Africa

Citation:

Rubin, Maxine. 2020. “Exploring Transitional Justice’s Impact Pathways on Gender Justice: Trends in Sexual and Gender-Based Violence against Women from Thirteen African Cases.” Journal of Human Rights Practice 1 (1): 1-26.

Author: Maxine Rubin

Abstract:

The main element of gender justice addressed in transitional justice processes has been sexual and gender-based violence against women (SGBVAW). This article explores if particular dimensions (core characteristics) of transitional justice processes are more likely to positively contribute toward measures taken by the state to address SGBVAW outcomes. Empirical evidence from 13 African cases suggested that transitional justice processes that had autonomous, gender-inclusive, and reparative dimensions were more likely to see positive SGBVAW outcomes. Pending further research, the results suggest that using these dimensions of transitional justice to unpack the impact pathways of transitional justice helps to clarify the ways that transitional justice can benefit societies. The findings also suggest that impact pathways between transitional justice and SGBVAW outcomes exist, but the nature of these pathways is varied and often indirect.

Keywords: 'transitional justice', Africa, SGBV, conflict-related sexual violence and gender-based violence

Topics: Gender-Based Violence, Justice, Transitional Justice, Post-Conflict, Sexual Violence, SV against Women Regions: Africa

Year: 2020

Citation:

Oswin, Natalie. 2007. “Producing Homonormativity in Neoliberal South Africa: Recognition, Redistribution, and the Equality Project.” Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society 32 (3): 649–69. 

Author: Natalie Oswin

Keywords: homosexuality, homonormativity, neoliberalism, South Africa, LGBTQ+

Annotation:

"When the NCGLE came into being, it opted to pursue a politics of strategic essentialism that ignored the ways in which class, race, and gender issues are inevitably intertwined with sexuality. Thus, it deepened community schisms along these lines and made its self- imposed task of building a strong, cohesive gay and lesbian movement in the postapartheid era that much more difficult. I suggest that its subsequent flawed attempts to bridge a politics of recognition with a meaningful politics of redistribution should not be read as a failure to address the needs of 'poor, black gays and lesbians'. Rather, it should be read as the only possible outcome. The NCGLE/EP did not manage to shake off the yoke of the binary that divides South Africa’s gay and lesbian community into haves and have-nots because it played a role in producing this binary. By serving as a euphemism for community in South African gay and lesbian political discourse, this figure offered a way for the NCGLE/EP to make itself relevant to its intended audience while molding that audience into a cohesive group. The 'poor, black gay and lesbian' is a caricature that played a starring role in the NCGLE/EP’s performance of recognition and redistribution. This figure is the product of the overlay of divisions within the gay and lesbian community onto the strategy of the organization that exacerbated them” (Oswin 2007, 666).

Topics: Intersectionality, LGBTQ, Political Participation Regions: Africa, Southern Africa Countries: South Africa

Year: 2007

Citation:

du Plessis, Gretchen Erika. 2019. “Gendered Human (In)Security in South Africa: What Can Ubuntu Feminism Offer?” Acta Academica 51 (2): 41–63.

Author: Gretchen Erika du Plessis

Abstract:

Gendered human security as a focus for protracted violence against women in a society in transition calls for urgent attention, especially in South Africa. The author summarises some tenets of ubuntu feminism and juxtaposes them with state-centric and people-centric discourses of human security and their link to development, gendered well-being and interpersonal violence. Inadequate attention paid to human interdependency as seen through an ubuntu feminist lens is linked to poor responses in addressing interpersonal and gender violence. The argument is made that an individualised, human-rights based approach is inadequate as a frame to find sustainable solutions to intractable gendered human insecurity. Looking at human insecurity and violence against women in South Africa, this article offers three arguments in favour of ubuntu feminism for renewed efforts to analyse the issue and locate adequate responses.

Keywords: South Africa, African feminism, violence

Topics: Development, Feminisms, Gender, Women, Gender-Based Violence, Rights, Human Rights, Security, Human Security, Violence Regions: Africa, Southern Africa Countries: South Africa

Year: 2019

Citation:

Yolanda Br. Ginting Manik, Junita, and Satwika Paramasatya. 2020. "Diplomasi Digital Midwives4all Sebagai Kebijakan Luar Negeri Feminis Swedia di Uganda." Journal of International Relations 6 (4): 498-509.

Authors: Junita Yolanda Br. Ginting Manik, Satwika Paramasatya

Abstract:

ENGLISH ABSTRACT:

The existence of digitalization has influenced all aspects of life, including international relations, the internet revolution requires a country to race against the times by working actively outside the field of traditional diplomacy. The increasing use of online platforms as well as the wider, fast and efficient reach generated by the transformation of the internet has produced new concepts in the field of diplomacy, namely digital diplomacy.  In connection with the feminist foreign policy ideas adopted by Sweden, the Midwives4all Campaign launched in 2015 is one of the initiatives taken by Sweden to mobilize support for gender equality and fulfillment of women’s human rights in Uganda.  This digital campaign enables the Swedish government to project Swedish values and reach various communities in Uganda through various media both online and offline as well as through champions embraced by the Swedish government to build awareness of the important role of midwives in increasing fulfillment of sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) which is one of the six external objectives of Swedish feminist foreign policy.  This study intends to explain how the Midwives4all Campaign influences efforts to fulfill women's rights in Uganda. This study will be using qualitative research methods with process-tracing data analysis methods and uses the concept of feminist foreign policy and liberal feminism as the basis for analysis in this paper. 

Keywords: feminist foreign policy, Midwives4all Campaign, digital diplomacy, public diplomacy, sweden, Uganda

Topics: Feminisms, Feminist Foreign Policy, Gender, Women, Health, Reproductive Health, Rights, Reproductive Rights, Women's Rights Regions: Africa, East Africa, Europe, Northern Europe Countries: Sweden, Uganda

Year: 2020

Citation:

Schofield, Daniela, and Femke Gubbels. 2019. “Informing Notions of Climate Change Adaptation: A Case Study of Everyday Gendered Realities of Climate Change Adaptation in an Informal Settlement in Dar es Salaam.” Environment & Urbanization 31 (1): 93-114.

Authors: Daniela Schofield, Femke Gubbels

Abstract:

This paper examines the gendered dynamics of climate change adaptation in a rapidly urbanizing area of the global South. As climate change adaptation gains increasing prominence in global environmental policies and development strategies, there is a tendency to conceptualize adaptation as a technical process, disconnected from the everyday reality of how adaptation is practised by people facing negative climate change impacts. We present evidence from a small-scale case study of a flood-prone informal settlement in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania to provide a contextually grounded contribution to a growing body of literature on gender, climate change and cities. We argue that the way climate change impacts are perceived, experienced and adapted to on an everyday level is characterized by gendered differences (among others). We demonstrate that a greater understanding of these gendered nuances highlights the disconnect between everyday gendered realities and a high-level technical notion of adaptation deployed at strategic and policy levels.

Keywords: climate change adaptation, Dar es Salaam, flooding, gender, Tanzania, urban informal settlements

Topics: Development, Environment, Climate Change, Gender, Infrastructure, Urban Planning Regions: Africa, East Africa Countries: Tanzania

Year: 2019

Citation:

Gengenbach, Heidi. 2019. “From Cradle to Chain? Gendered Struggles for Cassava Commercialisation in Mozambique.” Canadian Journal of Development Studies / Revue canadienne d'études du développement. doi:10.1080/02255189.2019.1570088.

Author: Heidi Gengenbach

Abstract:

ENGLISH ABSTRACT:
This article draws on survey data, interviews and archival research to analyse women’s mixed responses to a cassava commercialisation scheme in Zavala district, Mozambique. As an example of the “Green Revolution for Africa” (GR4A) approach to development, which holds that women farmers’ participation in “value chains” will reduce rural poverty and hunger, this initiative seeks to transform cassava from a food staple into raw material for cassava-based commercial beer. The study evaluates the contradictory claims and outcomes of the GR4A model, as the bumpy roll-out of the value chain in Zavala reveals the risks of overlooking the historical context and gendered knowledge in neoliberal development interventions.


FRENCH ABSTRACT:
Cet article s’appuie sur des données d’enquête, des entretiens et des recherches dans les archives pour analyser les réponses mitigées des femmes à un programme de commercialisation du manioc dans le district de Zavala, au Mozambique. Comme exemple de l’approche de développement « Révolution verte pour l’Afrique » (GR4A), selon laquelle la participation des agricultrices à des « chaînes de valeur » doit réduire la pauvreté et la faim en milieu rural, cette initiative vise à convertir le manioc d’un aliment de base à une matière première pour la production commerciale de la bière. L’étude évalue les prétentions et les résultats contradictoires du modèle GR4A, et illustre par la description de la mise en place chaotique de la chaîne de valeur à Zavala les risques de négliger le contexte historique et les connaissances différenciées selon le sexe dans le cadre d’interventions de développement néolibérales.

Keywords: Mozambique, cassava, smallholder agriculture, commercialisation, gender

Topics: Agriculture, Development, Economies, Environment, Gender, Women Regions: Africa, Southern Africa Countries: Mozambique

Year: 2019

Citation:

Amanor-Wilks, Dede-Esi. 2009. “Land, Labour and Gendered Livelihoods in a 'Peasant' and a 'Settler' Economy”. Feminist Africa 12: 31-50.

Author: Dede-Esi Amanor-Wilks

Annotation:

“Africa historically has been land-abundant and labour-scarce. The situation in Africa contrasts with that in Asia, which has historically been labour-abundant and land-scarce. And it means that until relatively recently, land scarcity was not a major problem for African producers. In spite of this, we can surmise that access to land for women, or more crucially control over land, has been an issue for as long as patriarchy has existed. This is because labour applied to land creates capital; therefore land is a crucial source of power, whereas patriarchy is essentially the monopolisation of power by men. Yet there exists a perception that women in West Africa have more secure land rights than do women in East and Southern Africa. This article seeks explanations for this perception, from a framework of the peasant-settler dichotomy in Africa. While there is a growing literature on women’s land rights in Africa that makes no distinction between the former “peasant” and “settler” colonies, in African historiography generally, a major distinction has been drawn between them. We thus have separate literatures on “peasant” and “settler” economies of Africa that rarely speak to each other, and comparative African studies rarely cross the peasant-settler divide (Amanor-Wilks, 2006 and forthcoming). The main difference between “peasant” (or “peasant export”) and “settler” colonies is that in the former, land remained in the hands of African producers, who dominated local and export agricultural production. In the settler colonies by contrast, prime lands were expropriated to European settlers, who competed directly with Africans in both food and export production. Alongside the question of differential gender access to land across the peasant-settler divide, this article considers two sets of questions on which there is division in the literature on land tenure and gender justice. Is customary law harmful to women’s land rights or should it be codified to protect women’s land rights? Is access to land for women “negotiated”, or are access and control products more of social conflict? The hypothesis of this article is that the assumption that access is negotiated works best in conditions of relative land abundance and that in conditions of scarcity, it is social conflict that produces change.” (Amanor-Wilks 2009, 31-2).

Topics: Coloniality/Post-Coloniality, Gender, Women, Gendered Power Relations, Patriarchy, Land Tenure, Rights, Land Rights, Women's Rights Regions: Africa, East Africa, Southern Africa, West Africa

Year: 2009

Citation:

Kellogg, Molly. 2020. Women Building Resilient Cities in the Context of Climate Change: Lessons from Freetown, Sierra Leone. Washington, D.C.: Georgetown Institute for Women, Peace and Security.

Author: Molly Kellogg

Annotation:

United Nations Security Council Resolution 2242 recognized climate change as an important consideration for the peace and security of women and girls. Women – marginalized in economic, political, and social spheres in many contexts – have even fewer available resources to cope with climate-related disasters as they face unique and often disproportionate risks.

Yet despite the challenges posed by climate change and gender inequality, evidence shows that women are actively contributing to building resilient cities. In urban contexts, women are carving paths to inclusion across multiple levels of local governance and helping communities become safer and more prepared to cope with disasters.

Field work in Freetown, Sierra Leone, reveals that women engaged in local governance are leading the charge for resilience building. This report distinguishes two key modes of engagement: formal representation, and community-based organizations or civil society networks. Local government shapes how residents experience risk, through providing services such as water or waste management, or planning future land use. In informal settlements, where local government is less reliable, informal structures of organizing can help build resilience, as through designing community-based early warning systems or forming savings cooperatives that allow households to bounce back after a disaster. Interventions from NGOs can fill gaps in service delivery and help link community-based initiative to government planning.

While the gender narrative for climate-related risks in urban areas has focused on women’s vulnerabilities, this report illustrates that women are also making important contributions to building resilient cities. Its findings point to five key recommendations for policy-makers and development practitioners to empower the voices and actions of women in local governance:

• Invest in community-based organizations in informal settlement communities.
• Promote collaboration between formal and informal governance bodies.
• Design projects that are climate-responsive and gender-responsive.
• Amplify the voices – and actions – of women change agents.
• Conduct gender-responsive data collection in informal settlements.

Topics: Civil Society, Environment, Climate Change, Gender, Women, Governance, Infrastructure, Political Participation Regions: Africa, West Africa Countries: Sierra Leone

Year: 2020

Citation:

McOmber, Chesney. 2020. “Women and Climate Change in the Sahel.” West African Papers no. 27, OECD, Paris.

Author: Chesney McOmber

Abstract:

The purpose of this paper is to explore the gendered impacts of climate change in the Sahel. In particular, it explores the ways in which gender inequality is a critical factor in understanding vulnerability and resilience efforts concerning climate change. It shows that the current climate crisis is affecting livelihoods throughout the Sahel in pronounced ways. In a region highly dependent upon subsistence agriculture and pastoralist livelihoods, climate variability and environmental degradation have made such livelihoods difficult to sustain, the effects of which have broad ranging impacts on social and economic systems. Consequently, migration, livelihood adaptation, social unrest, and political instability emerge from the ecological challenges the Sahel is facing. Those with the resources to respond to and prepare for future climate events will be better equipped to navigate the climate crisis. Unfortunately, those resources are rarely equally distributed at the household, community, and state levels. In particular, gender inequalities within the Sahel pose a very real challenge for adaptation and resilience strategies as states and global institutions make interventions to support at risk populations. The paper then explores what development and state institutions are doing to resolve gender inequity through climate resilience policy, and where these efforts are falling short. The paper concludes with some strategies to improve opportunities for gender equity and climate resilience based on field research within the Sahel.

Keywords: gender, climate change, Sahel, West Africa

Topics: Agriculture, Environment, Climate Change, Gender, Gendered Power Relations, Gender Equality/Inequality, Gender Equity, Livelihoods Regions: Africa, West Africa

Year: 2020

Citation:

Nyahunda, Louis, Jabulani Calvin Makhubele, Vincent Mabvurira, and Frans Koketso Matlakala. 2020. “Vulnerabilities and Inequalities Experienced by Women in the Climate Change Discourse in South Africa’s Rural Communities: Implications for Social Work.” The British Journal of Social Work. doi:10.1093/bjsw/bcaa118.

Authors: Louis Nyahunda, Jabulani Calvin Makhubele, Vincent Mabvurira, Frans Koketso Matlakala

Abstract:

Women’s vulnerability to climate-induced shocks hinges on a high dependence on climate-sensitive livelihoods and a natural resource base aggravated by the acute inequalities that they experience due to patriarchal dominance. This article’s purpose is to unpack the vulnerabilities and inequalities that rural women experience in the climate change terrain which necessitates the involvement of the social work profession. This study adopted a qualitative methodology guided by a multi-case study design. A sample of twenty-five participants, including community members and social workers, participated in the study. These participants were selected through simple purposive and convenient sampling techniques. Data were collected using focus group discussions and individual interviews. The thematic content analysis was followed to analyse the findings. The study established that rural women are impacted by various vulnerabilities and inequalities in the climate change discourse, which serve as barriers to their effective adaptation. The vulnerabilities and inequalities manifest through lack of land and property rights, discrimination from decision-making processes, poverty and lack of adequate knowledge about climate change mitigation and adaptation. Social work involvement to address these catastrophes is scant in the Vhembe district in Limpopo province, South Africa. The study recommends that all climate change interventions should put an end to inequalities women experience in order for them to be effective and social workers should be at the frontline of such initiative.

Keywords: climate change, Inequalities, rural women, social work, Vhembe district, vulnerabilities

Topics: Environment, Climate Change, Gender, Women, Gendered Power Relations, Gender Equality/Inequality, Livelihoods, Rights, Land Rights, Property Rights Regions: Africa, Southern Africa Countries: South Africa

Year: 2020