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Into the gender mainstream
By Dr Shirley Randell
January 31, 2005
Achieving gender equality is a continuing struggle and Dr Shirley Randell, a
Vanuatu resident posted to work in Bangladesh for two years on gender issues,
outlines the challenges shared by women everywhere.
Bringing women from backstage to the center stage, or into the middle stream so
they are treated and valued equally with men is one way of describing gender
mainstreaming, according to Shirley Randell.
She moved to Bangladesh a year ago to become a performance improvement adviser
for the Capacity Building for Gender Mainstreaming project being implemented by
the Bangladesh ministry of women's and children's affairs.
On a one-week visit to Vanuatu before she returns for a second year of
overseeing the completion and implementation of a gender and development
training manual, Shirley donated several of the Blackstone publications she
edited to the history project at the Vanuatu Kaljoral Centre. These included
ni-Vanuatu Role Models, I Stret Nomo: girls in Vanuatu can do anything, Pacific
Creative Writing (in memory of Grace Mera Molisa), Women and Good Governance by
Grace Mera Molisa, Pacific Women on the Move, and the Report on the Domestic
Violence Court Order project.
Shirley also took time to outline for The Independent her experience of gender
mainstreaming in Asia and to draw comparisons with her recent gender
development work in Vanuatu.
"The Bangladesh government has indicated its strong commitment to gender
mainstreaming by enacting gender-friendly laws and ratifying international
charters, and most recently by engendering the curriculum of four major public
service training institutions," she says.
The capacity building for gender mainstreaming project is being implemented by
the Bangladesh ministry of women and children's affairs and is supported by
UNDP, which is funding her appointment.
"There is a need for a fundamental change in management in Bangladesh, as well
as Vanuatu, to meet the world's best practice on good governance. This involves
moving from politically and funding-driven organisations to customer driven
organisations. It involves moving from centralised bureaucratic structures to
networked and participative organisations involving both women and men. To
achieve this, trainers need to be aware of gender issues and the importance of
gender mainstreaming," says Shirley. Read on to hear more of what she has to
say in her own words.
Women and violence
In Bangladesh, violence against women and girls is a lifetime spiral that
affects girls from the time they are in the womb, through infancy, childhood,
teenage years, adulthood and until they are in their old age.
Vanuatu women are also subject to cruelty and violence, but the favouring of
boy babies is not as strong, and the issue of dowry is not so pervasive.
In Bangladesh the sex of a foetus is determined before birth in some cases and
aborted if female. Recently a father murdered his newborn twin daughters
following his disappointment over their sex.
The suicide of young women being married for dowry is not uncommon and some of
the injuries inflicted on women in dowry-related crime includes disfigurement
through acid burning.
In a recent speech to 60 participants in the 51st basic law and administration
course at the Bangladesh civil service administration academy I outlined the
international remedies needed in order to reduce violence against women. They
can be categorised in several ways.
Of most importance is the setting of standards through the law. Bangladesh
already has excellent legislation against violence, but implementation remains
an issue. In Vanuatu family legislation is yet to be passed.
Institutional mechanisms such as law enforcement machinery and the judiciary
should be sensitised to the needs of women. Some Asian countries have
established special cells for women and children in police stations. Other
strategies use counsellors and police to work in teams to receive women at the
station and advise them on possible ways of dealing with a situation – legal
aid, shelters, informal conflict resolution, home visits and other strategies.
Vanuatu’s Domestic Violence Orders are key instruments in this regard and the
work of the Vanuatu Women’s Centre has an international reputation. The centre
provides a free service to women. Counselling, mobile counselling for village
visits, community awareness about domestic violence and women's issues, legal
support, local advocacy and short-term safe houses for victims of domestic
violence are some of the services offered.
To reduce violence against women, attitudes and prejudices at the community
level must be targeted both through general community-level interventions and
individual changes in personal behaviour. This is a particularly useful
entry-point for working with civil society and NGOs. It also involves
educational programs in schools.
It is essential to focus on the prevention of cruelty and violence against
women, not just on services for its survivors. Prevention is best achieved by
empowering women and reducing gender disparities, and by changing norms and
attitudes that foster violence.
Women in politics
The talents and experience of Vanuatu MP Isabel Donald have been recognised by
the new prime minister of Vanuatu Ham Lini, who recently appointed her as
minister for the comprehensive reform program and women and children.
In Vanuatu we have one female director general, Miriam Abel. In Bangladesh,
there are no women in the most senior position of any of the government
departments, of which there are more than 40. Employment of women in the public
sector overall in Bangladesh is less than ten percent, the target for 25 years.
Bangladesh has a female prime minister and female head of the opposition, both
a result of family dynasties that are a feature of Asian politics. However
there are only six women out of 300 elected members of parliament. Recently the
government passed legislation reserving 45 seats for women, which will
dramatically change representation.
Quota systems have been necessary to reach the UN target of 30 per cent of
parliamentary seats to be taken by women. Rwanda, Argentina, Costa Rica, South
Africa and Mozambique have joined western countries Sweden, Denmark, Finland,
Norway, Iceland, Netherlands and Germany in achieving this figure.
There is still a lack of women in decision-making positions in both Bangladesh
and Vanuatu. Vanuatu also needs to consider some form of quota system if it is
to move towards enhancing the participation and empowerment of women by 2015,
one of the millennium development goals.
Achieving millennium development goals in education
After a concerted effort involving affirmative action strategies, Bangladesh
now has one of the highest primary school net enrollment rates (81 per cent)
among the developing countries, including enrollment of poor children, and has
achieved gender parity in terms of enrollment of girls in primary schools.
The government has achieved these results by providing free primary and
secondary education for all girls. In addition it has provided grants for girls
to go into teaching and allocated a percentage of all primary school principal
jobs to women.
However teachers in Bangladesh, as in Vanuatu, are poorly recognised for the
fantastic contribution they are making to the country’s development.
Bangladeshi non-government school teachers recently went on strike after the
government failed to provide their salaries over a three month period.
Recommendations made in my 2003 European Union funded review on the salaries of
teachers in Vanuatu have not yet been implemented and Vanuatu's teachers have
recently threatened to go on strike also.
The adult illiteracy rate has increased from 21 percent in 1991 to 40 percent
for women and 36 percent to 49 percent for men. This increase of literacy of
women is more marked in rural than in urban areas.
Violence in Politics
While Vanuatu politics has been relatively violence free, Bangladeshi politics
has never strayed far from violence. During the war for independence from
Pakistan in 1971, three million people died in nine months. Thuggery has been a
consistent feature of political life since then and is increasingly so today.
In Bangladesh, there is a continuing threat from terrorism. Attacks using
explosive devices take place in locations throughout the country, with
increasing frequency. Targets have included cinemas, festivals, shrines,
markets and political gatherings. The largest incidents since 2002 occurred in
August 2004, at the bombing of an opposition (Awami League) rally, which killed
18 people and injured hundreds.
Examples of other incidents include an explosion on 7 August outside a hotel in
Sylhet, where the city's mayor was attending a meeting, which killed one and
injured at least 30. The President of the Khulna press club was killed in a
bomb attack at the entrance to his office and, in May, a bomb at the Hazrat
Shahjalal shrine in Sylhet killed three and injured more than 50 people
including the British high commissioner.
The opposition calls frequent day-long strikes, and has recently staged
demonstrations of hand-holding Bangladeshis in human chains of protest from one
end of the country to the other.
There is a free press in Bangladesh and the daily reporting of statistics on
violence and corruption is horrifying. Journalists are heroic and work in great
danger. Under the current government, which has been in power since 2001 and
includes two avowedly Islamist parties, journalists are frequently imprisoned.
Last year, three were killed while reporting on corruption and the rise of
militant Islam.
Disasters in Bangladesh
The recent tsunami that claimed over 230,000 lives and displaced several
million people was responsible for only two deaths in Bangladesh, a fisherman
and his son who were caught in rough seas in the Bay of Bengal.
However, Bangladesh is prone to disasters and this year flood waters again
submerged two-thirds of Bangladesh leaving at least 40 million people cut off
and a death toll in the thousands.
The flooding, which began in early July and continued through to October,
caused extensive damage to basic roads and bridges, railways, embankments and
other infrastructure, farmland, property and livelihoods in an estimated 35
districts of Bangladesh.
People marooned or displaced sought shelter in public buildings, road
embankments, roadways, rooftops and available high ground areas.
Diarrhoea was rampant and other water-borne diseases severely affected flood
victims. Vast swathes of land across the country remain under water with only
trees and rooftops visible in some places
Over half of Dhaka was inundated, turning some streets into rivers and forcing
250,000 of the city's most vulnerable inhabitants out of their slum homes.
Apart from annual flooding, Bangladesh also has the highest vulnerability to
tropical cyclones of any country in the world, associated with high physical
exposure in the heavily populated communities along the fertile delta of the
Bay of Bengal.
Sixty percent of all deaths worldwide associated with tropical cyclones in the
period 1980-2000 occurred in Bangladesh.
Women in need of support in Vanuatu should contact: Vanuatu Women's Centre
Sandra building, Fr Lini Highway Nambatu Port Vila Tel: 25764 or 24000 Email:
vwnc@vanuatu.com.vu
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