DanChurchAid
Zambia
Women for Change
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Sonja Iskov
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| Mother with child, visiting a village together with the organisation Women for Change, Zambia. |
Women for Change reaches out to many rural villages where the press is never read and that is where they create this very Change. Over the years, the organisation has managed to work systematically with practical help as well as consciousness raising.
It is very typical for Women for Change to decide that as many representatives from local communities as possible should have the experience of attending the World Social Forum. 24 women, men and traditional leaders got this opportunity – along with several staff members of Women for Change.
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| Emily Sikazwe, leader of Women for Change |
Before going to Nairobi in Kenya, the organisation invited the press to a conference in Lusaka about the World Social Forum and the big delegation. Women for Change is so well established that Emily Sikazwe was the one to invite Zambias first president, Kenneth Kaunda, to come to the World Social Forum and speak at the inauguration session as a greeting from Africa’s old generation of freedom fighters to a new generation fighting for change and global as well as local justice.
Women for Change do not waste their time on revolutionary slogans but work steadily for capacity building among poor men and women. They are focussing on women’s rights but also on the importance of developing accountability and democratic practices at the local level.
They cooperate with local authorities and traditional leaders who are still very important for everyday life in the villages of Zambia.
A daily fight for human rights
For Women for Change it is a daily fight for human rights and for accountability and transparency. Not just in rural areas but also at the international level. The organization is strongly critical towards the neoliberal practices of the World Bank and IMF .
In September 2006 Zambia had presidential, parliamentary and local elections that were declared free and fair with few irregularities. President Mwanawasa was reelected and the opposition was never able to come up with a credible alternative.
Though Zambia has reached the HIPC decision point and bilateral donors have cancelled most of the bilateral debt real change has failed to materialize among the rural poor people. A major part of the budget goes to servicing internal debt. The constitution itself does not incorporate the economic and social rights that could make an important difference for the poor and marginalized.
Women for Change advocacy is focussing on precisely these rights and points to the grave shortcomings of a society where the elite and the middle classes could otherwise fail to realize that the neoliberal approach and economic growth are leaving a major part of the population behind.
By Anna Murru , Programme Officer, DCA Zambia, and Stine Leth-Nissen, Head of Advocacy ( stine@dca.dk )
Zambia
