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Economic Empowerment
Environmental Sustainability
Food Security and Healthcare
Learning Opportunities
Violence and Conflict Resolution
3E Project: Healthcare
The objective for this Programme area is to “Improve access to economic empowerment and sustainable opportunities for the employment of women”. (See the full list of Programme Objectives).
For further information about the Assistant Programme Director for Economic Empowerment, see the Programme Team Page.
Women comprise half of the world’s population, perform 66% of the world’s work, produce 50% of the food and constitute between 60 and 80% of the manufacturing workforce in developing countries. Despite their major contribution to socio-economic development, women continue to be marginalised in many countries around the world. (Centre for International Private Enterprise) – www.cipe.org
Women Farmers in the Gambia - supported by SI Banjul
Gender equity is a basic human right and despite considerable progress in awareness raising and improving conditions for women, gender inequalities are still pervasive in the world today. (International Fund for Agricultural Development) – www.ifad.org.
Michelle Bachelet - Executive Director of UN Women
2010 saw the appointment of Michelle Bachelet as Executive Director of UN Women, the new UN entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of women, a merger of four former UN agencies and offices (including UNIFEM). One of UN Women’s key focus areas is economic empowerment, in particular in countries where the status of women is low and this includes countries in a post-conflict situation. (www.unwomen.org ). According to Bachelet, ‘Gender Equality Must Become a Lived Reality’.
Studies have shown that when women are supported and empowered, all of society benefits. Families are healthier, more children go to school, agricultural productivity improves and incomes increase. (The Hunger Project) - www.thehungerproject.co.uk
Barriers to Women’s Economic Empowerment include:
Kathcari tribal women in India – supported by SI Bombay
Cultural – Traditional society, especially in developing countries, does not encourage the empowerment of women and the concept of gender equity is neither uniformly known nor accepted. This barrier, although informal, has a strong effect on the determination of women to undertake entrepreneurial activities.
What can Soroptimists do to help?
References:
In 2012 we are asking all our members to take steps throughout the year for Fairtrade. We will record all our steps on our online database and see how far Soroptimists can step out for Fairtrade.
Check out the video on YouTube http://youtu.be/J60mvcp_Q_E
On 29th February – leap year day, we are asking all Clubs to give a good start to our campaign. One STEP on that day will equal a GIANT FAIRTRADE LEAP for Soroptimists.
You can order Action Guide and resources from the Fairtrade Foundation online shop.
Fairtrade is about better prices, decent working conditions, local sustainability, and fair terms of trade for farmers and workers in the developing world. By requiring companies to pay sustainable prices (which must never fall lower than the market price), Fairtrade addresses the injustices of conventional trade, which traditionally discriminates against the poorest, weakest producers. It enables them to improve their position and have more control over their lives.
Read more about Soroptimist International Great Britain and Ireland (SIGBI)’s partnership with the Fairtrade Foundation.
One out of seven people in the world is suffering from hunger. Hunger and malnutrition are not inescapable natural facts, according to ActionAid’s report on Women’s Land Rights, they are the consequence of inequalities between rich and poor, men and women.
More than 60% of the hungry are women and children, yet women produce 60% to 80% of the food in developing countries. In many countries legislation prevents women from owning and inheriting land, which increases their vulnerability to poverty and exposes them to further discrimination. Women lose their land rights as a consequence of their husbands’ death.
Felitus Kures is a widow living in North Eastern Uganda. Her husband’s death left her solely responsible for their children. To meet their needs, she depended on the small piece of land she and her husband had farmed together. But just months after his funeral, her in-laws sold her husband’s land without her knowledge. “We only realized this when the buyer came to evict us,” Ms. Kures explains. She was able to regain use of the land after she got legal assistance with the help of the Uganda Land Alliance, a civil society group that campaigns for land rights.
Ms. Kures’s plight is a common one in Africa, although she was more fortunate than most other women. Many never regain access or rights to matrimonial land lost after divorce or the death of a spouse.
Experts report that women in Africa contribute 70 per cent of food production. They also account for nearly half of all farm labour, and 80–90 per cent of food processing, storage and transport, as well as hoeing and weeding. Yet according to the UN Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) women often lack rights to land. Land rights tend to be held by men or kinship groups controlled by men, and women have access mainly through a male relative, usually a father or husband.
Women’s right to land has seldom been considered in development debates, yet where land is more equally distributed and managed between men and women, there is a marked improvement in economic development, child and maternal health, and education. Where women’s right to own and inherit land is denied, negative spirals of poverty are registered and several socio-economic indicators worsen. Despite this knowledge and heritage of women’s rights in international declarations and conventions, very little has been done in terms of concrete actions and measures. The price crisis of agricultural products and, more broadly, the world economic crisis have sharpened the existing inequalities, amplifying women’s vulnerability related to nutrition. Little has been done on the way to end hunger, eradicate inequalities and give back to women their dignity and food sovereignty.
Women’s rights to land and natural resources, say Action Aid, are the missing link in the analysis of the food crisis. Women’s empowerment, protecting women’s food sovereignty and building their capacity in the agricultural sector is an essential precondition to achieve the 1st Millennium Development Goal, which aims to halve the proportion of people who suffer from hunger by 2015.
More information and sources of reference:-
