DanChurchAid

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Ethiopia

Strengthening civil society

25/09/2006: DanChurchAid in Ethiopia works to counter the hardships of rural women and girls, and to enable them to exercise their rights and participate in social, economic and political life.

© DanChurchAid

More than 85% of the population in Ethiopia lives in the countryside. The rural poor in general lack awareness of their rights as well as of their roles and responsibilities as citizens. Women are among the most marginalized and face social, economic, and political exclusion holding them in a continuous poverty grip.

The right to equality

DanChurchAid therefore focuses specifically on women in the programme type political space .

The right to equality is one of the rights stated in the progressive Ethiopian Constitution. Article 35 assures the equal rights and protection of women and men:

  • Laws, customs and practices that oppress or cause bodily or mental harm to women are prohibited (35:4)
  • The right of women to full consultation in the formulation of national development policies (35:6)
  • The right of women to acquire, administer, control, use and transfer property (35:7).

Yet, a DanChurchAid context analysis conducted in selected working areas as well as a newly published report from Action Professionals Association for People (APAP) reveals that the implementation of the constitutionally guaranteed provisions as well as the integration of international conventions in the national legal system is a far cry from desirable.

Economic and political rights violations

Massive rights violations against women such as abductions of young girls for marriage, rape, female genital mutilation and domestic violence are common. Furthermore economic and political rights violations such as the denial of the right to own property and the right to participate in political affairs are typical.

The effects of these violations, the general negative perception of women and their limited participation in decision making combined with very little or no bargaining power and time and energy to deal with aspects beyond day-to-day survival leaves women in very vulnerable positions. In this position they are subjects of increased food insecurity, poor health, low school enrolment resulting in high levels of illiteracy, poor job opportunities and increased vulnerability to HIV/AIDS. A recent HIV/AIDS study reveals that 76% of newly HIV infected in Africa are women.

Solving the problems is not an easy task and one finds many opposing interests in this endeavour. Easing the workload of women often means that men must work more. Getting more women elected for public positions, means that fewer men will be elected. Working to further the rights of women is essentially a political task, a task where one must speak about duty bearers and rights holders.

Focus on rural girls and women

DanChurchAid believes it is useful to use the terminology duty bearers and rights holders when focusing on solutions to the above stated problems. Duty bearers are individuals, groups of individuals or institutions that have the resources and decision-making power to change the existing situation. Rights holders are the ones hitherto deprived of their rights and without the resources to change the situation.

The primary rights holders targeted for DanChurchAid’s Political Space programme in Ethiopia are rural girls and women residing in the Amhara and Oromiya regional states. Special focus will be on girls and women at risk of being subject to reproductive, economic and political rights violations. The primary duty bearer is the national government and its decentralized governance structures for its limited responsiveness and accountability to the rights of women. Primary duty bearers are also the traditional and religious leaders at community level who play an important role as opinion makers and as arbitrators in community and family conflicts, including conflicts related to property and wife inheritance, rape, abduction and early marriage. Very often traditional leaders contribute to the continuation of damaging practices and are therefore important to influence.

Main intervention areas

  • Empowerment actions for rural women: Acknowledging communities’ own prioritised activities by means of a community activity fund in order to create trust and foster immediate economic empowerment and mental scope of women.
  • Awareness raising: Supporting awareness raising campaigns on women’s reproductive, economic and political rights with the objective of increasing the knowledge in local communities about these rights.
  • Legal protection: Providing training of local women’s and community organisations on the constitution and related penal and civil codes, negotiation and lobbying skills to be used in the dialogue with local government institutions and traditional institutions of arbitration.
  • Advocacy activities: Supporting national advocacy initiatives aimed at participatory policy formulation as a means to promote the formulation and implementation of policies and government action plans and budgets that promote and fulfil women’s political, reproductive and economic rights.
  • Capacity building efforts: Facilitating capacity building of partners on organisational development and participatory outcome oriented monitoring and evaluation so as to facilitate institutional learning and sharing of good practices.