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March 2024: Uplifting feminist voices inside the agroecology movement 

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March 2024: Uplifting feminist voices inside the agroecology movement 

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Celebrating International Women's Rights Day uplifting feminist voices inside the agroecological movement

Two years ago, on International Women's Rights Day, CIDSE and the AgroecologyNow group at the Centre for Agroecology, Water and Resilience () of Coventry University, launched the first episode of a podcast mini-series on feminist agroecology to celebrate people who advocate for agroecology and food sovereignty, by incorporating feminist values. Today, after having released all the episodes, we share a playlist and a recap of what our journey has taught us.

"What food systems would look like if they were based on feminist values?" This was the question that kicked off our podcast mini-series titled "A journey through feminist agroecology ". The issue of feminism and agroecology is emerging in debates around the food system and is gaining momentum as a fundamental pillar of a sustainable, just and healthy food system. However, we noticed that there is still ample confusion about why the feminist perspective is important, how it aligns with agroecology and what it can contribute to food system transformation.

To help us answer these questions, we interviewed seven activists, researchers and practitioners from Latin America, North America, Africa and Europe, who each shared their individual journeys in bringing a feminist approach to agroecology and food sovereignty. Together with them, we questioned not only the food system and the inequalities it is built upon but also ourselves and our roles as organisations advocating for/working towards food system transformation.

The podcast mini-series is the result of a collaboration between CIDSE and the AgroecologyNow group at CAWR. It builds on previous work on feminism and agroecology namely the publication of a special issue of the F arming Matters Magazine entitled "Agroecology and Feminism: Transforming our economy and society" a joint project with the AgriCultures Network and Cultivate! (2020).

In the first episode (31:14 minutes, also available in Spanish), Diana Trevilla (a feminist agroecologist from Mexico & co-founder of Agroecologists in Movement) and Isabel Álvarez (a food sovereignty expert and agroecologist from Spain) helped us unpack the ways in which it is necessary to go beyond gender for food system transformation, what is needed and how it can be done in practice.

We continued our journey with the second episode (42:40 minutes), which explores food sovereignty and indigenous feminisms in the context of North America. We interviewed Lisa Ironcloud, Priscilla Settee and Simone Senogles, three amazing Native American women, who gave insights into the historical legacy behind the discrimination and intersectional, colonial violence against food and women.

Finally, in the third episode (29:30 minutes), we wondered if food sovereignty and agroecology movements reproduce the very power relations they claim to be working to eradicate. We interviewed Leonida Odongo, activist in the peasant movement in Kenya and internationally who brings the gendered local realities of the communities she works with, and Paula Gioia, a peasant farmer and beekeeper based in Germany. Like Leonida, Paula is active in the peasant movement, where they actively bring to light issues related to discrimination against LGBTIQ+ people in agriculture and food sovereignty. Both share with us how they experience patriarchal behavior within the movement.

Our journey through feminist agroecology has taught us many valuable insights and lessons that will continue to inform our advocacy and storytelling work in the years to come. In CIDSE's current strategy, we are committed to advancing an intersectional feminist approach and analysis as a cross-cutting systemic lens in all our thematic areas of work. This podcast project gave us a unique opportunity to deepen and broaden our knowledge and understanding of feminist agroecology, and to explore what it could look liketo apply this approach and analysis more concretely in our work on food sovereignty and land justice.

Feminism and agroecology are not just two connected 'issues', they are inherently intertwined. A feminist food system is not possible without a transformative change in the system itself - away from a capitalist, profit-based system to one centered on life and care. However, it is equally important to transform our ways of working from within the food sovereignty and agroecological movements (as they are not inherently feminist). Actively bringing feminist values into these spaces encourages the active participation and leadership of all members of these groups, through inclusivity and facilitating accessibility, especially for those who are often excluded and marginalised. We believe that agroecology can bring positive change to our food systems and transform them to be just and equitable, then strengthening our systemic change approach is imperative.

This project would not have been possible without the incredible insights shared by our interviewees during extensive hours of conversation, and the amazingwork of our colleagues, Jessica Milgroom and Csilla Kiss from the Agroecology Now group of the CAWR at Coventry University who initiated the collaboration on this project and took the lead on the first two episodes. From the CIDSE team, we wish to thank specifically our colleagues Nicky Broeckhoven and Carmen Contreras, for their continued support to the podcast series and for taking the lead on the third and final episode, to former CIDSE colleagues Valentina Pavarotti and Vincent Dauby for their precious support in the earlier stages of the podcast development and to Anya Verkamp who together with Nicole Pita generously helped us out with the voice-overs for episode one. We would also like to thank Bulle Media, the podcast production company that accompanied us on this journey and Virginia Pineda Ogalla for the illustrations.

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Uplifting feminist voices inside the agroecological movement

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Celebrating International Women's Rights Day uplifting feminist voices inside the agroecological movement Two years ago, on International Women\\\'s Rights Day, CIDSE and the AgroecologyNow group at the Centre for Agroecology, Water and Resilience (CAWR) of Coventry University, launched...

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March 2024: International Women's rights Day 2024

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March 2024: International Women's rights Day 2024

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Stories of hope and resistance from the CIDSE network Each year, International Women’s Rights Day (IWD) is a moment to give extra visibility and support to the daily struggles of women to fight for their rights, to call for bold action to address gender injustices worldwide, to spotlight the…

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We need your feedback !
Since 2016, CIDSE has been blogging monthly about women's rights and gender equality across the spectrum of CIDSE's activities and beyond through a plurality of voices. We have asked partners, members, staff and inspiring thinkers to share their thoughts on gender equality, drawing on their experiences and struggles.

As CIDSE embarks onto a new strategic plan for the period 2023-2028, we would like to find out what you think about our blog entries and have prepared a short survey for this purpose which will only take a few minutes of your time to answer.

Your feedback will be used to guide the future orientation of the CIDSE Gender blog.
Thanks! Deadline for replies: 17 February 2023.

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We need your feedback ! Since 2016, CIDSE has been blogging monthly about women\\\'s rights and gender equality across the spectrum of CIDSE's activities and beyond through a plurality of voices. We have asked partners, members, staff and inspiring thinkers to share their thoughts on...

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October 2023: Ecofeminism & extractivism

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October 2023: Ecofeminism & extractivism

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Photo cover: The Illusion of Abundance.
The struggle of Carolina de Moura, journalist and activist at Instituto Cordillera, began almost eight years ago in her region, Minas Gerais, Brazil. Her life, just as the lives of many other people were turned upside down when a toxic mining waste dam of the company Vale S.A. burst in 2015. As a result, around 19 people died. It also affected the lives of 1.4 million people who depended on fishing and agriculture in the Doce River basin, which was contaminated by the 30.2 million cubic meters of waste.

But "the Mariana disaster" was not the only event that transformed their lives. Four years later, in 2019, another tailings dam, owned by Vale S.A., collapsed, causing a new toxic sludge spill in Brumadinho, which left 272 dead. This was yet another environmental crime committed by the company, and, to date, many victims have yet to find justice.

Faced with this tragedy, Carolina, together with her community, began her search for justice and denounced these and other damages caused by the extractive activities that continue to develop in her town. Her story and struggle have already reached many spaces of political discussion on corporate responsibility. Through her participation in the documentary " The Illusion of Abundance", directed by Matthieu Lietaert and Erika Gonzalez Ramirez, she joins her voice to other defenders fighting for the respect of life and land.

We spoke with Carolina during one of her recent advocacy trips to Brussels. This time, about her work with women in her community and how she incorporates ecofeminism into action in her struggle.

What does ecofeminism mean to you and how did you become familiar with it?

Ecofeminism, to me, embodies the defense of both women's rights and the rights of the Earth and nature. It involves standing up for our dignity and that of our comrades. Ultimately, it is about defending life and nature. Everything is connected.

A very strong vision that made a lot of sense in my path is to look at mining as patriarchy, representing the ultimate expression of patriarchal values in the world. If we look at the body of Mother Earth, what the mining companies do is to exploit, to dig a hole, and to leave a huge wound in the womb of Mother Earth, often without permission of the communities and much less of nature. This is a form of extreme violence to the body of Mother Earth and to the connection between our bodies and the Earth, our 'cuerpo-territorio'.

There was one particular moment where I realized that ecofeminism resonated with me. I was at home, working on the land when I heard an explosion from a nearby mining site. I felt as if I were choking, I felt fear and a deep pain. It was in that moment that I understood perfectly the violence that is inflicted on the body of Mother Earth. I strongly felt the violence within my own body, I felt the 'cuerpo-territorio' connection.

How have you and your community been affected by the mining activity near your home?

We have been affected in several ways. Our access to water and land, and our ability to peacefully walk in the forest, for example, have been severely restricted. It has also affected our mental well-being as we witness our surroundings being destroyed, people losing their lives, and the significant impact on our community, which is now covered with mud and dust. So, on one side, we do not have good quality food and water, and on the other hand, there is all the uncertainty it generates. After the tragedy of the Mariana dam collapse and other tragedies caused by mining companies in my area, there is a constant fear that another tragedy could happen.

Also, women defenders have been impacted in a particular way, which I believe has to do with motherhood and care for their families. Because of our defence work, we put our bodies at the service of the community, we put ourselves and our families at risk. And this is also difficult.

Maintaining hope is a gigantic challenge. I've been advocating for the protection of the environment for nearly 20 years, and the situation continues to worsen. We achieve very little; the victories are very small. We've faced defeat countless times, but we still celebrate the victories. And even when we suffer a defeat, we did what had to be done, we left a mark, we mobilized more people. One thing that is very clear is that there are many more people now involved against mining projects in my area. Ten or 15 years ago there were only ten of us.

Do you know of any examples of ecofeminist alternatives to extractivism in your own surroundings?

Yes, there are many. I really dislike it when people say: "you are against mining, so how do you propose to develop the economy? What is the solution to generate jobs?". It is cruel to burden us with the responsibility of proposing an economic solution within these capitalist parameters, which are destroying everything. I have many solutions to present and develop with the communities, but first, they must let us live, in peace, with dignity, and access to water, food and shelter from the cold. We can create many things, but how can we develop an economy while facing the threat of death and running out of water? How are we going to create and put energy in developing the alternatives when we have to dedicate all the energy we have so that they don't kill us. I say this to shed light on many alternatives and possibilities that we can think of and create now because we are dealing with all this. Still, we have agroecology, medicinal plants, community tourism, cooperatives producing handicrafts, traditional foods and many things that we can do in networks, to exchange experiences, to create products.

I say that to throw the light, for many alternatives, possibilities that we even manage to think and create now because we are with all this, but still we have agroecology, medicinal plants, community tourism, cooperatives for the production of handicrafts, traditional foods and many things that we can do in network, to exchange experiences, to create products. We have set up some projects, for example, which allow women to generate an income from creating products that they learn to make in training workshops. So, I think there are many alternatives that are already there, but there's no investment and political support for these alternatives. For some, the only economic alternative we have is mining or agribusiness. Because, of course, without investments and support for alternatives, how are we going to develop and compete with these giant, powerful transnational companies that impose their projects and suffocate all the alternatives that are there?

What is your opinion about the green transition?

We have total distrust in these false solutions, it makes no sense to change one raw material for another and say that now it is green and ecological because, in the end, it demands more raw materials and extractivism anyway. We are already suffering from the impacts of these extractivist projects, and now in addition there is an overexposure to the impacts of extreme climate events. I think there is a lot of lies and deception What else needs to happen before people decide to make the necessary changes? This energy transition pursued by governments and companies that come up with technologies that in the end also need raw materials, is of no use to us.

What's the point of having a telephone and no water to drink? What quality of life is that? To have more and more stuff but no good water, good food, good air and intensifying natural disasters and environmental degradation.

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Interview with Carolina de Moura: "Ecofeminism is about defending life and nature. Everything is connected."

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Photo cover: The Illusion of Abundance. The struggle of Carolina de Moura, journalist and activist at Instituto Cordillera, began almost eight years ago in her region, Minas Gerais, Brazil. Her life, just as the lives of many other people were turned upside down when a toxic mining waste dam of...

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November 2023: Feminism inside the agroecology and food sovereignty movement

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November 2023: Feminism inside the agroecology and food sovereignty movement

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Does the food sovereignty and agroecology movement reproduce the very power relations they say they are working to eradicate? This is the central question of the third and final episode of our podcast miniseries 'A Journey Through Feminist Agroecology'. In this episode, we explore the complexities and challenges of feminism inside these movements.

Two inspiring guests, Leonida Odongo and Paula Gioia, share with us how they experience patriarchal behavior inside the movement, each from their own unique perspectives. Their experiences show that movements on food sovereignty and agroecology are not by themselves feminist. The reproduction of patriarchal and male chauvinist behaviors, for example, is also prevalent in these movements. Within the agroecological movement, we want to change the system, but it is equally important to transform our ways of working from within.

Leonida and Paula highlight which feminist values and practices they already see being translated into these movements and give some concrete examples of how these can be further strengthened.

Leonida Odongo comes from Kenya in East-Africa. She is the founder of Haki Nawiri Afrika, an initiative advancing social justice and building connections among communities in Kenya, Africa and beyond. She is active in the peasant's movement at the local, national, regional and international level where she strongly brings in the gendered local realities of the communities she works with.

Paula Gioia is a peasant farmer and beekeeper based in Germany, living and working on a community farm. Paula was born in the urban areas of Brazil and migrated later to Germany. It was in Germany where they discovered peasant agriculture. Like Leonida, Paula is active in the peasants' movement at the local, national, European and international level, where they actively bring to light issues related to the discrimination of LGBTTIQ+ people in agriculture and food sovereignty.
Paula is a non-binary gender person, who identifies neither as a woman, nor as a man. Throughout this podcast episode and article, we will therefore use the pronouns they/them when referring to Paula.

BACKGROUND

In collaboration with  AgroecologyNow at the  Centre for Agroecology, Water and Resilience (CAWR) of the University of Coventry (UK), CIDSE has been on a journey through feminist agroecology. In the first episode, we explored the question of what food systems would look like if they were based on feminist values. In the second episode, we explored food sovereignty and indigenous feminisms in the context of North America. The podcast miniseries is available on Spotify and other major listening platforms.

****

SPECIAL THANKS TO our two guests, Leonida Odongo and Paula Gioia, to Jessica Milgroom and Csilla Kiss at AgroecologyNow, and to Antoine, Alexander and Jeremy at the podcast production agency BulleMedia.

ILLUSTRATION BY  Virginia Pineda Ogalla.

***

LISTEN to our first episode " What does feminism have to do with the food you eat?" (also available in Spanish) and to our second episode "Where Indigenous feminism and food sovereignties meet".

READ ' Feminism and agroecology: Transforming Economy and Society' - a Special issue of the Farming Matters magazinepublished by The AgriCultures Network, CIDSE and Cultivate!

WATCH Agroecology Now's short animation ' For feminist agroecologies' (available with subtitles in multiple languages, French narration and Spanish narration).

This podcast series was co-funded by the European Commission. Its contents are the sole responsibility of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the European Union.

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Feminism inside the agroecology and food sovereignty movement

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Does the food sovereignty and agroecology movement reproduce the very power relations they say they are working to eradicate? This is the central question of the third and final episode of our podcast miniseries 'A Journey Through Feminist Agroecology'. In this episode, we explore the...

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February 2023: Testimonies of women living under occupation

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February 2023: Testimonies of women living under occupation

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In the booklet, "I raise up my voice", 8 Palestinian women share their stories of life under occupation. The women currently all live in Area C in the West Bank. Their stories, captured by staff of the NGO " Haqel, in defense of human rights ", focus on the challenges women and their families face under the extreme circumstances of the Israeli occupation. Haqel wants to make their stories visible as a catalyst for empowerment and provide a channel for women from different communities and geographical locations to have their voices heard, and to connect them in their common struggle.

"The booklet provides the space for freedom of expression, facilitating the processes of social transformation, and building family and community resilience. These women are agents of change."

In the occupied Palestinian territory, women have to deal with the day-to-day reality of the Israeli occupation that violently interferes with their ambitions, families, and households. Many of them face the constant threat of evictions, home demolitions and violence from the Israeli settlers in the surrounding settlements.

In this booklet, Palestinian women share personal stories that shed a light on the everyday challenges and the impact of living under military rule on their personal lives. Haqel highlights that the impact of human rights violations on women is unique. It affects a wide range of aspects of their life as they are traditionally responsible for taking care of their children, running their households and providing for their families. They are the backbone providing the necessary support to families to surviving and resisting the extremely hostile situation in the occupied Palestinian territory. In their work and care they put Sumud - steadfastness and perseverance - into practice. This despite constant fear of violence, attacks and evictions.

Halima's testimony

Halima Muhammad Yussef Abu Eram, 79 years old, is from the village of Khirbet Jinba, known as the Village of Caves, located in the area of Masafer Yatta in the South Hebron Hills. Last year, the Israeli Supreme Court approved the eviction of over 1400 Palestinian men, women and children from 12 villages in Masafer Yatta. Violence against Palestinians in the area increased even more since then. Jinba has been one of the sites of settler violence aimed at intimidating Palestinians out of their homes, burning lands, destroying homes and demolishing property, continued violence against villagers, evictions and extensive demolitions. Perpetrators enjoy total impunity and the Israeli authorities not only fail to stop settler attacks but rather enable them. Halima's family has been there for about four generations, ever since her grandfather bought land in the area. Halima raised four boys and three girls and currently lives with her eldest son, his wife, his seven girls and five boys. Her son supports all of them financially; he is a shepherd as well as an excellent farmer. His wife takes care of the children and manages the household.

"I spent most of my life farming my land. I would go to the fields every day and work the lands myself. Women's work is different now. We use milk harvesters instead of traditional milking. We also use mixers to process the milk and produce dairy products. Our work now is more focused towards dairy production, baking and caring for the cattle.

Life under occupation has been marked by so much suffering. In an attempt to displace us, the occupation forces demolished our properties on multiple occasions. Military forces stole our furniture and all our belongings and threw them away. They would loot all of our food, without leaving any speck for us to eat or drink. When we finally got an injunction order to stop the demolitions, the situation slightly improved. In 1985, the occupation forces demolished a lot of buildings. They issued demolition orders and destroyed our huts. They also destroyed the fodder for our animals. They told us to leave, but we remained and even slept in the open. Every time they destroy, we build over and over again.

There were some very frightful experiences and the people of Jinba escaped to the mountains because the occupation forces wanted to tie us up and torture us. Most of the women and some of the men would leave the village and run to the mountains, leaving the occupation forces alone to destroy and steal our properties and everything we owned. I witnessed an extraordinary amount of extreme violence in my life here.

They made us suffer so much. When we lived in a tent, Israelis would always come to threaten us; they would come during the night and destroy our furniture. They would remove the covers from my sleeping children forcefully and disturb their rest. I told them to have mercy on them, but they did not care. Even our clothes, those Israeli soldiers would throw them to the ground and trample on them. But we, the women, would not allow them to touch us at all, we would run away to the mountains instead. Once we heard that they were coming to break in. We got dressed quickly, put on our headcovers and ran to the mountains. It is important to mention that whenever we received aid from the city of Yatta, the Israelis would not allow us to get the aid. The people of Yatta would send us blankets and food, but the occupation forces would set up blockades and checkpoints in order to prevent us from getting our basic supplies.

After they broke into our house and wreaked havoc, we would come back to find that they spilled all the juice on top of the food. They would throw away the yogurt that I worked so hard to make. Then we would begin the process of rearranging everything that was left, and attempt to fix what they destroyed, and clean all the mess that they created. This process lasted for almost a week and another two months of savings in order to replace what the occupation forces destroyed. We would also need to provide food for the cattle which they trashed. Not to mention that they stole our gas cylinders causing us maximum financial damage.

In Khirbet Jinba there is only one clinic, which operates once a week, on Tuesday. When my daughter in law had a miscarriage, she was close to death. We had to take her to Yatta and then to the hospital in Hebron. We drove her in a tractor to the ambulance, which was waiting on the main road. The journey took almost an hour because the shortcut had been blocked. Then, the ambulance drove her to the hospital, taking another hour. By then she had lost a huge amount of blood, and her condition only worsened. They needed to do multiple blood transfusions to save her life. Thankfully, she got better, and her condition improved.

It was a rough time back then; as we had to endure the stress and fear of losing her if she did not receive the proper care on time. Not to mention that since my son and his wife have seven children, everything fell on me when their mother fell ill. I had to feed the children and take care of them. I also had to manage all the cooking. Additionally, the milk had to be extracted and prepared, which was already my responsibility. The government, unfortunately, did not offer aid, nor did they assign a temporary caretaker to help.

Our legal struggle was about a section of a road that the Israelis tried to close. We suffered for eight years while trying to reopen it for our community's use. In 2001, whenever we tried to cross the road with our tractor, the Israelis would forbid us from doing so, and compel us to turn around. Thankfully, instead of a trip to Yatta requiring three hours, it would take us half the time now that we have access to the road. It is so much more convenient. We can go buy fodder for the animals easily, and we can come and go whenever we need to.

Demolitions are a regular occurrence in the village. Our summer huts were demolished more than three times.

Two of my children got infected with the coronavirus. I was terrified for them because I had relatives in Yatta who died from the virus. We had to stay isolated for 25 days. It was a period of absolute terror, and worry, but I have faith and trust in God. My children were very careful with my health and always warned me against leaving the house. I had to cancel partaking in numerous events, because I was very afraid. My family had to apologize and decline attending many ceremonies, which had a negative impact on us socially since we could not perform our proper duties towards the people who held these events. We also could not hold prayer together due to the closure of the mosque. My family and the community suffered socially from the Coronavirus."
Testimony of Halima as it appears in the booklet.

Halima's story is amplified by the stories of the other women in the booklet. And even their stories, are just a few of the many stories people, especially women, living under occupation have to tell. Too often these stories go unheard. We want to encourage you to check out the other stories and to share them widely within your networks.

About Haqel
" Haqel: In Defense of Human Rights" is a human rights NGO whose work has had significant and life-changing impact on hundreds of Palestinian landowners and tens of communities to retain their rights to their lands, homes and villages in the occupied territories. It represents hundreds of individual landowners and tens of villages in the South Hebron Hills, the Bethlehem region and the northern West Bank. The core of Haqel's strategic litigation work focuses on gaining land access to privately-owned Palestinian lands, protecting farmers from escalating settler attacks, demanding duty bearer accountability and protection of farmers, their families, their possessions and properties, tackling discriminatory planning policies in Area C and preventing the displacement of families and communities from their homes. Haqel runs a pilot programme empowering women to engage in legal proceedings. Haqel is a partner of CIDSE's Irish member organisation Trócaire.

Cover image: village in Masafer Yatta. Credit CIDSE

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Testimonies of women living under occupation In the booklet, "I raise up my voice", 8 Palestinian women share their stories of life under occupation. The women currently all live in Area C in the West Bank. Their stories, captured by staff of the NGO "Haqel, in defense of human...

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April 2023: WHRDs on socially-just energy transition

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April 2023: WHRDs on socially-just energy transition

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Danila Andagoya and Nathalia Bonilla welcome us as they prepare for one of the last activities that were part of the Right to Say No speaker tour in Europe, organised by CATAPA, EEB, Survival International and CIDSE. From 24 February to 9 March 2023, they attended different meetings and events together with human rights defenders from Switzerland, Chile and Indonesia, and met with various decision-makers interested to hear their experiences and concerns about the threats that poorly regulated extractive activities can have on their territories.

Both Danila and Nathalia are activists from Ecuador who work in Quito to resist mining activities in the territory of the Chocó Andino community, where Danila comes from. The Chocó Andino is a territory located about 45 minutes from the city of Quito which covers around 286,000 hectares. It has been recognised as a Biosphere Reserve by UNESCO for the incredible role that the forests of the Chocó Andino play in preserving the fauna that inhabits it: some 270 species of mammals, 30% of the bird species found in the whole of Ecuador and 15% of the plant species. "What I like most about my community is that we are used to sharing different things and we organise ourselves. We are always looking out for each other, and we have the confidence to express ourselves within the community" shares Danila.

However, this large nature reserve is threatened by the activities of mining concessions approved by the Ecuadorian government, in addition to illegal mining activities that encroach on the area. "In Ecuador, we have seen how oil companies, mining companies, and oil palm plantation companies have come and established in the towns and territories and on the land. They never asked if they could settle there, and this has caused great destruction. Their arrival was brutal and enforced. This has caused a lot of suffering, a lot of environmental damage", explains Nathalia.

Around 12 metallic mining concessions have been granted by the Ecuadorian government, occupying 17.863 hectares and another 6 concessions are in process, occupying 9.899 hectares within the Chocó Andino Biosphere Reserve. "The energy transition causes that more minerals, more metals are required from the soil, and we are impacted in the way they try to enter our territories based on some promises, some activities like meddling in governments. So, it becomes an unsafe place for us", reflects Danila.

People who are in a vulnerable position because of the extractive industries are also facing personal challenges inside their community: "The extractive sector is seen as a sector that employs mainly men, so men are established within the community", says Danila, "(The money it produces) is also male money, because the men who work in the mines are the ones who decide about the economy of their families and the women will always be at home, taking care of the children". Meanwhile, Natalia reflects: "It is very important to support the defense of the people, of the women who fight for nature because they are the actors who are putting their lives and their energies to stop extractivism. For example, I would like to mention the women's network ' Saramanta Warmikuna ', a network of Afro-Ecuadorian indigenous, smallholder women farmers. These women gather and start to work together for a different way of life. They also come together to connect with each other, to give more power to their demands; it's also a space for sharing wisdom".

During their visit to Europe, both activists spoke about the Right to Say No, a campaign that aims to prioritise the communities' decision on the activities taking place in their territories, whether it is a positive or negative response. "The right to say no is very important (...) saying no for me means saying no to destruction, no to violence, no to death, no to colonialism, no to racism. At the same time, it means saying yes to my rights, yes to life, yes to other ways of relating to nature, yes to other kinds of different wisdoms".

For more information, learn about the initiative "Quito sin Minería".
SPANISH TEXT
Mujeres defensoras de los derechos humanos sobre la transición energética socialmente justa

Danila Andagoya y Nathalia Bonilla nos dan la bienvenida mientras se preparan para una de las últimas actividades que forman parte de la gira de oradores "El Derecho a Decir No" (Right to Say No, en inglés) en Europa, organizada por CATAPA, EEB, Survival International y CIDSE. Del 24 de febrero al 9 de marzo de 2023, asistieron a diferentes reuniones y eventos junto con defensores y defensoras de derechos humanos de Suiza, Chile e Indonesia, y se reunieron con tomadores de decisiones interesados en escuchar sus experiencias y preocupaciones sobre las amenazas que pueden tener las actividades extractivas mal reguladas en sus territorios.

Tanto Danila como Nathalia son activistas del Ecuador que trabajan en Quito para resistir las actividades mineras en el territorio de la comunidad Chocó Andino, de donde proviene Danila. El Chocó Andino es un territorio ubicado a unos 45 minutos de la ciudad de Quito, que abarca alrededor de 286.000 hectáreas. Ha sido reconocido como Reserva de la Biosfera por la UNESCO por el increíble papel que juegan los bosques del Chocó Andino en la preservación de la fauna que lo habita: unas 270 especies de mamíferos, el 30% de las especies de aves que se encuentran en todo el Ecuador y 15 % de las especies vegetales. "Lo que más me gusta de mi comunidad es que estamos acostumbrados a compartir cosas diferentes y nos organizamos. Siempre nos estamos cuidando y tenemos la confianza para expresarnos dentro de la comunidad", comparte Danila.

Sin embargo, esta gran reserva natural está amenazada por las actividades de las concesiones mineras aprobadas por el gobierno ecuatoriano, además de las actividades mineras ilegales que invaden el área. "En Ecuador hemos visto cómo empresas petroleras, mineras y de plantaciones de palma aceitera han venido y se han establecido en los pueblos, y territorios, y en la tierra. Nunca preguntaron si podían establecerse allí, y esto ha causado una gran destrucción. Su llegada fue brutal y forzada. Esto ha causado mucho sufrimiento, mucho daño ambiental", explica Nathalia.

Alrededor de 12 concesiones mineras de metales han sido otorgadas por el gobierno ecuatoriano, ocupando 17.863 hectáreas, y otras 6 concesiones están en proceso, ocupando 9.899 hectáreas dentro de la Reserva de la Biosfera Chocó Andino. "La transición energética provoca que se requieran más minerales, más metales del suelo, y nos impacta en la forma en que intentan entrar a nuestros territorios en base a algunas promesas, algunas actividades como la intromisión en los gobiernos. Entonces, se convierte en un lugar inseguro para nosotras", reflexiona Danila.

Las personas que se encuentran en una posición vulnerable debido a las industrias extractivas también enfrentan desafíos personales dentro de su comunidad: "El sector extractivo es visto como un sector que emplea principalmente a hombres, por lo que los hombres están establecidos dentro de la comunidad", dice Danila, "(El dinero que produce) también es dinero masculino, porque los hombres que trabajan en las minas son los que deciden sobre la economía de sus familias y las mujeres siempre estarán en casa, cuidando a los niños". Mientras tanto, Nathalia reflexiona: "Es muy importante apoyar la defensa del pueblo, de las mujeres que luchan por la naturaleza, porque ellas son las protagonistas que están poniendo su vida y sus energías para detener el extractivismo. Por ejemplo me gustaría mencionar a la red de mujeres 'Saramanta Warmikuna', una red de mujeres campesinas indígenas afroecuatorianas que se reúnen y comienzan a trabajar juntas por una forma de vida diferente, también se unen para conectarse entre ellas, para darle más poder a sus demandas; es también un espacio para compartir sabiduría".

Durante su visita a Europa, ambas activistas hablaron sobre el Derecho a Decir No, una campaña que busca priorizar la decisión de las comunidades sobre las actividades que se desarrollan en sus territorios, ya sea como respuesta positiva o negativa. "El 'Derecho a Decir No' es muy importante (...) decir no para mí significa decir no a la destrucción, no a la violencia, no a la muerte, no al colonialismo, no al racismo. Al mismo tiempo, significa decir sí a mis derechos, sí a la vida, sí a otras formas de relacionarnos con la naturaleza, sí a sabidurías diferentes".

Para más información, conoce la iniciativa "Quito sin Minería".

Credits Cover photo: CATAPA

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Women human-right defenders on socially-just energy transition

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Spanish text below Danila Andagoya and Nathalia Bonilla welcome us as they prepare for one of the last activities that were part of the Right to Say No speaker tour in Europe, organised by CATAPA, EEB, Survival International and CIDSE. From 24 February to 9 March 2023, they attended different...

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March 2023: International Women's Rights Day 2023

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March 2023: International Women's Rights Day 2023

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Each year, International Women's Rights Day (IWD) is a moment to give extra visibility and support to the daily struggles of women to fight for their rights, to call for bold action to address gender injustices worldwide, to spotlight the work of women, women's rights movements and gender justice organizations that inspire us, and to reflect on the sacrifices and achievements made by women all around the world.
In this blog, we spotlight some of the many stories of hope and resistance that our members and their partners shared on IWD 2023.

Broederlijk Delen, Belgium
Broederlijk Delen organised a public action in front of the EU Parliament on 8 March to call for a stronger EU Corporate Sustainable Due Diligence law and denounce the corporate human rights violations of women activists. Speeches were delivered by Lieve Herijgers, Director of Broederlijk Delen and Susana Ramírez Lopéz, an indigenous woman human rights defender from Pastoral de la Tierra San Marcos in Guatemala.
👉De zorgplichtwet: de lat voor bedrijven moet hoger

CAFOD, England and Wales
On IWD, CAFOD celebrated the achievements of women worldwide and called for equal rights for women and men. Defending women's human rights in Guatemala was also the focus of an article telling the story of Zoila, an indigenous Mayan Q'eqchi' leader. CAFOD also released a lent reflection to think of all the women across the world whose leadership and service are rooted in love for their communities, women who may not always be recognised and celebrated.
👉 Defending women's rights in Guatemala
👉 https://cafod.org.uk/pray/lent-calendar/8-march

CCFD-Terre Solidaire, France
In an interview for the French newspaper, Le Journal du Dimanche, Sylvie Bukhari-de Pontual, President of CCFD-Terre Solidaire denounced "patriarchy as one of the structural causes of poverty and inequality". The organisation also paid tribute to women who work tirelessly for greater solidarity by sharing the portraits of two inspiring women: Rose Padilha (Brazil) who has dedicated her life to the indigenous people of the Brazilian Amazon and Béatrice Epaye (Central African Republic), Member of Parliament and President of the Foreign Affairs Committee. Readers were also invited to test their knowledge on facts related to women in a small quizz.
👉 Les femmes qui nous inspirent - Terre Solidaire

Cordaid, the Netherlands
Cordaid used the opportunity of IWD to celebrate the progress and the importance of women's movements which help carve a space for women and youth whose voices are often ignored. In a blog, writer and former Cordaid colleague, Mahamuda Rahman, also explored the semantics behind the term feminism.
👉 Why we still need women's movements in 2023 and beyond
👉 If it involves all of us, why do we still call it feminism?

Entraide et Fraternité, Belgium
Entraide et Fraternité paid tribute to Barbara Dias do Nascimento, Maria Moreira and 4 other women working or collaborating with their Brazilian partner organisations who are supporting the struggles of rural peasant communities and facilitate the empowerment of women living in these communities.
👉 Brésil: la terre, c'est la vie

Fastenaktion, Switzerland
Fastenaktion places the issue of gender equality at the heart of all its projects. For IWD, they shared two examples from Burkina Faso showing that successful gender work goes beyond the mere promotion of women.
👉 "Gerechtigkeit braucht alle Geschlechter"

FEC, Portugal
On IWD, FEC asked their staff from Angola, Guinea-Bissau, Mozambique and Portugal to say one word that comes to their mind when they hear "Woman".
👉 O que é ser mulher

Trócaire, Ireland
On the occasion of its 50th anniversary, Trócaire acknowledged 50 remarkable women who over the past five decades they have had the privilege to work with and learn from. View the slideshow of these women in honour of International Women's Day.

👉 The remarkable women of Trócaire who fight for a just world

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Stories of hope and resistance from the CIDSE network Each year, International Women's Rights Day (IWD) is a moment to give extra visibility and support to the daily struggles of women to fight for their rights, to call for bold action to address gender injustices worldwide, to spotlight the...

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January 2023: Climate talks with Rita Uwaka 

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January 2023: Climate talks with Rita Uwaka 

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Cover photo: Friends of the Earth Africa.
From 6 to 18 November 2022, the 27th UN Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP27) took place in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt. COP27 was supposed to be an African COP, one that supports the rights of the African People for a sustainable future and a just and clean energy transition. However, the presence of lobbyists during the negotiations influenced the final text, which is weak in promoting the phase-out of fossil fuels. The Climate Talks series is a space for our partners and allies to express their concerns and experiences around the climate crisis. We interviewed Rita Ukawa, Friends of the earth Africa, on how women are affected by the climate crisis and why it is important to protect their role.
Rita Uwaka works at Friends of the Earth Africa leading the Forest and Biodiversity programme. During COP27, we had the opportunity to learn how women are affected by the climate crisis and the important role they play in their communities.

Watch the interview below:

How is the climate crisis affecting your community?

So many ways... Our forests are being grabbed and this is causing a lot of forced migration for forest-dependent people because when these forests that are land grabbed by corporations and other commodities companies, a lot of lands, farm lands, forests and landscapes, are taken over for agrocommodities causing a lot of social, environmental and, of course, gender impacts on communities and on people who depend on the land for farming, for sustainable livelihood, who depend on forests for food, for fruits and also for medicine.

What is the role of women in preserving the environment?

Women play a key role in forest conservation and biodiversity conservation, in land and food production. But when there are threats as a result of oil exploration activities, of oil exploration companies of agrocommodities companies. Who are the worst hit? Women, of course. Because they are connected to the land, to the forest, to care work. So when a lot of these are affected, only does it not affect women, it also affects the ones they take care of their husbands, their daughters, their sons. The whole mix of human beings that live like in the community that depend on women for care, for survival most times, because these women are connected to the forest, the food production

What are your takeaways from the climate negotiations?

A lot of our governments have been brainwashed to believe that false solutions, it's a positive way to address climate crises. We have multiple crises in front of us, and Africa seems to be the worst hit by all of this climate catastrophe. The biodiversity crisis, the climate crisis, the food crisis, the care crisis. All of it epitomizes the impacts on the African continent, on the people, the indigenous communities and local communities and indigenous peoples. So the idea is to make our leaders understand the implications of the different agreements

Bonus: What book, movie or music album would you recommend to activists?

One of the music that inspired me so much is that of Bob Marley, One Love. In the midst of all the crises, in the midst of all odds, togetherness and love and unity can suppress every form of silencing the corporations want to put on us.

We want to learn more from you

The CIDSE team would like to invite you to fill out this survey (5 minutes aprox) to learn more about the readers of our gender blog and guide its future orientation

Thank you for your answers!

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Cover photo: Friends of the Earth Africa. From 6 to 18 November 2022, the 27th UN Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP27) took place in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt. COP27 was supposed to be an African COP, one that supports the rights of the African People for a sustainable future and a...

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December 2022: Where indigenous feminisms and food sovereignties meet 

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December 2022: Where indigenous feminisms and food sovereignties meet 

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In collaboration with AgroecologyNow at the Centre for Agroecology, Water and Resilience (CAWR) of the University of Coventry (UK), we are launching a new episode of our podcast mini-series ' A Journey through Feminist Agroecology'.

In the first episode, we explored the question of what food systems would look like if they were based on feminist values. In this second episode, we continue our journey, exploring food sovereignty and indigenous feminisms in the context of North America. We are guided by Jessica Milgroom (AgroecologyNow) and her colleague Csilla Kiss who interviewed three amazing Native American women.
Listen to the second episode:
First, Lisa Ironcloud tells us about the art of butchering buffalo, her personal journey of reconnection with indigenous foods, and how this led her to start supporting other people, especially women, in similar processes.

"I wanted to find out more about our (traditional) foods, not understanding at that time, that I was gonna also find myself in that process (...) understanding what it meant to be Lakota, understanding what it meant to be a female (...) I started questioning a lot of the roles and what they say a woman should be.(...)"

"We really disconnected from our foods (...) Our food is our belly button because things start to make sense whenever we get back into it and live it"

Priscilla Settee then provides us with insights into the historical legacy behind the discrimination and intersectional, colonial violence against food and women. Destruction of indigenous food systems and of indigenous women were two powerful weapons used by colonists to conquer the continent.

"The colonizers understood the strength of women and so they purposely went in to undermine that. (...) Destroying the family, breaking up communities, and brutalizing indigenous women. That is a really powerful legacy that we are still deconstructing."

Finally, Simone Senogles talks to us about how indigenous feminism is intertwined with food, land, spirituality and health and about the complexity of feminism in indigenous food sovereignty movement

"In indigenous feminisms there is a high priority on responsibility more than rights. What is our responsibility to ourselves, to each other, to mother earth and the coming generations and even our ancestors. (...) We know that for food sovereignty to exist, there has to be intact relationships of respect, reciprocity, responsibility. So, it fits very well with an indigenous worldview and indigenous feminisms (...) Everyone who knows about food sovereignty, agroecology know that it can't work unless there is healthy, respectful, equitable relationships."

The stories of these three amazing women allow us to better understand how indigenous food memories are braided in with experiences of systemic violence against women, as well as people who identify to be non-binary and two spirit.
More about the interviewees

Lisa Iron Cloud (South Dakota, USA) is Oglala Lakota living in South Dakota, US. She is teaching indigenous women and girls how to butcher buffalo according to tradition and to forage for, preserve and cook with indigenous foods. She shares her knowledge and skill to help heal deep fractures created by colonialism within indigenous communities and to reclaim indigenous women's place in society.

Dr. Priscilla Settee (Cumberland house, Canada) is a First Nations (Swampy Cree) activist for Indigenous rights, women's rights and environmental rights living in Canada. She is Professor Emerita of Indigenous Studies and the Interim Vice-Dean Indigenous in the College of Arts and Science at the University of Saskatchewan, Canada. Her research interests include Indigenous knowledge systems, biodiversity protection, Indigenous food and politics, the impact of globalisation on Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous women's rights, Indigenous food sovereignty and trafficking of women and children.

Simone Senogles (Northern Minnesota, USA) is Anishinaabe from the Red Lake Nation in Northern Minnesota, US. She is a member of the leadership team at the Indigenous Environmental Network (IEN) where she has worked for over 20 years. Her work focuses on indigenous women's leadership and the importance of lifting up their work and power. She has been part of the convening committee for a series of webinars on indigenous feminisms. IEN is an indigenous led and operated Environmental Justice organization working with indigenous communities and nations in the US and Canada. IEN works on climate justice, sustainable communities, a just transition away from a fossil fuel economy and more.

In the episode there are also the Oshkii Giizhik singers. They are a community-based group of Native American women singers from Minnesota. They reclaim Ojibwe songs and write some of their own for today's times. They sing to build community and empower women to use their voices and raise awareness about issues that native women face. Singers on the episode are: Lyz Jaakola, Rebecca Gawboy, Darcey St. John.

The podcast is also available on Spotify and other major listening platforms.

Illustrations by: Virginia Pineda Ogalla.

Special thanks to: Lisa Ironcloud, Priscilla Settee, Simone Senogles, the Oshkii Giizhik singers, AgroecologyNow and BulleMedia.
Photo credits: David Stobbe and Nedahness Greene. This podcast series was co-funded by the European Commission. Its contents are the sole responsibility of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the European Union.

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Where Indigenous feminisms and food sovereignties meet

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In collaboration with AgroecologyNow at the Centre for Agroecology, Water and Resilience (CAWR) of the University of Coventry (UK), we are launching a new episode of our podcast mini-series 'A Journey through Feminist Agroecology'. In the first episode, we explored the question of what food...

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September 2022: Community land rights violations in West Africa from a women's perspective

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September 2022: Community land rights violations in West Africa from a women's perspective

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Interview with Rita Uwaka and Gladys Omorefe Osaghae about communities' rights violations in West Africa by SIAT's subsidiary company, Presco Plc.
Last June, five community representatives from Ghana, Nigeria and Ivory Coast came to Brussels to denounce the appropriation of their lands by SIAT (Société d'investissement pour l'agriculture tropicale), a Belgian company specialised in the production of rubber and palm oil. On this occasion, CIDSE had the opportunity to interview Rita Uwaka and Gladys Omorefe Osaghae. During the interview, the two women described the human rights abuses they have been subjected to for years due to the actions of SIAT's subsidiary company, Presco Plc.

Rita works with Environmental Rights Action/Friends of the Earth, Nigeria and coordinates the Forest & Biodiversity programme at Friends of the Earth Africa, while Gladys is a farmer, community leader and secretary of a women's group from the Obaretin community in Nigeria. Both of them came in Brussels to seek redress and justice for the environmental damage and human rights violations caused by SIAT's activities and to call for the adoption of strong binding rules for multinational companies. They shared how these companies have been involved in many land rights issues, violation of workers' rights and all forms of social, environmental and gender abuses. Rita believes that European institutions must acknowledge the violations by European countries in Africa and that they should listen to the voices of the affected communities whose rights have been violated due to the operations of agro-industrial companies, such as SIAT and its subsidiary Presco Plc.

Land expropriation causes serious damage, especially for women, who have difficulty providing for the survival of their children:

"We, women, we are suffering. When children are hungry, they don't go to daddy, they go to mommy first. We are not able to take care for them. After grabbing the land, we didn't know where to farm again, we didn't know where to get the food from. Suffering came. They dug a trench around the community. So, there is no way we can go to the farmland. That has an impact that affects the community, especially the women. We need help. So that's why I am here" stated Gladys.

The EU has a responsibility to hold companies like SIAT and its subsidiaries accountable for their human rights and environmental violations.

"If you continue to invest in these companies is like you are taking the rights of the communities away and continue with the destruction of our forest, water bodies because these companies rely on agrotoxins to be able to get good yield. This causes a lot of hazards on communities that depend on these resources, especially women, and those that fall under their care. The EU should ensure that the rights of the affected communities are respected, not violated" said Rita.

About the EU and upcoming legislation
In October 2020, the European Parliament asked the Commission to present legislation to put an end to global deforestation for which the EU is also co-responsible. The EU directive, presented by the Commission, would make it mandatory for companies to check sustainability and responsibility (due diligence). Last February, the European Commission published its proposal for new rules on corporate responsibility. The new Directive proposal (the Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive - CSDDD), aims to hold businesses accountable for human rights violations and environmental damage throughout their value chains. The announcement was an important step towards binding measures for companies and has enormous potential. However, it must be improved because it does not go far enough and is inadequate in its current form, with a lot of loopholes and several limitations.
About SIAT & Presco Plc
SIAT is one of the five main companies that control 75% of oil palm plantations in Africa. It sells its palm oil products to large multinational corporations, such as Unilever and Nestlé, and its rubber products feed into the supply chains of the international giants of the tyre industry, such as Michelin and Goodyear. Presco Plc, which is a subsidiary of SIAT Belgium, is 60% owned by SIAT and 40% owned by private investors and stakeholders. SIAT started operating in Nigeria in 2012. SIAT and its subsidiary companies carry out deforestation and appropriation of land and plantations to expand their facilities, violating the rights of local communities and destroying the ecosystem to exploit the land for their activities and the exploitation of plantations to produce palm oil.
Additional background information To learn more about the SIAT case you can consult the following links: Credit photo: CIDSE.

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Community Land Rights Violations in West Africa from a Women's Perspective

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Interview with Rita Uwaka and Gladys Omorefe Osaghae about communities' rights violations in West Africa by SIAT's subsidiary company, Presco Plc. Last June, five community representatives from Ghana, Nigeria and Ivory Coast came to Brussels to denounce the appropriation of their lands by...

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October 2022: The Illusion of Abundance: An interview with Erika González Ramírez

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October 2022: The Illusion of Abundance: An interview with Erika González Ramírez

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The Illusion of Abundance: An interview with Erika González Ramírez

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Erika González, co-directed the documentary The Illusion of Abundance. The film features the struggles and determination of three women human and environmental rights defenders from Brazil, Honduras and Peru. CIDSE interviewed Erika to find out what motivated her to carry out this research around...

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December 2021: Grassroots women at the centre of climate solutions

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December 2021: Grassroots women at the centre of climate solutions

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This year's international climate negotiations (also referred to as COP 26) have been criticized by many for being the most exclusive and inaccessible negotiations ever. Many voices, including those of youth, grassroots women, indigenous peoples, and vulnerable communities, have gone unheard. As a result, the outcomes of COP 26 "reflect the lack of fair access and participation of many civil society organizations, especially from the Global South whose role as observers (in these international processes) is essential for climate justice in their regions".
In this blog post, Ndivile Mokoena shares her views and thoughts on the importance of putting grassroots women and their communities at the center of combatting climate change and reflects on what this means for national and international climate governance and decision-making. Ndivile is a South African climate activist and feminist campaigning for gender justice in climate policy. She is working with GenderCC Southern Africa as a Project Coordinator.

Connecting women's rights, gender equality and climate justice

Gender must be a central consideration in the context of climate change because of long standing social and gender inequalities. Due to these inequalities, women are often disproportionately affected by climate change and its impacts. Women, for example, commonly face higher risks and greater burdens from the impacts of climate change in situations of poverty, and the majority of the world's poor are women. In addition, the fight against climate change is not only a struggle to keep our planet livable. For many women, climate change can be a direct cause of violence. During periods of prolonged drought, for example, women and girls make more frequent and longer journeys to obtain food and water, which makes them vulnerable to gender-based violence. Research has shown that girls who spend more time fetching water have fewer days in school and may even drop out.

Yet, women play a critical role in response to climate change due to their local knowledge and leadership, for example, in sustainable resource management and/or in leading sustainable practices at the household and community level. Their unique knowledge and skills can help make the response to climate change more effective and sustainable. However, women's unequal participation in decision-making processes and labor markets compound inequalities and often prevent women from fully contributing to climate-related planning, policy making and implementation.

In South Africa where I am from, climate change poses a lot of challenges for agriculture as it is the cornerstone for most poor communities. Drought is a major problem for small scale farmers as it leaves the soil hard to cultivate resulting in significantly diminished harvest. Local women farmers can play a vital role in the promotion of climate resilient practices in agriculture if they are empowered enough. However, there seems to be no political will from authorities to help small scale farmers, especially women. This is compounded by greed and corruption within the system.

At GenderCC Southern Africa, we train local women farmers on agroecology and permaculture farming to overcome challenges posed by erratic weather conditions and climate change impacts. This provides them with unique knowledge and skills that can help make the response to climate change more effective and sustainable. It also helps them to be more respected and given an opportunity in the current male dominated positions. Communities, including women, often lack control over their own energy systems as well as over other natural resources.

Training on Permaculture community food gardens in a church land

Women starting their own community gardens after the training in a school yard, helping to teach school children about permaculture and agroecology farming.

At GenderCC Southern Africa, for example, we therefore embarked on a train-the- trainer programme on renewable energy and energy efficiency. We identified Champions from community projects to be trained on how to use small-scale renewable energy products. In turn, they then trained other interested parties at community level to become entrepreneurs that will run their own local renewable energy and energy efficiency hubs/cooperatives/businesses where communities could be able to buy a wide range of products and receive technical assistance.

Women after receiving training on small scale renewable energy products. Trained as trainers to go and train other community members and sell the products to start their small businesses.

These trainings provided the Champions with 'green skills' partnered with key business skills and entail alternative energy sources (including renewable energy products and wonder bags for retaining temperatures made from reusable materials). The primary goal within energy and resource democracy should be for communities, particularly women, to be empowered to make decisions over the use of local resources and the best way to fulfil their needs. This transition must challenge the gendered division of labor, which places women in often low waged, insecure, and informal subsistence and service industries. It should re-interrogate the very notion of labor so that unpaid care and domestic work, mostly assumed by women, is valued, recognized, reduced, and redistributed. These reproductive activities provide the invisible backbone of welfare and wealth for any given society. This invisibility deprives women of the skills and capacity to participate in the economy beyond household responsibilities.

Wonder bags made by women as an alternative for cooking and retaining temperatures hot & cold to save on electricity bills.

National and local governments are already facing the challenging task of mainstreaming climate change into all relevant sectors - from housing and energy to transport and waste. The requirement of integrating a gender-responsive approach (i.e., making sure that gender norms, roles and inequalities are taken into consideration and that action is taken to eradicate them and to overcome historical gender biases and androcentrism) might seem daunting. Integrating gender into the climate change agenda is a very complex, long, and unwinding process, which is heavily influenced by the context, politics, and various stakeholders in each country. Even, within each country, the context of each region is different and as a result, it is often hard to come up with a one-size-fits-all approach that can be adopted universally.

Yet, just as climate change is not gender neutral, climate responses have been shown to be more effective and equitable when social dimensions such as gender are addressed. Therefore, climate policies must connect to climate, development and gender. It is very important to work closely with grassroots women and their communities to ensure that this work is done effectively and efficiently (bottom-up approach) to work at all levels, locally and nationally and to ensure that the experiences of grassroots women are taken up into and addressed in national and international processes. In the long-term, transformative change is needed in gender justice and climate justice.

What does this mean for gender justice in national and international climate processes and negotiations? Some recommendations:

🔹 Women's full participation at all levels of environmental and climate governance is crucial.Women and girls are currently underrepresented in climate decision-making and leadership positions. This needs to be increased throughout climate and environmental governance and sectors relevant for transitioning to an inclusive, circular, and regenerative green economy.

🔹 Gender equality needs to be mainstreamed into country's national plans to reduce national emissions and adapt to the impacts of climate change. They must create a just and equitable transition for all and ensure that climate solutions are gender-just and inclusive of indigenous peoples and local communities, their knowledge, and practices.

🔹Just climate solutions also require intersectional approaches to be integrated at every stage of development, implementation, and monitoring of climate policies, plans and solutions. In our deeply unequal societies, gender interacts with sexuality, race, national origin, age, class, disability, and other identities to shape people's access to power and resources, leaving some disproportionately impacted by and vulnerable to climate disruption. An intersectional gender lens must be integrated at every stage and rhetoric must match reality.

🔹 Ensuring gender justice in national and international climate processes requires adequate financing. While increased discussion of gender equality is warmly received, we want to see tangible results, and this requires funding to match the rhetoric.

🔹 Climate actions must promote gender responsive energy democracy and move us away from top-down, market-based approaches for energy production, distribution and control over natural resources and move towards an economy of care. The world needs to break free from fossil fuels and unsafe energy systems.

🔹 A gender responsive, ecosystem-based and community-driven approach to climate change adaptation and resilience is needed. This will allow us torestructure false solutions to climate change brought about by corporations who greenwash projects that bring about land grabs, genetically-modified foods, monocropping and heavy chemicals in industrialized agriculture as opposed to local community-led ecosystem restoration measures.

🔹 World leaders are encouraged to adopt gender-just climate policies that focus on the economic benefits of climate action, with a strong emphasis on job creation. Covid-19 has highlighted the need for real, transformative change in the way we think about economic policy domestically and internationally. This transformation must center around and resource care work, investing in unpaid care work and social protection and acknowledging the contributions of women and girls in it.

Interested in reading more about the work of Ndivile with GenderCC Southern Africa? Check out this link: https://www.gendercc.org.za/
Cover photo credit: OXFAM (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)

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Grassroots women and their communities at the centre of climate solutions

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This year's international climate negotiations (also referred to as COP 26) have been criticized by many for being the most exclusive and inaccessible negotiations ever. Many voices, including those of youth, grassroots women, indigenous peoples, and vulnerable communities, have gone unheard. As...

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March 2022: The importance of the West African GCLTE caravan

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March 2022: The importance of the West African GCLTE caravan

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From 20 November to 11 December 2021, the third edition of the caravan of the West African Global Convergence for land, water and seed struggles (GCLTE-AO) travelled across five different countries in West Africa (Gambia, Senegal, Guinea Bissau, Guinea Conakry and Sierra Leone). This bi-annual event, led by a regional coalition of civil society organisations, faith-based actors and social movements, aims to support and bring together communities that are resisting the grabbing of their natural resources and the systematic human rights violations it causes. During the caravan, participants share their stories and struggles with each other and interact with government officials, traditional and religious leaders to make their voices heard.
In the Gambia, where the journey started, the caravan was hosted by the National Coordinating Organisation of Farmer Associations the Gambia (NACOFAG). This is a network of farmers and producer associations of the Gambia working on the themes of good governance, advocacy and lobbying.

In this blog contribution, Burry Tunkara, Assistant Programme Officer at NACOFAG and President of ADDAD Gambia, looks at the Caravan from the perspective of women farmers and their struggles for land rights.

The caravan & women farmers struggles for land rights

Burry Tunkara at the Caravan in 2021

The third edition of the caravan of the Global Convergence for land, water and seed struggles was well attended. It mobilised over 200 participants, 60 to 70 percent of which were women and young people from different sectors, including food producers, livestock growers, traditional and religious leaders, civil society organisations, and social movements. It also attracted the attention of many people, particularly women, who are actively involved in agriculture.
For me, it was the second time that I participated in the caravan. The first time was in 2018 when I was one of two delegates from the Gambia who participated through the NACOFAG platform. I was able to share with and listen to experiences of different people in different countries and met many women farmers who struggle to get access to land in their community. This experience motivated me and my colleagues at NACOFAG so much that we got actively engaged in the preparation and logistics of the third edition of the Caravan, which was launched in the Gambia.
The struggles of women farmers to access land are critical. In developing countries, women are responsible for approximately 70% of food production, particularly in West Africa and many women depend on farming for their survival. They work very hard to support their community and to create an environment where their children have access to education and their social needs are met. Yet, they still find it very difficult to own a piece of land in their community. In some communities, women have less or no rights when it comes to land ownership. In search for a decent job to survive and take care of their children, women often feel compelled to migrate from country to country or from rural areas to urban centres.

No to social injustice around land rights for women farmers

Social injustice is rampant in our society, particularly for women. Some of these social injustices are empowered by cultural norms and values, which silence women and force them to obey to anything decided by men and elders. They also make it impossible for women to inherit their husband’s or family’s land. This is utterly unjust because in many cases women are the bread-winners in their families and are taking the lead in caring and catering from the entire family. Many women have also had their lands and properties taken without compensation.
During the caravan, I heard one story that particularly touched me. It was the story of Alasan and his mother, who broke the ‘culture of silence’ by sharing their struggles with us. Alasan, a 13-year-old boy, and his mother experienced many social injustices after the death of his father, who had always provided financial stability and had property in his name. After his death, however, his family denied his wife and children access to this property. From her story I learnt that the case was even taken to court as she wanted justice for herself and her children. However, she lost the case and said, ‘it must be because I am a woman or because I have no family to stand up for me at this level’. For Alasan, it is incredibly hard to see his mother suffer and as she has no possibility to pay for this school fees, he had to go find a job, despite the responsibilities and dangers that this bring with.

This is only one of many stories as struggles for land and other natural resources are a key concern for all women involved in the caravan. The caravan has been a great opportunity for them to speak out; raise awareness and advocate for land, water and seeds, and be actively engaged in action for social and environmental justice. In doing so, they were able to enter into dialogue with government authorities, traditional and religious leaders, asking them to contribute to women’s empowerment in the agricultural sector by ensuring their access to land and other natural resources. They urged them to consider their struggles and to be included in decision-making from the grass-roots.

Involvement of local chiefs in supporting land rights

Chief Dawda York, a local chief of the Nianija district in the Gambia, was directly involved in the caravan. For him, it was a great pleasure to be part of this movement that empowers farmers, especially women farmers, in their farming activities and in securing land, water and seeds for agricultural production. Speaking on behalf of all the chiefs in the Gambia, he recognised that, while for most women the main occupation is farming, they still cannot have/own their own land. This ownership, however, is crucial as it would enable them to do commercial farming, which provides more opportunities than subsistence farming. This is because most women do gardening in their residence or backyard to cultivate vegetables for consumption only.
In various cases, he, as a local chief, had already supported women in securing land for farming. The Global Convergence Movement for Land, Water and Seeds struggles inspired him and made him more aware about the struggles that women farmers face. This awareness was shared with other chiefs, which led them to attend various platforms in different African countries whose activities are centered on women farmers, on securing ownership to land and on increased participation in decision-making. These activities, including seminars and campaigns, motivated him to support over 130 women in his district to secure and own land for farming and other agricultural activities.

Gaining confidence to fight for rights

The Green Book of the CGLTE, which is the advocacy document that articulates the demands of communities, highlights that “the future is in the hands of women”, who should be leaders in our transition to sustainable agricultural and food systems. In most cases, they constitute the majority of the agricultural community. Therefore, supporting them in acquiring land and empowering them to carry out their activities is crucial. This includes good land governance practices and omitting unfavorable cultural norms and values that hinder women’s empowerment.
Thanks to the caravan and the Global Convergence Movement for Land, Water and Seed struggles West Africa, the women who participated gained the confidence to fight for their rights to natural resources. They called upon government authorities and traditional and religious leaders to intervene and to provide favorable land policies and good land governance to enable women farmers to access and own land.

Photo credits: West African Global Convergence for land, water and seed struggles (GCLTE-AO) and ADDAD Gambia.

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The importance of the West African GCLTE caravan for women farmers

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From 20 November to 11 December 2021, the third edition of the caravan of the West African Global Convergence for land, water and seed struggles (GCLTE-AO) travelled across five different countries in West Africa (Gambia, Senegal, Guinea Bissau, Guinea Conakry and Sierra Leone). This bi-annual...

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On the occasion of International Women’s Day, CIDSE and the Centre for Agroecology, Water and Resilience (CAWR) from Coventry University launch a podcast mini-series of 3 episodes exploring feminist agroecology.

Listen to the first episode:

The episode is also available in Spanish, listen here.

As part of its advocacy and storytelling around agroecology, CIDSE has highlighted how its social and cultural dimension, including a feminist perspective, is a vital ingredient for its success.

A previous collaboration between CIDSE and CAWR resulted in the publication of a special issue of The Farming Matters Magazine “Feminism and agroecology: transforming economy and society”. This brought to the forefront how perspectives such as intersectional feminism and indigenous cosmologies coupled with agroecology have been transforming our economy and society.  In this podcast we continue deepening these linkages and ask the questions: Why is agroecology not possible without feminism? What does feminism have to do with the food we eat?

Throughout the podcast mini-series, activists, researchers and practitioners who dedicate their lives to feminism and agroecology share how women (and others) are invisibly sustaining the food system, what it means to place ‘life’, rather than profit, in the centre of the food system, and what food systems would look like if they were based on feminist values.

We explore how the oppression of women forms part of systemic oppression against anyone who falls out of the white, heterosexual, cis-male box, what decolonial and indigenous feminisms offer to the agroecology movement, and how to strengthen that movement from a feminist perspective.

The first episode, titled: “What does feminism have to do with the food you eat?”, explores what food systems would look like if they were based on feminist values.

We interviewed:

Diana Lilia Trevilla Espinal (Mexico)
Feminist agroecologist from the periphery and migrant in South-Eastern Mexico. She holds a doctorate in ecology and sustainable development from El Colegio de la Frontera Sur, México. She is an activist, a feminist, a creator and a trainer. She is co-founder of Agroecologists in Movement and collaborates with the Mexican Care Network and the Alliance of Women in Agroecology. Her areas of interest are: feminist economics, care, defense of territory, agroecology and collective health. She is currently a researcher and a consultant. She has published several articles such as “Feminist agroecology: analyzing power relationships in food systems” (2021), “Agroecología y cuidados: reflexiones desde los feminismos de Abya Yala” (2020),  “Sentipensar el cuidado ante la crisis socioambiental” (2019) and co-authored with other women: “Ethics of care in agroecology” (2020), “Ciencia y feminismo desde el cuerpo-territorio en los estudios socioambientales” (2020) and “Cuidado y sostenibilidad de la vida. Diálogos entre la agroecología y la ecología política feministas” (2020). She enjoys walking in the woods, walking on the sand on the seashore and lives the rebellion with joy.

Isabel Álvarez Vispo (Spain)
Granddaughter of peasant women, daughter of ‘cardboard suitcase’ migrants and a rebel by vocation. In the workplace, she is an educator, an expert in food sovereignty and an agroecologist. She is dedicated to accompanying agroecological projects through research and training, both locally and internationally, with special emphasis on the feminist perspective. She is co-President of the international URGENCI Network and is involved in several networks such as the Baladre Coordination and Ecologists in Action. She has collaborated on several books, articles and other publications. The most recent book What do those eat who eat badly? together with other colleagues from Baladre Coordination and the report Political participation of rural women in the Spanish State.

Through Diana’s and Isa’s stories, this episode unpacks the ways in which it is necessary to go beyond gender for food system transformation, what is needed and how it can be done in practice.

The podcast is also available on Spotify , Apple Podcast , and other major listening platforms.

Illustrations by: Virginia Pineda Ogalla

Special thanks to: Diana Lilia Trevilla Espinal, Isabel Álvarez, Anya Verkamp and Nicole Pita (voiceovers),  Bulle Media.

This podcast series was co-funded by the European Commission. Its contents are the sole responsibility of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the European Union.

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New podcast: A journey through feminist agroecology

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On the occasion of International Women’s Day, CIDSE and the Centre for Agroecology, Water and Resilience (CAWR) from Coventry University launch a podcast mini-series of 3 episodes exploring feminist agroecology. Listen to the first episode:...

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May 2022: Can the fight against climate change be women-led and decolonised

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May 2022: Can the fight against climate change be women-led and decolonised

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This is the question raised by Axelle Fischer, Secretary General of Entraide et Fraternité (EF), in an analysis published in February 2022.

For Entraide et Fraternité, decolonisation, the fight against global warming and gender mainstreaming are intrinsically linked. " There can be no real progress in protecting our planet without the full participation of people from impoverished countries and without taking into account the voice of women " writes Axelle Fischer, who puts forward three arguments:

Firstly, because these three questions are issues of justice. They have become unavoidable and urgent if we do not want to see the anger and conflicts caused by the deliberate and continuous exclusion of women and people in impoverished countries worsen; if we want to protect the planet and the living beings that inhabit it... plants, animals and humans.

Secondly, because the mechanisms of omnipotence and paternalism that historically guide the exploitation of nature and people are now opposed with courage and freedom, as it is increasingly featured in media and therefore unavoidable in the public sphere.

Finally, because these three themes raise the question of the actors involved: the construction of sustainable solutions will not be possible without the inclusion of women, diaspora communities and the people of countries on the front line of global warming.

This is what EF and its partners are trying to do in various ways.
Towards a decolonised partnership
The idea that the Western development framework is "superior" is still prevalent and a sort of intellectual inertia urges us to be clear on this issue: development cooperation is in some ways ingrained with colonial approaches. Is it possible to be an international solidarity NGO and to support empowerment while unilaterally imposing heavier and heavier administrative and cultural constraints? In other words, how can the NGO sector be an actor in this process of decolonisation of our international relations?

In order for so-called partnerships (based on equality) to be at the centre of popular struggles for emancipation and liberation in the countries of the South, it is necessary to take into account the history, culture, traditions, heritage and specific forms of organising that give people their own identity and their right to self-determination.

Learning from the past, unlearning what is perhaps too deeply rooted in us and sharing power: these three approaches will allow us to unlock little by little the padlocks of this colonial heritage that still contrains us.
Converging struggles against global warming
The climate issue is a matter of justice. This injustice is experienced in every impoverished country where the poorest are systematically the most affected by climate change.

In order to keep global warming below "1.5°C", we must work together: NGOs, social movements, diaspora groups and partners in impoverished countries... This issue requires a broad convergence of forces and strategies, it is a question of co-responsibility. EF translates its commitment to climate change into long-term work with its partners to address the root causes of the problems. This also means linking struggles: climate justice, social justice, food sovereignty, "gilets verts/gilets jaunes". Finally, it means giving a voice to the people concerned, rather than speaking on behalf of people. This should be done in a logic of decolonisation, as we pointed out earlier.
And what is the role of women in all this?
Gender equality is a systemic issue. Talking publicly about gender in a Catholic NGO is not easy. Is making it a transversal, and therefore ever-present, axis of EF's work, a challenge that makes sense, or does it rather risk creating ambiguity?

It seems to us that some members of the Church today are positioning themselves in contradiction with an important element that inspired the construction of Catholic thought and action: the recognition of victims and the excluded in our societies, who are mostly women, but also the recognition of their role in social change and the protection of our "common home". Indeed, there is currently no real debate within the Church on the fact that women are victims. It is a matter of credibility for the Church to speak out on this issue, to say that the Church is striving for equality and respect for human dignity.
The integral conversion called for by Pope Francis in the encyclical Laudato Si' requires harmony with all the living beings on Earth. Indeed, we can identify many positive developments, among others in the place of women within Church structures. Pope Francis, for example, has launched an important movement to elevate the position of women, for instance by appointing women to roles with high levels of responsibility. But there are still many steps to be taken before the issue of equality and equity between women and men becomes an integral part of the life of the Catholic Church, which is still marked by a patriarchal and hierarchical logic.

Like the question of decolonisation, the question of gender confronts us with our wounds, with the injustices that we sometimes feel complicit in, to which we have become accustomed and which are not comfortable. We are faced with a debate over words and concepts. To speak of "gender" within the Church risks offending ethical sensibilities. Gender can be understood as directly linked to questions of sexual morality and the non-acceptance of biological differences. Similarly, talking about gender inevitably shakes the comfort of privilege. It leads us to talk about victims of injustice, but who benefits from these injustices? As a matter of fact in the Church, the beneficiaries are white men.

The link with colonialism is very clear. To speak of gender is to speak of justice, dignity, equality, to recognise the systems of exploitation and the institutional and human structures, and to see how to deconstruct them. To keep evolving our mentalities, the logic of lifelong learning is inspiring because it is first about daring to speak out, to recognise the facts and to understand how they work, in order to then start deconstructing habits.
To fight global warming effectively, it is necessary to involve the main people concerned, namely the poorest and most excluded... The people of poor countries and particularly women. On environmental issues, the place of women must become central for two main reasons:

Climate change exacerbates gender inequalities: women are the main victims of climate change.

Women are the main actors of innovative solutions.

Conclusion
Entraide et Fraternité takes a positive and proactive approach and advocates for a world that combines prosperity, respect for the planet's limits and social justice. It is a utopia, a dream that can become reality if there is creativity and willingness to learn from the past, to unlearn what we need to get rid of and which is deeply rooted in us, and to accept to share power.

-This article is a non-exhaustive summary of Axelle Fischer's analysis paper following the study " Acting for social justice in the world" carried out for the 60th anniversary of Entraide et Fraternité. This sum mary was translated into English by CIDSE.
- Entraide et Fraternité is the Belgian French-speaking member organisation of CIDSE.

Credit: F. Pauwels

Axelle Fischer works as Secretary General of Entraide et Fraternité since February 2018. Prior to that, she was Secretary General of the Commission Justice et Paix-Belgique from 2008 to 2018.

Cover photo Credit : AC Dimatatac, 350.org - CC 2.0 Generic (CC B Y-NC-SA 2.0)

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Can the fight against climate change be women-led and decolonialised?

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This is the question raised by Axelle Fischer, Secretary General of Entraide et Fraternité (EF), in an analysis published in February 2022. FRENCH VERSION For Entraide et Fraternité, decolonisation, the fight against global warming and gender mainstreaming are intrinsically linked. ...

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Believe in who you are and help others believe in themselves
By Caoimhe de Barra, Chief Executive Officer, Trócaire

'A leader is someone who believes in you and who gets you to believe in yourself'.

When I first read that quote several years ago, my own experience of being supported by excellent leaders came immediately to mind.

What I learned by reflecting on how they had helped me, was that if you see leadership qualities in a person, especially a woman, and you want to help them develop, you need to be explicit about what you see. We are still conditioned as women to underestimate our value and our worth; to undersell our ideas and contributions; to hold back; to consider all our shortcomings and how others might view us, rather than centring our strengths.

I can distinctly remember the handful of moments in my working life when someone said why they thought I was capable of doing something that I thought was too daunting, or that I hadn't even considered putting myself forward for. In the main, the people who gave me those insights were women. Mostly they were a little older than me, or were my peers. They had walked the path I was on. They all gave specific examples of why I was able for something. Because of that, I believed them. I believed because it was tangible and I could feel the truth of it. I couldn't deny it because they had given me the evidence and made me face up to my own fears.

We all have fears, but the worst thing anyone can do is let your fears diminish who you are and hold you back from achieving not only your own dreams but also from achieving a better world for people who are marginalised and whose human rights are violated.

As the famous novelist Alice Walker said, 'The most common way people give up their power is by thinking they don't have any'. We need to support women to unlock their power by giving them concrete reasons to believe in themselves, and by helping them to get over the inevitable obstacles that will be put in their way.

One woman's story might help explain this further and put it in a wider context of how to achieve transformative change.

Aminata Kamara is Deputy leader of Konta Bana village, Marampa chiefdom in Port Loko District, north western Sierra Leone. Aminata became the first woman ever to get elected to this influential role on 10 th February 2020.

Aminata, a married mother of four, is one of 25 women who form a women's farmer group in Konta Bana known as Tamareneh Women Farmer's Association. Aminata was selected as the group's candidate for Deputy Village Headman ahead of the last election. Achieving gender equality in Sierra Leone has always been challenging, and Aminata's election campaign did not go without backlash from the men she was up against.

In the run-up to the elections, male candidates launched a public smear campaign against her to sabotage her election hopes. They claimed her candidacy was illegal and made continual derogatory remarks against her because of her gender.

Despite these setbacks, Aminata and her supporters courageously carried on. On the campaign trail, Aminata and her supporters contested the negative perceptions of women in power, highlighting the struggles women face in day-to-day life. This enabled her to strengthen her campaign for more female voices in politics.

It was a hotly contested election, but Aminata came out on top, and was declared Konta Bana's Deputy Leader. On winning, Aminata said, "I am very happy to have been elected Deputy Headwoman. This is the first time a woman has been appointed to such an important decision-making space in my community." Aminata's success represented a ground-breaking change for women in her native Sierra Leone. Overnight she became a role model for other women and girls with leadership aspirations.

What enabled her to get to that position?

Her first challenge would have been self-belief. Her group of women - Tamareneh Women Farmer's Association - gave her their full support. She was elected by a landslide as the group's candidate.

Her second challenge would have been the men in her own life and in the community. Amina and her peers were supported by Trócaire's local partner, the Centre for Democracy and Human Rights (CDHR). CDHR led training for Aminata and her peers, and supported them to engage their male counterparts to address issues they are facing, such as accessing and owning land, and women's inclusion at decision-making levels. Aminata and her peers were helped to identify how to engage men effectively and to get their support for women in elections. Throughout the campaign, CDHR worked with Aminata to support and strengthen her campaign through targeted training in leadership, public speaking and how to mobilise her network for success.

At the same time, Trócaire's partner SEND supported Sierra Leone's first all-female radio station, which broadcast engaging programmes that both encouraged women to put themselves forward for election and helped build up support amongst male and female voters for female candidates.

Doris Moriba, President of a young women's group shares her views during the Insai Salone programme on Nyapui Radio. Photo credit: SEND Sierra Leone

Globally, women are under-represented at all levels of decision-making, and achieving gender parity in political life is far off. At the current rate of change, gender equality in Heads of State/Government will not be reached for another 130 years. Gender parity in national legislative bodies will not be achieved before 2063.

We need to encourage women to believe in themselves. Next time you see an opportunity, tell a woman exactly what she is doing well, give her examples of where you have seen her strengths in action. Encourage her to face her own fears and give her the support she needs to deal with them, whatever they may be. Support her and you build a better world for all.

About the author
Caoimhe de Barra is Chief Executive Officer of Trócaire, CIDSE's member organisation in Ireland, since October 2018 and a member of the CIDSE Executive Committee.
She has worked for Trócaire in a variety of roles between 1997 and 2015 including as Director of the International Division (2011-2015). She also worked as Country Director for Concern Worldwide in Malawi from 2015 to 2018.
Earlier this year, she received the Image PwC 'Social Entrepreneur of the Year' Award jointly with Dr. Suzanne McClean of Rosabel's Rooms.

Cover photo: Deputy leader Aminata Kamara, pictured with her three daughters, has become a role model for the women of Konta Bana in Sierra Leone. Credit: Trócaire

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Believe in who you are and help others believe in themselves By Caoimhe de Barra, Chief Executive Officer, Trócaire 'A leader is someone who believes in you and who gets you to believe in yourself'. When I first read that quote several years ago, my own experience of being...

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March 2022: International Women's Day 2022

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March 2022: International Women's Day 2022

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Each year, International Women's Day (IWD) is a moment to give extra visibility and support to the daily struggles of women to fight for their rights, to call for bold action to address gender injustices worldwide, to spotlight the work of women, women's rights movements and gender justice organizations that inspire us, and to reflect on the sacrifices and achievements made by women all around the world.
In this blogpost, we spotlight some of the many stories of hope and resistance that our members and their partners shared on IWD 2022.

CIDSE
On the occasion of International Women's Day, CIDSE and the Centre for Agroecology, Water and Resilience (CAWR) from Coventry University released the first episode of their podcast mini-series exploring feminist agroecology. Throughout the mini-series, we explore how the oppression of women forms part of systemic oppression against anyone who falls out of the white, heterosexual, cis-male box. We also look into what decolonial and indigenous feminisms offer to the agroecology movement, and how to strengthen that movement from a feminist perspective.

Broederlijk Delen, Belgium
Being a woman and defending the land is the double challenge faced by women environmental defenders all over the world. On 8 March, Broederlijk Delen organised a roundtable with testimonies of women environmental defenders from Peru, Colombia and Bolivia. They shared stories about climate activism, their experiences and struggles defending their territories and the vital role of women in activism.
👉 Watch the video here: https://fb.watch/bEK_V7l1RQ/

CAFOD, England and Wales
When the conflict in Ukraine began, volunteers in the Caritas station kitchen in Przemyśl, Poland, switched to feeding refugees and aid workers. 50,000 units of soup have been distributed since the beginning of the conflict, that is over 1,800 litres of soup cooked daily. On IWD, CAFOD highlighted the amazing work of women around the world, from Ukraine to Sierra Leone.

Development and Peace, Canada
Development and Peace spotlighted their new project to improve food and nutritional security in the Central Sahel region of Africa. In Central Sahel, political instability, conflict, climate change, COVID-19 and governance issues intersect in complex ways to cause and aggravate poverty and food insecurity, forcing millions to flee. Their project aims to boost the food security of vulnerable workers―especially women and youths―in the agriculture, forestry, livestock and fisheries sectors.
👉 Major new project to improv e food security in the Sahel - Development and Peace (devp.org)

Entraide et Fraternité, Belgium
Can the fight against global warming be feminine and decolonized? In an analysis published on IWD, Axelle Fischer (Secretary-General at Entraide et Fraternité) highlights the inseparable nature of the issues of decolonization, the fight against global warming and gender integration. Without the full participation of the populations of impoverished countries and without taking into account the voice of women, there can be no real progress in saving our planet.
👉 w.entraide.be/analyse-2022-02

Fastenaktion, Switzerland
For Fastenaktion, women's equality is central to the fight against hunger and poverty. In all their projects and programmes, they focus on supporting women's empowerment and breaking down power relations in a sustainable way. For IWD, they shared an encounter in Nepal with Purnima Sharki, a young Dalit woman of 18, and her friends. It showed them that the road to equality is still long but that with confidence, dreams can be achieved, even if it means doing hard work to earn money and get an education at the same time.
👉 https://fastenaktion.ch/der-weg-zur-gleichberechtigung-ist-lang-und-mit-schwerer-last-verbunden/

FEC, Portugal
FEC and Mosaiko shared the results of a Social Survey they conducted on Inclusive Public Policies from a Gender Perspective in Angola. The objective was to get a better idea of the social reality and gender equality in 15 municipalities in the provinces of Uíge, Huambo and Huíla. In the research, the existing inequalities in areas such as access to justice, access to civil registration, education, civic participation, and access to secure sources of income were analyzed. With the dissemination of the research, Mosaiko and FEC intend to make a contribution to inform decision-making by state institutions, civil society organisations or other social actors, on the approach of gender equality in public policies.
👉 https://www.fecongd.org/2022/03/10/pesquisa-social-sobre-politicas-publicas-inclu sivas-numa-perspetiva-de-genero/ . Full study also available in EN and FR.

DKA (member of KOO), Austria
As one example of their many partners working towards gender equality, DKA showcased the work of their Bolivian partner 'Centro Juana Azurduy'. The mission of the centre is to fight against the patriarchal system and machismo as they are the structural causes of oppression of women. You can learn more about the amazing work of the centre in the video below.

Manos Unidas, Spain
Manos Unidas works with and for women every day of the year, since their founding in 1959. On IWD, they focused on impoverished women, the most vulnerable and punished by the prevailing inequality in the world, which condemns millions of people to hunger and poverty. This is one of the inequalities that they are denouncing with their campaign ' Our indifference condemns them to oblivion'.
👉 Día de la Mujer 2022: combatir la desigualdad con las armas del desarrollo | ONG Manos Unidas

Maryknoll Office for Global Concerns, USA
The Maryknoll Fathers and Brothers hosted a Women's Day of Prayer. The recording is available here 👉 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_hpP0MVQ5AQ
The Maryknoll Sisters highlighted the story of Sister Efu Nyaki, who is on a mission in Brazil and who is the co-creator of Afya, a holistic Healing Center for abused women.
👉 https://www.maryknollsisters.org/about-us/our-mission/healthcare/

Misereor, Germany
Misereor, together with the Katholischer Deutscher Frauenbund e.V., called on the German government to provide effective aid for women in Afghanistan, highlighting that the war in Ukraine must not let Afghanistan be forgotten. In their press release, they state that "emergency aid must be expanded, women's rights activists threatened with death and torture must be evacuated from the country, and sustainable projects to empower women in the country must be secured."
👉 https://misereor.de/pr esse/pressemeldungen-misereor/weltfrauentag-lage-von-afghanistans-frauen-dramatisch

Partage Lu, Luxembourg
Partage Lu drew attention to a topic that is fundamental to women's empowerment: self-awareness and capacities. In their IWD message on social media they emphasized that "most women in developing countries have no idea what they can do and therefore cannot understand the importance of changing their living conditions, even if they live in extremely difficult situations. So today we celebrate women and all their achievements and wish them even more."
👉 Watch the video here: https://fb.watch/bH4AA41wkP

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Stories of hope and resistance from the CIDSE network Each year, International Women's Day (IWD) is a moment to give extra visibility and support to the daily struggles of women to fight for their rights, to call for bold action to address gender injustices worldwide, to spotlight the work of...

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February 2016: CIDSE launches a gender equality monthly blog series

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February 2016: CIDSE launches a gender equality monthly blog series

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https://www.cidse.org/2016/02/24/cidse-launches-a-gender-equality-monthly-blog-series/

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Every month partners, members, staff and inspiring thinkers will share their thoughts on gender equality, drawing on their experiences and struggles. The first blog entry will appear on the 8th of March on the occasion of International Women's Day. Your feedback is welcome and can be sent to pavarotti(at)cidse.org
Gender equality: We still have a long way to go... Bernd Nilles, CIDSE Secretary General
As an international family of Catholic social justice agencies, our goal is to achieve global justice. Gender equality is central to the achievement of this goal. It is a matter of urgency and priority.

Gender discrimination is the world's most widespread form of social exclusion. 70 per cent of the world's one billion poorest people are women and girls. Women and girls produce half the food but they own less than one per cent of the world's property. (source: CAFOD 2013 Gender Equality Strategy). Gender equality is a part and parcel of climate justice, sustainable trade and agriculture, fair taxation, or respect of human rights by business.

"We must address the class and gender issues within the climate narrative. We must express our anger" observed Doty, a woman from the Philippines. Speaking at a meeting organized by the South African Rural Women's Assembly on the sidelines of the Summit to reach a new international climate agreement (the 21st meeting of the Conference of Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change or COP 21) in Paris in December 2015, she said: "I've been observing COPs since Bali. We talked about equality and trust. How can you trust a process when previous principles are put aside?"

In our work with partners and communities around the world, we know that the gender dimension cuts historical, cultural and institutional causes of injustice that perpetuate poverty. We have prioritized gender equality as a cross-cutting issue in our work since 2005. The first meeting on 'women in development' in CIDSE dates back to 1994, during the preparation of the Beijing World Conference on Women in 1995. The meeting concluded that gender was hardly addressed in CIDSE's work and recommended a number of ways that we could advance gender equality in our political work and organizationally. 15 years on, a study to review gender mainstreaming in CIDSE in 2009, revealed that while there was some recent progress, it is still not done in a systematic way. To make more substantial and systematic progress, our work on gender needs to be more operational and set specific goals, based on a shared understanding of the relevance of the gender issue to our work.

Whether we consider the number of women in leadership positions in the CIDSE family or the extent to which we prioritise gender equality in our policies and strategies, we realize that we still have a long way to go....

We therefore hope that this blog series will be a way to spark reflections on gender equality across the spectrum of CIDSE's activities through a plurality of voices.
Gender equality in CIDSE: we have made some progress! Jean Saldanha, CIDSE Senior Policy Advisor
While still much needs to be done, CIDSE has made many efforts to mainstream and prioritise gender equality in our work. Our members Cordaid in the Netherlands, CAFOD in England and Wales and Trócaire in Ireland have been very vocal and active around gender equality for years. Cordaid has published papers on gender equality in relation to the New Deal, the Millennium Development Goals, and the conditions in conflict-affected areas. CAFOD has tackled gender equality in relation to issues such as the HIV epidemic and gender violence. Trócaire is running programmes for women's empowerment advocating for laws that protect women and respect their rights and dignity.
Experience has pointed to the importance of clarifying our understanding and definition of the concept of gender equality. CIDSE's discussion paper, "Gender Equality: CIDSE's Understanding and Definition. Standing for the equal dignity of men and women." explains our understanding of the concept of "gender" and "gender equality." It is inspired by Catholic Social Teaching, rooted in the principle of the dignity of all human beings. Implicit in this principle is the requirement that men and women have the opportunity to fully exercise all their human rights.

Our understanding of gender equality is based on our members' approaches, strategies and policies. Working in the international and multilateral sphere in alliance with other development organisations, both faith-based and secular, we also share and support language and definitions used in the international arena.

The discussion paper also documents examples of efforts in the Catholic Church and organizations to promote gender equality and identifies what still needs to be undertaken. In the Apostolic Exhortation Evangelii Gaudium, Pope Francis emphasizes that "demands that the legitimate rights of women be respected, based on the firm conviction that men and women are equal in dignity, present the Church with profound and challenging questions which cannot be lightly evaded" (No.104).

We intend to use this paper to fuel discussion and as a source of inspiration to ourselves as well as to the Church's leadership in responding to these questions.

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CIDSE launches a gender equality monthly blog series

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Every month partners, members, staff and inspiring thinkers will share their thoughts on gender equality, drawing on their experiences and struggles. The first blog entry will appear on the 8th of March on the occasion of International Women's Day. Your feedback is welcome and can be sent to pavarotti(at)cidse.org Gender equality: We still have a long way to go...

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March 2016: Gender Equality is not about women: it is about our shared humanity

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March 2016: Gender Equality is not about women: it is about our shared humanity

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https://www.cidse.org/2016/03/07/gender-equality-is-not-about-women-it-is-about-our-shared-humanity/

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Gender equality is not about women. It's about women, men boys and girls, it's about our shared humanity and creating fairer societies that recognise the right of each person to be treated with dignity. N.B: The views expressed in this blog do not necessarily reflect CIDSE's official positions.
We are still very far from that ideal. One in three women is likely to experience physical and sexual violence at some at some point in her lifetime, women are more likely than men to live in the poorest households, women are discriminated in statutory inheritance laws in 26 countries and women and girls are subjected to appalling levels of rape and sexual assault in conflict and shamefully, in more stable societies.

Women's experiences are shaped by their own context but are connected by a lack of power, opportunity and control. From May Oo Mutraw in Myanmar who speaks of the inadequate efforts to include women in the peace process "you can't just add women and stir", to Dzve Tsolosi from DRC who was left with nothing and had lost six children to the conflict "we had no belongings anymore, I worked in the fields of those who had returned to the village before me. I struggled to feed myself" to Evelyne in Kenya who told us "when my husband died of HIV, his family disowned us. They took his body away and left me alone with the children. Then they took me out of our home and said it had belonged to my husband".

Each of these women has been supported by Trócaire and partners in a way that is transformative, for them, their families and their societies. Gender equality is at the heart of Trócaire's work, motivated by a deep sense of social justice and guided by Catholic Social Teaching. The "add-women and stir" approach that May Oo speaks of, just doesn't work. Sustainable change requires us to dedicate resources to supporting gender equality, to challenge violence against women and girls, and ensure that women's voices are heard and their concerns addressed.

This work is driven and shaped by local partners. In Uganda, where we have partnered with the Ugandan Episcopal Conference of Bishops, the Church has championed efforts to end domestic violence nationally and locally. The season of Advent is used to launch a national campaign to coincide with the 16 days of activism against gender based violence. All 19 Catholic dioceses and 25,000 Churches nationwide participate in the campaign, targeting 12 million Catholics. The core materials developed for Clergy and Church workers include posters, prayer cards, homily notes and guidelines on the prevention of violence. This is coupled with dedicated work in selected dioceses to address harmful social norms that drive violence against women and girls.

The programme has grown from strength to strength since its launch in late 2009 by the Archbishop of Kampala, Archbishop Lwanga who stated "All of us have the right to be loved, educated and be given a decent life. When domestic violence is practiced, this basic right, which we all share and has been bestowed by God, is denied. . . .. The Church cannot keep quiet when the domestic church, the family, is being ravaged by the evil of domestic violence."

Launch of the National Campaign in 2009

Materials and approaches for the national campaign and the community model have been developed in collaboration with a local NGO partner, Raising Voices, using an internationally recognised methodology called SASA!. Five years on, a new adaptation of SASA!, SASA! Faith has been completed and will be launched in July 2016. It has been developed specifically for Christian and Muslim faiths, promoting the values of justice, peace and dignity in preventing violence against women and HIV.

Transforming the lives of women and girls on the scale that is required is a mammoth task. It is not the preserve of one sector in society; it requires action on all fronts and at all levels. The Catholic Church and Catholic agencies have a key role to play in this change process. In doing so, we are responding to the challenge that Pope Francis sets us in Evangelii Gaudium to respect the legitimate rights of women, based on the firm conviction that men and women are equal in dignity. The challenge is ours to take.
About the author:
Finola Finnan is Director Strategy, Programmes and Advocacy at CIDSE's member in Ireland Trócaire

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Gender Equality is not about women: it is about our shared humanity

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Gender equality is not about women. It's about women, men boys and girls, it's about our shared humanity and creating fairer societies that recognise the right of each person to be treated with dignity. N.B: The views expressed in this blog do not necessarily reflect CIDSE\\\'s official...

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March 2016: Christianity and Gender Equality

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March 2016: Christianity and Gender Equality

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https://www.cidse.org/2016/03/07/christianity-and-gender-equality/

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The reflection on gender equality in the Christian tradition - and in the case of the Catholic church - must have Jesus of Nazareth and his Christian project as a reference; in truth, it is a reference for all in the different dimensions of life, whether personal, communitarian, economic, political, etc. This avoids a debate founded on philosophical traditions, generally innocuous and a source of divisions. N.B: The views expressed in this blog do not necessarily reflect CIDSE's official positions.
This is an unofficial translation, scroll down to read the original version of the blog in Portuguese.
The practice of Jesus makes clear his way of relating to all people without prejudices or discrimination. In the only episode in which an exclusive view of the "House of Israel" is expressed, the Canaanite woman reminds him that "even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from the table of his master". As soon as Jesus heard this, he immediately changed his attitude and declared: "O Woman, Great is your faith; it shall be done for you as you wish" (Matt 15:21-28).

Mary Magdalene was the apostle of victory over death: she was the first one to see Jesus resurrected, and was also the messenger of this great news, with the power to lift up the spirits, the faith and the courage of the "twelve" and of all disciples in their mission. Even when she was not part of the "group of the twelve", it was her that opened the door to overcoming the faith crisis experienced by Jesus' followers.

The communities - churches - of Jesus' followers should be at the forefront of the assertion of equality between men and women, which signals not only "The Future Kingdom", that the Father will realize, but should also be expressed in all steps taken to meet and carry out "God's plan". As a consequence of a certain influence from philosophical and cultural traditions that contaminated the original message of Jesus, the Catholic Church did not rest immune. It also participated in the prejudice, discrimination, segregation and the denial of women. Male sexist domination placed women in the position of "the origin and source of sin, linked to sexuality".

However, there have been significant advances in the recognition of women as people and believers, who are entitled to the same rights and opportunities in the evangelization carried out by the community of Jesus' followers. Yet, we have still not attained the situation, in Churches, where the relations between men and women fully reveal Jesus' message and his work towards building the "Kingdom of God" in this world.

It is not only about the rules that prevent the Spirit of freely welcoming men and women, married or not, to ministries and church services. It is about a lack of sexual theology that could become an inspiring source of guidance for the steps to be taken towards effective gender equality and the meaning of love.

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A reflexão sobre igualdade de gênero numa igreja cristã - no caso, na Igreja Católica - precisa ter como referência Jesus de Nazaré e seu projeto de cristianismo; na verdade ele é a referência para todas as dimensões da vida, pessoal, comunitária, econômica, política etc. das pessoas que o seguem. Evita-se com isso o debate fundado em tradições filosóficas, em geral inócuo e fonte de divisões.

A prática de Jesus deixa claro que seu ideal é relacionar com todas as pessoas sem preconceitos e sem discriminações. No único episódio em que se expressa carregado com a visão exclusivista da "casa de Israel", a mulher cananeia lhe lembra que também os cachorrinhos comem das migalhas que caem da mesa de seu senhor, e ele imediatamente muda de atitude e declara: grande é a tua fé, mulher; vá e que se realize o que você precisa...(Mt 15,21-28)
Maria Madalena foi a apóstola da vitória sobre a morte: foi a primeira a ver Jesus ressuscitado, e foi a mensageira desta boa notícia que ressuscita o ânimo, a fé e a coragem da missão dos "doze" e de todas e todos os discípulos. Mesmo se aparentemente não era do "grupo dos doze", foi ela quem abriu a porta da superação da primeira crise de fé dos seguidores e seguidoras de Jesus.

As comunidades - igrejas - de seguidores/as de Jesus deveriam estar na dianteira da afirmação da igualdade entre homens e mulheres, sendo sinais não apenas no "reino futuro", que o Pai tornará pleno, mas em todos os passos dados no caminho que vai ao encontro e vai realizando este "plano de Deus". Por força de influências filosóficas e culturais que contaminaram a mensagem originária de Jesus, a Igreja Católica se tornou espaço de preconceito, discriminação, segregação e mesmo negação da mulher. A dominação machista a colocou em posição de "origem e fonte do pecado ligado à sexualidade".

Houve avanços significativos no reconhecimento da mulher como pessoa e como crente que tem iguais direitos e oportunidades na evangelização realizada pelas comunidades de seguidores/as de Jesus. Mas ainda não se chegou em igrejas em que as relações entre homens e mulheres revelem Jesus e sua mensagem e suas práticas de construção do Reino de Deus já neste mundo.

Não se trata apenas das normas que impedem o Espírito de atrair livremente para todos os ministérios e serviços eclesiais homens e mulheres, casados ou não. Trata-se da falta que faz uma teologia da sexualidade, que se torne fonte iluminadora dos passos a dar na direção da igualdade efetiva de gênero e do sentido do amor.
About the author:
Ivo Poletto is a Philosopher, Theologian and Social Scientist, National Advisor for the Forum on Climate Change and Social Justice (Brazil).

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The reflection on gender equality in the Christian tradition - and in the case of the Catholic church - must have Jesus of Nazareth and his Christian project as a reference; in truth, it is a reference for all in the different dimensions of life, whether personal, communitarian, economic, political, etc.

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April 2016: Diaries from the 60th session of the Commission on the Status of Women – CSW 2016

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April 2016: Diaries from the 60th session of the Commission on the Status of Women – CSW 2016

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https://www.cidse.org/2016/04/12/diaries-from-the-60th-session-of-the-commission-on-the-status-of-women-csw-2016/

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On the occasion of the 60th session of the Commission on the Status of Women at the UN, some of our member organizations were present and share with us their perspectives and thoughts on this event. Thoughts from CSW 2016 Hetty Burgman, Director of Security and Justice at Cordaid, The Netherlands
From 14 - 24 March, the 60th session of the Commission on the Status of Women gathered at UN headquarters in New York, bringing together global leaders, representatives of member states, UN entities, private sector, NGOs and activists from all regions from the world. Main topic on the agenda of this year: Women's empowerment and its link to sustainable development.

As a first time participant to the CSW, my first days at UN headquarters were dazzling: an amazing energy, commitment and strength could be felt flowing through the building and its surroundings, coming from the almost 10.000 participants, most of which women, from all over the globe. Furthermore, a choice selection of side events to attend, with topics ranging from Countering Violent Extremism to Repression of Civil Society, to name but two from the hundreds on offer.

However, after a few days, my energy level dropped a bit. Two main reasons:

- Every year, the UN member states negotiate the outcomes of the Commission's consideration of the priority themes, in the form of an Agreed Conclusion. Every year, there are forces who want to lower the commitment that was agreed previously, undermining the benchmark set in the Beijing Platform for Action. How can we make real progress, if we have to re-negotiate that what was already agreed?

- So many side-events! Organized by NGOs, UN entities and member states. Most of the events follow the same structure: presentations given by a panel of experts, generally leaving little time for discussion. Interesting though all these events may be, is real progress being made on the topic under discussion? Or is there too much preaching to the converted?

For Cordaid and myself, I saw the added value of this CSW in the organization and facilitation of a very targeted dialogue with relevant policy makers, partly through closed-events. A closed event is focused and participants are committed to take follow up actions on the issues being discussed.

Finally, one of the key challenges for CSOs, especially women group's, to participate in the implementation on the ground to advance gender equality and WPS agenda, as well as implement SDG's, is sufficient political space and financial support. Cordaid hopes that the newly launched Global Acceleration Instrument on women, peace and security and Humanitarian Action will significantly contribute to addressing these challenges.

United Nation's Commission on the Status of Women (CSW): faith, youth, men and St. Patricks
Tanja Haque, Gender Advisor at CAFOD, UK
Have been wanting to go to the CSW for quite some time, so you can imagine how excited I was finally sitting in the yellow cab in New York on the way to my hotel. 'So you came here for the St. Patrick's parade?' the driver asked. 'Not quite', I responded...'No I came for the UN Women's conference'....'Oh yes' he said....'you mean the one when women from all over the world come to this city all dressed up in those colourful elegant clothes'.

Yes that's the one, the 60th UN Commission on the status of Women. The CSW, a commission of the United Nations Economic and Social Council, is a global policy-making body dedicated exclusively to promoting gender equality and women's empowerment. This year it focuses on women's empowerment and its link to sustainable development.

In the recently created UN Women's Working Group on 'Faith and Feminism' one of the panellists pointed out that faith based organisations (FBOs), youth and men are critical partners for UN Women. I couldn't agree more. In fact I was struck by the high number of events on faith and gender, a new phenomenon I was told, which I find surprising given that '8 out of 10 people define themselves by one faith or another'. One such event was organized by Side by Side, the Global Faith Movement for Gender Justice, and what a powerful presence its Buddhist youth panellist had. Her response to the question of homophobia in religion was 'religion is compassion without any kind of discrimination'....which closely resembled the messages I took away from other faith and gender sessions: 'The role of the FBOs is to challenge discriminatory practices in their own structures and to reach out to the left behind groups'.

Last but not least hats off to the male gender champions from the likes of Sonke (www.genderjustice.org.za) and ABAAD (www.abaadmena.org) who spoke of their groundbreaking work on masculinities, gender based violence and engaging men including faith leaders.

As CAFOD's Gender Advisor I had to get used to dealing with the many challenges one faces when advocating for gender equality. One thing is clear allies are needed to do so and I am convinced that men and male gender champions should not only be critical partners for the UN, but also for us in CIDSE.

I have yet to digest all I heard and saw at the CSW, but am already looking forward to the next one and who knows maybe I will even catch a glimpse of the St. Patricks parade too.
Same old? On the 60th session of the CSW Fatima Hasse, Policy and Advocacy Officer at Progressio, UK
A day at the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) can go either direction, depending on the focus of the sessions. You can end up in a session where the same old questions are asked, such as: how can we end violence against women and girls, how can we challenge unjust power structures that discriminate and oppress women and girls, and so on. These sessions are interesting as they offer an excellent analysis of the problem, however, it is important not to get stuck on the problem analysis, and always take some time to identify a way forward.

But, you can also end up in an inspiring session where great female speakers share their insights into girls' and women's empowerment, offering some answers to the big questions when it comes to advancing women's rights and ending violence against women and girls.

This year, I saw a few new developments at the CSW. First of all, more faith-based organisations offered side events, which in my opinion, were more interesting and offered more than other events. This is because they were focused on values (like solidarity, respect and benevolence), and how these values can shape a powerful response to some of the pressing issues concerning girls' and women's continuous disadvantage in societies around the world.

Secondly, I saw that many organisations are now walking the talk on putting girls at the centre. Many of us know that if we ever want to achieve a world in which women and men are seen as equals, we need to invest in girls' future. This also means we need to allow them to speak their mind, find out what dreams they have, and which solutions they see for some of the problems we have been analysing for decades. This year, the CSW not only had a youth pre-conference, in which young people could network and develop their thinking together, there were also many organisations who empowered girls by offering them places as panellists and speakers at the side events.

And last but not least, I was impressed as for the first time in a while, a new language on the role of men and boys and social norms has been agreed by governments, who negotiated an outcome document:

"Transform with the aim to eliminate those social norms that condone violence against women and girls, and attitudes and social norms by which women and girls are regarded as subordinate to men and boys, including by understanding and addressing the root causes of gender inequality such as unequal power relations, social norms, practices and stereotypes that perpetuate discrimination against women and girls, and engage them in efforts to promote and achieve gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls for the benefit of both women and men, girls and boys [...]"
This language is a huge win, as it outlines a vision of how our world should look like in the future.

Let us make sure all of us, in our daily lives and encounters, act and speak according to the values and principles of equality between men and women, and ending violence against women and girls.

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Diaries from the 60th session of the Commission on the Status of Women - CSW 2016

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On the occasion of the 60th session of the Commission on the Status of Women at the UN, some of our member organizations were present and share with us their perspectives and thoughts on this event.

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April 2016: The economics of care and the role of the unions

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April 2016: The economics of care and the role of the unions

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https://www.cidse.org/2016/04/28/the-economics-of-care-and-the-role-of-the-unions/

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A friend recently told me about a science fiction book where all individuals living on an imaginary planet are "ambisexual", with no fixed gender identity, thus both being able to give birth, breastfeed their new-born children and taking care of their dependents. N.B: The views expressed in this blog do not necessarily reflect CIDSE's official positions.
Clearly the writer, the feminist Ursula Le Guin, is trying to suggest how society and social relations would look like when gender roles are not relevant any more. Imagine that!

On planet Earth however, the reality is that the gender roles that women are traditionally assigned to have a very "negative" direct impact on their participation in the labour market, their wages and the type of employment that is available for them. As a result, women are disproportionally represented in low-paid, undervalued and unsecure employment. Making their situation even harder, many women are severely affected by harsh austerity policies adopted and implemented in an increasing number of countries.

Every day women around the world spend between 2 to 10 times more than men on unpaid care work, including care for their beloved ones (the children, the ill and the elderly) as well as domestic and household tasks (cooking, cleaning, collecting food and fuel, fetching water etc). In India, women spend 6 hours per day on unpaid care work while men spend a mere one hour per day. Studies have shown that the more time women spend on unpaid care work the less likely it is for them to do work that is paid. And when they do have a paying job, this is often deemed low-skill and low value. In this dead-end situation, women feel that they are left without a choice.

Now think of the amount of 'caring' hours put in by billions of women every day. In the US, in 2014 alone Americans provided nearly 18 billion hours of unpaid care to family members stricken with the Alzheimer disease. What if this unpaid care work was recognized, valued, redistributed and, ultimately, a great amount of it is delivered by skilled care workers?

A new report by the ITUC argues that investing in care narrows the gender pay gap, reduces overall inequality and helps redress the exclusion of women from decent jobs. The study shows that public investment of 2% of GDP in social infrastructure (education, health and social care services) in 7 OECD countries (Australia, Denmark, Germany, Italy, Japan, the UK and the USA) would have a significant impact on employment creation for both women and men, help reduce the gender gap in employment, and ultimately promote greater economic growth.

For decades, unions have played a very central role in the fight for social justice and securing rights for workers, including women, youth and migrant workers. Unions have secured family-friendly work place policies and extended social protection to millions of women workers, including domestic workers, through social dialogue and collective bargaining. Since the last financial and economic crisis in 2008, unions have actively campaigned against austerity. In a recent statement, released on the eve of the ministerial-level "Spring Meetings" of the IMF and World Bank (Washington 15-17 April), the ITUC and its Global Unions partner organisations are "calling on the international financial institutions (IFIs) to take actions that support recovery of the world economy through public investments in physical and social infrastructure, including the care economy, and through wage increases.

Unpaid care work is essential to a family's and society's well-being. This is undisputable. In addition, the economic aspect of care, which has been generally neglected by economists and policy makers, is something that has been increasingly acknowledged by governments and international institutions. And countries, such as Chile, Japan, Ecuador, and the UK, have taken steps to help address this problem.

In 2014, the G20 established a target to reduce the gender gap in labour force participation by 25% by 2025. Putting the issue of care at the top of economic and social public policy agendas is the only possible way that this can be achieved.
About the author:
Maria Tsirantonaki works at the Equality Department of ITUC- the International Trade Union Confederation.

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The economics of care and the role of the unions

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A friend recently told me about a science fiction book where all individuals living on an imaginary planet are "ambisexual", with no fixed gender identity, thus both being able to give birth, breastfeed their new-born children and taking care of their dependents. N.B: The views expressed in this blog do not necessarily reflect CIDSE's official positions.

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May 2016: Cambodian Sex Worker: “We Deserve a Life of Dignity”

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May 2016: Cambodian Sex Worker: “We Deserve a Life of Dignity”

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https://www.cidse.org/2016/05/16/cambodian-sex-worker-we-deserve-a-life-of-dignity/

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Women in Cambodia's sex industry suffer from abuse, exploitation, and violence.
N.B: The views expressed in this blog do not necessarily reflect CIDSE's official positions.
In March 2008, Cambodia passed the Suppression of Human Trafficking and Sexual Exploitation law that made selling sex illegal. Rather than protecting women, this law has actually resulted in decreased safety for women as brothels are closed down and women are forced to work on the street. The unclear and discriminatory laws and policies are proof of the Cambodian government's ambivalent stance towards the sex industry: the act of selling sex is prohibited yet it is a usual sight especially in tourist areas.

Given this situation, women become easy and convenient targets, while those who victimize, exploit, and even profit from them - customers, bar owners, pimps, and crime syndicates - remain unpunished. This is the story of Vann Phary (name changed), a sex worker based in Phnom Penh. She describes how she got into the sex trade and how the increased awareness of her rights through a gender diverse sex workers' network led her through an empowering journey to self-awareness and confidence. She now educates fellow sex workers about their rights.

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I am Vann Phary, a 54-year-old sex worker. The life I lead is not easy. For many years, I have been asking these questions to myself. Why do the Cambodian people discriminate against women sex workers? Does it destroy another person's dignity? When will the discrimination end?

I have lived in Phnom Penh City since I was born. Born to a poor family, I only received a little basic education. My parents believed that as women are eventually married off, become mothers and take care of family members, a higher education is unnecessary. As an obedient daughter, I agreed to an arranged marriage. All good women must be obedient daughters. This is dictated to us by customs and traditions and Khmer culture in general. I married young and bore six children - three boys and three girls.

I stayed at home and took care of my children. I was totally dependent on my husband's income. Not long after we got married, my husband had a mistress, became a drunkard and a gambler. He also started to beat me up. He became unemployed and no longer took care of our family. Often, he would come home drunk; he would curse and threaten to hit me if I do not find food for him to eat.

My husband forced me to find him money . I did not have a choice; I had children to take care of. I lived with unhappiness for many years without telling anybody except by neighbours. When I could no longer take it anymore, I divorced my husband. I was 35 years old then, without any skills and had to feed and educate my six children.
I earned an income by doing other people's laundry, by becoming a nanny and cooking for other families, and by working as a masseuse. But the money was not enough for my children's education. I often begged my children's teachers to excuse them from paying school fees.

I became a sex worker because I felt that I did not have a choice. The first time I worked, I felt nervous believing that I was doing something wrong. I tried and failed to keep my job a secret. My neighbors and relatives, especially my brother looked down on me. My brother warned me that it was "not a proper job for women" and that I would face discrimination in Cambodian society.. My neighbors would often ridicule my children by saying that they have a mother who is a sex worker - a woman who has sex with different men. At that time, I hated myself for having this job.

Many people think that I am not a good woman because I have sex with many men. They think that it is an easy way to earn an income which does not require any skills at all; they say that it is not a job, it is just sexual pleasure. In the beginning, I believed this. I lost respect for myself as well as for my job. When I was sick with a minor illness, everyone thought that I had HIV/AIDs. My children would often cry when people who lived around us would insult me. I lived with these hardships for many sad years.

Like other sex workers, I work hard every night. I miss my children every night when I go out to work; my spirit is with them, my body with my guest. I try to find clients by standings at parks in Vat Phnom in Phnom Penh City. I feel very insecure about standing in the dark , also because of police crackdowns. My clients are garment workers, construction workers, government employees, etc. I am fortunate that I have never had bad guests. Most of them are 'good' to me and they would often give me more than the USD10 dollars fee.

With very little basic education we sex workers are unaware about the laws - such as the one that addresses our situation - the Suppression of Human Trafficking and Sexual Exploitation. We just know that our situation is getting worse after this law passed in 2008. Police started to crack down on us. They would beat and hurt us, curse us and some would even hit us with rocks. Many sex workers have been beaten, raped or robbed while in police detention, and the mass closure of brothels has hindered efforts to curb the spread of HIV/AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases. They talk about "enforcing the law" to threaten us. We also thought that we were breaking the law. We never asked for help from anyone as we were afraid and nervous.

This changed for me when I heard about Women's Network for Unity (WNU). I became hopeful: it was a group that could help me and other sex workers. The WNU people would often come to the area where I lived to distribute condoms and meet sex workers, which gave me space to talk and share about the challenges that I faced. I learned a lot from them about laws, my rights, health care and the awareness of HIV/AIDs.

I felt I had many friends whom I could share my experiences with, talk to - and who would listen with warmth and understanding. I have attended several series of WNU trainings and since then, I volunteer for WNU. Because I know about other sex workers' challenges, I can help and protect them. I slowly started to change. I joined their fight against discrimination as I have experienced it when working at night.

Through WNU, I found out about different views from my work. It was WNU who tapped my leadership potential and passion. Every time I took part in a WNU meeting - I did not feel alone and strongly understand that "Selling my body is my right".

I am Vann Phary, a sex worker who stands up for sex workers' rights. We sex workers deserve a life of dignity.

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Cambodian Sex Worker: "We Deserve a Life of Dignity"

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Women in Cambodia's sex industry suffer from abuse, exploitation, and violence. N.B: The views expressed in this blog do not necessarily reflect CIDSE\\\'s official positions. In March 2008, Cambodia passed the Suppression of Human Trafficking and Sexual Exploitation law that made selling sex...

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June 2016: Advocating for women rights in Palestine

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June 2016: Advocating for women rights in Palestine

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https://www.cidse.org/2016/06/07/advocating-for-women-rights-in-palestine/

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Women in Palestine are affected by the difficult political situation and by the inequalities put in place by a patriarchal society
N.B: The views expressed in this blog do not necessarily reflect CIDSE's official positions.
The group of which I have been director since 2009, the Women's Affairs Center (WAC), is an independent Palestinian non-profit organization established in 1991 to promote women's rights and gender equality within Palestinian society, by empowering and enhancing women abilities to address problems in the difficult context of their lives. Our vision is a centre based on women's knowledge, which plays an innovative and catalytic role in empowering women, and advocating women's rights and gender equality, as part of a sustainable process of Palestinian development. , In our research we have observed that Gazan women experience difficulties linked to the deterioration of the political, economic and social situation, which affect all aspects of Palestinian life. People face challenges directly related to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict and the prolonged Israeli occupation. This includes the escalations in hostilities, most recently in the summer of 2014, when nearly half a million Palestinians had to flee the fighting. It also includes the Israeli-imposed restrictions on movement of people and goods into and out of the Gaza Strip. We have furthermore observed that women are also affected by the patriarchal organization of society.

Marginalized communities in Gaza still have strong patriarchal culture, gender stereotypes, and gender-biased social attitudes that have limited women's rights and gender equality. Many believe that women have traditional roles limited to reproduction and children rearing. Half of women reported being exposed to economic and social violence; nearly quarter reported physical violence, and more than 10 percent reported sexual violence. The majority of perpetrators are husbands, but other family members and strangers also inflict gender-based violence on women.
The patriarchal culture also means that families give preference to boys' needs over girls' in education, inheritance, and other rights. Early marriage constitutes a major area of concern. 36% of married women in the Gaza Strip were married before they turned 18, and 5% were married before their 15th birthday. This leads to many young women dropping out of school and there has been a decline in literacy among women (From 15.3% in 2001 to 5.9% in 2013).

The movement of women into and out of Gaza through border crossings is strictly limited. Women have been denied exit to follow university education, pursue work and receive medical treatment not available in Gaza. Women and their families are also denied movement in what is known as the "buffer zone" - a strip of land next to the fence between Gaza and Israel, in which Israel prohibits cultivation of the land. The "buffer zone" constitutes 35 percent of Gaza's agricultural land, and its loss means severe reduction in income levels and in employment. Poor nutrition is prevalent amongst women during their reproductive years and anemia is high among women. Lack of access to hospitals outside the Gaza Strip and to a normal flow of food and income make women more vulnerable to these situations.

Within Palestinian society, women have limited participation in political life. Existing discriminatory legislations, social norms, growing conservative attitudes, prevailing gender stereotypes, and socio-economic hardship hinder women's political role. Women participate in political parties mostly at base level, rather than decision making level, leading to their exclusion from positions of influence. The participation of women in Palestinian reconciliation committees is missing as women's participation has not been on the agenda of political parties.

In conclusion, through our experiences, research and observations, we can say that Palestinian women's movements face numerous challenges, even as they became an organic component of national struggle and activism. They are misrepresented in decision-making processes, and achieve only limited access to equal opportunities in the public sphere. At the same time, the Palestinian women's movement has transformed from a grassroots struggle to an elite and professional issue which is led by dedicated NGOs. The leaders of this movement sought to use NGO structures to impact national policies. In doing so, women's NGOs established themselves on the national map but lost some of the input from women at the grassroots level. Learning from the challenges facing the women's movement, within WAC our mission is to empower women, conduct research into their needs, and advocate for their rights, guided by the principles of international human rights law, community participation, non-discrimination, and accountability to ensure justice and dignity for all women.

About the Author:
Ms. Amal Syam is the Director of Women's Affair Center (WAC) since 2009. She holds a BSc in social science from Open Al-Quds University, and MBA in business administration from AL-Alzhar University, a diploma in NGO Management from Birzeit University and she is a PhD candidate in Egypt. Her specializations include women NGO's strategic management, community-based rehabilitation of women and girls with disabilities, inclusive development, research and advocacy, and gender mainstreaming.
Ms. Syam represents WAC at the board of Palestinian Non-Governmental Organizations Network (PNGO) and other coalitions and forums. She led a research on Women's and Men's voices following the July-August 2014 Israeli military operations in the Gaza Strip supported by UNESCO.
Ms. Syam lives in Shijaia, eastern Gaza City, Palestine.

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Advocating for women rights in Palestine

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Women in Palestine are affected by the difficult political situation and by the inequalities put in place by a patriarchal society N.B: The views expressed in this blog do not necessarily reflect CIDSE\\\'s official positions. The group of which I have been director since 2009, the Women's...

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https://www.cidse.org/2016/06/07/one-family-at-a-time/

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The days and months go by at a small town near Bethlehem with hardly any reason for its Palestinian residents to celebrate. But today the atmosphere inside one of the homes is different; the family is preparing to celebrate the home-coming of their 16-year old son after spending three months in an Israeli prison.
N.B: The views expressed in this blog do not necessarily reflect CIDSE's official positions.
"Hasan likes the chicken dish I make with rice and roasted almonds" the mother said with a twinkle in her eyes as she raced with time to finish everything she needed to do before the convoy of cars decorated with Palestinian flags ushers Hasan home.

The party was loud and chaotic and everyone had great fun. Hasan felt he was a hero; the whole town welcomed him home and the tears in his mother's eyes were tears of joy. The sound of the loud bang at the door and the image of masked and heavily armed soldiers storming into the house in the middle of the night had faded away. The fear was gone; at least for the time being.

Hasan and his family are among an estimated 800,000 Palestinian men, women and children who have been imprisoned by Israeli authorities since Israel occupied the West Bank, the Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem in June 1967. This year marks the 49th anniversary of occupation and millions of Palestinians still live under occupation and as a result are suffering from serious human rights violations.

Over the years, the Women's Centre for Legal Aid and Counselling (WCLAC) has collected testimonies from Palestinian women in the West Bank, East Jerusalem and Gaza on a whole range of issues, highlighting the impact of Israel's human rights violations on women. In these testimonies women managed to convey powerful human stories in which they described the human cost of life under occupation. However, there is one issue, above all others, which stands out due to the frequency with which it occurs and the devastating impact it has on women and that is night raids conducted by Israeli military into Palestinian villages and homes which have been taking place on a nightly basis in the occupied territories for the past 49 years, one family at a time, to the extent that women believe it is not a question of whether their house will be raided and their children arrested, but is rather a question of when.

According to a report issued by WCLAC, it is estimated that the Israeli military conduct nearly 1400 night raids each year, with over 68,600 since military law was imposed in June 1967. In a sample of 100 instances of night raids conducted since 2014, the one common thread mentioned by the women who provided testimonies to WCLAC was a sense of terror. The raids usually begin at around 2:00am with aggressive banging at the front door or simply an explosion to blow it in. Masked soldiers storm into the house as the family tries to comprehend what is happening. Sometimes a family member will be arrested, other times not. The house will be searched with reports of damaged furniture, wardrobes emptied with contents thrown to the floor, while soldiers leave muddy boot marks throughout the house.

WCLAC's testimonies reveal that every night raid occurs on average within two kilometers of an Israeli settlement built in occupied territory in violation of international law. It should come as no surprise those Palestinian women who live in close proximity to an Israeli settlement show signs of severe anxiety and depressions.

One mother told me she sleeps on a couch by the window overlooking the main road to keep an eye in case the military enter the village, raid her house and arrest her son. She wants to be able to wake her children gently to save them the horror of the loud bang at the door. The stress and deep sense of insecurity is unmistakably felt the minute one walks into these houses. It manifests itself physically, mentally and psychologically. Some mothers look 10 years older than they are. They complain of chronic headaches, hypertension, stomach pains, insomnia and other symptoms typical of stress and anxiety.

The fear and insecurity that come along with the settlements have found their way deep into these mothers' psyche, a place where they can go un-noticed by the media and politicians but where they can cause irreversible damage, steal dreams, and nurture resentment and despair.

The simple fact is that to guarantee the protection of hundreds of thousands of Israeli civilians living illegally in occupied territory, the army must engage in mass intimidation of the Palestinian population.

In reality there is nothing to celebrate in the little house at the edge of that village near Bethlehem where children are terrified and mothers don't sleep. Meanwhile in the nearby settlement Israeli mothers sleep all night and children dream of a bright future, under the ever watchful eye of one of the world's most powerful militaries and the blind eye of the international community.
About the author:
Salwa Duaibis is the head of International Advocacy at the Women's Centre for Legal Aid and Counselling (WCLAC), a not-for-profit Palestinian organization that seeks to develop a democratic Palestinian society based on the principles of gender equality and social justice. WCLAC aims to address the causes and consequences of gender-based violence within the Palestinian community, as well as the gender-specific effects of the occupation and provides social and legal counselling, awareness raising programs, proposes bills and law amendments and participates in the advocacy and pressure campaigns nationally and internationally on behalf of Palestinian women and the community at large.

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The days and months go by at a small town near Bethlehem with hardly any reason for its Palestinian residents to celebrate. But today the atmosphere inside one of the homes is different; the family is preparing to celebrate the home-coming of their 16-year old son after spending three months in an...

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July 2016: Reading the Encyclical Letter “Laudato si’” with gender lens

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July 2016: Reading the Encyclical Letter “Laudato si’” with gender lens

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https://www.cidse.org/2016/07/25/reading-the-encyclical-letter-laudato-si-with-gender-lens/

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Reading the Encyclical Letter “Laudato si\’” with gender lens

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The Encyclical Letter ‘Laudato sì’ had a huge impact and sparked a lively debate around its contents. Indeed, the document focuses on the crisis of the ‘common home’ of humanity, identifying the problems and indicating the path. N.B: The views expressed in this blog do not necessarily...

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Reading the Encyclical Letter “Laudato si’” with gender lens

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October 2016: Rural Women’s Assembly in Swaziland

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October 2016: Rural Women’s Assembly in Swaziland

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https://www.cidse.org/2016/10/05/rural-women-s-assembly-in-swaziland/

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"There's really no such thing as the 'voiceless'. There are only the deliberately silenced or the preferably unheard." (Arundhati Roy) N.B: The views expressed in this blog do not necessarily reflect CIDSE's official positions.
Close to 200 women from all over Southern Africa gathered in Manzini, Swaziland, recently for the Rural Women's Assembly's (RWA) People's Summit that coincides with the annual SADC Heads of State Summit. They came from Lesotho, Zambia, Zimbabwe, South Africa, Botswana, Malawi, Namibia, Mozambique and the far-flung villages of Swaziland itself. They came with seeds, fabric, baskets, and craft. They came with stories of hardships and survival as well as voices that sang songs of resistance - against patriarchy - as well as songs of joy, of seeds, of land and love.

The RWA traveled to Swaziland this year as an act of solidarity with their sisters in the country. Although one of the largest chapters of the RWA with 20 000 members, the RWA in Swaziland has many challenges. Swaziland is an extremely poor country that is governed by a Monarch with near absolute powers. Women, and particularly rural women have very limited rights and very insecure access to land.

The three -day event brings together movements and activists and is held in parallel with the Southern African People's Network (SAPSN) Summit. As such, the People's Summit tries to speak directly to the themes of the SADC Heads of State and present people's alternatives. This year, the official SADC Summit was happening during the worst drought experienced in the region. The severe drought conditions have already taken their toll on agricultural production. Small-scale farmers and producers, especially have been most affected by the drought.

Despite the severe drought and its impact on food in the region, the 2016 theme of the SADC Heads of State Summit was "Resource Mobilisation for Investment in Sustainable Energy Infrastructure for an Inclusive SADC Industrialisation and for the Prosperity of the Region" which in our view was simply not speaking to the challenges that the region faces.

Hence the RWA decided to organise side events that allowed us to speak to the real concerns of poor, marginalised rural women producers and farmers. In our view this was certainly not a moment for more investment in an industrialisation model that was not only impacting directly on the environment and the commons but also continued to drive a model of extractivism that made the region "price takers" and completely locked into the logic of "dig up the minerals and ship it out."

The RWA organised three main events that focused on women and seed policy, women and land and the Farmer Input Subsidy Programme (FISP) in the region. A seminar on seed policy focused on the sharing of traditional seeds. One farmer from Zambia, Mary Sakala, zoomed in on the value and benefits of indigenous seeds for women and the communities in which they live. She explained why hybrid seeds sold by multinational corporations were not beneficial to people's health and livelihoods. She said that multinational corporations and governments both benefitted from the monopolies granted on seed production and distribution. She called for the rejection of these hybrid seeds and promoted the use of indigenous seeds.

The RWA also rejected the policies that aimed to control small farmer-managed seed saving systems and the proposals by governments to introduce and formalize plant breeders' rights. In fact the RWA called for the opening of borders for seed sharing and the protection of traditional and indigenous seeds from MNCs .

In a speak-out on women and land, women lamented on the fact that there was very little investment in the lot of women to build decent livelihoods, tap their resources and facilitate the unleashing of their potential. Insecure tenure attenuates this general situation. In addition to not having secure tenure of land, women have limited or no access to agricultural infrastructure including land rights, appropriate farming technology, farm inputs, credit, extension services and training. Women also have limited access to basic physical infrastructure such as good roads, water, and electricity which are necessary for effective participation in the economic life of their communities.

In Southern Africa, as in many parts of the world, women's rights to land and property are systematically denied. Even where liberal constitutions and laws give women rights, discriminatory attitudes and practices undermine such formal rights. This leaves many women almost entirely dependent on the men in their lives for basic economic survival and vulnerable to violence, poverty, and food insecurity, particularly if widowed, divorced, single, or in marriages not formally recognised.

One of the woman farmers from Zimbabwe, Theresa told her story: "Today I am a widow without a land permit. When my husband passed away my in-laws told me to pack my things and get off the land and out of my house. They said it was their son's land. I moved back to my elderly parents. Here I worked with them to till the land and I built a five -roomed house from bricks which I made with my own hands. For a while everything was fine. Then my parents died. My brother came and he told me to leave the house that I built and get off the land. I refused but my brother threatened me and was extremely violent. He hung me upside down from a tree. I took the case to the chief who told my brother to beat me off the land. It was only when I went to one of members of the RWA for advice that things started to change. The women rallied with me to challenge my brother and they helped me to claim my rights."

For the past six years, women have come to value the parallel People's Summit as a space where social movements, labour unions, churches, youth, NGOs, small associations and activists can deliberate on the socio-economic, political and ecological challenges that confront the peoples' of the region. The People's Summit also creates conditions for activists to spend time together, sharing, learning, articulating their issues and building a common platform of resistance to challenge the policy decisions and development path that the leaders of the SADC countries take. Our approach was to ensure that climate justice was and not treated as a stand-alone issue during the SADC summit given the impact of drought on the livelihoods of the women farmers in the region and particularly in Swaziland.

Hence the main call that the RWA made to the Heads of State was to say that farmers, especially rural women who are the main producers of food for the households, demand urgent redress in relation to climate. The RWA also emphasised that it regarded the SADC Governments' Regional Appeal to close the funding gap in Southern Africa of $2.4bn as much too "moderate and patient". Africa, and particularly the rural women are not the drivers of the climate crisis, small scale farmers were not the emitters of GHG, yet they are the ones most affected by the changes in weather and climate conditions.

RWA proposed that the SADC government develop a longer-term approach to drought, floods and climate adaptation. An approach is needed to tackle the root causes of vulnerability and not simply the short crises. This must aim at building the resilience of small-scale agriculture. The region will continue to be badly hit by these crises, unless governments are serious about investing in smallholder agriculture, particularly women, as contained in the Malabo Declaration. This approach requires direct support and resources to small- scale agriculture immediately.

Read more articles by the Rural Women Assembly here.
About the Author:
Mercia Andrews is the Director of the Trust for Community Outreach and Education and is actively involved in the Rural Women's Assembly.

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"There's really no such thing as the 'voiceless'. There are only the deliberately silenced or the preferably unheard." (Arundhati Roy) N.B: The views expressed in this blog do not necessarily reflect CIDSE's official positions. Close to 200 women from all over Southern Africa gathered in Manzini, Swaziland, recently for the Rural Women's Assembly's (RWA) People's Summit that coincides with the annual SADC Heads of State Summit.

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October 2016: Setting the Scene to Dismantle Corporate Power in Southern Africa

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October 2016: Setting the Scene to Dismantle Corporate Power in Southern Africa

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https://www.cidse.org/2016/10/05/setting-the-scene-to-dismantle-corporate-power-in-southern-africa/

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Setting the Scene to Dismantle Corporate Power in Southern Africa

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If you\\\’re not there, it\\\’s difficult to imagine the lives of the Zimbabwean women and children regularly sexually assaulted for protesting the mining activities at the Marange diamond fields. N.B: The views expressed in this blog do not necessarily reflect CIDSE\\\’s official positions. Or.…

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Setting the Scene to Dismantle Corporate Power in Southern Africa

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October 2016: Women and agroecology, the struggle of everyday

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October 2016: Women and agroecology, the struggle of everyday

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https://www.cidse.org/2016/10/14/women-and-agroecology-the-struggle-of-everyday/

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Women and agroecology, the struggle of everyday

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Women and agroecology, the struggle of everyday

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December 2016: Laying the foundations for gender equality work

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December 2016: Laying the foundations for gender equality work

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https://www.cidse.org/2016/12/20/laying-the-foundations-for-gender-equality-work/

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The CIDSE network embarked on a gender equality review in 2016- find out where this led us to and what are our next steps.
In these last weeks of the year we are continuously encouraged to look back at our achievements, plan our future, come up with resolutions for the New Year. One year passing by seems to be a big deal in people's lives. A time period during which things can change drastically and events can push lives to take a different course for the good or bad. In the gender equality sphere however, time seem to pass in a different way, and a year seems unfortunately just a little fragment of time in a much too slow process towards systemic change and justice.

For us at CIDSE however, the little steps we took this year for gender equality, surely meant a lot. In March we launched our gender equality blog platform, opening a space for discussion around issues affecting gender equality in different contexts. This was a new and exciting experience for us, allowing us to get in contact with new people and movements who are actively engaged in gender justice or that simply shared their reflections about a specific gender issue they came across within their community.

The Syrian journalist Ola Aljari described the struggles of many women refugees who have had to flee their country and adapt to a new society, and the confidence that a radio program where women can share their stories and exchange tips can build. In her blog Achala Abeysinghe described how women's representation at the top level is still virtually missing in many political arenas, including the UNFCCC on climate change. Other blogs highlighted the fundamental relationship between land and gender equality: in many circumstances women are excluded from land ownership and are forced to depend on men, making it impossible for them to gain independence and remaining at high risk of poverty. Teresa Toldy's blog analysed the Encyclical Laudato Si' trough a gender lens, illustrating how the document could have gone deeper into the differential impacts of poverty on men and women. Reporting on a report of the International Trade Union Confedereation on women and the Care Economy, Maria Tsirantonaki shed light on the disproportionate representation of women in low-paid, undervalued and insecure employment. Many more stories and reflections were shared by other writers with open hearts and minds.

The puzzle that these blogs put together is one where gender equality is far from being achieved. They highlight the many difficulties that women face to live a life of dignity at the same level as their male counterparts. As Finola Finnan wrote in her blog, "Gender equality is not about women. It's about women, men boys and girls, it's about our shared humanity and creating fairer societies that recognise the right of each person to be treated with dignity. But we are still far from that ideal."

The blogs also featured stories of some of the protagonists of the gender equality cause who, despite all odds, struggle and secure victories for themselves and for many other women. The power that a community working together can have to change things is impressive! We look forward to hearing and sharing more exemplary stories next year, adding with each article a new piece of this complex, challenging and moving puzzle. We are privileged to be part of an open network, constantly reaching out to so many new allies that are willing to share with us their gender equality stories, and we want to keep on making the most of this unique chance!

We initiated an internal review of our work on gender equality through a gender baseline survey in 2016. The survey's objective was to create a snapshot of the expertise and shortfalls of our network in promoting gender equality and make clear recommendations to take forward this work in our new Operational Plan, the document that will guide our work throughout the next five years. Thanks to this process, we have stepped up our ambitions to systematically address and resource work on gender equality, politically, organizationally and as a key component of our systemic change vision and action. We aim at deepening and strengthening our systemic change narrative with a clear gender equality frame that will be visible in our advocacy and programme work as well as our external communication. We want to establish tools to enhance the integration of a gender equality perspective in all aspects of our work and promote gender equality across the network, in our partners and in our advocacy work, by building on the already existing expertise and practice in the network and CIDSE's distinctive role in advancing gender equality in the church. This exercise of introspection made us realise many of the shortcomings of our work so far, also in terms of our internal structures - we are convinced that "change starts with us" and that working in an environment that ensures gender equality should be one of our starting points.

One year is not much in the too slow gender equality trajectory, but in CIDSE we will proudly remember 2016 as the year where we launched our gender blog, telling inspiring stories which hopefully inspired many. We will also remember it as the year where we agreed to aim higher in the gender equality work across our network, after a long period of consultation and reflection. New Year's resolution? Put gender equality at the core of our work- we now have the baseline to do so. To recall the words of Fatima Hasse, one of our bloggers, "Let us make sure all of us, in our daily lives and encounters, act and speak according to the values and principles of equality between men and women."

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Laying the foundations for gender equality work

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The CIDSE network embarked on a gender equality review in 2016- find out where this led us to and what are our next steps. In these last weeks of the year we are continuously encouraged to look back at our achievements, plan our future, come up with resolutions for the New Year.

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January 2017: A fictional letter to the 2040 woman

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January 2017: A fictional letter to the 2040 woman

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https://www.cidse.org/2017/01/17/a-fictional-letter-to-the-2040-woman/

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What would you tell women, perhaps your daughter, grand-daughter in the future about the world we live in and the struggle for gender equality today? An inspiring fictional letter by Tracey Agyeman. N.B: The views expressed in this blog do not necessarily reflect CIDSE's official positions.
The system, in which your great-grandmother, my mother and I lived in, operated to serve a particular cause and catered to a specific kind of man. Our societies adjusted to seeing power handed over to an elite group of individuals, who all justified their actions by making one think that there was no alternative to patriarchy. Inside our homes, the water, which ran from our taps, originated from the same ground that grew capitalism as a 'sustainable' model. Three-times a day, without fail, we consumed substances that made us crave for the unattainable.

We became less awake in the depth of darkness and increasingly passive to the rise of hatred. Neighbours came to be strangers, false headlines comforted us and when backed into a corner, most of us chose greed and convenience over humanity.

The truth is we all worked at different levels of reality: between the harsh realities of living inside the imagination of those who saw the future as a place to divide and conquer, and the fictional world in which we navigated the coexistence of multiple identities and perceptions, our consciousness transcended into our selective memory.

You came from a long line of strong-willed women whose identities were complex and too often misunderstood. We were all warned about the danger of our existence. Many regarded the discovery of the self as an indication of alienating oneself from the national sphere, rendering us quasi invisible. However, we laughed in the faces of adversity and held our heads high. We refused to be silent. We made ourselves seen. We organised ourselves. Collaborated. Shared resources. Change the structures, which had no consideration for your bloodline.

And why you ask me? Because I simply refused to raise you to survive. I wanted you to live and exist beyond the marginal lines.

I needed you to look back at the women in my generation and ask me, 'Ma, how could it have been possible to live in a time where sexism and racism were inevitable'. However, in order for you to ask me that question in 2040, I realised that hope was not going to be enough, I knew that your generation would hold us accountable in the present, and so, I needed to live outside of my imagination and step into my future.

About the author:
Tracey Agyeman supports the Programme Unit, via fundraising and project management activities, including donor research, writing and reporting, project management support, and administration and outreach at the European Women's Lobby.

Read "Fluidity", her poetry series: http://www.womenlobby.org/-fluidity-?lang=en

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What would you tell women, perhaps your daughter, grand-daughter in the future about the world we live in and the struggle for gender equality today? An inspiring fictional letter by Tracey Agyeman. N.B: The views expressed in this blog do not necessarily reflect CIDSE's official positions.

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February 2017: We are the strength and we are the hope!

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February 2017: We are the strength and we are the hope!

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https://www.cidse.org/2017/02/27/we-are-the-strength-and-we-are-the-hope/

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We are the strength and we are the hope!

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A blog by Dr. Vaishali Patil, anti-nuclear activist (Jaitapur, India) and member of the National Alliance of Anti-Nuclear Movements, on women\\\’s resistance to nuclear power. N.B: The views expressed in this blog do not necessarily reflect CIDSE\\\’s official positions. “If the government is...

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We are the strength and we are the hope!

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April 2017: Commission on the Status of Women and the role of faith

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April 2017: Commission on the Status of Women and the role of faith

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https://www.cidse.org/2017/04/03/commission-on-the-status-of-women-and-the-role-of-faith/

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Tanja Haque, CAFOD's Gender Advisor, discusses the role of faith at the 61st session of the Commission on the Status of Women.

Last year, I attended the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) for the first time which also happened to be the year the CSW officially recognized the role of faith-based organisations in advancing gender equality and women's empowerment (paragraph 23 of the Agreed Conclusions).

What better way to build on this momentum than to return the following year for the sixty-first session of the CSW in the company of one of our church partners, Father Javier Marquez Acosta, the Director of the Social Pastoral Secretariat of the Colombian Bishops Conference. Fr. Javier has worked for many years in Córdoba in the Diocese of Montelibano with Indigenous women's organisations, such as the Tierralta Women's Network, to support their efforts defending their territory and rights. His close commitment to the work in this region, which is severely affected by the conflict, has enabled him to develop an excellent knowledge of the impact of the armed conflict on communities.

For decades the actions of guerrilla and paramilitary groups and the post-demobilization have converged in the municipality of Tierralta, and as a consequence women living there have faced high levels of violence. The women's network there is made up of more than 160 women, who are striving to make visible intra-family and social violence, protect survivors and raise public awareness of protection and advocacy work on this type of gender-based violence.

Fr. Javier took part in two key events organized by significant gender and faith networks that CAFOD is a member of: Side By Side Gender Justice Movement (SbS) and the We Will Speak Out Coalition (WWSO). Side by Side is an international faith movement for gender justice and it was formally launched at the CSW on March 17th in the Sanctuary of St. Peter's Church, providing an opportunity to learn from faith leaders around the world how they work together in their communities to challenge barriers and advocate for gender justice. The launch highlighted the importance of religion and faith leaders in the pursuit of gender equality and sustainable development, and was aimed at creating an opportunity for discussion on the intersection of religion, gender justice and sustainable development.

On the following day, both SbS and WWSO, which is an international faith-based coalition against sexual and gender-based violence, held a joint event at the UN's Church Centre titled: "Leaving No-one behind: women's economic empowerment, sexual and gender-based violence and faith". Fr. Javier was part of an international panel that spoke on the role of faith in addressing stigma and social barriers to economic empowerment and participation for the most marginalized women. Fr. Javier shared his experience from the perspective of a faith leader highlighting the vital role of faith groups in challenging harmful social norms, addressing key barriers to women's social and economic inclusion and providing much-needed pastoral accompaniment and spiritual support to survivors of sexual and gender-based violence.

For Fr. Javier it was his first time participating in the CSW and, in fact, his first time in the United States, where he got to experience snow for the first time, which resulted, as you can imagine, in many pictures being taken! Let's hope this will be one of many international gender equality events CAFOD and CIDSE partners like Fr. Javier have the opportunity to participate and be listened to.

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Commission on the Status of Women and the role of faith

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Tanja Haque, CAFOD's Gender Advisor, discusses the role of faith at the 61st session of the Commission on the Status of Women. Last year, I attended the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) for the first time which also happened to be the year the CSW officially recognized the role of faith-based organisations in advancing gender equality and women's empowerment (paragraph 23 of the Agreed Conclusions).

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May 2017: Women at the heart of the food sovereignty movement in Mali

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May 2017: Women at the heart of the food sovereignty movement in Mali

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https://www.cidse.org/2017/05/24/women-at-the-heart-of-the-food-sovereignty-movement-in-mali/

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Women at the heart of the food sovereignty movement in Mali

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Women at the heart of the food sovereignty movement in Mali

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August 2017: A Franciscan Reflection on Intersecting Injustices Affecting Transgender Persons

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August 2017: A Franciscan Reflection on Intersecting Injustices Affecting Transgender Persons

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https://www.cidse.org/2017/08/16/a-franciscan-reflection-on-intersecting-injustices-affecting-transgender-persons/

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President Trump's Twitter announcement last month of the U.S. military's ban on transgender individuals and its eventual codification into national policy reopened wounds that, for many of our trans brothers and sisters, have yet to heal.
N.B: The views expressed in this blog do not necessarily reflect CIDSE's official positions.
While many human rights groups decried this policy as yet another form of unjust discrimination levied on an already marginalized group, several prominent faith leaders backed Trump's ban. Their affirmation and support of this ban revealed just how out of sync many in the Church are to the needs of those who are made most vulnerable and served as another example of discriminatory attitudes deeply entrenched by our pathologizing theological language towards persons of diverse sexual orientation and gender identity.

Whether it was North Carolina's HB2 or President Trump's recent transgender tweet, our trans brothers and sisters have been on the receiving end of discriminatory policies that undermine the dignity of their person and erode the protection of their human rights. Last summer, I lived at La 72 [1] , a migrant shelter in Tenosique, Tabasco, Mexico, 30 miles north of the Mexico-Guatemala border. Although my main goal that summer was to learn Spanish, the most transformative experience for me was the time I spent with LGBT migrants and refugees. Those who identified openly as LGBT account for less than 1% of the population at La 72, however, their stories revealed a lifetime of profound physical, psychological, and spiritual trauma. In Central America, as in other parts of the world, homophobic and transphobic attitudes are so acute that many LGBTs are forced to migrate and seek asylum elsewhere in order to escape the violence they encounter on a daily basis. It is an experience of violence that is compounded by complex, intersecting layers of injustice and discrimination. Economic, political, environmental, racial, and gender-based injustices pile one on top of another to create a deadly cocktail of violence and oppression that follows LGBT migrants and refugees throughout the entirety of their migration journey.

During my time at La 72, I worked closely with and befriended several members of grupo LGBT. A few have made it safely to the United States while others are still in Mexico or have returned to their countries of origin. I keep them all in my daily thoughts and prayers. Recent events in the United States, however, have raised alarms as to the level of safety they will encounter in their country of destination. As anti-immigrant, racist, and now transphobic attitudes are concretized into national policy, I cannot help but wonder if the United States is becoming as hostile to transgender migrants and refugees as the countries they left behind. This is an especially salient point when one considers that violence against transgender men and women disproportionately affect people of color. A quick review of statistics reveals that all of the transgender men and women murdered so far in 2017 (16) have been people of color [2]. Previous years tragically display a similar pattern [3].

As a Friar Minor (a Lesser Brother), I feel called to reflect on the ways I am to respond to the injustices facing those who are considered by society as least among us (Matthew 25: 40). In our country, this inevitably includes people of color, immigrants, and our trans brothers and sisters. How should Catholics, Christians, and all peoples of good faith respond to the increase in hate crimes, mass deportations, and gender-identity based violence that seem to be proliferating all over the country since last November? How do we respond to laws and policies that perpetuate discrimination and exclusion against our LGBT brothers and sisters? Are we leaning on our own personal prejudices and pathologizing theology as justification for our silence and inaction, or are we re-examining the ways in which our own faith has been complicit in and even responsible for the injustices experienced by those who are oppressed and marginalized?
Audre Lorde famously wrote, "There is no hierarchy of oppression." [4] The resurgence of racist, sexist, anti-immigrant, anti-Muslim, homophobic, and transphobic attitudes in the United States is alarming and a threat to our collective safety. However, while we can get easily overwhelmed to the point of despondency at the thought of such mounting hate, we must remember that people of faith are called to advocate for all who are excluded and oppressed. Anyone who claims to be a disciple of Jesus Christ, therefore, must come to acknowledge and address the injustices facing the economically poor, women (in secular society as well as in the Church), people of color, migrants and refugees, the LGBT community, religious minorities, and others. The outcome of the 2016 election and the policies of the new administration, which have repeatedly worked to undermine the rights of many marginalized groups, will necessitate as much. Those of us who are involved in advocacy for immigrants, migrants, and refugees must come to acknowledge the impact of racism on people of color, not only in the United States but also abroad. Similarly, those of us who are advocating for women's rights and gender equality must come to confront the oppression encountered by our transgender brothers and sisters, many of whom face the same (and graver) forms of discrimination, marginalization, and violence as women.

The injustices festering in the United States are especially acute for our trans brothers and sisters, those who because of their embodied minority and complex identities of oppression face multilayered assaults against the dignity of their humanity from multiple sources in society and our Church. Failure to acknowledge the intersectionality of injustice reveals an insufficiency of vision and a continued reliance on privilege of one sort or another. When we pick and choose the issues of justice that appeal to us as a faith community - having validated in our minds and hearts those particular issues and persons we deem "worthy" of a fight - we do so from a position of unexamined privilege. Our privilege. We fail those true minores, our brothers and sisters who encounter violence and oppression because they dare to live as God created them.

[1] http://www.la72.org

[2] http://www.hrc.org/resources/violence-against-the-transgender-community-in-2017

[3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_unlawfully_killed_transgender_people

[4] https://lgbt.ucsd.edu/education/oppressions.html
About the author:
Br. Christian Leo Seno, OFM is a Franciscan Friar (Order of Friars Minor) of Holy Name Province. Based out of New York City, he has been involved in community organizing and pastoral ministry with migrants and refugees, LGBT, and young adults. He received his M.A. from the Pastoral Counseling Department at Loyola University Maryland. His thesis entitled, "Embodying Minority: Post-election Experiences of Minority Friars in Initial Formation and the Work Towards Racial Justice in Holy Name Province," analyzed the experiences of minority friars and the racial dynamics operating in a predominantly White religious community. He is currently working as Advocacy and Outreach Assistant at Franciscans International, an NGO representing the entire Franciscan family at the United Nations.

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A Franciscan Reflection on Intersecting Injustices Affecting Transgender Persons

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President Trump's Twitter announcement last month of the U.S. military's ban on transgender individuals and its eventual codification into national policy reopened wounds that, for many of our trans brothers and sisters, have yet to heal. N.B: The views expressed in this blog do not necessarily reflect CIDSE's official positions.

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September 2017: Being a woman human rights defender in South Sudan

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September 2017: Being a woman human rights defender in South Sudan

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https://www.cidse.org/2017/09/20/being-a-woman-human-rights-defender-in-south-sudan/

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Being a woman human rights defender in South Sudan

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Being a woman human rights defender in South Sudan

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October 2017: Tax justice: A powerful means to address inequality

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October 2017: Tax justice: A powerful means to address inequality

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https://www.cidse.org/2017/10/17/tax-justice-a-powerful-means-to-address-inequality/

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Tax is considered a complex topic, but it affects us all. Tax as a source of government revenue is a powerful means to address inequality and to tackle world poverty. N.B: The views expressed in this blog do not necessarily reflect CIDSE's official positions.
I know this firsthand both as a tax justice activist and as a Kenyan woman.

In my country, the government cannot meet its obligation to provide clean and safe water to its citizens, especially those living in informal settlements and slums in the cities and towns - in stark contradiction to the rich who live in posh neighbourhoods and rarely experience water shortages. The health care system is woefully underfunded; health personnel, doctors and nurses are forced to strike to demand improved pay, hospital equipment and medicines to better serve the people.

From Africa to Asia to Latin America, citizens lose out from the tax incentives and tax breaks that governments give to mining companies to exploit our natural resources. Every country in the world loses when multinational companies abuse tax policies and tax havens to avoid paying their share of taxes.

Joining together for tax justice
The south-led Global Alliance for Tax Justice acts as a uniting campaign front for the global tax movement - bringing together civil society groups in coalitions at the national, regional and international levels. This is done through collectively designed actions and promotion of equitable alternate tax solutions.

From 8-24 March this year, hundreds of organizations from around the world joined together in the #TaxJustice for Women's Right s Global Days of Action. This new campaign was timed to be launched on International Women's Day and to coincide with the UN Commission on the Status of Women annual meeting. Women's rights, trade union and tax justice groups joined together in campaign actions in more than 35 countries.

Within the campaign, from New York to Nairobi to Manila, women, girls and our allies held rallies, speaker tours, feminist forums and marches, called on governments to fulfill their commitments to secure women's rights and economic equality by taking action for tax justice. I found myself at the UN's Commission on the Status of Women, at a side-event on tax justice for women's rights that I helped to co-organise with GATJ members and partners. I was also invited to speak a high-level official event hosted by Ecuador, the current leader of the G77, to make the case for governments to establish a global UN tax commission that will ensure all countries sit at the table and have equal say in setting international tax rules.

The common demands made by diverse labour unions, women's rights, development and tax justice advocates sent a powerful united message. As a result, governments at the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women committed to making tax policy more progressive to support women's rights and public services.

I believe what worked quite well was the inclusive character of the campaign, allowing different actors to join with their own capacity and time. It was exciting to see how organizations, large and small, generously shared campaign expertise or services, such as translation, that benefited all campaign participants.

Building on this campaign, the first ever Tax Justice for Women's Rights Global Convening was held in June 2017 in Bogota, Colombia. A global declaration is forthcoming, and more collective work is being done to build on the foundational campaign and advocacy initiatives carried out this year.
However, beyond the positive results of our campaign, it is still true that as long as primarily northern nations represented by the G20, multinational corporations and the wealthy determine the international tax rules - the resources to fund women's rights and economic equality will be undermined. The world will not be able to achieve women's and girls' rights, gender equality or the Sustainable Development Goals without taking action for tax justice.

Tax leakages are a result of flawed and discriminatory national tax laws, tax havens, and tax cuts for the rich that protect capitalism and male privilege and intensify gender inequality. According to a report released by Oxfam in early 2017, just 8 male billionaires own the same wealth as the poorest half of all people on the planet.
Growing use of the VAT and other regressive consumption taxes, in part to make up for the lowering of corporate and progressive tax rates, worsens gender inequality.

The rapidly growing tax justice movement is taking action to change the narrative. Tax justice and gender equality need to be lived realities, especially for women and girls from the global south.

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Tax justice: A powerful means to address inequality

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Tax is considered a complex topic, but it affects us all. Tax as a source of government revenue is a powerful means to address inequality and to tackle world poverty. N.B: The views expressed in this blog do not necessarily reflect CIDSE's official positions.

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November 2017: Xolobeni Community and the Struggle for Consent

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November 2017: Xolobeni Community and the Struggle for Consent

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https://www.cidse.org/2017/11/27/xolobeni-community-and-the-struggle-for-consent/

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"We believe that we know who we are because of the land. We believe that once you have lost the land, you have lost your identity," says community activist Nonhle Mbutuma, a founding member of the Amadiba Crisis Committee and resident of Xolobeni. "We also believe that it is our right to live in a healthy environment (...). To make all these things happen, we believe that women must be a part of decision making. There should be no discrimination in terms of gender. If we do that, we are going to build a healthy nation." N.B: The views expressed in this blog do not necessarily reflect CIDSE's official positions.
For activists like Mbutuma, the right of women and communities to have a say in what development looks like for them has long been a cause worth fighting for. In many resource-rich nations in the global South, large-scale natural resource exploitation and extraction, and accompanying mega infrastructure projects, are often the chosen and celebrated pathway out of poverty and dependency. This dominant development approach tends however to come at the expense of communities, prioritising profits over the livelihoods and well-being of citizens. Under this development logic, consent-the right for communities to say 'yes' or 'no' to extractive projects-is merely a "rubber-stamping exercise to enable projects... to proceed without hindrance" instead of a democratic and community-driven process.

Women sit at the frontlines of the harm extractives projects cause, facing the double-burden of a gendered division of labour and unequal power to make decisions in the community. When land is taken it is women, the primary subsistence producers who are ignored and not compensated for their unrecognised informal land rights. When water is polluted women walk further and longer, in often dangerous areas, in search of clean drinking water for their families. And when children and other household members fall ill because of water and air pollution, it is women who nurse them as part of their unpaid care responsibilities.

" Consent" is not a new idea. As a concept, it has been expanded from an individual to a collective one, grounded in moral theory and legal statute. However, the reality for many communities is that even where consent is legislated, it lives and breathes in struggle. One such struggle is that of the Xolobeni community in South Africa's Eastern Cape Province.
In early 1996, Mineral Resource Commodities (MRC), an Australian mining company, began to show interest in mining titanium in Xolobeni. First they approached the local tribal authority (TA), which administers community affairs in accordance with customary laws and traditions. The TA then introduced the company to the Amadiba community living in the area and gave the company an opportunity to explain their mining interests. From the start, the majority of the community was not agreeable - some concerned about the threats their grazing land and water supply, the impact on livestock and livelihoods as well as the destruction of medicinal plants, and the interference with ancestors' graves.

Nevertheless, in 2002, MRC made its first application to the Department of Mineral Resources (DMR) (then the Department of Minerals and Energy) prospect the area with the intent to start mining in 2007. Prompted by the increased mining interests and pressures on the community, the Amadiba Crisis Committee (ACC) was founded by members of the community who were opposed to mining.

By July 2008, the DMR had granted mining rights to MRC's South African subsidiary, Transworld Energy and Minerals (TEM) which owns the Xolobeni Mineral Sands project. This decision was met with protest from the community and subsequent backlash by police against those who spoke out. "In September 2008, pupils at the Xolobeni Junior Secondary School were jambokked by police after refusing to sing at an event organised by politicians to celebrate the granting of mining rights," wrote one journalist at the time.

The ACC's mobilisation against the decision resulted in the mining rights revocation. But the struggle did not end there.

Since 2011, the Xolobeni community has continued to oppose the mining prospects in their area, resolving to block the "environmental impact assement" required for mining to proceed in 2015. This blockade led to escalated violence and repression against the community by police. On 22 February 2016, planned drilling on the dunes was blocked by mass mobilisation. Shortly thereafter, Bazooka Radebe, chairperson of the ACC, was assassinated by two hitmen in front of his son on 22 March 2016.

In April 2016, the South African Human Rights Commission condemned Mr Radebe's murder and the ongoing violence related to mining in the Xolobeni community. Almost a year later in June 2017, the government announced an 18-month moratorium on mining in Xolobeni to allow time to "resolve" the community conflict. ACC has since rejected the moratorium, and contend that it is part of a strategy to demobilise community resistance and lay ground for the mining to proceed.

The struggle in Xolobeni is emblematic of hundreds of communities in the global South that struggle to claim their development sovereignty against corporates and states. In this case, the state is working with a development vision that ignores the interests and voices of the very community most directly affected. Their ongoing struggle to define and shape development for themselves speaks to the revolutionary nature of consent.

For WoMin, consent is tied to the question of power. As a collective, WoMin works with women and communities to build a "counter-power" around consent, bringing the voices and development interests of rural and peasant women to the centre of decision-making processes on development. Women's power to counter patriarchal exclusion from discussions and decisions about capitalist extractivist development agendas that push them off their lands and open up their territories to exploitation is critical to building truly radical development alternatives.

To read more about extractivism and development sovereignty, the struggles of the Xolobeni community and WoMin's approaches, read the paper on which this article is based, Extractives vs development sovereignty: building living consent rights for African women, available at Gender and Development Journal - Natural Resource Justice or visit WoMin's website here: www.womin.org.za

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Xolobeni Community and the Struggle for Consent

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"We believe that we know who we are because of the land. We believe that once you have lost the land, you have lost your identity," says community activist Nonhle Mbutuma, a founding member of the Amadiba Crisis Committee and resident of Xolobeni. "We also believe that it is our right to live...

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December 2017: Women affected by the dam failure fighting against the power of big business

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December 2017: Women affected by the dam failure fighting against the power of big business

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https://www.cidse.org/2017/12/15/women-affected-by-the-dam-failure-fighting-against-the-power-of-big-business/

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The mining model, as implemented in Brazil, of promoting the extraction of natural resources by the state in conjunction with transnational companies has caused countless socio-environmental conflicts. Mining profoundly modifies production and reproduction in life in the surrounding area, deepening inequality, as does patriarchy, destroying community ways of life and causing an immense environmental impact through the intensive use of electricity and water.

A typical example of this predatory structuring was in the Rio Doce river basin which was entirely ruined in the biggest socio-environmental disaster in Brazilian history when the Samarco tailings dam (belonging to the Vale S.A and BHP Biliton joint venture) burst on 5 November 2015, causing 19 deaths and one miscarriage and affected 1.5 million people. The mud destroyed the entire river and several tributaries up to the coast at Espírito Santo. Two years on and there are still hundreds of fishermen who cannot ply their trade, farmers who depend on the river for planting, towns depending on the river for their water supply and families who have lost their homes. Still, the companies responsible don't face charges and are still running the territory without the slightest pressure from the state or involvement of the communities affected.

The mud destroyed the community way of life and it is women who are most affected due to the imposition of the patriarchal attitude that looking after children and running homes was the role of women. When community links were broken these women lost the community support network with close family with whom they could share child care, problems or support for health problems and emergencies. In addition, loss of leisure spaces like the town square, the river, the waterfalls and community entertainments has contributed to locking women up even further in the private space of the home.

Through my work at MAB I came across several testimonies of affected women whose work is not being taken into consideration, as it is viewed as informal, such as working the land or informal sales or exchange arrangements. The situation of family garden produce is typical. This was ruined by the arrival of the mud. Many women provided food sovereignty through the varied crops from their gardens. They never had to buy produce in the market. So far, most of these women have received no compensation or emergency aid to compensate for this activity. The dam bursting also buried livelihood projects, many of which related to women's financial independence, like that from the growers in Gesteira who had started a cooperative have been destroyed by the disaster.

In addition, the company's distribution policy for emergency aid cards focussed on those they considered as heads of household, mostly men, thus endangering women's financial independence once family income was again concentrated in men's hands. Clearly this practice demonstrates that the companies are ignoring women as political beings in discussing rights policy. Dreams and hopes were washed away by the mud and are being buried deeper when the voices of the women affected are not listened to in deciding the future of their lives and communities, and when they are not allowed the right to re-establish collectively, the only way of ensuring community links will be rebuilt.
A further aggravating factor is men losing productive work resulting in depression, increased alcoholism and drug abuse leading to increased violence against women. Take the example of fishermen whose traditional family pattern was for them to be working away at sea for 10 days. The presence of the man at home with no work to do has resulted in increased domestic conflict. As regards violence, we can also point to the reconstruction work in the areas destroyed that has also attracted other workers to the area and directly contributed to increased cases of sexual abuse and violence.

I believe however, that the basin is not just made of tears. I have seen that it is the very women affected who are the seed of reconstruction. They are building fairer development for communities, as they become the ones who lead the process of resistance in our lands, fighting courageously for respect for community ways of life and being in the front line denouncing abuses of power by the companies. If there is any chance of rebuilding live along the river, based on the people's conception, it will begin with the colour lilac.
Tchenna Maso is a people's lawyer with MAB, (Movimiento de Afectados y Afectadas por Represa/Brazil [The movement of the people affected by the dam/Brazil]) who works on gender equality in human and company rights. She is a law graduate of the Federal University of Paraná and has a masters in political science from UNILA (The Universidade Federal da Integração Latino-americana [Federal University for Latin American Integration]) in contemporary integration in Latin America.

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Women affected by the dam failure fighting against the power of big business

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The mining model, as implemented in Brazil, of promoting the extraction of natural resources by the state in conjunction with transnational companies has caused countless socio-environmental conflicts. Mining profoundly modifies production and reproduction in life in the surrounding area, deepening inequality, as does patriarchy, destroying community ways of life and causing an immense environmental impact through the intensive use of electricity and water.

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January 2018: Trudeau government brings an ambitious feminist vision to Canada’s foreign policy, but no budget to bring it to light

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January 2018: Trudeau government brings an ambitious feminist vision to Canada’s foreign policy, but no budget to bring it to light

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https://www.cidse.org/2018/01/19/trudeau-government-brings-an-ambitious-feminist-vision-to-canada-s-foreign-policy-but-no-budget-to-bring-it-to-light/

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Since Canada's Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced to the world that "Canada is back!" after his election in 2015, the world has been watching our self-identified feminist Prime Minister to see if he is truly bringing our country back on to the global stage. So far, he has named a cabinet with gender parity and then launched a "Feminist International Assistance Policy" (FIAP). This year, Canada will continue to be in the spotlight as we host the G7, while continuing to campaign for a seat on the UN Security Council in 2021.

At Development and Peace, we watched as the Trudeau cabinet unveiled their entire foreign policy over the period of a week last June. Since our foundation 50 years ago, women have been essential actors for change in our programmes, both in the Global South as well as in our movement here in Canada. Even though women face major challenges including discrimination, violence and injustice, they are at the heart of change when it comes to the issues we work on, including ecological justice, peace and reconciliation, and democracy and political participation. At the time of the unveiling of Canada's new foreign policy, we were hard at work at our Montreal offices putting the finishing touches on our campaign on the transformative role of women in peacebuilding to be launched across Canada in September. Entitled " May Peace Be With Her ", it put women front and centre in our 2017 campaigns.

We were eager to know whether our government would increase funding for international development, and especially for peace-building.

The week began with a powerful speech by Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland about how Canada was committed to building a more peaceful, prosperous, and sustainable world. In her speech, Minister Freeland announced the government's massive new investment in the military, while making no mention of an increase in international development assistance. As the week wore on, Minister of Defense Harjit Sajjan presented the Canadian Defense Policy, which promised to increase the military budget by 70% over ten years. This commitment comes in a context where Canada is finalizing the sale of $15-billion dollars' worth of light armoured vehicles to Saudi Arabia.

The following day, International Development Minister Marie-Claude Bibeau unveiled her " Feminist International Assistance Policy ". It follows the choice that many Canadian organizations had already made to put women front and centre in their development work.

With this new policy, Canada joins some Northern European countries and Australia who have feminist and gender-focussed international development policies, but this policy marks the first time that a country focuses its development and humanitarian funding almost entirely on gender equality.
The policy focusses on core gender equality work, including preventing and responding to sexual and gender-based violence and supporting local women's rights organizations and movements, with special funding dedicated to front-line grassroots women's organizations. A key area of focus of the feminist policy is inclusive peace and security, which includes supporting women's rights organizations' engagement in peace processes; advancing women's rights in post-conflict state building; and addressing sexual violence in conflict zones. The policy does not forget about the roles that boys and men can play in challenging gender stereotypes and changing gender roles and relations.

The government has set ambitious funding targets for this transition to a focus on gender equality and women's empowerment. Within five years, 95 percent of Canada's bilateral international development assistance budget will either focus on gender equality, or will include gender equality work. Given the stagnation of Canada's current international development assistance budget of 5.3 billion dollars, this quick transition has led many to ask how long-term partners will be affected by the sudden decrease in funding in traditional aid sectors. At 0.26% of Canadian GNI (Gross National Income), the Canadian international development assistance budget is still far below the UN target, set at 0.7% of the GNI. We were dismayed to see that the Trudeau government had decided to increase the defense budget by 70%, on the other hand, more specifically to just under $14 billion dollars CDN over the next 10 years. If the government believes women's empowerment is a catalyst for peace, why has it chosen to invest massively in defense instead?

Development and Peace's campaign highlighted the promise offered by Security Council Resolution 1325, adopted in 2000, which acknowledges women's crucial contribution to building peace, and highlights the importance of their meaningful, full, and equal participation at all levels of peace processes. However, 17 years later, around the world, in both the Global North and South, women's expertise is still underestimated, women's organizations are consistently underfunded, and they remain, by and large, excluded from formal peace processes. Given the increasing number of violent conflicts and their dramatic repercussions on civilians, and especially women, we must find new solutions to promoting peace, and an investment in women will certainly contribute to a more peaceful world.

In November, Canada launched its National Action Plan on Women, Peace, and Security, which is part of the implementation of Resolution 1325. The result of comprehensive civil society consultation, the Action Plan offers a framework for a "whole-of-government" approach, which has become key term for the Trudeau government as they try to promote cohesive policy-making. However, there has still been no increase in funding for the implementation of its feminist international assistance policy.

Canada's new foreign policy clearly shows that Canada is choosing to put military might before international development. As Pope Paul VI stated in Populorum progressio 50 years ago, 'Development is the new name of peace'. By spending almost four dollars on defense for every dollar on development, Canada is not taking a progressive approach to building a more peaceful world. And this ratio is set to increase on the side of military spending according to the government's plans.

If Canada wants to show global leadership with its feminist approach to development, more development funding is obviously needed. As well, Canada needs to show that its approach to trade and to defense does not undo the good work done by Canada on development. As Development and Peace launches its upcoming 2018 Lenten campaign on peace, we will continue to call on our government to show leadership and ensure that they are truly building a more peaceful world based on equality between women and men.

About the author:
Based in Montreal, Elana Wright has been working on advocacy and campaigns at Development and Peace- Caritas Canada since 2013. Her work focusses on mining justice, peace and reconciliation, and women's rights. Before joining the team at Development and Peace, she specialized in youth engagement and human rights.
Elana Wright with Minister Bibeau © Development and Peace

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Trudeau government brings an ambitious feminist vision to Canada's foreign policy, but no budget to bring it to light

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Since Canada's Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced to the world that "Canada is back!" after his election in 2015, the world has been watching our self-identified feminist Prime Minister to see if he is truly bringing our country back on to the global stage.

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February 2018: Women’s special assets in defending the environment

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February 2018: Women’s special assets in defending the environment

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https://www.cidse.org/2018/02/27/women-s-special-assets-in-defending-the-environment/

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Women’s special assets in defending the environment

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Women’s special assets in defending the environment

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March 2018: How the “Gender Approach” is shaped by partners in rural areas of the Great Lakes Region

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March 2018: How the “Gender Approach” is shaped by partners in rural areas of the Great Lakes Region

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https://www.cidse.org/2018/03/20/how-the-gender-approach-is-shaped-by-partners-in-rural-areas-of-the-great-lakes-region/

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During Lent, most CIDSE member organisations run campaigns on a particular theme, showcasing the work of partners in the Global south and their own work at the national and international level. The objective of these campaigns is to raise awareness and political and financial support for their work and that of their partners.

This year, the campaign theme of CIDSE's Belgian French-speaking member organisation Entraide et Fraternité is the role that women from the Great Lakes Region play in transforming agriculture to respond to the various crises they face (socio-economic, political, ecological, and even humanitarian). In this blog, Hélène Capocci, Advocacy and Research officer at Entraide et Fraternité, reflects on what she learned about the gender equality approach from partners from the rural areas of Burundi and South Kivu (DRC) in Africa who are central to their Lenten campaign in 2018.

"It is essential to place a discussion on gender equality in the African context, from the specific socio-cultural perspective." This statement of Martin Nivyabandi, Burundi's Minister for Gender typifies views expressed in the discussions on gender that I encounter during field visits. It highlights how important it is to consider the complex socio-cultural dynamics in the relationship between the sexes to develop an effective approach to gender equality.

For some partners, working for gender equality is not restricted to working with women. Youth, older soldiers and children are often addressed. This approach includes all those who are discriminated and set aside by the patriarchal system. "We work with a holistic approach of a family together, and not an isolated vision of women, men and children. We address social injustice for everyone! "

The work of partners of Entraide et Fraternité is mainly concentrated in the family agriculture sector. While there is no doubt that women play an essential role in peasant agriculture, this role is largely invisible and undervalued. Conscious that food sovereignty can effectively only be achieved if women are respected and included in the decision-making process and income management, our partner associations in Burundi and South Kivu (DRC) work to ensure this. Even though they do not define themselves "feminists," a word they often associate with a Western notion of confrontation and revenge, they share some feminist ideas.

In the culture of the Great Lakes region, masculinity is associated with asserting authority and power, a typical characteristic is financial independence. In an agrarian context, a man is respected when he owns the resources with which he can maintain a family. However, the current economic context and political instability make acquiring and owning property very difficult (population displacement, looting of crops and livestock, or occupation of land by militia).

More than 70% of cases before tribunals or mediation in Africa relate to land disputes. Peasants are vulnerable to dispossession caused by various factors: fragmentation of land-holdings, demographic pressure, expropriation for real estate projects or mining, land grabbing by local elites or foreign investors for agribusiness or logging.

For many reasons men are often not able to live up to the traditional criteria of masculinity. In the current situation, women have increasingly taken up more responsibilities (agricultural work, economic activities, etc). This brings about a sense of loss of personal value among men and is one of the reasons why many local organisations choose an inclusive gender approach. Men have to be part of the change for gender equality and they must be able to identify themselves in a positive way vis-a-vis women. This reduces the risk of provoking frustration among men and reinforcing a feeling of rejection. I have realised that this is an indispensable approach especially in a situation of great social tension and violence against women. Indeed, it is very important to consider the post-conflict society, the political instability and the climate of insecurity when working on gender issues in the Great Lakes region. In a context where a whole generation of adults in the Great Lakes region carries the wounds of a period of prolonged conflict, specific education towards young people is essential to counter the trivialization of violence and ending a climate of impunity.

One of our partners in Burundi explained: "We do not want any more conflict. We are not in favour of a confrontative vision, which would not achieve any good results but only increase conflicts in the households. We prefer promoting harmony, mutual respect, complementarity which really contributes to changing the relationship between men and women".

Furthermore, the work of our partners also encompasses female adult education (to increase their autonomy and management of peasant organisations), gender equality training (at the level of the structures within peasant organisations and in the household), and strengthening women's civic participation in administrative bodies. These measures help to increase the representation and participation of women in decision-making.

I found this approach encouraging: a change process is visible on site in rural communities. A growing number of girls going to school and women in decision making positions, men who help with the harvest, do domestic chores and are more present at home. Boys contributing to tasks traditionally associated with their mothers or sisters. Women, determined to take their destiny into their own hands, are conscious of the need to educate their children differently, to ensure gender equality in the long term.

Click here for more information about the topic and Entraide et Fraternite's activities.

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During Lent, most CIDSE member organisations run campaigns on a particular theme, showcasing the work of partners in the Global south and their own work at the national and international level. The objective of these campaigns is to raise awareness and political and financial support for their work...

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April 2018: The Believe in Change toolkit

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April 2018: The Believe in Change toolkit

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https://www.cidse.org/2018/04/24/the-believe-in-change-toolkit/

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When I started working as the first dedicated Gender Advisor at CAFOD nine years ago I wondered what it would be like - working on the promotion of gender equality and women's rights in a Catholic organisation. Well, I can tell you this - it wasn't always easy.

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June 2018: Extractivism threatening women around the world

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June 2018: Extractivism threatening women around the world

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https://www.cidse.org/2018/06/14/extractivism-threatening-women-around-the-world/

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Extractivism threatening women around the world

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In 1846, five leaders of the Tsilhqot’in Nation in British Columbia made their way to meet with British colonial authorities in what they believed were peace talks after they had killed some British workers who had entered their land without permission. Instead, when the leaders reached the...

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Extractivism threatening women around the world

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June 2018: Indigenous women: spirits of the forest connected to the world

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June 2018: Indigenous women: spirits of the forest connected to the world

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https://www.cidse.org/2018/06/22/indigenous-women-spirits-of-the-forest-connected-to-the-world/

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It's a mistake to think that indigenous societies are monolithic, unchangeable. We assimilate behaviours like other cultures. We were doing this long before Europeans arrived. Adopting new customs does not mean turning our back on tradition.
Portuguese version below
The Portuguese don't come to Brazil in caravelles or wearing clothes unsuited to the tropics as in the 16th century. But Christmas is still celebrated on the 25th of December, as then, as is eating farofa made from our manioc. Colonizers were also influenced by the colonized. We use cotton clothes and mobile phones but we still venerate our myths and ancestors and we live in permanent contact with nature. Our traditions are instruments, the tools or objects that define us as indigenous peoples.

Like most societies in the world, most indigenous nations are patriarchal. While at one time this arrangement was necessary, it is because it was part of various indigenous cultures. I'm Baré, but I know a Munduruku myth that spoke of a time when women were the leaders. Things don't necessarily have to be like that. The most important thing is that individuals respect each other, that we recognize their qualities irrespective of gender or ethnicity. The world is interconnected and we know we're going through a period of drastic change. We, the women of the world, we cannot allow ourselves the luxury of being mere spectators at such a critical time. Nor is today's woman the same as 500 years ago. She knows she shares a new role in the world. And she's not doing this just for show but because she knows it's vital. The movement of native women is linked to the worldwide feminist movement. The choices we make will determine our future. We cannot turn our backs on experience and intuition. The Earth is our mother.

I'm the first woman to head COIAB (Coordenação das Organizações Indígenas da Amazônia Brasileira [coordination of indigenous organizations of Brazilian Amazonia]). Who would have imagined that a few years ago? Moreover who would have believed COIAB could have existed? This was made possible because we discovered that, though many differences separated us ("Indians are all the same" is another recurrent misunderstanding), within our diversity, the struggles of all the Amazonian peoples are similar. Our opponents use the same tactics and their purpose is the same - evicting us from our lands to exploit them irresponsibly.

Modern technology is used against us, so why not use it for us? The peoples of Amazonia live in a territory bigger than most countries; many of us only met each other recently. Using technology, we can exchange experiences more frequently. It will facilitate us organizing four events this month at Amapá Federal University, in Macapá - The 2nd Encontro das Mulheres Indígenas Amazônicas [meeting of Amazonian indigenous women]; The 4th Cumbre Amazônica - Amazônia Viva, Humanidade Segura [Amazonian summit - a living Amazonia, a secure humanity]; The AGM of COICA (Coordenação das Organizações Indígenas da Bacia Amazônica [coordination of indigenous organizations of the Amazon Basin]); and the 1st Chamado dos Povos Indígenas do Amapá e Norte do Pará [assembly of indigenous peoples of Amapá and North Pará ].

We are the guardians of the forest and we will do our utmost to defend it. And we will never stop being its indigenous inhabitants and women.

***
Mulheres indígenas: guardiãs da floresta conectadas ao mundo
É errado pensar que as sociedades indígenas são imutáveis, monolíticas. Assimilamos hábitos como qualquer cultura. Já fazíamos isso muito antes do europeu chegar aqui. Adotar novos costumes não significa abrir mão de tradições. O português não vem mais ao Brasil de caravela, nem usando roupas inadequadas aos trópicos, como no século XVI. Mas continua festejando o Natal no dia 25 de dezembro, como naquela época - até mesmo comendo farofa feita com a nossa mandioca. Colonizadores também foram influenciados por colonizados. Usamos roupas de algodão e celulares, mas ainda cultuamos nossos mitos e ancestrais, e vivemos em constante conexão com a natureza. Nossas tradições, são instrumentos, ferramentas ou objetos que nos definem como indígenas.

Como a maioria das sociedades do mundo, boa parte das nações indígenas são patriarcais. Se em algum momento esse arranjo se fez necessário, é porque isso faz parte das diversas culturas indígenas. Sou Baré, mas conheço um mito Munduruku que falava de um tempo em que as mulheres mandavam. Não precisa ser, necessariamente, assim: mais importante é que se mantenha o respeito entre os indivíduos. Que se reconheçam suas qualidades, independentemente de gênero ou etnia. O mundo está conectado e sabemos que está passando por um momento de violentas transformações. Nós, mulheres do mundo todo, não podemos nos dar ao luxo de sermos meras espectadoras numa hora tão decisiva.

A mulher de hoje também não é a mesma de 500 anos atrás. Ela sabe que lhe cabe um novo papel no mundo. E não faz isso somente por afirmação, mas por saber que é necessário. O movimento de mulheres indígenas está ligado ao movimento feminista mundial. Nossas escolhas vão determinar o nosso futuro. Não podemos abrir mão de nossas experiência e intuição. A Terra é mãe.

Sou a primeira mulher a assumir a liderança da Coordenação das Organizações Indígenas da Amazônia Brasileira (Coiab). Quem pensaria nisso há alguns anos? Aliás, quem pensaria na própria existência da Coiab? Isso foi possível porque descobrimos que, embora tenhamos muitas diferenças (outro equívoco recorrente: índio é tudo igual), as lutas de todos os povos originários da Amazônia são semelhantes, dentro da nossa diversidade. Nossos adversários usam a mesma tática e seu objetivo é o mesmo: expulsar-nos de nossas terras para explorá-las sem responsabilidade.

As novas tecnologias são usadas contra nós, por que não a usar em nosso favor? Os povos da Amazônia vivem numa extensão de terra maior do que a maioria dos países, muitos de nós só fomos nos conhecer há pouco tempo. Graças a elas, podemos trocar experiências com mais frequência. Elas vão permitir realizar quatro eventos este mês na Universidade Federal do Amapá, em Macapá: o II Encontro das Mulheres Indígenas Amazônicas; a IV Cumbre Amazônica - Amazônia Viva, Humanidade Segura; o Congresso Geral da Coordenação das Organizações Indígenas da Bacia Amazônica (Coica); e o I Chamado dos

Povos Indígenas do Amapá e Norte do Pará. Somos guardiãs da floresta e vamos fazer de tudo para defendê-la. E nunca deixaremos de ser indígenas e mulheres.

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Indigenous women: spirits of the forest connected to the world

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It's a mistake to think that indigenous societies are monolithic, unchangeable. We assimilate behaviours like other cultures. We were doing this long before Europeans arrived. Adopting new customs does not mean turning our back on tradition. Portuguese version below The Portuguese don't...

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July 2018: Finding energy is like trying to find gold

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July 2018: Finding energy is like trying to find gold

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https://www.cidse.org/2018/07/24/finding-energy-is-like-trying-to-find-gold/

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Finding energy is like trying to find gold

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The town of Ogies is nestled in the heart of Mpumalanga Province, South Africa’s coal capital. The drive from Johannesburg passed coal-fired power plants and mines takes an hour and a half with the faint twinge of smoke up your nostrils. Driving into Ogies, gusts of murky air hit you head-on. You...

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Finding energy is like trying to find gold

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August 2018: As you pray…move your feet! Find the strength to empower yourself and change the world.

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August 2018: As you pray…move your feet! Find the strength to empower yourself and change the world.

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https://www.cidse.org/2018/08/02/as-you-pray-move-your-feet-find-the-strength-to-empower-yourself-and-change-the-world/

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Strong and graceful women whom we should admire, did not get that way because things worked out. They got that way, because things went wrong, and they handled it. They handled it in a thousand different ways, on a thousand different days, but they handled it. Those women are superheroes!

Why am I saying that? Because some people's attitude sometimes is so wrong; it digs so deep and could be harmful. But this turns to give strength and shape you, and this is what happened to me!

As a young adult I became deeply curious and would not settle for routine and monotony, I was always dreaming to succeed and to break stereotypes of women who don't obtain enough representation.

I am Zeinab Arteil, a Lebanese educated woman, but guess what?! I wear a veil! I started wearing this veil at the age of 9.

As I grew up, limitations were growing with me, burdening my ambitions and dreams, until I turned out to be the stereotype of the Muslim woman, considered inferior to others because of her veil!

I used to hide from the looks of people I crossed! I used to care a lot about how others see me, wondering if they would accept me.

What impression would I leave to them? Would they see me as an educated woman or would they only see the veil I am wearing and draw their own image about the girl behind?

At the very beginning, my veil was an obstacle for my progress.

When I started working, it was so hard to convince employers that a covered woman could be as efficient as the uncovered. It wasn't easy at all to persuade people that a veil is solely a piece of fabric that covers the hair but not the brain. At some points, all this pushed me to step back and dismiss; but in my mind I was always saying that it's a mistake to think that my intellect, brainpower and whole nervous system couldn't work properly only because my hair isn't shown!

It took me a whole journey to get me closer to my ultimate goal because building self-esteem can be so difficult although rewarding!

There were times I would quit to let myself be that traditional oriental woman that follows her husband and obeys the rules society imposes on her; I struggled to prove myself as an active member of the society and to leave a trace making my veil a part of my identity.

Today, I'd rather identify myself not as a veiled woman but as Zeinab, a facilitator, a cultural operator. I wear a veil that I move with across the countries, I work in arts theatre, music, dance, I meet with very different people, artists, activists, and I know everywhere I go I can make a difference; I know I bring diversity to the group I am part of and all that because of the investment I did in myself!

How? I let people discover the unknown part of the story! I make them realize and witness what an educated woman could do, no matter how does she look, and that prejudice is a lost opportunity to enrich your knowledge and surrounding.

Doing some investment in my own self was an achievement not so easy to reach! Family restrictions, society obstacles, marriage burden, divorce... were delaying my arrival.

Today, I can say I succeeded in distinguishing myself with the way I look and dress; although it is a religious trait yet it stays very personal and never affects my personal relations nor social connections or my professional abilities.

I have to admit that I only succeeded when I decided to break these stereotypes as a wife, as a mom and as a veiled woman.

Crossing my career path, what I've learned is this:
Your career doesn't come from outside you! Society, religion, environment vanish in front of your own will. I had to sacrifice a lot and to risk a lot! I am always the wife and mom at home; this would never change but I changed the surrounding environment;
In my life there were many turning points that I never expected, and behind every successful woman, there is a tribe of other successful women holding her back! Every single woman who supported my success helped me make that change!

In this occasion I would ask all women to support each other because only by supporting each other we can be stronger and make a change.

Today I can proudly say that I am a role model to many young girls in my country and my society; I work toward becoming a better leader and we are all leaders! Those who aren't always find excuses ...

Today I can say that my father who in the past was always refusing that his daughter travels or works abroad alone is proud of who I became now! My husband who used to be manipulated by the surrounding and conservative environment turned to be a big support.

Today I believe that each of us can make a different impact and every twist is unique! We should start thinking that empowering girls by letting them realize their rights is not a burden on their families anymore.

Look at Malala, she was empowered by her own thinking and she chose to use her voice and she succeeded to obtain her very basic right: education!

This is how we empower not only women, but generations, and I mean men and women of all future generations!

Today, the best result of what I became is my son. I can see my success in his way of thinking in his approaches in his dreams and am sure that I am raising a man who will be supporting women empowerment and gender equality to build successful societies.

Women make up more than half the world population and potential, my aim and our duty today is to mobilize girls and women to see their values as leaders and to support them in these efforts through education art and culture. To hear their voices no matter how different they are; to invest in their skills and qualifications; to stand up for what is right!

I had a big chance for change but there are many other women waiting to be empowered to change the world so let's make their voices heard!

At that moment, societies will realize the magnitude of our actions and will reshape the notion of what is possible!

My conclusion for this story is that there is nothing wrong with hoping, praying and asking the universe to give you the life you truly love.

But as you pray... move your feet! Prayer without action won't move you forward. Only YOU have the power to decide your next step!

Leverage what you have to change your environment!
About the author:
Zeinab Arteil, a certified professional mediator since 2011, is a holder of a Master's degree in Information and Communication studies (2009), and a Bachelor degree in Foreign Languages (2006), from Saint Joseph University - Beirut. Mrs. Arteil will be following her second Master entitled Arab Master's in Human Rights and Democracy (ARMA 2018-2019), a regional program funded by the European Union in collaboration with Saint Joseph University of Beirut and different other national universities in Rabat, Amman, Tunis, Palestine and Egypt. Mrs. Arteil participated to many facilitation sessions and forums with MedCulture in Rabat, Casablanca, Tunis and Amman and was MedCulture's guest speaker during the European Development Days 2018 held in Brussels. As a Cultural Operator, Zeinab has been selected among 15 facilitator to run cultural workshops and meetings in Tunisia with Tfanen project. Over three years, Mrs. Arteil managed all MARCH (Lebanese NGO) activities mainly related to Peace Building, Conflict Resolution and Youth Empowerment, and represented MARCH at the EuroMed Women Foundation meeting in Barcelona as one of 12 regional organizations, for successful practices in advocacy and policy dialogue.

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As you pray...move your feet! Find the strength to empower yourself and change the world.

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Strong and graceful women whom we should admire, did not get that way because things worked out. They got that way, because things went wrong, and they handled it. They handled it in a thousand different ways, on a thousand different days, but they handled it. Those women are superheroes!

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October 2018: Why we also need feminism in our organizations and organic farming experiments

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October 2018: Why we also need feminism in our organizations and organic farming experiments

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https://www.cidse.org/2018/10/02/why-we-also-need-feminism-in-our-organizations-and-organic-farming-experiments/

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In every part of the world, women working on the land, in fisheries and picking crops have always been part of food production, rearing animals, processing crops in local markets and in protecting water sources and forests. In addition to those in front-line production, women in Non-Governmental Organizations, agricultural advisory services, teaching and public service are focusing on today's problems and looking for alternatives to meet the challenges of making a decent living fairly and sustainably in rural areas and on our planet.

However, women's involvement in politics is not always recognized or encouraged. Due to the macho, patriarchal structure of the society we live in, women are restricted to very specific areas, usually related to their roles as mothers and carers. Despite their experience, capabilities and determination in trying to change farming practices, for example, women face a series of obstacles to being heard and taking part in social movements.

Very often, they cannot represent their groups in shared-learning meetings, on courses or seminars because they have no one to look after the children at home. But if men have to go away, women are called on to replace them. In other cases, the difficulties are emotional - their husbands or partners face criticism in the community if their wives have freedom and independence - reinforcing the idea that they should be submissive to men for the sake of family harmony. Domestic violence is another obstacle for women in rural areas - very often their financial and social rights go unrecognized and thus, being the poorest of the poor, they are vulnerable in their personal relations, having to accept conditions imposed by their husbands out of fear of being unable to guarantee their own and their children's survival.

Women in rural areas experience first-hand the violence exercised by big companies who ride rough-shod over the rights of traditional communities and steal their land, contaminate the water and appropriate natural resources and persecute and kill their leaders. They violate women's dignity as a way of showing their domination. They equate their bodies to conquered territories.

There are countless examples of women's organizations across the world standing up and acting to change this situation. In Latin America we have the example of the Mothers of Ituzaingó, fighting against poisons in Argentina. The Lenca women of Honduras opposing multinationals privatizing rivers and building dams; one of them, Berta Cáceres, was murdered in 2016. Women are fighting against green deserts (eucalyptus and conifer plantations) and against the setting up of paper mills in the southern cone (Brazil, Uruguay, Argentina and Bolivia). Paraguayan women farmers are fighting against genetically modified soya and defending their own seed. Mujeres por la Vida [Women for Life] in Yasuní, Ecuador, are indigenous women from different ethnic groups fighting together against the destruction of the jungle by oil companies. People of African descent are fighting against the loss of their land and the marginalization of their communities, like the quilombolas in Brazil. The women of the Palenques in Colombia, Panama and Venezuela, the Garífunas in Belize, the indigenous women in Putomayo, Colombia, and in many other parts of the continent are fighting against infrastructure projects (the Initiative for the Integration of the Regional Infrastructure of South America, IIRSA) that are trying to ignore sacred lands to open the way for mining companies to invade. Rural women from various countries, such as Colombia, Guatemala and many others, are suffering the consequences of war. Women are banding together in Brazil, Mexico and the whole of Central America, to denounce sexual violence

Many of these organizations support agroecology as a model for production and life that can help humanity reconnect more harmoniously with nature. They believe that this model is based in rural, grass-roots feminism that lets everyone, man or woman, young or old - from the countryside, town, forest or by the water - to live in dignity, with work, health, justice and peace.

Agroecology is defined as a combination of science, agricultural practice and social movements that is aimed at radically redirecting agri-food systems towards fairer socio-economic systems that are also sustainable environmentally. This often involves rediscovering and validating farming (and social organizational) practices that people had been using for hundreds of years but which were dropped because of the requirement for intensive production imposed by an economic system focused on the market and based on the endless drive for profit.

One of the elements of feminism in agroecology is to show that women are protagonists in experiments in organic production and that their contribution needs to be recognized. But it is not just their work but also their knowledge, experience, ideas and proposals for change need recognition. Their rights have to be respected - as regards land, income, technical support, information and marketing their produce; as well as their right to a decent life with health care, education, peace and the chance to dream of a better future.

The feminist perspective lets us see women as protagonists and respects them as individuals and fights for their independence. On the other hand, it shows us the importance, including the financial importance, to society as a whole of activities carried out by women. For example, there would be no production were it not for work in the home. What women farmers produce from their fields and areas around the home and in orchards and maintaining small livestock does not just support families' subsistence but also contributes to local markets, neighbourly relations, the maintenance of food culture and biodiversity. It is not "large-scale production" feeding all of humanity but family farming produce, of which women are an integral part.
About the author:
Emma Siliprandi is an academic and Advisor to the Grupo de Mujeres de la Articulación Nacional de Agroecología - Brazil.

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Why we also need feminism in our organizations and organic farming experiments

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In every part of the world, women working on the land, in fisheries and picking crops have always been part of food production, rearing animals, processing crops in local markets and in protecting water sources and forests.

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October 2018: “La Barbe Liège”: Direct, non-violent action to counter patriarchy in the seat of power

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October 2018: “La Barbe Liège”: Direct, non-violent action to counter patriarchy in the seat of power

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https://www.cidse.org/2018/10/24/la-barbe-liege-direct-non-violent-action-to-counter-patriarchy-in-the-seat-of-power/

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“La Barbe Liège”: Direct, non-violent action to counter patriarchy in the seat of power

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“La Barbe Liège”: Direct, non-violent action to counter patriarchy in the seat of power

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November 2018: Extractivism, post-colonialism and feminism

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November 2018: Extractivism, post-colonialism and feminism

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https://www.cidse.org/2018/11/28/extractivism-post-colonialism-and-feminism/

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Colonialism with its hegemonic construct and the patriarchal and racist ideologies inherent to it did not accept alternative ways of living. Instead its faith in the superiority of Western ways of thinking justified the violent destruction of the original economic, social and ecological balance in all regions of the world it invaded. Colonialism propagated an alienation from nature and an ecocide which nowadays finds its continuation in extractivism.

As German philosopher Ernst Bloch put it, humans think they have the right to relate to nature like an occupation army relates to enemy territory. In many parts of the world governments and mining companies act as if they had the God-given right to exploit the land at the expense of the local communities and women in particular. Next to cultural traditions that are very creative in inhibiting women's land ownership, this constitutes the greatest threat to rural communities and women today.

In Southern Africa many communities are being robbed of their land without receiving appropriate compensation. National governments most of the times condone this practice of land grabbing due to the pressure of transitional corporations that are being granted the right to extract minerals from the earth. Almost everywhere in that region it is understood that local communities cannot deny governments and corporations access to the land if it is needed for mining purposes. The governments let themselves be persuaded by memoranda of understanding by the companies which always promise to not only contribute to the wealth of the countries but also to directly improve the situation of the local communities. They promise the creation of jobs and to enhance infrastructures for education, health and transport. In reality nothing or only very little actually happens. Mining companies reap the profits and leave behind environmental degradation and social disintegration. Whatever governments collect in the form of license fees and taxes, if they get paid, often disappear into the private accounts of the externally oriented elite of the national governments. The wealth leaves the country while the social and ecological destruction remains on site.

The negative effects of mining particularly affect women as they are the ones who carry the responsibility for the survival of the family which is dependent on the access to land and water, two resources often polluted and destroyed by extractivism. In extractivist contexts, most of the time it is women who ensure the survival of socially disintegrated societies where many men are prone to alcoholism which in turn affects women negatively. They are faced with increased instances of domestic violence and have to dedicate more time to care work since the men working in the mines often get sick due to the unhealthy working conditions and alcoholism.

In light of these developments it is important to understand the scope of many local initiatives against extractivism. They are campaigning for realizing their "Right to say No". In South Africa for example, there is the Mineral and Petroleum Resources Development Act (MPRDA), a law that prescribes that mining companies must consult all concerned parties before starting their activities. Unfortunately South Africa is not an exception to the general picture in which both national governments and international companies reduce the required consultation processes to formalities in their belief that they have an unchallengeable right to access the land of local communities: landowners and users cannot refuse the access. Faced with this existential threat, the communities affected by mining are rediscovering the value of solidarity. They are joining forces to claim their space in the centre of decision-making processes concerning their communities. Doing so they are discovering the integrative strength of women, whose voices have been marginalized for too long. Claiming space at the centre of decision-making means that they design their own options for developing their communities and they don't see a future in extractivism. Positive examples of communities that followed that path of development are very seldom.

Extractivism places a heavy burden on local communities and women in particular, and is also harmful to the environment. This combined assault on humanity and nature is not new, but indicates a continuation that dates back to the birth of the colonial project. From a historical perspective colonialism, understood as the commodification of the earth, its treasures, its flora and fauna and particularly its people for the economic benefit of the colonizing nations, went hand in hand with the domination over women and nature in the self-declared civilized nations. In the colonies people were alienated from nature and by the means of forced labor induced to develop a violent relationship to nature. This relationship is being continued in extractivism. Therefore, the imperative to overcome extractivism constitutes an integral element of decolonization of which the dismantling of patriarchy is a central part of. Extractivism and its violent relationship with nature and people in the surrounding areas of the mines, is a manifestation of skewed power relations, political structures and economic dominance that maintain colonial logic and praxis. The voices of local communities, in particular those of women, are not being heard as public discourses are dominated by externally oriented elites, which is again an element of colonialism. Consequently, we can only successfully overcome the crisis triggered by extractivism if the voices that have been marginalized up until now are given a space in the center of the process of change. The voices of women are central to that.
About the author: Dr. Boniface Mabanza Bambu is a theologian, philosopher and literary scholar from DRC. He works for KASA, Kirchliche Arbeitsstelle Südliches Afrika/ Ecumenical Service on Southern Africa in Heidelberg/Germany where the main focus of his work is apartheid and post-colonialism.

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Colonialism with its hegemonic construct and the patriarchal and racist ideologies inherent to it did not accept alternative ways of living. Instead its faith in the superiority of Western ways of thinking justified the violent destruction of the original economic, social and ecological balance in all regions of the world it invaded.

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December 2018: Blogging on Gender Equality in 2018: A review

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December 2018: Blogging on Gender Equality in 2018: A review

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https://www.cidse.org/2018/12/19/blogging-on-gender-equality-in-2018-a-review/

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This year we collected incredible testimonies from women who are fighting for their rights, their land and the future of their communities, while facing many obstacles. Here is a review of their calls and actions against oppression and injustice.

"I went to jail for defending Mother Earth. What a strange justice system." Viviane Michel, President of Quebec Native Women narrated her struggle to stop the construction of a hydro-electric dam on a river in Northern Quebec (Canada) at the Women Resisting Extractivism gathering in Montreal in March 2018. The gathering was co-organised by CIDSE's Canadian member organisation, Development and Peace-Caritas Canada and featured in the June edition of CIDSE's Gender equality blog space.

Like Viviane Michel, the creative power of women, to build communities, grow food, lead campaigns and struggles against oppression and injustice was the red-line of CIDSE's gender equality blogs in 2018.

As leading Peruvian Human Rights Lawyer Mirtha Vásquez pointed out: "Women act in solidarity with the environment and resources, as well as with the rest of society. Their struggle is not just against mining but also for alternatives to mining that demonstrate economic solidarity." The blog on the centrality of feminism to agroecology by expert Emma Siliprandi also touched upon this issue. Siliprandi wrote: "Women in rural areas experience first-hand the violence exercised by big companies who ride rough-shod over the rights of traditional communities and steal their land, contaminate the water and appropriate natural resources and persecute and kill their leaders. They violate women's dignity as a way of showing their domination. They equate their bodies to conquered territories."

This mentality is endemic to the current system that originated in patriarchy, colonialism and racism, pointed out Boniface Mabanza, theologian, philosopher and literary scholar from DRC. Quoting German philosopher Ernst Bloch, Mabanza observed in his blog: "Humans think they have the right to relate to nature like an occupation army relates to enemy territory. In many parts of the world governments and mining companies act as if they had the God-given right to exploit the land at the expense of the local communities and women in particular. Next to cultural traditions that are very creative in inhibiting women's land ownership, this constitutes the greatest threat to rural communities and women today."

At the same time, there are countless examples of women's organizations across the world standing up and acting to change this situation pointed out Emma Siliprandi in her blog on agroecology and feminism.

Yet, in both the Global North and South, women's expertise is still underestimated and women's organizations are consistently underfunded around the world, pointed out Elana Wright from CIDSE member Development and Peace, in her blog about Canada's newly adopted Feminist Development Policy. While welcoming Canada's ambition to lead international support for gender equality, Wright expressed grave concerns for the much greater increase in its military budget: a spending increase of almost four dollars on defense for every dollar on development. She asserted: "Canada needs to show that its approach to trade and to defense does not undo the good work done by Canada on development."

Women's struggles take different forms and most are on the frontlines of violence. Many are creative and direct, like "la Barbe Liège" a group of young women in Belgium, fashioned from a similar French organisation. The organisation uses direct and creative actions to challenge patriarchy and the glass ceiling imposed on women.

Some struggles aim to counter cultural stereotypes, such as the wearing of veils. In her blog, Zeinab Arteil from Lebanon talked about overcoming the stereotypical image of an oppressed woman wearing a veil. "At the very beginning, my veil was an obstacle for my progress. Today, I'd rather identify myself not as a veiled woman but as Zeinab, a facilitator, a cultural operator. I wear a veil that I move with across the countries, I work in arts theatre, music, dance, I meet with very different people, artists, activists, and I know everywhere I go I can make a difference; I know I bring diversity to the group I am part of and all that because of the investment I did in myself!".

The feminist perspective, Siliprandi pointed out in her blog, lets us see women as protagonists and respects them as individuals and fights for their independence. In the same vein Nara Baré, coordinator of Coiab, Coordenação das Organizações Indígenas da Amazônia Brasileira [coordination of indigenous organizations of Brazilian Amazonia] wrote in her blog: "We are the guardians of the forest and we will do our utmost to defend it. And we will never stop being its indigenous inhabitants and women."

A similar story was told in the blog about the South African "Greater Phola/Ogies Climate Camp." The camp was organised under the banner of the Women Building Power Campaign, which is a grassroots women-led and women-driven campaign supported by WoMin. "We are building a movement from the grassroots, nobody knows our pain. Our harmony, our peace and our dignity have been disturbed. Before mining companies, we did not worry about buying water. We have been made poor by the elite, and we are staging this walk [and doing this campaign] to build awareness and show the strength of women who are challenging mining and this kind of dirty, unsafe and unsustainable development" testified one of the participants from Somkhele and Fuleni, northern KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa at the camp.

While women are at the forefront of these struggles, all agree that boys and men must be brought on board too. In post-conflict societies, for example, women take up many more responsibilities (agricultural work, economic activities, etc) that could lead to a sense of loss of personal value among men and in turn lead to tension in the family and the community, as well as domestic violence. In a blog showcasing their Lenten campaign in 2018, CIDSE member Entraide et Fraternite described how their partners in the Great Lakes region choose an inclusive gender approach. Men have to be part of the change for gender equality and they must be able to identify themselves in a positive way vis-a-vis women.

This was also the approach chosen for a new tool-kit to open up gender equality conversations in Catholic organisations that CIDSE member CAFOD published in March 2018. In the blog to mark the toolkit's publication, author Tanja Haque wrote: "Some people I have come across think when talking of gender equality, that it only applies to women and that gender projects would only support women excluding men. Others are under the misconception that gender equality is a foreign Western concept that does not fit with some of the existing cultural traditions, or they fear that it seeks to confer women with power over men. How to respond to these misunderstandings? I explain that gender equality is not about any of these things. I respond by highlighting the following, that it is about creating conditions for love, compassion and justice for the poor, that it is about poor women and men. I stress the point that gender equality seeks to bring good news and equal opportunities for all and that the Church has a vital role to play in promoting such equal opportunities for all people and in preserving the dignity of women as well as men."

CIDSE looks forward to showcasing more stories of courage, wisdom and determination to preserve the dignity of women as well as men in our Gender Equality blog space in 2019!

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Blogging on Gender Equality in 2018: A review

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This year we collected incredible testimonies from women who are fighting for their rights, their land and the future of their communities, while facing many obstacles. Here is a review of their calls and actions against oppression and injustice. "I went to jail for defending Mother Earth....

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https://www.cidse.org/2019/01/24/women-be-brave/

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When I came back from Rome, I had a tattoo because of the pope and a good story to tell.

Being a feminist and being active inside the catholic church seems to be a big contradiction. This is how I feel much of the time.

When I was invited to meet 300 international youth in Rome to work on a document for the Synod on Youth I was thrilled. And on the other hand, I was uncertain of what to expect. The catholic church is diverse global community, and I was strongly hoping that I would see that reality reflected at this meeting.

I am on the board of MIJARC Europe - a platform of catholic organizations from all over Europe working with agricultural and rural youth - where democracy, transparency and equality are values we base our work on.

The organization lives from what the members bring and cannot exist without their voluntary commitment. When you work in a network like this, you are a part of something greater than you alone, you experience what can be done together and how faith is connecting us. Our operations take place in a self-organized and democratic manner, with active participation. We encourage each other to ask questions so as to contribute to a positive change in the world.

To criticize the official church structures means questioning power and affiliation. If you do not believe enough, you will be marginalized. Democracy, gender equality also in the question of authority: not Catholic. And the people who support it: not either. Who decides that?

To regard this potential of criticism as an alien, even harmful element in the church is to separate the church from the world.

Allowing criticism and giving room for doubt is theologically required. It is not a weakness, but a protection of the weak, not a lack of faith, but an invitation to growth.

"You are the protagonists. So, speak clearly. The church is getting old, without young people taking risks. "

Pope Francis addressed these clear words to 300 young people from all over the world. The Vatican inviting young people to prepare a document for the Synod of Youth: this had never happened before.

We did our best to do this historical moment justice and to bring together the diverse perspectives of the young people coming from so many different realities.

We extended the deadlines, answered questions they didn´t ask us and used every minute to exchange because we had a lot to say.

As we hand over the document to the Pope on Palm Sunday, there is doubt if our demands will be heard and if time was enough. But above all there is hope in the air as we walk together with palm branches across St. Peter's Square.

For as Pope Francis on Palm Sunday says to us: "Dear young people: with you is the decision to scream. (...) When the others are silent, when we, the elders and those responsible, are silent, when the world is silent and loses its joy, I ask you: do you want to scream? Please decide before the stones scream."

The pope arrived to meet us in St. Peters square. I stood in the crowd surrounded by so many other young people as he looked at us and said "Women, be brave".

There I was - walking through the streets of Rome after a week full of doubt and inspiration, criticism and new ideas, stuck in this whole big contradiction of thoughts, and overwhelmed by the energy I had felt the whole week, the energy we young people want to bring to the church.

And I was constantly thinking about the discussions we had during the week, the pope asking us to take risks and women to be brave.

And without even realizing it I walked into a tattoo studio and ask if I can have a tattoo now?

The confused faces in front of me asked me if I already knew what I wanted. I answered simply "yes" and without ever having considered getting a tattoo before I painted the little symbol on a piece of paper.

This is the result of a battle I was fighting inside for a very long time, and which now found its way outside in a very physical way.

It summed up so perfectly what this week was about for me: love, faith and women's empowerment.

I never felt more strongly what I believe in and what I want to fight for.

I am part of the church and I am a feminist. This is not a contradiction. Just a call for change.

Daniela Ordowski is a board member of MIJARC Europe.

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When I came back from Rome, I had a tattoo because of the pope and a good story to tell. Being a feminist and being active inside the catholic church seems to be a big contradiction. This is how I feel much of the time. When I was invited to meet 300 international...

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January 2019: The Feminists for a Binding Treaty

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January 2019: The Feminists for a Binding Treaty

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https://www.cidse.org/2019/01/24/the-feminists-for-a-binding-treaty/

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Early this month, January 2019, thousands of employees from Bangladesh factories making clothing apparels for global retail giants such as H&M, Walmart and many others went on strikes over low wages. The protest was marred with violence and repression by the police leading to reports of loss of lives and several others injured. Bangladesh's USD$30 billion clothing industry is the world's second largest apparel manufacturer, just behind China. The sector employs approximately 3.5 million workers and of these, 85 percent are women.

These protests come merely five years after the tragic Rana Plaza incident where the eight story building caved in ending lives of over 1,100 workers and injuring thousands. It was due to this horrific incident that the world's attention was drawn to the inhumane conditions including low wages for sweatshop workers who are often young women and girls between the aged of 15 - 25 years.

Patriarchy intersects with the current dominant oppressive economic system to leverage and exploit women's low status in society for profit, exacerbating existing structural inequalities. These inequalities are enabled and reinforced by the activities of transnational corporations and other business enterprises. Women are affected by corporate abuses in gender-specific ways. But corporations don't only violate and abuse human rights - they also increase their undue influence over policy decisions affecting our lives and communities.

From October 15 - 19, 2018, the Fourth Session to discuss the contents of a legally binding UN instrument to ensure the protection of human rights from the activities of transnational corporations and other business enterprises was held in Geneva. This was a watershed moment for the over 90 states and 400 observers, including representatives from social movements and civil society organisations, who took part in the week-long discussions.

As so clearly and forcefully recognized by the Deputy High Commissioner, Kate Gilmore, in her opening remarks at the meeting, "It is crucial that the treaty be rooted in the lived experiences of those who suffer most as a result of business activities." It is essential, therefore, that the treaty takes into account the different, often disproportionate impacts of transnational corporations activities on women's rights, and the additional historical and structural barriers to women's access to justice and when seeking gender-responsive remedies.

The Feminists for a Binding Treaty is a collective of over 15 organisations working together to integrate a gender justice perspective into the legally binding instrument. Integrating a gender justice approach into the treaty means analyzing how businesses may have different, disproportionate, or unanticipated impacts on individuals, as a result of their different gender-based social and cultural roles and existing inequalities and discrimination in law and practice. This approach is essential to the very purpose of the treaty, which is to put the concerns of rights holders at the center and to effectively ensure the prevention, protection and remediation of business-related harms for all. Ultimately, women's voices, rights, experiences, and visions must be visible and prioritized throughout the process and adopted treaty.

The Feminists for a Binding Treaty have focused on three key suggestions: (i) mandatory gender impact assessments of business activities, (ii) gender-sensitive justice and remedy mechanisms, and (iii) ensuring respect, protection and an enabling environment for women human rights defenders.

The inclusion of references to women in the zero draft of the Treaty is welcome and is a step in the right direction. Also encouraging was the fact that many states spoke in favor of including a gender perspective. But unfortunately, the treaty falls short of expectations and still treats gender as an afterthought and fails to address our key concerns.

We encourage States and stakeholders to continue to engage in substantive discussions that will bring us closer to the realisation of the binding instrument. The future legally binding instrument remains potentially a critical tool to advance gender and economic justice.

Together with allies, Feminists for a Binding Treaty remains strongly committed to advocate for a strong treaty that incorporates the perspectives, lived realities and visions of all women.

For a comprehensive feminist analysis and detailed recommendations, please refer to the joint brief " Women's Rights Beyond The Business Case: Ensuring Corporate Accountability " by Feminists for Binding Treaty Coalition, and follow #Feminists4BindingTreaty online.

About the authors:

Felogene Anumo is Building Feminist Economies Coordinator at the Association of Women's Rights in Development (AWID). AWID is a member of the Feminists for Binding Treaty Coalition. Prior to joining AWID, she worked for the African Women's Development and Communication Network (FEMNET).
Twitter: @felogene

Layla Hughes is a lawyer who has worked on behalf of indigenous and conservation groups for the past 20 years on issues related to feminism, human rights, environmental protection, and corporate accountability.

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Early this month, January 2019, thousands of employees from Bangladesh factories making clothing apparels for global retail giants such as H&M, Walmart and many others went on strikes over low wages. The protest was marred with violence and repression by the police leading to reports of loss of...

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February 2019: Amandla Awethu! – or power to the people in Zulu – all the people

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February 2019: Amandla Awethu! – or power to the people in Zulu – all the people

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https://www.cidse.org/2019/02/18/amandla-awethu-or-power-to-the-people-all-the-people/

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An encounter that brings the whole world together always represents an opportunity. But a gathering where men and women from all points of the compass come together to explain, share and raise awareness of their fight to defend our Common Home should be one that is accessible to everyone defending our planet's environment.
(Original text in Spanish below)
At the World Social Form's Thematic Forum on Mining and Extractivism in Johannesburg in late 2018, there were multiple opportunities for discussion in which people from all over, who dream of a world where there is a place for everyone, could voice their opinions.

Your first reaction on landing in a city with modern infrastructure and a history of mining is that mining does not solve the situation of those who have "fallen through the system's net", nor the structural poverty produced in areas where mining is promoted as the new saviour. Far from offering solutions, it deepens inequality in a world context where the richest 1% owns more than the rest of the world put together. It is also noticeable that, as Pope Francis remarked in Laudato Si', those who suffer most from activities that harm the Home we share are the poor.

Some of the most telling statements came from Patagonia from the voices and struggles of thousands of women challenging roles and stereotypes imposed by the system and who dare to go to the barricades against "mining projects" whose progress represents a death sentence for their communities and land.

Women in the Wallmapu[2], whether they be indigenous or not, as elsewhere in the world, are to be found where people are uniting to stop the advance of mega-mining projects. Each has her own work and domestic responsibilities but is building up support networks that allow them, against all expectations, to continue bringing up children, looking after the home and at the same time turning themselves into defenders of the environment.

In Asia, Muslim women are coming together in their communities to challenge the strict roles imposed on them and creating income-generating opportunities that allow them to provide enough decent food for their children, contribute to domestic finances and, while it is not the main goal, develop a degree of independence.

African women in Uganda, Senegal or the Niger delta, added their voices to their sisters and spoke of the curse of illiteracy and of being deprived of opportunities just because they are women. They recounted that they are not always able to speak openly for fear of losing their children, though they shyly recognised that it was black women farmers who maintained households and the lives of their children and like other women across the globe took on their shoulders the defence of the fruits of creation.

Similarly, native American, Afro-American and white women descended from European immigrants, all the women who inhabit Abya Yala[3], from Alaska to Argentina, were discussing ecofeminism, achieving a huge degree of consensus over the concepts of "invisible", "unpaid" work, the fact that women's bodies get treated as conquered territory and are plundered by the system.

A feminist approach was clearly evident, one steeped in gender solidarity that went beyond mere borders, of love for life in the widest sense, devoid of sexism, racism and any type of discrimination. This is a post-colonial feminist approach from which clearly emerged essential pointers for confronting any challenge imposed on us by a system synonymous with individualism.

Those who hope to contribute to building a kinder world need to pay particular heed to the different threads, woven in by women from every point in the globe, standing up to patriarchy, though many are unaware of doing so.

Women from the farthest reaches and very often out of touch, use creative tools to survive in hostile environments without feeling in any way superior to other species. They are practicing genuine "Integral Ecology", as put forward by Pope Francis in his encyclical.

Those of us in social movements, particularly feminist movements, must not delay in challenging where our approach and theories have been colonized as were our lands in the past. We must realise that the concepts on which we base our struggles can be applied universally and that we need to look more closely using the eyes, hands and experience of women who carry with them the wisdom of their ancestors regarding more balanced relations not just between generations, but as regards all creatures and elements that maintain the fragile equilibrium of what we call planet earth.

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[1] Amandla Awethu! In Zulu, power to the people.
[2] The area where Mapuche is spoken.
[3] In the Kuna language (people of the current territory of Panama) "living earth" or "flourishing land" to designate what is known as America.

About Claudia Huircan:
* Journalist - Broadcaster
* Coordinator of the Justice, Peace and Creation team of the Claretian Missionaries of Argentina, Chile, Paraguay and Uruguay
* Member of the Red de Iglesias y Minería [Churches and mining network] steering group
ORIGINAL ARTICLE IN SPANISH
Amandla Awethu![1]: o el poder al pueblo de todos y todas

Un encuentro de culturas de todo el mundo siempre es una oportunidad, pero un espacio donde convergen mujeres y hombres de diversas latitudes del globo para exponer, compartir y sensibilizar sobre la lucha que llevan adelante en defensa de la Casa Común debería ser un espacio con acceso a todos los defensores ambientales del planeta.

En el marco del Foro Mundial Temático sobre Minería y Economía extractivista desarrollado en Johannesburgo a fines de 2018 se produjeron múltiples espacios de discusión al que cada territorio llevó las voces de quienes sueñan con un mundo donde quepamos todos.

La primera constatación que realicé al desembarcar en una ciudad de infraestructura moderna y de cultura minera histórica fue: la minería no resuelve la situación económica de muchos "caídos" del sistema y mucho menos la pobreza estructural tal cual promete en territorios, donde esta actividad extractiva se promociona como la nueva salvadora. Lejos de ofrecer soluciones, profundiza las inequidades en un contexto mundial donde el 1 % más rico, posee lo que el resto de la población en su conjunto. También se comprueba, tal cual lo remarca el Papa Francisco en Laudato Sì, los más perjudicados por las actividades que degradan la Casa que compartimos, son los pobres.

De los testimonios más enriquecedores volví a la Patagonia con las voces y las luchas de miles de mujeres que desafían los roles y estereotipos impuestos por el sistema y se atreven a enfrentar en la trinchera los "proyectos mineros" cuyo avance se constituye en una sentencia de muerte para las comunidades y los territorios.

En el wallmapu[2], del que formo parte las mujeres sean originarias o no, al igual que en todo el globo, son mayoría en los espacios que se fueron conformando para impedir el avance de proyectos megamineros. Cada una con sus propias responsabilidades familiares y laborales van tejiendo redes de solidaridad que les permiten contra todo pronóstico llevar adelante la crianza de los niños, el cuidado del hogar y a su vez, constituirse en defensoras del ambiente.

En Asia, las musulmanas se animan comunitariamente a desafiar los estrictos roles impuestos y generan espacios de economía solidaria de subsistencia entre las mujeres de la misma comunidad que les ayuda a garantizar alimentos en calidad y cantidad a sus hijos, realizar un aporte al sostenimiento del hogar y sin ser el objetivo fundamental les otorga cierta independencia.

Las africanas de Uganda, Senegal o Delta del Níger, comparten los clamores de sus hermanas y hablan del flagelo del analfabetismo, la falta de posibilidades por el solo hecho de ser mujeres, expresan que no pueden alzar la voz en algunos casos por miedo a perder sus hijos aunque, tímidamente reconocen que las mujeres campesinas negras son las que sostienen los hogares y las vidas de sus hijos y también como otras del resto del mundo ponen sobre sus espaldas la defensa de los Bienes de la Creación.

También las originarias, afroamericanas, las blancas que descienden de los venidos de Europa, todas ellas que habitan Abya Yala[3] desde Alaska hasta Argentina, pusieron en discusión el Ecofeminismo, con grandes núcleos de consenso a nivel conceptual como el trabajo "invisibilizado" o "no remunerado", los cuerpos de las mujeres como territorios de conquista que también son expoliados por el sistema.

Quedó expuesta una práctica feminista, impregnada de solidaridad de género que vence todos los límites territoriales, de amor por la vida de manera integral, despojada de sexismo, racismo y toda forma de discriminación. Una práctica feminista descolonizada en la que salen a relucir claves irrenunciables para enfrentar cualquier desafío que nos impone un sistema que es sinónimo de individualismo.

Las tramas diversas, tejidas por mujeres en cada espacio territorial, que enfrentan el patriarcado aunque muchas de ellas no lo saben, merecen especial atención por parte de quienes aspiramos a contribuir a la construcción de un mundo más amable.

Las mujeres de los territorios más alejados y en muchos casos incomunicados, aplican herramientas creativas para sobrevivir en un medio hostil sin experimentar ningún tipo de supremacía por sobre el resto de las especies, llevando a la práctica una verdadera "Ecología integral" como nos propone el Papa Francisco en su Encíclica.

Quienes formamos parte de movimientos sociales y en especial los movimientos feministas, debemos poner en discusión sin demora nuestras prácticas y nuestras teorías colonizadas como en su momento lo fueron nuestros territorios, asumir que los conceptos que mueven nuestras luchas no tienen una aplicación universal y que debemos mirarnos un poco más en los ojos, las manos y las experiencias de mujeres que traen consigo una sabiduría ancestral en materia de relaciones más equitativas no solo entre géneros sino con todas las criaturas y las cosas que sostienen el frágil equilibrio en lo que llamamos planeta tierra.

______________________________________________

[1] En Zulú, el poder al pueblo.
[2] Territorio en lengua Mapuche.
[3] En lengua Kuna (pueblo del actual territorio de Panamá) "tierra viva" o "tierra que florece" para designar lo que se conoce como América.

Claudia Huircan:
* Periodista- Locutora
* Coordinadora del Equipo de JPIC (Justicia, Paz e Integridad de la Creación) Misioneros Claretianos de Argentina, Chile, Paraguay y Uruguay
* Integrante del equipo impulsor de la Red de Iglesias y Minería

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Amandla Awethu! - or power to the people in Zulu - all the people

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An encounter that brings the whole world together always represents an opportunity. But a gathering where men and women from all points of the compass come together to explain, share and raise awareness of their fight to defend our Common Home should be one that is accessible to everyone defending our planet's environment.

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 April 2019: A Lent Campaign to Celebrate Women

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 April 2019: A Lent Campaign to Celebrate Women

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https://www.cidse.org/2019/04/24/a-lent-campaign-to-celebrate-women/

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The labor and courage of women is central to their communities and rural economies, and by extension, to the global economy. However, they are underrepresented at all decision-making levels, especially when it comes to participation and co-determination in managing resources. In tribute to the exemplary commitment of women to themselves, their families and their communities, the Swiss Ecumenical Campaign 2019 focused this year on women's rights.

This ecumenical campaign is unique in the world as it connects the three Christian Swiss churches through their development organisations Brot für alle, Partner sein, and CIDSE's Swiss member Fastenopfer. The 50th anniversary of the Ecumenical Campaign provided an opportunity to honour the commitments of these organisations to supporting women activists in the global South.

One of these women is Elizabeth Mpofu, the President of the Zimbabwe Smallholder Organic Farmers' Forum (ZIMSOFF) and international coordinator of La Via Campesina (LVC), who is advocating for the rights of rural women in Zimbabwe. The contribution by Elizabeth Mpofu and other women are captured in the brochure produced especially for this year's campaign "Gemeinsam verändern wir die Welt! 50 Frauen die bereits damit begonnen haben". 1

Women maintain the social network and in many places bear the brunt of the burden in smallholder agriculture and the informal sector. "Women make the essential contributions to the rural economy," says Elizabeth, "cultivation of vegetables, animal husbandry, cooking, collecting firewood and water, going to the market, caring for family members and maintaining their homes. If possible, they also perform wage labor on top of that... Women are the backbone of the rural and national economy. That's why their work needs to be valued more."

"Many of these contributions are not considered as 'economic activities even though they are essential for the well-being of households and thus also for the overall economy of a country. Therefore, the needs of women must be recognized and considered."

Elizabeth has experienced first hand that the valuation of women's labor and the support of women's needs can give them a foot up. "As a girl, I was not allowed to go to school. So I became a small-scale farmer and saw how important this type of agriculture that produces the majority of food worldwide is for women. It provides a livelihood and can also be the way out of poverty, but only if the right framework conditions are created. Health, education and social services in rural areas need to be strengthened and women must be appreciated for their role as food producers."

In addition, she advocates for more women in leadership positions and is proud to say that there is a shift in the organisations she is involved in towards more women in leadership positions. "Women also need to be given more co-determination rights. This is what I fight for and every little success gives me the strength to keep going".

In the global South as in the global North, women are courageous actors who stand up for their rights and those of their community, fight for an economy that serves life, and are committed to making urgent changes. This struggle is tied to the exploitation of natural resources, which often leads to human rights violations, land grabbing or soil and water pollution. Many partner organisations of Fastenopfer and Brot für alle experience firsthand the catastrophic effects of extractive industries. But whether in South Africa, the Congo or Laos, women are demanding their rights, joining forces and becoming stronger.
1 The Campaign brochure is also available in French and Italian.

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The labor and courage of women is central to their communities and rural economies, and by extension, to the global economy. However, they are underrepresented at all decision-making levels, especially when it comes to participation and co-determination in managing resources.

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May 2019: Vote for a feminist Europe – a Europe that leaves no one behind!

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May 2019: Vote for a feminist Europe – a Europe that leaves no one behind!

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https://www.cidse.org/2019/05/20/vote-for-a-feminist-europe-a-europe-that-leaves-no-one-behind/

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The European elections are just a few days away. Citizens from all across Europe will elect their new representatives in the European Parliament. When they vote, we ask them to how they can improve the lives of 50% of the European population by supporting the representation of women in politics.

Working for the European Women's Lobby - the biggest umbrella organisation of women's NGOs in Europe - I hear from our members, activists on the national and european level, stories about their fight to ensure that all women, in their nuanced and complex diversity, have the same opportunities and rights as men. Progress for women has now been stalling for a decade in the EU. As a young woman, I am frustated, disappointed and saddened to see that our rights have been threatened and undermined in all countries.

We believe in the potential of the European project to ensure protection and respect for women. We need a feminist Europe, a Europe where women will not be treated as second-class citizens, a Europe that works to ensure all human rights are respected and upheld, a Europe that leaves no one behind. As Audrey Lorde put it, "I am not free while any woman is unfree, even when her shackles are very different from my own". It will take coordinated, concrete actions, a synchronised framework implemented in all countries to manifest this vision.

It is worth repeating that men, mostly old, wealthy and white, are still over-represented in all European institutions. We firmly believe this is not a true democracy, until everyone is represented fairly. Women compose half of the population and yet they are only represented by 36% of the current parliament.

This is why we have been running a campaign, with our members in all Member States, presenting and developing our vision for a Europe for Women and Women for Europe. Our main objective is to achieve gender parity in all the institutions and in the "EU Top jobs" and to ensure that women's human rights are put at the center of the European project. We want to remove the structural obstacles many talented women still face in their political careers and/or participation. We communicate our demands to the European Union and its members in our manifesto asking for a new type of leadership: a leadership that is transformative, inclusive, caring, feminist. We need women at the core of this leadership, because we need all points of views, experiences, diversity of ideas and backgrounds represented.

We, women from Europe and beyond, will keep on engaging, mobilising and fighting for our freedom, to achieve equality and realise our basic rights. We hope the European Union will hear and acknowledge these voices in its effort to manifest and guarantee a Europe that ensures equality between women and men.

About the authors:

Manon Deshayes (@manon_dshs) works at the European Women's Lobby as a Policy and Campaigns Assistant where she coordinates the 50/50 campaign for the European elections: Women for Europe - Europe for Women. Sign our petition and share our pledge to your candidates for the elections!

Adeola Naomi Aderemi (@AdeolaNAderemi) works at the European Women's Lobby as a Communications and Media Officer. She has Masters of Science in Public Health from Birmingham City University and is also currently working on raising awareness among the general public on issues concerning human trafficking and the empowerment of women and creating a platform for under-represented women in the global media.

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Vote for a feminist Europe - a Europe that leaves no one behind!

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The European elections are just a few days away. Citizens from all across Europe will elect their new representatives in the European Parliament. When they vote, we ask them to how they can improve the lives of 50% of the European population by supporting the representation of women in politics....

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July 2019: Gender Equality in CIDSE Leadership

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July 2019: Gender Equality in CIDSE Leadership

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https://www.cidse.org/2019/07/03/gender-equality-in-cidse-leadership/

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We are seeing changes in many spheres, with women finally reaching the top positions of more and more structures and organisations, but still we notice, because it is not yet the norm, and we know that the road was surely full of challenges or there would be many more. At CIDSE, the face of our...

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Gender Equality in CIDSE Leadership

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December 2019: An economic model that privatizes life: Listening to La Cuerda

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December 2019: An economic model that privatizes life: Listening to La Cuerda

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https://www.cidse.org/2019/12/10/an-economic-model-that-privatizes-life-listening-to-la-cuerda/

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An economic model that privatizes life: Listening to La Cuerda

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In bringing together diverse perspectives, we can begin to see the links in the systems of oppression that we confront, and in the common vision of change shared by diverse movements. Maria Dolores Marroquin has been working on ‘bringing feminism out of the closet’ in Guatemala for over 25...

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An economic model that privatizes life: Listening to La Cuerda

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December 2019: “I’ll decide that”: Patriarchy in the media industry

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December 2019: “I’ll decide that”: Patriarchy in the media industry

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https://www.cidse.org/2019/12/19/ill-decide-that-patriarchy-in-the-media-industry/

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As a documentary photographer, Ana Palacios shines light on post-conflict recovery and peacebuilding projects. She photographs the world’s broken places: orphanages, asylums, hospitals, psychiatric units, and ghettoes. Her intention is to make vulnerable communities visible with a sense of...

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“I’ll decide that”: Patriarchy in the media industry

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February 2020: The challenge of gender equality in the Peruvian Amazon

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February 2020: The challenge of gender equality in the Peruvian Amazon

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https://www.cidse.org/2020/02/06/the-challenge-of-gender-equality-in-the-peruvian-amazon/

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CIDSE interviewed Domi Szkatula, missionary with Polish origins who has lived 37 years in Peru. Throughout these years she has gotten to know the whole Vicariate of San José del Amazonas working in different mission posts, in positions that had never before been occupied by a woman, and visiting all of the posts annually for 11 years when she was the Coordinator of the General Pastoral Ministry of the Vicariate. Today, she is responsible for the Indigenous Pastoral, a position she has held for more than four years. She feels happy living in this corner of the planet and dealing with simple and humble people helps her to be closer to God, "to touch Him" as she says.

Her first assignment as a missionary was in Tamshiyacu, which she considers her "university of inculturation". She was also in San Pablo, where she served the lepers and the people of Mazán, on the banks of the Napo, a tributary of the Amazon. There, together with two other lay women and in collaboration with animators and catechists, they created a new parish. For the past four years she has lived in Angoteros, on the border with Ecuador, and among the indigenous Kichwas in the Napuruna Mission "Pachaya" (which means "Father and Mother of time and space").

In our conversation with Dominik we discussed many of the challenges faced by indigenous women in the Peruvian Amazon such as the difficult access to education, to health and to an active engagement in communities, where most decisional posts are covered by men. Dominik set up a training for women in the view to protect their cultural identity and worked to improve their engagement in the decision-making processes of communities. According to Dominik, in communities and in the Church, gender equality should be practiced daily with concrete actions to make women visible and heard.

You can download the full interview with Dominik below:

Credit photo 1: Domi Szkatula/Vicariato de San José de Amazonas, Perú
Credit photo 2: Ana Palacios / CIDSE & REPAM

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The challenge of gender equality in the Peruvian Amazon

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CIDSE interviewed Domi Szkatula, missionary with Polish origins who has lived 37 years in Peru. Throughout these years she has gotten to know the whole Vicariate of San José del Amazonas working in different mission posts, in positions that had never before been occupied by a woman, and visiting...

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March 2020: What is the role of men in feminism?

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March 2020: What is the role of men in feminism?

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https://www.cidse.org/2020/03/04/what-is-the-role-of-men-in-feminism/

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At school, I learnt how to kill a man. As we lay there in line with our Lee Enfield rifles, firing at life-size cardboard targets, I remember thinking how bizarre it was that we should be taught such a thing.

But in the cadet force, I learnt much about masculinity, and about what is expected of young men. The unwritten rules: 'be tough', 'be hard', and if need be, 'use violence'. Mentally, I added these prescriptions to others that I (and my peers) had already assimilated on playgrounds, on sports fields, and in the classroom: 'boys don't cry', 'don't be weak', 'don't act like a girl'.

These unhealthy and unsafe gender norms continue to shape the lives of men and boys today[1]. Crucially, these norms provide the scaffolding for a gender order which privileges men - especially powerful elites. Male privilege is so engrained in social relations and structures that it appears normal and natural, and remains free from scrutiny. But if men are still the prime beneficiaries of gender inequality, then dismantling male privilege is, at least in part, men's work.

The Dutch activist Jens van Tricht argues in his recent book 'Why Feminism is Good for Men'[2] that feminism is not just about improving the position and status of women, but also about freeing men (and women) from the restrictive codes that hold them back. For men, feminism can provide the inspiration for shifting towards more co-operative and equal relationships and friendships, greater sharing of care and work responsibilities, and working to reduce organised and individual violence.

Many men don't routinely exhibit sexist behaviour or enact violence. But we all need to consider how we can play an active part in promoting change and in encouraging other men to do so. Fundamentally, this involves examining our own motivations and assumptions. As Australian sociologist, Michael Flood, has written: "The most important thing is that we have a responsibility to be introspective".

Men's participation in gender justice movements could strengthen feminist efforts. Some forms of participation could include taking action online to defend women's rights; supporting national and local campaigns opposing violence against women; raising awareness about sexism, for example in local sports teams or music venues; educating young people in schools and universities; and joining organisations working for gender justice. In particular, men can play an important role in challenging other men over their sexism, misogyny, and violence by calling it out, supporting victims, or bearing witness.

However, there is often concern among women and women's organisations about men's involvement. Some fear that attempts to engage men will distract from the primary task of empowering women, or that 'men will take over' women-led actions and campaigns.

There is also a risk of diverting resources away from support for women, in a context where such resources (e.g. for rape crisis centres) are already under threat. Clearly, engaging men in gender equality should not involve abandoning support for projects and strategies that focus on supporting women. There are still compelling arguments too for preserving separate 'women's spaces' for all women who want or need them.

But if it is accepted that, despite the risks, men can and should play a role in feminism, how do they come to understand and support feminist goals in the first place? This is the focus of a forthcoming book to be published later in 2020 by researchers at Durham University in the UK and colleagues in Sweden and Spain[3]. The book aims to develop an understanding of the factors that enable men to take an active stance against men's violence against women, and to explore how more men can be encouraged to do so.

In line with previous research, our findings across the three locations show that in nearly all cases, men became aware and active through a process rather than a particular epiphany (with some exceptions where men were 'catapulted' into the work following a family tragedy). Those we interviewed were able to trace their involvement through various influences and pathways in their child and adult lives. Most often it was a general awareness and activism around anti-sexism that came first, sometimes alongside an increasing involvement in left politics.

Many of the men talked about a lack of positive male influences when growing up, often because of absent or disengaged male family members. Sometimes men felt they didn't 'fit in' while growing up, generally either because they didn't like sports or were gay. Positive experiences with men were a minority. Women, either as 'strong women' within the family, as friends, within political movements, as lecturers, or as intimate partners emerged as far more influential in terms of shaping the men within our research into pro-feminist men.

For men, engaging with feminism and anti-violence work is not straightforward, and there are significant obstacles for them in doing so. Personal challenges may include: lack of awareness of the issues; resistance or hostility from other men; and difficulties in finding like-minded, supportive men. More broadly, there may be: a lack of opportunities for men to get involved; criticism and suspicion from some women's organisations; cultural and faith-based constraints; and lack of funding for relevant projects.

There are some possible avenues to explore for organisations working with men. Men may be motivated by hearing women's experiences or at 'turning points' in their own lives (e.g. becoming a parent or recovering from illness). Certain groups of men - such as environmentalists, animal rights activists, and trade unionists - are more likely to be sympathetic to equality and feminism already, and could be worthwhile groups to engage.

[1]Stephen Burrell, Sandy Ruxton, Nicole Westmarland, (2020, forthcoming), Changing gender norms: engaging with men and boys, London: Government Equalities Office

[2] Published in Dutch and German, and forthcoming in Arabic and English in 2020.

[3] Nicole Westmarland, Anna-Lena Almqvist, Linn Egeberg Holmgren, Sandy Ruxton, Stephen Burrell, Custodio Delgado-Valbuena (2020, forthcoming), Men's Activism to End Violence Against Women: Voices from Spain, Sweden and the UK, Policy Press

Sandy Ruxton is an Honorary Research Fellow at Durham University, and a member of the Steering Committee of MenEngage Europe. He is also an independent policy advisor and researcher, specialising in men and masculinity issues. He has undertaken freelance commissions for a wide range of organisations, including the EU Presidency, European Commission, UNICEF, Save the Children, Oxfam, Promundo, and various universities. A trained teacher, he has worked with boys and young men in schools, in the community and in prisons. He lives and works in Oxford, UK.

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By Sandy Ruxton, Honorary Research Fellow, Department of Sociology, Durham University, UK At school, I learnt how to kill a man. As we lay there in line with our Lee Enfield rifles, firing at life-size cardboard targets, I remember thinking how bizarre it was that we should be taught...

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March 2020: Women's voices in the climate movement: a testimony

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March 2020: Women's voices in the climate movement: a testimony

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Young women are often put in the international media spotlight as representatives of the climate movement and championed as leaders, but on the ground they can face cultural challenges to speaking up. On the occasion of International Women's Day, we interviewed the Manos Unidas volunteer Natalia Díaz Martín (second to the left in the photo above) on her experience as a young woman in climate activism. How are you active now in the climate movement?
I got engaged in activism and started fighting the climate crisis after participating in the Climate Camp co-organised by CIDSE and Manos Unidas in the summer of 2018. I am now one of the forerunners of Juventud por el Clima Tenerife, #FridaysforFuture on the Canary Island of Tenerife, and I am a volunteer with Manos Unidas. I collect photos of our events, give talks, and am a part of the youth network.

Why is it important that the climate movement value and encourage the participation of women?

One of the opportunities of this climate crisis is that it affects us all, although not in the same way. On the one hand, we are all involved and we need to change, and on the other hand, developing countries are drowning in impacts and have a lack of resources for mitigation. Within societies, as we know, women, children and the elderly are the most vulnerable and exposed to these unprecedented changes and suffer the most.

From this perspective, the presence of women in the fight against climate is as necessary as it is unavoidable.

Beyond this fact, in a predominantly patriarchal world, women are a powerful source of change, because of their tasks and duties. In fact, I would dare to say they are the most effective. If they change, the system changes, and more quickly.
Have you ever hesitated to take leadership positions in climate activism as a woman?

Natalia speaking at a panel.

Likewise, although from the beginning we have tried to take a completely equal role in our public interventions - and most of the time we have succeeded - there is still a greater male predisposition.

This is a difficult question because, although at the beginning I had more leadership positions, I have been giving these up to other people for different reasons, without considering that one of these is the fact of being a woman. I have realized that many times the people that I see as most capable of transmitting the message are the men who accompany me in this struggle, leaving us women in the background or seeing us more comfortable behind the social networks. And, after all, this can be interpreted that we hide our faces in a completely involuntary way.

The times I have spoken at public events such as debates or media, including radio (although less so), have been because of the belief in the importance of giving women's voices to this movement and because there were no other options. So yes, I have hesitated a lot to take a leadership role in this struggle, because of issues of trust or worth, shared with the rest of my colleagues.
Do you feel that in climate activism, your voice is valued as much as a man's?
I believe that the message offered by a man is more powerful or reaches more people, while we women are always singled out and devalued for aspects that have nothing to do with our discourse, as we see happening with Greta.

Although I haven't suffered such oppression, I have been asked repeatedly about the Greta phenomenon, about her, about who is behind it, and not about her messages.

However, I am happy to know and see recognition for so many women climate activists like Helena Gualinga who are giving voice to this crisis and the need for climate justice, I think we can be proud and feel that we are as much or even more a part of this than men.

Natalia attending COP25 in Madrid.

What do you think can be done in the climate movement to value more the participation and voices of women?
I don't think it's a question of climate activism, it's a question of thought and of the system.

The participation and voice of women is there, we just have to stop and listen to it and give it the same validity regardless of who is speaking, with the only certainty that it is a person and therefore deserves validity and respect.

However, as I have said, it is an unconscious act, interiorized and forged from our birth, and it is a personal job to keep changing, to keep informing ourselves and doing an exercise of introspection, to know how we act and why we do it. Taking off our blindfolds until we are able to see from a feminist point of view.

Nevertheless, I believe that this struggle is being a great impulse and intervening positively in the achievements of this equality.

After this interview I feel a little more feminist, because I have looked inside myself and I have opened up to you with complete confidence. I believe that is in large part what it is all about, loving and sharing.

This has been one of the most challenging and deep interviews that I have given. It has made me reflect more on being a woman. I discover in these lines that something assumed as my way of being coincides with a pattern shared by my gender. Is it me or has it been my education?

Natalia Díaz Martín is a 20 year-old volunteer with Manos Unidas and is in the third year of a teaching degree.

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Women\'s voices in the climate movement: a testimony

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Young women are often put in the international media spotlight as representatives of the climate movement and championed as leaders, but on the ground they can face cultural challenges to speaking up. On the occasion of International Women's Day, we interviewed the Manos Unidas volunteer Natalia...

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June 2020: How to move towards a care economy?

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June 2020: How to move towards a care economy?

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This blog is a concise version of Thera van Osch's essay on ''The gender impact of Coronavirus - How to move to an economy that cares for people and the planet'' with a focus on the care economy.

The Coronavirus crisis is a wake-up call for all of us. Nurses, carers and cleaners are key professions in the survival strategy against the corona virus, and the majority of them are low-paid or unpaid women. All over the world women comprise the majority of workers in the health sector and they represent 70% of workers in the health and social sectors. These people are true heroes in the fight against this virus, risking their own health. And most care workers in the social sector are also women.

The unpaid care sector is the largest sector of the economy. This work consists of taking care of children and sick family members, facilitating life for elderly people or family members with a disability, managing the home (shopping, cleaning, cooking, washing clothes etc.) and providing long-term unpaid support to the community of friends, neighbours, (ex-)colleagues and other acquaintances.

Unpaid care work is mainly assigned to women and globally, they perform 76.2% of the total hours of unpaid care work-more than three times as much as men. However, these unpaid working hours are ignored in the neo-liberal economic model of our times; not valued, not included in economic statistics, and never taken into account in any macroeconomic policy, they are just taken for granted. Throughout history, the economy of care has always existed, functioning as a buffer for economic crisis in the capitalist system, working as a placenta feeding the market economy and the State, but never acknowledged as a basic economic system.

Caring economics refers to an economy that cares for people and cares for the planet. It builds on the concept of care as defined by Joan Tronto, who sees it as an activity that includes "everything that we do to maintain, continue, and repair our 'world' so that we can live in it as well as possible. That world includes our bodies, ourselves, our environment, all of which we seek to interweave in a complex, life sustaining web."

Care work is more than an activity that can be expressed in objective criteria such as time or (equivalent) value, as it has an intrinsic human value that refers to the deeper sense of life. The shutdown of the economy creates space to release these intrinsic human values, and to reveal the hidden economy of caring human beings.

A lot of work in the monetary economy is now being taken over by the unpaid care economy. Schools are closed, parents watch them and help them do their homework online. More people at home means more cleaning work to be done. Restaurants and fast-food shops are closed, so people have to cook more. The more hospitals and medical care centres are overburdened, the more unpaid care work needs to be done for sick people at home. As shops and cultural centers are closed, people manufacture their own products and invent their own forms of entertainment. As plumbers and carpenters can't come, they must learn their own solutions. The unpaid care economy is taking over the key functions of the economy and keeping society going.

Coronavirus forced governments to put care for people at the centre of policy measures, which is uncommon, because in the current neo-liberal economic model, the 'caring human being' does not exist. This model is built on the concept of 'the rational economic man', a paradigm of the 'homo economicus' in which human beings are considered to be independent, autonomous, rational economic individuals who pursue maximum satisfaction with a minimum of costs. In a free market this human behaviour is supposed to ensure the efficient allocation of scarce goods and services. Society is supposedly the sum of all these rationally acting individuals.

Fortunately, this one-dimensional concept of human beings is only a theoretical construction. A caring economy requires mutual trust among interrelated citizens. It is the caring human being that keeps society running, in good times and in bad times, in times of crisis and war, in the formal and informal economy, in modern and traditional societies. The economy of care is always there-every day and everywhere. Care is a key feature of the global human context in which the market economy is embedded. Even if markets collapse, the economy of care continues to function. This is what the Coronavirus crisis is showing us.

The Coronavirus crisis shows that putting 'care for people' at the centre of politics generates new dynamics, solidarity, clean air, new ways to combine work with family responsibilities etc. Why should we fall back on the old model of the neo-liberal economy that has proven unsustainable from both human and ecological points of view? The activities within care economics contribute to maintaining, continuing and repairing the world in which we live. Care economics is a model of an economic system that can sustainably improve the quality of life for all.

Thera van Osch's essay is available under this link.

Thera van Osch is the founder of OQ Consulting BV. She is an economist and gender expert with over 30 years of worldwide experience in policy dialogue, project cycle management, capacity building, research and training.

Picture by Matthias Zomer/ Pexels

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This blog is a concise version of Thera van Osch's essay on ''The gender impact of Coronavirus - How to move to an economy that cares for people and the planet'' with a focus on the care economy. The Coronavirus crisis is a wake-up call for all of us.

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August 2020: Europe's (wo)man on the moon moment

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August 2020: Europe's (wo)man on the moon moment

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Europe's (wo)man on the moon moment - the European Green Deal from a feminist perspective
Eva van de Rakt is the Director of the Heinrich Böll Foundation's European Union Office and Lisa Tostado is Head of International Climate, Energy & Agriculture Policy Programme. Throughout their work and different perspectives they both contribute to gender equality by integrating it in various political debates, such as the one on the European Green Deal.

When European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen announced the European Green Deal at the end of 2019, she referred to it as "Europe's man on the moon moment." The new growth strategy is indeed ambitious, covering many policy areas, such as mobility, biodiversity, finance and industry. It aims to "transform the EU into a fair and prosperous society, with a modern, resource-efficient and competitive economy where there are no net emissions of greenhouse gases in 2050 and where economic growth is decoupled from resource use". Our contribution looks at the gender dimension of this vast package of new initiatives. How can the European Green Deal become a (wo)man on the moon moment?

As the first woman taking over the most powerful EU job and as a former minister that had spoken out for increasing the number of childcare nurseries or for the introduction of a women's quota, von der Leyen had faced high expectations on ensuring gender mainstreaming in the new Commission's work. Her agenda for Europe, in which she claimed gender quality to be a priority, reinforced these expectations. It therefore comes as a worrisome surprise that there is a lack, even a mere absence, of gender analysis in the communication on the European Green Deal. Gender = zero search results.

However, it would be incorrect to state that nothing has happened in the field of gender equality ever since the von der Leyen Commission took office. In her Commission, women have a say and Equality Commissioner Helena Dalli is ambitious. She presented the EU's first ever Gender Equality Strategy in March 2020, just a few months after the communication on the European Green Deal. The Strategy lays out strategic objectives for combatting gender-based discrimination in the fields of gender-based violence, the gender pay gap, gender balance on company boards and work-life balance. While these are important signals, the link to the European Green Deal, the centrepiece of the von der Leyen Commission, is unfortunately lacking. The Commission, it seems, simply does not connect the dots. It missed an opportunity to tackle two major issues in the EU. A Eurostat Report from June 2020 shows that while making at least some progress on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in most areas, the European Union is in fact going backwards on key aspects of gender equality (for instance on the gender employment gap) and has stagnated on climate action in the past five years.

The example of climate and gender policies demonstrates the need and benefits of linking them instead of planning and implementing them in silos. All aspects of climate change also have a gender dimension. To name just a few examples: Individual carbon footprints vary according to factors in which differences between men and women exist, such as income, mobility and lifestyle characteristics. When designing policies to incentivise individual consumption and behaviour patterns to become more sustainable, decision-makers must consequently consider the gender aspects and implications. New taxes or regulations can also have gender-differentiated effects. For example, in Germany, female-headed households are affected almost twice as much by energy poverty as male-headed households, which needs to be considered when raising energy prices. Furthermore, recent research suggests that political empowerment of women is associated with more ambitious climate policies.

The narrative framing of the "just transition" is an example of how European Green Deal initiatives could step-up gender mainstreaming. The first thing that pops into most people's minds when confronted with "just transition" are male coal workers. It is not enough, though, to understand the "just transition" as a concept looking at male employed workers only, in particular in high-emitting industries. Surely, creating and preserving jobs in regions heavily impacted by the energy transition is an important tool. However, promoting the expansion of low-carbon jobs for men and women, e.g. in the digital and service sector, as part of a decarbonisation plan is just as important, both from an ecological and a social standpoint. Delivering just outcomes for all also means paying more attention to care work, which is exceptionally relevant during the on-going health crisis.

The Covid-19 pandemic has increased the risk of backlash with respect to gender equality. In an economic crisis, workers with part-time or any forms of precarious contracts (not to speak of workers without any official contract), are most at risk of facing severe budget cuts. This will most probably affect more women than men. Much of the additional unpaid care work falls on women. Men without paid parental leave or other measures to help juggling family and work life (still uncommon in many EU Member States) have also suffered since the start of the pandemic.

Against this background, it is now crucial to use gender analysis when implementing the European Green Deal and when designing recovery policies. One milestone will be the next EU Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF), together with Next Generation EU (NGEU), the EU's recovery plan. With respect to gender equality aspects, a resolution of the European Parliament of 22 July 2020 gives reason for hope for improvements. In this resolution, there is a section demanding the introduction of gender mainstreaming and gender impact obligations ( gender budgeting) both in the MFF and in the NGEU. The European Parliament has made clear that it will not rubber-stamp a fait accompli and is prepared to withhold its consent for the MFF until a satisfactory agreement is reached in the upcoming negotiations with the EU Council.

Another important tool will be the abovementioned EU Gender Equality Strategy - not just as a communication, but resulting in concrete plans for its implementation. The Commission had published it just before lockdowns began, with the risk for it to be shelved during the Covid-19 crisis. If a new policy is gender-blind, particularly one as vast as the European Green Deal, it likely invests and enforces existing inequalities. Efforts to improve gender equality must therefore not only complement the European Green Deal - they must be an integral part of it. In order to succeed with a European green transition, it is of utmost importance that all citizens are on board. Feminist, climate, workers' rights and other transformational movements have to come together and create synergies. It is time for Europe's woman on the moon moment!

Eva van de Rakt has been Director of the Heinrich Böll Foundation's European Union Office in Brussels since 2019. She has worked for the Heinrich Böll Foundation since 2001. As Director of the Prague Office she was responsible for the Foundation's activities in the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary from 2004 until 2018. She was a Member of the Board of Directors at the Green European Foundation from 2014 until 2016, and is currently Member of its General Assembly. Since 2018, she has been a Member of the Board of Directors at the Czech-German Fund for the Future ( Deutsch-Tschechischer Zukunftsfonds). She completed her studies at the University of Music and Theatre in Rotterdam.
Credit photo: Stephan Röhl - All rights reserved

Lisa Tostado has been Head of International Climate, Energy & Agriculture Policy Programme at the European Union office of the Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung in Brussels since November 2019. As such, she is responsible for issues related to coherence of EU policies for sustainable development, especially with respect to their impact on developing and emerging countries. Before joining the Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung, she worked as a project manager in the circular economy sector in France where her main focus was reusable and recyclable food packaging. Lisa also gained experience in international development cooperation at the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) where she focused on topics related to the adaptation to climate change impacts. Lisa holds a BA in Political Sciences and Economics from the University of Mannheim and the University of Ottawa, and a MA in Environmental Policy from Sciences Po Paris and the University of Liège.
Credit photo: Nora Weis - All rights reserved

C redit Cover illustration: Pia Danner Licence: CC-BY-NC-SA 4.0

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Europe's (wo)man on the moon moment - the European Green Deal from a feminist perspective Eva van de Rakt is the Director of the Heinrich Böll Foundation's European Union Office and Lisa Tostado is Head of International Climate, Energy & Agriculture Policy Programme. Throughout their...

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September 2021: The Place of Women is in the Struggle

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September 2021: The Place of Women is in the Struggle

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Sr. Mary John wrote this blog article after the publication of the Bishops' Statement "Now more than ever, we need mandatory supply chain due diligence to stop corporate abuse and guarantee global solidarity". Like the bishops, a myriad of women within the Church, including the author of this blog, support the struggle against corporate abuse and form a crucial part of the fight for justice.
See German and French translations by Fastenopfer, CIDSE's Swiss member organisation. Feminization of Poverty and other Gender Issues
The largest and perhaps the most militant woman organization in the Philippines is GABRIELA and its vision is to defend women's rights and work for women's empowerment in the context of the national movement for the comprehensive transformation (economic, social, political) of Philippine society. As its chairperson for 18 years, I have done a lot of analysis of our society and have taken part in many forms of protest actions and active advocacy in socio-political and women issues. I have realized that in the Philippines, as in many developing countries, globalization which is the integration of all economies to the liberal capitalist market economy, has actually made the conditions of these countries worse than before. Local governments lost their autonomy in controlling imports and legislating tariffs to protect their local economy; there is a greater gap between the rich and the poor, there is a great damage to the ecology and greater exploitation of women and children.

Foreign multi-national corporations have succeeded in controlling the economy of the country. Their corporate practices have violated the rights of workers such as permanency of tenure, right to unionize, right to strike, and the right to just wages. Mining and logging companies have driven indigenous peoples from their ancestral lands, and have deprived future generations of the riches of the land such as forests and treasures in the earth. Profits from mined metals which are not processed in the country benefit the foreign multinational corporations more than the local economy. Worse still, the local military are assigned to protect the mining company and their presence in indigenous territories have caused human rights violations such as rape of the women, forced concubinage, killing of indigenous leaders, and burning of indigenous schools.

The poorest of the poor are women and this is what is known as feminization of poverty. Although men are also poor, there is a greater severity of poverty among women than among men. This poverty leads to a lack of longevity, health education or knowledge, decent standards of living, and social and political participation.

As workers, women are paid less than men even if their work is of a higher quality; they suffer sexual harassments from their bosses or even co-workers; they have to bear a double burden because even if they work outside the home they are still responsible for house chores, and the care of children.
Impact of Environmental Issues on Women
As women farmers, they suffer from discrimination in that they do more than 50 percent of the work but are not counted as farmers in statistics and surveys. Most have no access to resources like land or credit. They also manage the sale of the farm products as well as house chores.
The Place of Women is... in the Struggle
Among Filipina women, the indigenous women are the poorest and most exploited. Not many have access to education. When there are military camps protecting the multinational mining corporations, they are subject to rape or forced concubinage. The land grabbing that accompanies the mining enterprises force indigenous families off their lands and military actions drive them to refugee camps where they are easy prey to pimps and agents of the sex industry.

It is well-known that women are responsible for 60-80% of subsistence food production especially in rural areas. But all livelihoods based on the access to, use of and control over natural resources are already being wildly impacted by extreme weather events such as droughts, hurricanes, earthquakes and climate change over time. In an agricultural setting, women's reliance on healthy soil, fisheries, water sources, medicinal plants, forest products are deeply affected by climate change. Due to their unequal economic, social, political, and cultural positions, climate change and environmental degradation have greater impact on women's livelihoods, health, food and nutrition security, access to water and energy, as well as coping capabilities. All these significantly increase women's burden of unpaid work.
Although women produce most subsistence foods and cash crops, lack of land tenure and of access keeps women from obtaining credit, training, and other supports, thereby preventing them from using their traditional, conservation practices.
Sr. Mary John Mananzan is a Benedectin nun and an activist.
The traditional belief that the place of woman is in the home is no longer tenable today. Many women today work outside the home. The same is true in political struggle, Women claim the right to be active in society especially in struggles for human rights and to fight oppression and exploitation in any form. Women in the Philippines have organized themselves to be a part of the struggle for a comprehensive transformation of society, to practice solidarity with the poor and the oppressed, to protect and defend human rights, to work for women's empowerment and to protect the environment. Since the late 60's, women's organizations have sprung up on the national and local level. In 1984 many of these came together to form GABRIELA which at its height numbered 250 women's organizations and 50,000 individual members. As Chairperson of GABRIELA for 18 years I organized with our national council an annual march on International Women's Day featuring social or women's issue such as equal wages for women, violence against women, workers' rights, human trafficking, etc.

There are also women ecological advocates in national and local organizations. But I want to pay tribute to two women whose ecological advocacy had a national impact. One is our own Sister Aida Velasquez who was a pioneer of the ecological movement in the Philippines, led the struggle against multi-national mining companies polluting rivers in Mindoro, launched a nation-wide campaign against GMO food, and one of the leaders of the Nuclear Free Philippines Movement which prevented the Nuclear Plant from functioning up to this day. The other is Gina Lopez. She established Bantay Kalikasan, (Environmental Watch) and she[8] initiated the rehabilitation of the Pasig River and nearby urban streams. She was appointed Secretary of the Department of Energy and Natural Resources by President Duterte. She immediately launched a campaign against illegal mining and closed mines that violated ecological policies earning the ire of influential people who lobbied that she should not be confirmed in her role.

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The place of women is... in the struggle

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Sr. Mary John wrote this blog article after the publication of the Bishops' Statement "Now more than ever, we need mandatory supply chain due diligence to stop corporate abuse and guarantee global solidarity". Like the bishops, a myriad of women within the Church, including the author of this...

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February 2021: My Pain: the struggle to report sexual abuse around the Zimbabwe diamond industry

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February 2021: My Pain: the struggle to report sexual abuse around the Zimbabwe diamond industry

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This testimony has been published anonymously. The testimony contains a graphic and honest description of sexual violence and abuse and is not recommended reading for minors or those who may feel triggered.
I am a woman involved with the Catholic Commission for Justice and Peace in Zimbabwe.

The history of diamond mining can only be described as blood-spattered and diamond mining in Zimbabwe is no exception. De Beers held exploration rights for the Marange diamond fields until this expired in 2006 and the government declared the diamond fields open to anyone. The diamond rush begun.

In late 2006, the government tried to 'clean up' the diamond rush by enforcing the rights of companies that had mining licenses, and expelling those who did not. What followed was two years of killings, sexual abuse, exploitation and human rights abuses in a shocking display of a state's prosecution of its own people. Eventually the Zimbabwe defense forces was deployed and as the Zimbabwe Independent reported, all hell broke loose after that. There were overwhelming reports from communities of sexual abuse.

One particular form of sexual abuse occurred regularly and was never publicly reported. A policy was put in place that restricted entry to the Marange community to residents, verified through Identity Cards. The army were deployed at various entry points and would search anyone arriving. Passengers would be asked to disembark from their vehicles when they got to the check points for searching. Women and men were separated. Female military officers were assigned to search for diamonds even inside women's private parts. Women were asked to remove their underwear, lie down and the female military officers searched inside the women's vaginas using bare fingers to look for diamonds.

The period of the clean up the diamond rush was a moment of total madness. There was no space for dialogue, nor sanity. I decided to drive to a Catholic Parish in Marange, and because I did not have the appropriate ID, I disguised myself as a nun. It was on this occasion that I saw what was happening to women. For me to build a case that could be brought to court, I needed witnesses; I needed women who could stand up and share their experience. But, every time I got witnesses, they would withdraw at some point. In our tradition it is taboo and an abomination for a woman to share such experiences for fear of being stigmatized and judged by society. In one instance, I tried once passing through without being disguised as a nun and used public transport anticipating a search, I was not allowed to pass through but did not go through a search.

In order to build a case, I had to build the trust and confidence of the women to articulate issues in a courtroom. Though the Commission tried to draw attention to this type of violation, women of Marange never shared this story in a public space. Finally, we decided to design a strategy to help them with psycho-social support. I was leading this program yet wounded and bleeding. How could a wounded healer heal the wounded? I went through a period of depression. Though I tried to share what I was going through with like-minded individuals, even for me it was difficult to open up within family circles and the church itself.

This emotional and psychological trauma of seeing an injustice being perpetrated and failing to address it has stayed with me for a long time, and I continue to struggle with it. It was the fault of structures, policies, and political will and it was also about a failure of the weak to raise their voice for a just system and demand their protection. I remember at some point receiving an audio threatening me with gang rape, and I would hear these voices even years after the clean-up. I was haunted by the fear of being brutalized and dehumanized by the same system that should be protecting me.

Over the past years, I have designed programs around security sector transformation in an effort to re-establish sanity and trust between the civilian and the security sector. And yet the trauma of knowing what happened and was never talked about continues to haunt me. Years after the regularization of mining in Marange, the same women continue to suffer the negative impact of mining: unsuitable working conditions, physical, emotional and psychological violence by men who work in mines and abuse drugs and alcohol; early marriage and high rate of school drop out by the girl child. And so the battle continues with some efforts to publicize the plight of women and to persuade the government and private companies to involve communities in planning and implementation of mining activities. We continue as human rights defenders to offer psycho-social support to counter negative effects on women: domestic violence, loss of human life, decaying moral values, immorality, early marriages, substance abuse and prostitution. We advocate that the security sector should use better strategies of enforcing the law for the protection of women.

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My pain: the struggle to report sexual abuse around the Zimbabwe diamond industry

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This testimony has been published anonymously. The testimony contains a graphic and honest description of sexual violence and abuse and is not recommended reading for minors or those who may feel triggered. I am a woman involved with the Catholic Commission for Justice and Peace in...

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October 2020: Interconnecting life: gender and agroecology

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October 2020: Interconnecting life: gender and agroecology

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The Centre for Communication and Popular Education (CANTERA) - founded and directed by Anabel Torres, with the accompaniment of SCIAF (Scottish Catholic International Aid Fund), has experience in developing processes of women and men's empowerment, promotion of gender equity and development of agroecology in rural communities in the municipalities of Belen, Mateare and Villa El Carmen in Nicaragua. The Centre bases its work on a systemic vision of reality that recognises the interconnectedness of all life elements: the family/family relationship, the local and the global, perspectives of gender, the economic and the cultural, etc. It aims to transform how each of these elements relate to each other through its programmes. CANTERA recognises that specific changes initiate processes of change in the entire system. This is their dream, the dream that moves them - the transformation of our reality.

CANTERA's starting point of understanding is that all living beings are part of the same reality, that we are interconnected in a network of relationships of everything with everything. This recognition motivates us to promote new types of relationships, starting with those between men and women and between society and nature, which break the patriarchal culture of domination and control, not only of women's bodies but also of nature's resources. These new relationships must be characterised by recognition, appreciation and mutual respect. The priority is the care and protection of life.

"I have been a promoter of CANTERA where I have learned to produce organically. I am in love with what I sow without using chemicals, everything is organic because we want to have a healthy life together with my family and my community. With organic agriculture I have good harvests, I try to keep everything on my plot. As a woman it has helped me to empower myself, I have the power to share all my knowledge with other women so that they are also empowered."
Dominga Sotelo, Los Filos de Cuajachillo Community, Mateare

This vision, from which we approach community and educational processes, is based on critical thinking and the transformative and dialogical character of education proposed by Paulo Freire, a spirituality centered on creation and the biocentric model of education, created by the Chilean scientist Rolando Toro, "which proposes an interactive model of network, encounter and connectivity; it places respect for life, not only of the human being, but of all living beings, as the centre and point of departure for all disciplines and human behaviours".[1] The biocentric principle considers the multiple dimensions of the human being: physical, biological, spiritual, psychological and social, integrated with other people, with the environment and with oneself.

"When I entered CANTERA, I was a woman without vision, without motivation. At that time, I had 2 small daughters and now I have 3 daughters. I separated from my husband, but this has not been an impediment to my success. I received beekeeping training. When I finished it, CANTERA gave me two beehives, then supported me to multiply them; this way I gained confidence to keep multiplying them. Today I have 54 hives, and I have managed to harvest up to 165 gallons of honey per year. The changes I have felt in my life are wonderful. I consider myself an enterprising and fulfilled woman, because I have managed to make improvements in my house: I have managed to build a room, I have a bathroom with toilet and every detail of my house has been improved little by little and I have what I need to live."
Claudia Isabel Guevara Morales, Belén Community

Supported particularly by these approaches, we develop our work. The communities we serve are very vulnerable and their great challenges are the development of life skills, the improvement of the soil to ensure food production, the capacity to generate income and training to ensure production in an agroecological way.

"I am the treasurer of the board of directors of the seed bank in my community. In the bank we keep all the corn, bean and sorghum seeds. There, we silage them and then lend them to producers. When planting time comes, they return twice as much as they received, so they don't have to go out and buy seeds at the market. We have 4 silos of 8 quintals each. I am proud of the position I hold, I think they trust me."
J aqueline García Chávez, Los Filos de Cuajachillo Community, Mateare

Experiential and academic-technical training have been key in this accompaniment.

Experiential training aims at generating changes in behaviour, attitudes and ways of thinking and acting. The themes worked on were: human values, feminine gender for women and masculinity for men, leadership and advocacy training, community organisation, community exchanges, spirituality and leadership meetings, and periodic meetings with female and male community leaders.

Academic and technical trainings are organised around agroecology, beekeeping, development of business plans.

In my plot I did not sow anything, I considered my land useless. But with the agroecological practices that the project has taught us and that I have put into practice, everything has changed. Now I have a diversified plot with musaceous plants and vegetables. The secret was to make an improved compost".
Michael Aburto, La Chorrera Community, Villa El Carmen

We have evidenced changes at the community level in several areas such as the participation of men in domestic work and in dialogue and participation with their life partners, in their own and community productive activities; formation and support of the "Agroecological Network of Promoters" (formed by 60 young people who participated in the Specialised Course in Agroecology given by the Agrarian University) who provides technical accompaniment to producers in their communities by promoting ecological agriculture; members of the "Climate Monitoring Network" (50% women) who receive continuous training to follow up on the rain and soil humidity levels, and to guide producers on the appropriate periods for planting; "Community Ecological Brigades" in each community, carrying out reforestation, community clean-up and awareness-raising activities for the population on the importance of environmental care, directed mainly by teachers, young people and community leaders.

Anabel Torres, Nicaragua, is the founder of Cantera and member of the Congregation of Saint Agnes of the USA. She has a background in popular education, biocentric education, natural medicine, theology and feminism and an education background in public administration.

[1] Biocentric education in its social dimension. Ruth Cavalcante. Conference at the World Education Forum 2012

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Interconnecting life: Gender and agroecology

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The Centre for Communication and Popular Education (CANTERA) - founded and directed by Anabel Torres, with the accompaniment of SCIAF (Scottish Catholic International Aid Fund), has experience in developing processes of women and men's empowerment, promotion of gender equity and development of...

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November 2020: What if the economy was female? 

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November 2020: What if the economy was female? 

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By Alessandra Smerilli
VERSIONE ITALIANA

Long afterward, Oedipus, old and blinded, walked the
roads. He smelled a familiar smell. It was
the Sphinx. Oedipus said, 'I want to ask one question.
Why didn't I recognize my mother?' 'You gave the
wrong answer,' said the Sphinx. 'But that was what
made everything possible,' said Oedipus. 'No,' she said.
'When I asked, What walks on four legs in the morning,
two at noon, and three in the evening, you answered,
Man. You didn't say anything about woman.'
'When you say Man,' said Oedipus, 'you include women
too. Everyone knows that.' She said, 'That's what
you think.'
(Myth, Muriel Rukeyser)

Modern economic science has been shaped entirely from a male point of view. It could not have been otherwise, as it became an autonomous science at the end of the 1700s. We have a founding father, Adam Smith, but not a founding mother. It is also difficult to identify the first female economists, since many used male pseudonyms in order to publish their research.

We could ask ourselves why it is so important that women think about economics. And we could ask ourselves if it makes sense to talk about a female role in the social and economic dimension, and thus if there is a specific role for women in these spheres. To do this, we should avoid falling into two real traps, even if they are not always perceived as such. The first trap where one falls (or let the others fall) is the argument that equal dignity corresponds to perfect equality, so it makes no sense to speak about woman's role, since it is no different than the man's role. Mill, for example, claimed that the difference between men and women was visible only because women did not have the same chances as men, but once disparities have been eliminated and once the doors of education and career have been opened to women, they would entirely become similar to men: in excellence, he argued, there is no significant difference between female and male. However, this way of thinking has gradually led us to assume the masculine as a prototype to which to relate everything. The sociologist Simmel, in fact, observes that the position of power that men hold within our society results in the generalization of male standards, as if they were referring to the whole humanity [1].

On the other hand (the second trap), there are those who exasperate the specificities of women, making them even more sources of discrimination, as Laura Zanfrini reminds us: "The promotion of equity is in tension with the enhancement of the differences and specificities of the female component. The first aim lends itself to the criticism of homologating specificities, assuming the masculine as the standard to strive towards; the second one with the reification of stereotyped images of the masculine and the feminine."

The economist Victoria Bateman writes in The Guardian newspaper: "The questions that economists try to answer, the tools they use to find the answers (which are mainly mathematical), the standard assumptions they make along the way (for example asserting that human beings are emotionless, free and self-concerned), and what they choose to measure, everything reflects a traditional and masculine way of looking at the world".

So we ask ourselves, what if the economy was shaped by the thoughts of women? What would it look like? Actually, there are already many women contributing to the vision of the economy, but they probably haven't been recognized until recently. Among the consequences is the pandemic hitting humanity like a scourge, pushing us to seek new solutions. And probably the public debate is more open to ideas that until recently seemed exotic.

If the economy was a woman, it would start to seriously worry about the common good, and we would realize, with the thoughts of Elinor Ostrom, first female Nobel Prize winner for economics, that humanity's capability to cooperate and manage commons is much greater than mainstream economic theory would like us to believe.

If the economy was a woman, it would talk about care. For example: it would treat care-taking as an essential dimension of human activity, apart from work. And with the thoughts of Jennifer Nedelsky we would discover how we should rethink the timing of work and care, and that care could and should enter the public sphere. Sharing her ideas, we would imagine a world in which when we meet a person for the first time, we would ask them "who do you care for?" and not just "what do you do?"

If the economy was a woman it would rediscover a new way of assigning value to things. Embracing the ideas of Mariana Mazzucato we would revisit theories where use value determines the price of goods and not viceversa.

If the economy was a woman it would be shaped as a circle, as a donut, and not as a graph on Cartesian axes, where the definition of 'good' is directed upwards towards growth. With the ideas of Kate Raworth we would realize that 'good' is in balance and it has limits.

These are just a few samples, this list could be longer.

The word economy comes from the Greek oikos-nomos: care and management of the house, where 'house' can refer to our domestic walls, but also to our common home, the planet we inhabit. The house is seen differently by men and women. Until now, the perspective of the house and our common home is mainly male. Men are more focused on labor, on material and institutional aspects: all of this is very important, but if this becomes the dominant perspective, it can distort reality. Women's perspectives may be more centered around relationships and care. However, this focused and unique perspective is neither sufficient in itself, but is missing in the larger context, at the political level and by institutions in general.

We need to start or keep looking at this home from a woman's perspective. Above all, we must start to look at our home together, both men and women. We need to imagine the future together.

[1] Coser, L. A., Masters of Sociological Thought: Ideas of Historical and Social Context (2nd ed.). New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1977.

[2] Zanfrini Laura, La femminilizzazione della società, in Tarchi Paolo - Colasanto Michele (edited by), Il genio femminile e l'impresa, Rome, Città Nuova, 2007, 137.

About the author
Sr. Alessandra Smerilli is Professor of Political Economics at the Pontifical Faculty of Educational Sciences "Auxilium" in Rome, she is a founding member and professor of SEC - School of Civil Economics. She is a member of the National Council of the Third Sector, the Ethics Committee of the SGR, as well as the Scientific Committee and organiser of the Social Weeks of Catholics. A Salesian religious woman, since 2019 she has been Councillor of the Vatican State. She is also Coordinator of the "Economics" Task-Force of the Covid-19 Commission set up by Pope Francis in March 2020.

Main photo: Hindou Ibrahim. Coordinator, Indigenous Women and Peoples Association of Chad Executive Committee, Indigenous Peoples of Africa Coordinating Committee by CIFOR - CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

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By Alessandra Smerilli VERSIONE ITALIANA Long afterward, Oedipus, old and blinded, walked theroads. He smelled a familiar smell. It wasthe Sphinx. Oedipus said, \\\'I want to ask one question. Why didn\\\'t I recognize my mother?\\\' \\\'You gave thewrong answer,\\\' said the Sphinx. \\\'But...

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December 2020: Palestinian women in the Gaza strip between siege and COVID 19

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December 2020: Palestinian women in the Gaza strip between siege and COVID 19

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Palestinian women in the Gaza Strip live in difficult conditions as a result of the deteriorating internal political, economic, and social conditions under the offenses of the ongoing occupation, the Palestinian division, and the imposed siege on the Gaza Strip. Living conditions under occupation are exacerbated for women under the prevailing patriarchal culture and the Palestinian laws that leave women exposed to violence and discrimination.

In 2006, the Israeli occupation imposed a crippling siege on the Gaza Strip as a collective punishment for civilians after Hamas won the legislative elections, which constitutes a violation of all international treaties and conventions and which is still in force 14 years later. The United Nations and its Member States have not sufficiently pressured Israel to comply with Public International Law. The siege coincided with the Palestinian political division between the West Bank and the Gaza Strip that took place on 14 June 2007.

During this 14-year siege, Israeli forces also launched three military offensives on the Gaza Strip in 2008, 2012, and 2014. Nearly 4000 Palestinians were killed, including nearly 500 women, and thousands were injured. Furthermore, thousands of homes were demolished, and families were forcibly displaced. A lot of these homes still have not been rebuilt.

Two million Palestinians live in 365 km 2, which was classified as an uninhabitable area according to a report by the United Nations in 2012 entitled "Gaza in 2020... A Livable Place?". More than 80% of the population subsists on humanitarian aid. The unemployment rate in the Gaza Strip has reached 52%, of whom 75% are female. Women's participation rate in the labor force in the Gaza Strip does not exceed 20%, and 21% of married women were married before the age of 18.

The poor economic and social conditions in the Gaza Strip constitute a fertile environment for the increasing rates of gender-based violence against girls and women in Palestinian society. The results of the 2019 Violence Survey indicated that nearly one-third of Palestinian women are subjected to violence, of which 38% are in the Gaza Strip. Moreover, 16 women were killed this year, from January to October, for various reasons, including so-called "Honor Crimes". The Israeli siege and crossings closure prevented hundreds of women from traveling to complete their studies and receive treatment abroad, especially cancer patients.

The pandemic worsened the conditions of women in the Gaza Strip, since women are always more burdened during social crises. The virus spread in the unlivable Gaza Strip among a dilapidated health system as a result of lack of devices, equipment, and medicines.

The State of Palestine declared a state of emergency on the fifth of March and the de-facto government in Gaza has taken a series of precautionary measures to limit the spread of the virus. However, most of the interventions did not address the social reality, of which the direst issue is gender-based violence, despite high rates of violence during the pandemic. In the Gaza Strip, emergency committees were formed without real participation of civil society organizations and with no presence of women.

The movement restrictions affected the economic situation of women and their families. Many women lost their jobs, especially part time contract holders, daily workers, and kindergarten workers. 98% of women-led small businesses in the Gaza Strip have halted operations, and women entrepreneurs are put in a real dilemma, especially those who are the breadwinners of their families (Source: Women's Affairs Center study about the impact of Coronavirus on small businesses in the Gaza Strip).

The pandemic has worsened inequality in the distribution of gender roles, as it has increased women's domestic burdens and unpaid care tasks. Women take care of children, the elderly, the sick, people with disabilities, and others who need care and attention within the family. They are also responsible for educating their children, especially when schools and various educational institutions are closed. Women are also responsible for caring for people infected with Coronavirus quarantined at home, which increases their risk of infection.

More than 50% of Palestinian families suffer from food insecurity and malnutrition. Under less or no income in families, women and girls are the first affected as families cut down on their food consumption and quality. The worsening economic situation and food security also provokes family tensions that escalate in violence.

The pandemic has increased the incidence of gender-based violence in all its forms and types. A study conducted by the Women's Affairs Center found that 84% of women stated that they had been subjected to more violence than before the pandemic, not to mention the social stigma and bullying suffered by women infected with the virus.

The closure of the Civic and Sharia courts impeded the course of justice and prevented women victims of gender-based violence from accessing their rights, especially their right to custody, seeing children, alimony, etc.

A large number of women who have contacted us during the pandemic suffer from depression, anxiety, excessive nervousness, severe fear, obsession with following up news, and other psychological and mental disorders.

Women, especially women with [visual] disabilities, have less access to digital infrastructure, and so have less access to crucial information regarding the pandemic, including health and reproduction health services, and even treatment for COVID-19. d

For Palestinian women, the nightmarish circle of violence, sickness, and deprivation continues under a seemingly endless occupation

About the author: Amal Syam is an activist and advocate of women's human rights and gender equality, a gender trainer, and researcher from Gaza, Palestine. She has held the position of Director of Women's Affair Center (WAC) since 2009.

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Palestinian Women in the Gaza Strip between Siege and Covid-19

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Palestinian women in the Gaza Strip live in difficult conditions as a result of the deteriorating internal political, economic, and social conditions under the offenses of the ongoing occupation, the Palestinian division, and the imposed siege on the Gaza Strip. Living conditions under...

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February 2021: “I was unaware of the disastrous consequences that could result from circumcision"

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February 2021: “I was unaware of the disastrous consequences that could result from circumcision"

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Disclaimer: This article was originally published on the

Thérèse Coulibaly by Nicolas Réméné.

MISEREOR blog as part of the Strong Women series. Thérèse Coulibaly is Malian; she is an animator and activist, fighting for a law banning gender-based violence with a focus on female genital mutilation.
At the age of 8 in my home village, I was circumcised along with about 30 other young girls. The pain I felt during the procedure and the hemorrhage that followed are still engraved in my memory. However, until adulthood, I never condemned circumcision, believing it was normal. At that time, I was unaware of the disastrous consequences that could result from it. I had a total of six children, one boy and five girls. Unfortunately, the first- born boy died during childbirth. While following my husband to the north of Mali for service reasons I discovered that the indigenous communities did not practice circumcision. I contracted my penultimate pregnancy in Gao and my labour lasted more than 3 hours. The Touareg people who came in more than 2 hours after me all gave birth before me. Surprised by these facts, I asked the matron for an explanation and she replied in these terms: uncut women have a clitoris that makes childbirth easier for them.

At the same time as this revelation, an information campaign was being conducted on television and radio about the consequences of circumcision. This is when I saw a television program on the consequences of circumcision that described at the end my own reproductive health issues: the sharp pain, the heavy bleeding during and after the procedure, the difficulties of giving birth, the loss of a baby; to say that all this was caused by circumcision. Then I knew I would not subject my daughters to circumcision.

When I returned to South Mali, I got to know the Tagnè association that was fighting against circumcision and other forms of gender-based violence. I explained to them my motivation for their work and my personal history. The entire team of the association felt sympathy for the suffering I had endured and accepted my request to join their structure as a facilitator.

Nowadays I am happy and proud that I did not have my daughters circumcised and that they are living their family life without experiencing the consequences of circumcision.

Today, in my capacity as a facilitator, I have seen the Tagnè association (a partner of CIDSE's German member organisation MISEREOR), which is now an NGO, set up several women's groups which benefit from the economic assistance fund enabling many women to carry out income-generating activities. In addition, they participate in community development activities. It was a great satisfaction for me when two of the greatest circumcisers and their apprentices came to declare, and I quote:

"The information on the consequences of female circumcision that we received during the talks and screenings during your animation sequences showed us that we can and must brave tradition to preserve the reproductive health of our daughters in order to guarantee them a fulfilling future".

A continuous fight

Similar to Thérèse, 200 million girls and women alive today have been subjected to female genital mutilation, according to data from 30 countries. Female genital mutilation is mainly concentrated in the Western, Eastern and North-Eastern regions of Africa, as well as in some countries of the Middle East and Asia.

February 6 th is the International Day of Zero Tolerance to Female Genital Mutilation, which is considered a violation of the human rights of girls and women.

Photo: Flickr.com/UNICEF Ethiopia.

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"I was unaware of the disastrous consequences that could result from circumcision"

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Disclaimer: This article was originally published on the MISEREOR blog as part of the Strong Women series. Thérèse Coulibaly is Malian; she is an animator and activist, fighting for a law banning gender-based violence with a focus on female genital mutilation. Thérèse...

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March 2021: International women's day 2021: CIDSE and its members stand in solidarity with women around the world

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March 2021: International women's day 2021: CIDSE and its members stand in solidarity with women around the world

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Monday 8 March 2021 was International Women's Day (IWD). A day to celebrate women's achievements, raise awareness about gender equality and women's rights, and challenge inequality and injustice. However, as our Secretary General Josianne Gauthier, highlighted "March 8, 2021 is so very different from previous years. We are entering the second year of the COVID-19 pandemic, one that has shaken our world, exposed all of our disfunctions and inequalities and the extent to which we have been overburdening our planet, its resources, our brothers and most especially our sisters around the world and who saved us from the worst situations."

In the same line, the Vatican Covid-19 Comission published a cross-cutting summary titled "Women in the COVID-19: Disproportionately affected and protagonists of regeneration", which also includes the specific vision of the Catholic Church in gender equality during the pandemic, as well as examples and cases around the world supported by CIDSE members.

This unique context has been reflected in the IWD messages of many of our member organisations. They have highlighted different ways in which the pandemic and its confinement measures have exacerbated pre-existing inequalities, injustices and vulnerabilities. However, the messages also clearly show that programmes, project and activities can help overcome these when gender equality and women's rights are at their core.

A summary of some of our members' messages for International Women's Day can be found below.

Broederlijk Delen - Sustainable world with equality

Broederlijk Delen strives for gender justice as part of social change on the way to an equal and sustainable world. Their programmes and activities on gender justice take into account the interests, opportunities and consequences for different genders. For the IWD, the organisation supported an initiative of the campaign by the EU-LAT network which recognizes the leadership of women in the response to the COVID-19 crisis.

This campaign focusses on how the pandemic has deepened existing inequalities even further in a context where women are more active than men in the informal sector and take on most of the care tasks. The rise of domestic violence has also been a consequence of the pandemic.

CAFOD - Womens' and girls' empowerment as a way to improve income and self-esteem.

For the IWD, CAFOD highlighted projects that empower women's livelihoods. One example comes from Nicaragua where the impact of COVID-19 has left many families vulnerable. By learning to grow crops and produce honey, women in rural Nicaragua are improving their incomes and self-esteem.

CAFOD works also to provide them with products for their period. These materials are a basic need, but for women living in refugee camps or in poverty, the access to sanitary products is still a challenge. Find out how you can collaborate.

CCFD-Terre Solidaire - Patriarchy is an obstacle to the fight against hunger

On IWD, Sylvie Bukhari-de Pontual, president of CCFD-Terre Solidaire, shared in an opinion piece how "patriarchal culture and the denial of women's rights are an obstacle to the struggle for food sovereignty in the world". She stressed that the COVID-19 crisis exacerbates gender inequality, for example, through increased risks of domestic violence in confined homes and increased job precarity. On their social media, one of their partners stressed how this patriarchal culture affects migrant women resulting in various threats including sexual violence.

CIDSE - (5 years of) blogging for gender equality

On IWD 2016, the first CIDSE Gender Equality Blogpost was published. This year, on IWD, CIDSE celebrated 5 years of blogging for gender equality and women's rights. Throughout these years, we were able to "create a space to share many unheard stories and reflections on how our work for social justice intersects with the individual struggles of women and men from around the world fighting for gender equality and the rights of women." To honour those who courageously shared their stories and experiences with us and allow you to re-read some of these strong and powerful testimonies, we put together a collection of blogs which document this journey of reflection and inspiration. Read it in this link.

Photo: Cidse.org

Cordaid - Fighting inequality together

During the week of the International Women's Day, Cordaid shared inspiring stories from colleagues and partners around the world that are fighting inequality in everything they do - from health care to sexual rights, from participating in the political process to providing food, water and income. "Around the world, in front of and behind the scenes, women and men fight against gender inequality and for a more inclusive society. They are building a world in which everyone counts", says the organisation. All these amazing stories are available to read.

You can also read the opinion piece of Mahamuda Rahman, communications officer at Cordaid, who reflects on "how both men and women are victims of the patriarchal society we live in".

Development and Peace - Women on the frontlines of the pandemic

Development and Peace recalled how the COVID-19 pandemic and the confinement measures have exacerbated pre-existing vulnerabilities such as domestic violence and food insecurity. They also drew attention to the many ways in which women are on the frontlines of the pandemic "both because of its specific negative impacts on them and because they are stepping up to play vital roles in the pandemic response". You can read here how their partners report that women are affected by and responding to the pandemic.

Entraide & Fraternité - Supporting the Association for the Promotion of Female Entrepreneurship

On International Women's Day, Entraide & Fraternité focused on the work of their Congolese partner APEF, an association that offers tools to women of South Kivu (DRC) to increase the livelihoods and improve their economic and social position. Watch the story of Germaine and learn more about the work of APEF

Fastenopfer - Women are the key in the fight for climate justice

Fastenopfer used the occasion of IWD to thank once more the thousands of women who work for climate justice in their projects, highlighting that their work is crucial. Gender equality, they say, has a major impact not only on society, but also on climate. As an example, they highlighted one of their projects that supports women's participation in sustainable agriculture.

FOCSIV - Hope is a woman

FOCSIV shared an interview given by FOCSIV's President Ivana Borsotto to Vatican News, in which she stressed the important role of women in society "The women we met are all very strong women, they are the point of reference for their families, they are the point of reference for the communities in which they live. We are convinced, deeply convinced, that women are and will be the engine of the physical, moral, community and cultural reconstruction of this country, so hope is a woman".

The interview was given during the Pope's recent visit to the holy city of Qaraqosh in Iraq and in follow-up to a speech by the Pope in which he closed with a thought addressed to courageous women, asking that they be respected and protected in a country where, instead, they were violated in all aspects of their lives. Focsiv's director also pointed out how the words of Pope Francis confirm the usefulness of the vocational training courses and psychological support services that FOCSIV offers to women. You can read the full interview at this link.

Manos Unidas - The pandemic has accentuated the discrimination suffered by women

Manos Unidas drew attention to the fact that "the pandemic has accentuated the multiple discriminations that women traditionally suffer", as their article states. Besides being exposed to an increased workload and stress, women work generally in precarious and poorly paid jobs and have been the first to lose their jobs during the restrictions.

"For this reason, since its inception 62 years ago, Manos Unidas has worked for effective equality, in rights, capabilities and opportunities between women and men," says Encarni Escobar, project manager in the organisation.

La 'mirada de género' está siempre presente en nuestro trabajo, porque, aunque las mujeres son la mitad de la población mundial, sufren más discriminación, exclusión y vulnerabilidad.
En 2020, aprobamos 45 proyectos, por 2,7 mill € para trabajar por los derechos de las mujeres. pic.twitter.com/54H4S4l8yh
- Manos Unidas ONGD (@ManosUnidasONGD) March 8, 2021

Maryknoll - Honoring the work and fight of Berta Cáceres

Five years ago, on 3 rd March, the Honduran environmental and indigenous leader Berta Cáceres was murdered after receiving several threats for her environmental activism. On the IWD, Maryknoll honored her work inviting followers and readers to take action to end corruption and impunity in Honduras.

"It is essential", Maryknoll stated, "that Senators hear their constituents asking for Congress to carry on Berta's mission to defend indigenous territory and natural resources from harmful development projects. Berta Cáceres worked tirelessly for the indigenous peoples of Honduras. Her courageous activism led to her murder and the planners of the attack have never been held accountable". See full call to action on their webpage.

Misereor - "No socio-ecological change without equality"

Misereor calls for gender equality to be recognized as an essential component of change and draws attention to the growing violence against women and non-heterosexual people worldwide. Sandra Lassak, theological policy advisor at the organisation points out that "what we need are fundamental systemic, structural changes in thinking and practice within society, but especially in our Church (...) The fact that women are important actors of change worldwide and are particularly committed to the limitless overexploitation of nature and to the defense of livelihoods must be given greater focus."

In about 60 percent of the 3,000 projects that Misereor currently supports, gender and gender equality play an important role. They currently support 37 projects around the world that are explicitly committed to the elimination of violence against women (with funding of almost 9 million euros). You can read their dedicated blog 'Strong women. Worldwide'.

Partage.lu - Equality is still an ongoing process

Partage.lu shares the opinion of Michelle Schmit, policy officer at Caritas Luxembourg, on the challenges women face working on the frontlines and due to the pandemic restrictions. Schmit highlighted that 70 percent of the workforce in health care and social professions is female. However, they also have less secure jobs than men. "When the economy declines, women are particularly affected by job cuts", she writes for Tageblatt.

For the specialist, as long as global injustices persist, this IWD is needed to remind us that equality between men and women is still an ongoing process.

SCIAF - Gender equality and access to education

This IWD, SCIAF joined thousands of people worldwide, to promote the importance of gender equality and the role that access to education and to the formal job market plays in reducing the gender divide and poverty.

"Dealing with the issue of gender divide and the impact of discrimination against women has huge advantages, not just for women themselves but for society as a whole", says Alistair Dutton, SCIAF director. Women account for almost two thirds (70 percent) of all those living in absolute poverty and make up the majority (80 percent) of all refugees and displaced people.

Trócaire - Fighting against gender-based violence

On 8 March, Trócaire celebrated women who live in conflict affected countries like South Sudan and the DRC. In South Sudan, 65 percent of women and girls have experienced violence and in the DRC 1.9 million have experience rape. This is the reason why Trócaire works with communities and other stakeholders on various fronts to address gender-based violence'. Find out more here.

Vastenactie - Right to a decent wage for women and girls

On IWD, Vastenactie focused on the right to a decent wage for women and girls. Their message was linked to their Lent campaign around the theme 'working on your future'. They shared the story of one of the protagonists of their Lent campaign, Zewelanji from Zambia, who thanks to vocational training was able to realise her dream of becoming a tailor.

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International Women's Day 2021: CIDSE and its members stand in solidarity with women around the world

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Monday 8 March 2021 was International Women's Day (IWD). A day to celebrate women's achievements, raise awareness about gender equality and women's rights, and challenge inequality and injustice. However, as our Secretary General Josianne Gauthier, highlighted "March 8, 2021 is so very different from previous years.

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April 2021: External debt and pandemic, a look at the role of women in society

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April 2021: External debt and pandemic, a look at the role of women in society

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Photo: Flickr.com/Francoise Gaujour

The unsustainability of the debt of countries in the Global South is a decades-old problem in which countries like Bolivia, are immersed. The international crisis of the 1980s had affected the poorest and lowest-income countries. Major creditors, such as the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, agreed to debt relief options called Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC I and HIPC II) and the Multilateral Debt Relief Initiative (MDRI). Bolivia benefited from these initiatives, under the condition that the freed resources were used to strengthen health, education and productive development, covered by the execution of local governments and with the active participation of civil society.

More than 20 years have passed since these initiatives were implemented. While the efforts to fulfil the conditions were made at the beginning, over time, political and social interests took center stage in the design of public policies.

In March 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic arrived unexpectedly in Bolivia, coming across a weakened health system with untrained medical staff and a shortage of medicine on the market. The government implemented radical measures to curb contagion, restricting the movement of people, suspending work and educational activities and reducing economic activity; precisely three sectors that had been prioritised in the orientation of public policies after the debt cancellation were evaluated in light of the pandemic in Bolivia: health, education and productive development. Could the COVID-19 pandemic reveal if the commitments made in the HIPC I and II and the MDRI were fulfilled?

During the pandemic, work, school and social activities were completely suspended and the family nucleus became the most important social "place" remaining. During this hard time, one character took the lead in caring for the life and health of the household: the woman, who not only took charge of the temporary education of the children, they also took care of the household, the economy, and even of the sick when the hospitals collapsed. Coincidentally, the same three sectors - health, education and productive development - fell on the shoulders of women.

Despite the times, conditions and opportunities are not equal for men and women. The levels of inequality in society, labour, income and access to education still persist. There are countries where women are still subjected to forced labour and have no voice. The pandemic has also revealed an even darker side, which is domestic violence and feminicide. In Bolivia, 113 cases of feminicide and 51 cases of infanticide have been reported during the pandemic. The numbers of victims of violence and their typologies are neither recorded nor published.

At the level of the Latin American and Caribbean region, according to the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) data, the Gross Domestic Product is expected to fall 9.1%, which places many of our countries in a situation of extreme vulnerability. In Bolivia, only 1.6% of national GDP is allocated to the health sector and 46% of the employed population are women, working in the commerce, services and agriculture sectors. To reactivate the post-pandemic economy, women and their role must be considered in the definition of national and local public policies.

On the other hand, during humanitarian aid deliveries, Caritas Bolivia was able to identify the multiple tasks that women carry out in their homes. But also in rural areas, many women construct family economies, which have allowed them to supply their homes with basic agricultural foodstuffs, and at the same time they are articulators in their communities. Manifestations of solidarity that have arisen through the creation of "common pots" and care for the most vulnerable including the elderly, show us that the role of women is similar to God's love of the earth.

Based on the evaluation that the pandemic has provoked, it is necessary to recognise the significant role of women in society. This highlights the need for their equal participation in the response and recovery mechanisms of the COVID-19 crisis and in the definition of comprehensive public policies, especially in the health, education and family economy sectors. In order for economic growth to benefit the wider population, women's participation in the labor market should be supported under conditions of equal rights.

And on the other hand, men and women's domestic tasks should be equally distributed under a fair divide of responsibility. According to the International Labour Organization, women are responsible for 76.2% of all hours of unpaid domestic work, and it is they who work double or triple shifts, a situation that has worsened with COVID 19.

In the post pandemic period, governments will have to face the burden of existing debt and the burden of newly contracted debts, and at the same time recover their economies. These are challenges that will have to be addressed from the critical viewpoint of women.

Caritas Bolivia, as the social arm of the Catholic Church, works for the defense of life and against any kind of violence or discrimination, especially for the most vulnerable and disadvantaged groupsincluding women.

The COVID-19 pandemic demands a profound reflection on the deficient health and education systems in Latin America and the Caribbean. During this economic crisis, the real impacts of the debt cancellation processes deserve an evaluation of the fulfilment of the objectives and commitments. Women have played a transcendental role in these processes. It is necessary to consider women in the development of public policies.

Pope Francis said: "The feminine genius is necessary in all expressions of social life; therefore, the presence of women must also be guaranteed in the workplace and in the various places where important decisions are made, both in the Church and in social structures" (Evangelii Gaudium).

About the author: MSc. Marcela Rabaza Valverde is the executive director of Pastoral Social Caritas Bolivia. She is an economist from the Bolivian Catholic University San Pablo and has postgraduate studies in public politics and management, preparation, social evaluation and project management, among others. Rabaza is a regional reference of the Team of New Economies and Good Living of the Latin American and Caribbean Secretariat Cáritas and 20 years of work experience in public and private functions and in international organizations and NGOs, in Bolivia.

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External debt and pandemic, a look at the role of women in society

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Photo: Flickr.com/Francoise Gaujour SP VERSION The unsustainability of the debt of countries in the Global South is a decades-old problem in which countries like Bolivia, are immersed. The international crisis of the 1980s had affected the poorest and lowest-income countries. Major...

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October 2021: Two years after the amazon synod: indigenous women's voices more relevant than ever

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October 2021: Two years after the amazon synod: indigenous women's voices more relevant than ever

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In October 2019, over two hundred people gathered for three weeks in Rome for the Amazon Synod to discuss Integral Ecology, the Amazon, and the Church. This important gathering aimed to put at the centre of the Church's reflection the lives of 34 million people, as well as the protection of all forms of life in this region and its biodiversity, as a key contribution to the care of our common home. It opened up an important dialogue with local communities and lifted up their voices. Two years after the Amazon Synod, we share again some of these testimonies that are still very relevant.
The series 'Voices of Women: Amazon Synod', of which we share excepts below, was originally published by Maryknoll Office for Global Concerns, CIDSE's member based in the USA.

Visolela Rosalinda "Rosa" Namises

Right before the Amazon Synod, Maryknoll Lay Missioner, Kathy Bond, interviewed indigenous women and women invited to participate. One of these indigenous women was Visolela Rosalinda "Rosa" Namises, a social, gender equality and human rights activist and chief of the /Khomanin people in Namibia. When asked ' What would you like to say to Pope Francis and all those meeting in Rome for the Synod on the Amazon about the value of indigenous traditions and spirituality in a broken world?' she replied:

"I want to say thank you for this opportunity that is rarely given to us as women and especially women from the perspective of Indigenous cultures [...] I know that your teachings were first not Catholic. They were indigenous. The prayers, blessings with water, incense that we as Catholics are using today, especially in baptism, all of it comes from the indigenous. If we lose the Amazon, if we lose our indigenous lifestyle, if we kill our mothers and our fathers - the holders of this wisdom - and if we fail to protect them, it will harm the generations to come, including the new priests who will become bishops and pope. I am asking you as you deliberate to find a small space in your hearts to protect the Amazon, to protect the indigenous people's ways of living".

Sweet Medicine

Another indigenous woman interviewed ahead of the Synod was Sweet Medicine Nation, a Native American woman medicine healer of Chickasaw lineage. Living in Oregon's green forest for the last 50 years, she has worked to give voice to those things of nature that cannot speak.

Sweet Medicine: "What I would speak to in a Synod is to speak for all of those who have no voice [and no way] to stand in a Synod: the trees, the water, and the animals. [...] I would speak for the animals that are becoming extinct because of our greed. [...] I would to speak to the vulnerability of our wanting to control things that are natural. [...] I would say that I come here as a representative of the world of nations that cannot stand before you today and I would [say] consider who and what is the higher law. The natural law was here before we had language. And who are we to feel as if we have the higher law when it is in God's hands, the great Mystery's hands. What befalls us? We must guard and protect the knowledge and the wisdom of our inner council before we even turn ourselves over to other councils. I would ask each one of you [at the Synod on the Amazon] to consider when you deliberate and make decisions that you are looking at the total of those that you have been entrusted to care for. The fish can't make it home if when we are farming, polluting lakes, and rivers and ocean. We are farming fish. They don't want to be farmed, they want to be free just like you and me. We need to remember compassion and non-judgment. ... We don't understand others' ways until we walk in their moccasins".

As a representative of the Cry for Life Network (Rede um Grito pela Vida), working to combat human trafficking in the Amazon region of Brazil, Sister Roselei Bertoldo was one of those invited to participate in the Synod. Through her involvement in the process leading up to the Synod, she heard the voices of women across the Amazon naming situations of death, for example, the destruction of the environment and indigenous communities. "The women of the Amazon bring to the surface all of these realities: internal migration and international immigration, the lack of jobs and life opportunities. The expulsion of communities in the rural regions due to mega projects such as hydro-electric dams, mining, and agro-business also destroys local cultures."

Roselei Bertoldo

'I will take to Pope Francis the voices of these women who say the Church cannot be silent in the face of such violations. In the process of evangelization, the Church must protect life. When women are violated, when their bodies are violated, the Body of Christ is violated. Many women say that the Church is present, caring for the people, their cultures, and the land. Where the Catholic Church is no longer present, however, for example, where evangelical churches have been planted, some say there has been an increase in illegal mining and exploitation. We want to say to Pope Francis that the Church plays an important role in protecting life in the Amazon. It is not possible to talk about evangelization in the Amazon without considering the problems of violence against women, femicide, violence against youth, sexual abuse and exploitation'.

At the Amazon Synod, 36 women were able to participate. Sister Roselei Bertoldo: 'We, women, made great strides. We may not be able to translate what they all mean right now, but we are sure that we have left a legacy for future generations by opening new paths to a church with a feminine and feminist face, a church that builds and grows, so that we have communities that take care of life and our common home.'

Josianne Gauthier

This feeling was echoed by CIDSE's Secretary General, Josianne Gauthier. Invited to join the Synod as a special guest, she was deeply moved by the women present. "These women, from all parts of the Amazon, reflected many different views and identities: Indigenous, Lay, and Religious. They were strong, they were listened to and they commanded respect and called for action. The raw power of their courageous testimonies in and out of the Synod discussions, as well as their invaluable contribution to the life of the Church in the Amazon, shows a love for humanity and for our Common Home which came through with passion and urgency. I learned a great deal from every one of them and know that this too is part of the profound and illuminating change in the Church which must continue after the Synod."

Sources:

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Two years after the Amazon Synod: Indigenous women's voices more relevant than ever

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In October 2019, over two hundred people gathered for three weeks in Rome for the Amazon Synod to discuss Integral Ecology, the Amazon, and the Church. This important gathering aimed to put at the centre of the Church's reflection the lives of 34 million people, as well as the protection of all...

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May 2021: The role of women in the church: some reflections on recent development. 

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May 2021: The role of women in the church: some reflections on recent development. 

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In February, Pope Francis appointed sister Nathalie Becquart (a member of the Xavière Sisters, Missionaries of Jesus Christ in France) as one of the two under-secretaries to the General Secretariat of the Synod of Bishops. The appointment was described by many as "historic". It was not the first time that Pope Francis took steps to elevate the role of women in the Church. However, this specific position as under-secretary had never been held by a woman and it gives Sister Becquart the right to vote in a body that advises the Pope on crucial issues taken up by the Catholic Church.

Are these changes the start of a trend towards more gender equality within the Church? Or are they rather a (too) small drop in the ocean? To reflect on these developments, we asked three women close to CIDSE to share, each from their own perspective, on what this and other recent steps could mean for women's dignity and rights in the Catholic Church.

Sister Anne Béatrice Faye is a sister of the Congregation of the Sisters of Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception of Castres and participated in the Synod of Bishops for the Pan-Amazon region in 2019; Susan Gunn is the Director of Maryknoll (CIDSE member in the USA); Sandra Lassak is a catholic theologian working as a theological advisor for Misereor (CIDSE member in Germany).
What did you feel when you first heard the news of Sister Becquart's appointment?
Sister Anne Beatrice: "I felt surprise, emotion and pride when I heard that she had been appointed. I feel that this choice of the Pope demonstrates a real change in the decision-making location within the Church; mentalities are changing in the sense that the question of the place of women in the Church is not only carried by women but now reaches the whole Church. By putting the emphasis on common discernment, Pope Francis is making a concrete, prophetic gesture, which is not, however, isolated in the Roman Curia."

Susan Gunn was also thrilled when she heard the news: "To have a woman involved with making decisions about what topics and who to include in the meetings strikes me as logical, appropriate - the way it should be. More than half of the world's 1.3 billion Catholics are women and the membership of female religious orders is about three times larger than that of male orders."
However, with the pride and excitement also came other feelings.
"It only took a heartbeat for a second emotion to overtake me - embarrassment. Now the press will once again write things about the role of women in the Catholic Church like 'what took so long?' and 'is change finally at hand?' The truth is, I don't know what has taken so long for this appointment to happen and I don't know if change is at hand. As a lifelong woman Catholic in the United States, I have grown accustomed to turning away from the reality of the preponderance of men in leadership roles in the Church and instead, focusing my time and attention on what I call faith in action, living the beatitudes. As Pope Francis said to the people during his visit to Iraq in March, living the beatitudes can change the world. The beatitudes are not a call for a moment of heroics but about imitating Jesus each day, Pope Francis said. "That is how the world is changed: not by power and might, but by the beatitudes."

Sandra Lassak: "The news that Sister Nathalie Becquart was elected as the first woman to receive voting rights in the Synod of Bishops seemed to be a sign of the will to implement much-needed reforms within the Catholic Church. But taking a closer look it becomes clear that neither the appointment of women to certain posts nor the admission of women to lay ministries of lector and acolyte are real structural systemic changes.
Indeed, Pope Francis published in January an apostolic letter modifying the Code of Canon Law so that women can now be formally instituted to the lay ministries of lector and acolyte. Is this official, formal recognition meaningful in any way? What could the recent appointments mean for women's dignity and rights in the church in the future?
" This formal recognition is meaningful to me because I am the mother of three daughters. When my husband and I were searching for a place to live near Washington, D.C. in the early 2000s, we chose not to live in the Diocese of Arlington, just south of the city, because girls and women were not permitted as altar servers. The bishop there decided to end that restriction in 2006, he said, to allow Catholics to "participate more reverently, more actively, more fully in Mass."

Sister Anne Béatrice: "Increasingly aware of their dignity and specific leadership, women are less and less willing to be seen as an instrument. They demand to be treated as persons, both in society and in the Church. My hope is that this appointment will open other doors for women in the Catholic Church and remove the ambiguity of their possibility of exercising or not an ecclesial ministry and sharing decision-making powers in the work of the mission. By joining episcopal councils and some minor orders, they can help the Church to make its mission more transparent. With their dedication, self-giving, welcome, attentiveness to the poorest, their voices can be heard more fully. As Pope Francis points out, "we cannot understand a Church without women, without those women active in the Church, with their profile, who make things happen...". Their voices are needed on environmental issues, peace, reconciliation and justice".

Sandra Lassak: "For me, they are rather fig leaves or small pastoral consolations for those women still involved in church and parishes. Even though the beginning of Pope Francis' pontificate brought a sense of hope and new beginnings for the Church, this has been rather disillusioned. Neither in questions of a rigid, controlling sexual morality nor in relation to structural gender discrimination anything considerable has happened. What remains for Catholic women is to raise their voices loudly and clearly, to organise themselves together and to creatively and self-determinedly create their own communal spaces of being and living in the church beyond the sacralized patriarchal power structures - as they are part of the church themselves."
Picture: Synod on the Amazon, 2019 ©CIDSE
Susan Gunn: "Allowing women to participate more fully in the Mass and in decision-making is not only good for them, but good for all. As indigenous woman Lilla Watson said at the UN Decade for Women Conference in Nairobi in 1985, "If you have come here to help me you are wasting your time, but if you have come because your liberation is bound up with mine, then let us work together."

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The role of women in the Church: Some reflections on recent developments

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A major milestone or a tiny drop in the ocean? In February, Pope Francis appointed sister Nathalie Becquart (a member of the Xavière Sisters, Missionaries of Jesus Christ in France) as one of the two under-secretaries to the General Secretariat of the Synod of Bishops. The appointment was...

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July 2021: Linking gender equality and food justice in the run-up to the UN Food Systems Summit

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July 2021: Linking gender equality and food justice in the run-up to the UN Food Systems Summit

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Ahead of the United Nations Food Systems Summit, which is being criticized by civil society for being disproportionately influenced by corporate actors, we asked Chiara Martinelli and Harriet Nakasi to reflect on the linkages between gender equality and food justice.

Chiara Martinelli is S enior Advisor at CIDSE and Harriet Nakasi is Executive Director of the Advocacy Coalition for Sustainable Agriculture in Uganda (ACSA).

What is, for you, the connection between food justice and gender justice?

Harriet: Food justice requires a holistic and structural view of the food systems. It sees healthy food as a human right and addresses structural barriers to that. In that sense, food justice is directly linked to gender justice. By looking at the situation of food production with respect to access and control over land and other resources by women in Africa, we see that there is control by men over the produce and proceeds from the production. Women's involvement in decision making with respect to food and land is minimal. For example, the man may choose to dispose of the land without consulting the woman, which exposes women and children to vulnerabilities. Due to cultural provisions, it is common women do not inherit property and yet over 60% of food production is done by them. This ultimately affects the livelihood of households, communities and the country at large.

Women's reproductive role also calls for adequate nutritional requirements, however, women have indicated that "our men sell the good quality food we produce leaving us with low quality for food in the households". This may also explain the mismatch between food production and consumption where we may have high levels of malnutrition in big food producing areas, such as in the case of Uganda.

The fact that women often do not own land also excludes them from accessing resources and finance and keeps them dependent on men. Other options for women to access finances often put emphasis on a "group rather than individual approach". Therefore, there is a need to engender decision making and resource allocation. In addition, many households rent land for food production but failure to pay the rent leads to forfeiting a big percentage of produce (bigger than what the farmer remains with). This calls for clear guidelines on renting land and public awareness on their right over land.

African laws leave gaps in succession of property, a small percentage of which goes to women and their children. No rights are guaranteed to women in the case of couples that are not legally married. This also relates to unequal access to justice for women. Uganda tried to improve the situation with the Human Rights Enforcement Act of 2019, which allows to a certain extent to redress inequalities and injustices for women. It is also a matter of access to justice. It is necessary to ensure that the process of seeking justice at lower-level courts and access to government lawyers is not complicated to address human right violations.

Why it is so important to highlight women's contribution in the field of nutrition?

Chiara: Food insecurity has a disproportionate impact on women around the world. However, women are not only victims of this dominant food system that does not guarantee food justice, but they are also agents of change, bringing inputs to build these food systems from an integral ecology perspective. We must talk about a culture of care, with a women's perspective of taking care of the planet, of others, of diversity, and ensuring an inclusion of various actors in building resilient food systems. This is a contribution that women can bring to this discussion. In addition, women are in the front lines of producing their own crops in different regions of the world, but also in diplomacy, in politics, and in business, bringing forward a common thread of a culture of care.

The United Nations Food Systems Summit could be a game-changer for the evolution and transformation of food systems. Which policy and advocacy messages related to gender equality, human rights and food justice do you see as crucial to emphasize in the run up to the UN Food Systems Summit?

Harriet: Ahead of the UN Food systems Summit various players should refocus their aspirations towards an inclusive food system that can work for the poor and marginalized groups. This should encompass the following: investment in "agriculture as a business" implying, for example, additional efforts to provide farmers with a strong bargaining power for produce, the ability to add value to produce, undertaking collective production and management, together with the diversification of enterprises with well-planned farm activities and access to technical advice whenever needed; ensuring access to markets and agro-processing facilities; support towards climate resilient agriculture production systems; mainstreaming agro-ecology in policies around food systems; and addressing gaps in human and structural capacity to support the agricultural sector. On the other hand, one of the immediate goals should be the empowerment and mindset change of women and men to know their rights and to break through cultural demands in addition to increasing access to human rights information.

Chiara: What emerges for me as a common thread is inclusiveness: a focus on listening to the concrete experiences of those on the front lines who face the issue of food insecurity, listening to the experience and expertise of small farmers from different parts of the world, listening to the contribution of women in this process. The Summit should be inclusive, and we should ensure that there's a seat at the table for the people who suffer the most from food insecurity in the world, but also for the small farmers in various parts of the world who contribute to the production of food for all of us.

How do you see the role of the Church and other participants in this transformation of food systems towards caring for our common home so that no one is left behind?

Chiara: The Holy See and the various actors of the Church should contribute to this process towards the United Nations Food Systems Summit with an approach based on the vision of integral ecology that Pope Francis presents us in the Encyclical Laudato si'. This is key to addressing global challenges in a systemic and non-sectoral way. We should not look at food injustice only as a problem of food scarcity, which certainly needs to be addressed, but also as a problem of justice. Inequality must be addressed through the entire food system from production to consumption to distribution to waste management. Therefore, a 360-degree vision is needed that helps us see which key elements are needed to have a food system that is attentive to the scarcity of food in some of the most vulnerable parts of the planet, but also aims to be resilient, able to adapt to climate change, and can ensure healthy nutrition for all.

Context:

Chiara Martinelli's answers are adapted from the following interview: Le donne agenti di cambiamento nel campo della sicurezza alimentare - Vatican News

Harriet Nakasi shared her views on food justice more broadly during a webinar organized by the Vatican, titled: "Food justice: jobs, Innovation, and finance at the service of food justice". Her intervention can be found at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XsCLjyh_TDQ (Minute 39:00 to 49:30)

More about CIDSE's position and role regarding the UN Food Systems Summit can be found HERE. Some reflections on food systems and justice from CIDSE Secretary General Josianne Gauthier can be watched HERE.

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Linking gender equality and food justice in the run-up to the United Nations Food Systems Summit

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Photo: UN Women. Ahead of the United Nations Food Systems Summit, which is being criticized by civil society for being disproportionately influenced by corporate actors, we asked Chiara Martinelli and Harriet Nakasi to reflect on the linkages between gender equality...