and
by eliminating the obstacles people face in obtaining family planning, and by
initiating and supporting proposed legislation and the services required for
safe abortions to be able to take place. The 215 million women who want to
avoid a pregnancy and who do not have access to modern contraception
must also receive ambitious political, legislative and financial support.
7.2.2. Putting the specific needs of the younger generations at the centre of
international action and investments in global health. This should be achieved
by reinforcing, for example, integrated services for the prevention of HIV
AIDS in young girls with reproductive health and family planning services.
This will provide them with a better understanding of the specific risks by
which they are confronted.
7.2.3. Encouraging the integration of population challenges in
sustainability and resource policies, most notably in the preparations
being made for the UN Conference on sustainable development Rio +20,
which will take place in 2012. The world must aim for more sustainable use
of all global resources in order to protect and enhance the planet’s natural
assets; a foundational requirement for supporting healthy human societies,
particularly in matters relating to nutrition and basic needs and for future
development and the improvement of human wellbeing.
7.3.Not to miss financial pledges that have been made, particularly in matters
relating to health, population and human rights. This should be achieved in the
following ways:
7.3.1. By maintaining our commitment to the goal of increasing public
development assistance to 0.7% of GNI, in accordance with the
commitments that were made at both the UN and EU levels. Recent opinion
polls indicate that public opinion in developed countries is largely in favour of
this. ii
7.3.2. By making real the pledges made at Muskoka on maternal and child
health, and that these funds should be made up of fresh money. This should
be achieved most notably by bringing to life the parliamentary commitment
that was agreed in Ottawa in 2002, reiterated in Strasbourg in 2004, in
Bangkok in 2006 and in Addis Ababa in 2009, to devote 10% of public
development assistance to questions relating to population and reproduction.
7.3.3. By providing precise and detailed information on their specific pledges,
on the rhythm and volume of the funds that they will give, and on their plans
4
to involve representatives of civil society in identifying the priority sectors in
which they will become involved and provide services.
7.3.4. By critically analysing the public development assistance expenses
in order to focus subsequent activities in areas that were until recently
neglected and unfairly politicised, such as the fight against maternal
mortality and for reproductive health (MDG 5), and in areas which will be
more cost effective and have a wider and more efficient scope, such as
prevention programmes aimed at girls and young women.
7.3.5. By taking into account that equality between men and women is still far
from being achieved, and that even if some substantive progress has been
made, women and men live in realities that are very different. As a
consequence of this fact, all activities with development as a core goal must
be adapted to finally halt problems like the feminisation of HIV AIDS,
particularly its spread among young girls, and take into account that women
are under-represented in decision-making bodies, when the distribution of
aid is based on the principle of national ownership.
  8. We, Members of Parliaments, have a legitimate right to play an active role and
demand that our governments be accountable and involve us in the way budgetary
resources for development assistance are used. We also have the right to benefit from
the analytical tools they have available to them to do so. It is everyone’s
responsibility to ensure that development aid is used transparently and efficiently, and
to promote democracy and international agreements whilst reinforcing the efforts
made to achieve the Millennium Development Goals. It is our duty to ensure that all
that has been mentioned above has a positive impact on all citizens. To this end we
commit ourselves to collating progress made by the G8/20 countries on the
aforementioned commitments, and to make this publicly available to parliaments,
governments and citizens in an accessible and modern format.
   9. We, Members of Parliaments, recall our pledges towards the ICPD Programme of
Action and the Bejing Platform for Action (1994 and 1995), and towards the
Millennium Development Goals (2000), and hereby call upon the Heads of State of the
G8 and G20 to honour the pledges they made themselves.

From Millennium Development Goals to Millennium Development Wins, a Seminar for Youth Leaders of the African Diaspora Living in Europe

Seminar “."
The Seminar is organised by the North-South Centre of the Council of Europe in cooperation with the African Diaspora Youth Network Europe (ADYNE) within the framework of the Partnership between the European Commission and the Council of Europe in the field of Youth. The Seminar will be carried out during the 12th University on Youth and Development and will be held 19-21 September 2011 at the CEULAJ, in Mollina, Spain.
Those fulfilling the criteria and interested to participate should send the enclosed application form to nsc.africaeurope-youthsummit@coe.int by the 26th of June 2011. 


Participa.Be the Change you want to see in the World.

I am an African

I am an African!
I owe by being to the hills and the valleys, the mountains and the glades, the rivers, the deserts, the trees, the flowers, the seas and the ever-changing seasons that define the face of our native land. My body has frozen in our frosts and in our latter day snows. It has thawed in the warmth of our sunshine and melted in the heat of the midday sun. The crack and the rumble of the summer thunders, lashed by startling lightening, have been a cause both of trembling and of hope… The dramatic shapes of the [landscape] have… been panels of the set on the natural stage on which we act out the foolish deeds of the theatre of our day.
At times, and in fear, I have wondered whether I should concede equal citizenship of our country to the leopard and the lion, the elephant and the springbok, the hyena, the black mamba and the pestilential mosquito. A human presence among all these, a feature on the face of our native land thus defined, I know that none dare challenge me when I say – I am an African! …
Today, as a country, we keep an audible silence about these ancestors of the generations that live, fearful to admit the horror of a former deed, seeking to obliterate from our memories a cruel occurrence which, in its remembering, should teach us not and never to be inhuman again. I am formed of the migrants who left Europe to find a new home on our native land. Whatever their own actions, they remain still, part of me. In my veins courses the blood of the Malay slaves who came from the East. Their proud dignity informs my bearing, their culture a part of my essence. The stripes they bore on their bodies from the lash of the slave master are a reminder embossed on my consciousness of what should not be done… My mind and my knowledge of myself is formed by the victories that are the jewels in our African crown, the victories we earned from Isandhlwana to Khartoum, as Ethiopians and as the Ashanti of Ghana, as the Berbers of the desert….
I have seen our country torn asunder as … my people, engaged one another in a titanic battle, the one redress a wrong that had been caused by one to another and the other, to defend the indefensible. I have seen what happens when one person has superiority of force over another, when the stronger appropriate to themselves the prerogative even to annul the injunction that God created all men and women in His image.
I know what it signifies when race and colour are used to determine who is human and who, sub-human. I have seen the destruction of all sense of self-esteem, the consequent striving to be what one is not, simply to acquire some of the benefits which those who had improved themselves as masters had ensured that they enjoy. I have experience of the situation in which race and colour is used to enrich some and impoverish the rest.
I have seen the corruption of minds and souls [in] the pursuit of an ignoble effort to perpetrate a veritable crime against humanity. I have seen concrete expression of the denial of the dignity of a human being emanating from the conscious, systemic and systematic oppressive and repressive activities of other human beings. There the victims parade with no mask to hide the brutish reality – the beggars, the prostitutes, the street children, those who seek solace in substance abuse, those who have to steal to assuage hunger, those who have to lose their sanity because to be sane is to invite pain. Perhaps the worst among these, who are my people, are those who have learnt to kill for a wage. To these the extent of death is directly proportional to their personal welfare…
All this I know and know to be true because I am an African!
Because of that, I am also able to state this fundamental truth that I am born of a people who are heroes and heroines. I am born of a people who would not tolerate oppression. I am of a nation that would not allow that fear of death, torture, imprisonment, exile or persecution should result in the perpetuation of injustice. The great masses who are our mother and father will not permit that the behaviour of the few results in the description of our country and people as barbaric. Patient because history is on their side, these masses do not despair because today the weather is bad. Nor do they turn triumphalist when, tomorrow, the sun shines.
Whatever the circumstances they have lived through and because of that experience, they are determined to define for themselves who they are and who they should be… As an African, this is an achievement of which I am proud, proud without reservation and proud without any feeling of conceit…
But it seems to have happened that we looked at ourselves and said the time had come that we make a super-human effort to be other than human, to respond to the call to create for ourselves a glorious future, to remind ourselves of the Latin saying: Gloria est consequenda – Glory must be sought after!
Today it feels good to be an African…
I am born of the peoples of the continent of Africa. The pain of the violent conflict that the peoples of Liberia, Somalia, the Sudan, Burundi and Algeria is a pain I also bear. The dismal shame of poverty, suffering and human degradation of my continent is a blight that we share. The blight on our happiness that derives from this and from our drift to the periphery of the ordering of human affairs leaves us in a persistent shadow of despair. This is a savage road to which nobody should be condemned. This thing that we have done today, in this small corner of a great continent that has contributed so decisively to the evolution of humanity says that Africa reaffirms that she is continuing her rise from the ashes…
Whatever the difficulties, Africa shall be at peace!
However improbable it may sound to the sceptics, Africa will prosper!
Whoever we may be, whatever our immediate interest, however much we carry baggage from our past, however much we have been caught by the fashion of cynicism and loss of faith in the capacity of the people, let us err today and say – nothing can stop us now! “

Transforming economic power… are you up to the challenge?

The 2012 Call for Proposals is now open

Transforming economic power... are you up to the challenge?
Are you willing to move beyond your comfort zone? To question your usual thinking? To engage with actors outside of your every day activism or workplace? Are you ready to build alliances across boundaries so that together we can transform economic power?
Through the 2012 AWID Forum, we aim to explore how economic power is impacting on women and the planet, and to facilitate connections among the very diverse groups working on these issues from both human rights and justice approaches so that together we contribute to stronger, more effective strategies to advance women's rights and justice.
Contribute to shaping the conversation - and the strategies - at the 2012 AWID Forum by submitting a proposal to organize a session. Submission deadline: May 27, 2011.

http://www.forum.awid.org/forum12/ 

Creole, Cooperacção para o Desenvolvimento

 Creole

São objectivos da Associação Creole a concepção, a execução e o apoio a programas e projectos de cariz social, cultural, ambiental, cívico e económico, designadamente através de acções nos países em vias de desenvolvimento:

a) De cooperação para o desenvolvimento;

b) De assistência humanitária;

c) De ajuda de emergência;

d) De protecção e promoção dos direitos humanos.

A  Associação tem ainda como fins contribuir para a qualificação das mulheres e das crianças na sociedade civil nos domínios da Cooperação para o Desenvolvimento, da Ajuda Humanitária e de Emergência e da Educação para o Desenvolvimento. Enquanto organização a CREOLE prosseguirá os seguintes objectivos:

a)      Defender e promover os direitos e interesses das mulheres e crianças em tudo quanto respeite à sua valorização, de modo a permitir a sua plena integração e inserção;

b)      Promover modelos de Desenvolvimento Sustentável visando a melhoria das suas condições de vida, sustentando e integrado no estrito respeito pelos Direitos Humanos;

c)      Promover e estimular as capacidades próprias, culturais e sociais das comunidades como elemento fundamental da sociedade em que se inserem;

d)     Propor acções necessárias à prevenção ou cessação de actos ou omissões de entidades públicas ou privadas que constituam discriminação de genero ou racial;

e)      Estabelecer intercâmbios com associações congéneres estrangeiras ou promover acções comuns de informação ou formação;

f)       Contribuir para o reconhecimento da importância da participação das mulheres na definição e implementação das políticas, no âmbito da cooperação e desenvolvimento;

g)      Promover as relações no seio das sociedades do hemisfério Norte com o Sul para que  estes se assumam como actores na construção da Paz, democracia e direitos humanos;

h)      Cooperação entre as organizações africanas, com outros continentes (nomeadamente asiática e Americana) para melhoria da qualidade de saúde e de vida das comunidades mais carenciadas.