Archive for category: Gender Equality

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Challenge Initiative Takes on Poverty

Family Planning

Women are the key to smart family planning. By increasing access to sexual education and contraceptives, women gain the power to make decisions about their own health and the chances of economic success.

Kamla is a 22-year-old female from Gaya, India. She is a domestic helper and lives in a single room shanty with her husband and young daughter. She does not want another child anytime soon because she feels financially unable to care for one. However, she does not have access to information about contraceptives. Increasing access to information about sexual health should be a priority for four main reasons.

  1. Uncontrolled population growth is an economic barrier
    Nearly all population growth occurs in the developing world, and high fertility is an expensive burden on economies of these countries. High population growth limits opportunities for economic growth and increases health risks for both women and children. Quality of life suffers due to limited access to education, nutrition, employment and scarce resources such as clean water.
  2. Women want control over their fertility
    Surveys in developing countries suggest that 10 to 40 percent of women want to spread out or limit childbirth but do not have access to contraception. This demonstrates an unmet need for birth control. The biggest barriers for women are lack of knowledge and concerns about undesirable health effects.
  3. Quality of life is enhanced
    Family planning improves the lives of both women and children. Reducing the fertility rate would save many women from dying during childbirth. In developing countries, maternal mortality rates are 20 times higher than in developed countries. Increased access to contraceptives also benefits children. Children born fewer than two years apart are twice as likely to die in the first year of life as children born further apart. Being unable to spread out pregnancies also interferes with breastfeeding, which has a crucial role in child nutrition.
  4. Gender equality is advanced
    Improvements in gender equality result from the power that contraceptives give women. Teen pregnancies interfere with education and unwanted pregnancies at any life stage interfere with a woman’s economic power. Giving women control over their bodies and family size allows them to make smarter economic decisions for themselves and their families.

The Challenge Initiative is a $42 million grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to promote reproductive health in developing countries. A previous initiative funded by this foundation showed promise in increasing contraceptive access in certain cities in Kenya, Nigeria, Senegal and India.

Based on rigorous data collected from the earlier initiative, The Challenge Initiative will use demand-based methods and partnerships with cities in order to implement successful programs in a variety of locations. If philanthropic organizations continue to invest in this solution, people – especially women – around the world will soon reap the benefits of family planning.

– Kristen Nixon

Photo: Flickr

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What Is the United Nations Girls’ Education Initiative?

What Is the United Nations Girls' Education Initiative?

Thirty-one million school-aged girls are not in school, and 17 million of them are likely never going to be. Almost 60% of those who do not complete primary school are girls, and two-thirds of the world’s illiterate are female.

The United Nations Girls’ Education Initiative (UNGEI) is an organization formed 17 years ago out of Dakar, Senegal. Then-U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan founded the initiative to improve the educational opportunities for girls and gender equality across the globe.

The UNGEI is in partnership with 24 other organizations including Campaign for Female Education (Campfed), The Commonwealth Secretariat and the Global Partnership for Education (GPE). The value in these partnerships contributes to the efficiency and functionality of the legal movement of these organizations’ collective goals via resident policymakers. By expanding its network through partnership, the presence of the organization is strengthened and enables the project to improve conditions globally by working locally.

All stakeholders in the UNGEI promote change through policy advocacy. According to their website, UNGEI cites these four crucial focuses as targets:

  1. The enhancement of marginalized groups.
  2. The prevention of gender-motivated violence in schools.
  3. A brighter future through education for girls.
  4. Continuation of school for girls.

These goals are accomplished through policy solutions that involve gender issues in education. UNGEI actively advocates to chief platforms that influence education policy and funding allocation.

In 2003, Annan stated that, “if we are to succeed in our efforts to build a more healthy, peaceful and equitable world, the classrooms of the world have to be full of girls as well as boys.” A growing economy and the formal education of girls are positively correlated. The prevention of HIV/AIDS and a decreased occurrence of infant and maternal mortality are guaranteed when more girls are educated, Annan argues.

A 2012 Education for All Global Monitoring Report found that if all mothers completed primary school education, maternal deaths would decrease by two-thirds. Furthermore, there would be a 15% reduction in child deaths, and malnutrition would affect 1.7 million fewer children.

On March 8, 2017, UNGEI and Global Partnership for Education launched the Guidance for Developing Gender-Responsive Education Sector Plans. This outline helps guide developing nations toward a gender-sensitive educational environment. UNGEI has greatly contributed to the increase in children attending school.

Today, the United Nations Girls’ Education Initiative continues to strive toward its mission’s core values. Data suggests that by 2050, only five countries will have a rate of above 20% of the population receiving no education, and with continued work by the UNGEI, perhaps these countries can someday reach a 100% education rate.

– Sloan Bousselaire

Photo: Flickr

Combating Gender-Based Violence in Schools

Gender-Based ViolenceAn estimated 246 million children every year are victims of violence in a school setting. School-related gender-based violence (SRGBV) includes bullying, corporal punishment, verbal or sexual harassment, unwanted touching and assault. SRGBV is a human rights issue that harms students’ ability to learn and their mental wellbeing. Girls are especially vulnerable, due to pervasive cultural beliefs and unfair power structures. According to a U.N. survey, one out of four girls never feel comfortable using school bathrooms.

One fourth of girls’ educational programs work to combat SRGBV. Just five years ago, gender-based violence was not considered to be part of the work of the education sector. This rapid rise to popularity was spearheaded by the Global Working Group to End SRGBV, a partnership between 35 organizations aiming to research and find solutions for gender-based violence in schools. A diverse range of organizations are involved in this partnership, including governments, development organizations, civil society activists and research institutions. The advocacy from these organizations has lead to the inclusion of SRGBV into the Sustainable Development Goals and the Incheon Declaration, endorsed at the World Education Forum.

To mitigate gender-based violence, the Global Working Group recommends implementing policy to discourage violence, teaching curriculums in nonviolence and gender equality, involving youth in creating solutions and increasing access to resources. UNESCO, a member of the Global Working Group, additionally highlights the importance of creating supportive school environments, creating partnerships with key stakeholders and collecting data on the effectiveness of interventions.

UNESCO recommends that SRGBV policies aim to prevent violence, promote accountability and provide support to mitigate its consequences. An effective response to SRGBV needs to include support for the victim and a protocol for reporting incidents and informing authorities.

Education has the power to target the root cause of violence by impacting the social and emotional development of children in ways that discourage violence. A supportive, safe school environment with a culture that condemns SRGBV is another recommended prevention method.

In order to create sustainable change, a strategic partnership between all stakeholders, including government sectors, teachers’ unions, communities, families and youth, is needed. Conducting research on SRGBV programs will yield crucial information to allow effective methods to spread and ineffective ones to be modified.

Raising Voices, another member of the Global Working Group, recognizes the importance of collecting concrete data to evaluate programs. The nonprofit focuses on decreasing the incidents of violence against women and children in Uganda by challenging traditional power structures. To measure the performance of their work, Raising Voices uses an activity report form to monitor the quality of activities and an outcome tracking form to track changes in social norms in the community. The forms utilize a ranking system to reveal the participant’s strength of agreement, with statements presented in order to quantify the data.

The efforts of the Global Working Group thus far provide a promising avenue for increasing access to education, by eliminating gender-based violence in schools.

– Kristen Nixon

Photo: Flickr

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Concerns for Human Rights in Canada

Concerns for Human Rights in CanadaWhile Canada has a relatively impressive human rights record, there are still a few concerns. The country has recently seen disproportionate mistreatment of indigenous populations, and its mining industry is also responsible for human rights violations. Finally, its policy on foreign aid deserves a second look. Here are some of issues with human rights in Canada nd what the nation (and the world) is doing to resolve these problems.

Indigenous Rights

One of the most prominent issues of human rights in Canada is the prevalence of violence against indigenous women and girls. Human Rights Watch found that while they make up only 4.3 percent of the female population, they account for 16 percent of all female homicides.

In 2015, the issue gained international attention after a declaration by the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women. The declaration stated that Canada had violated the human rights of its indigenous population by failing to swiftly and thoroughly investigate the disproportionate violence they have experienced. Canada responded by launching a national public inquiry into the murders of indigenous women and girls throughout the state in August 2016.

The human rights of Canada’s indigenous communities are further affected by a persistent lack of clean water. In 2016, 92 First Nation communities had received a total of 132 drinking water advisories over the course of seven months. Contaminated water can have severe health consequences, ultimately causing gastrointestinal disorders and increasing the risk of cancer.

Issues in the Mining Industry

Issues of health and human rights are also present in Canada’s mining industry. Given the size of the industry, its impact on global human rights is enormous. In recent years, Human Rights Watch has uncovered pervasive patterns of poor working conditions and gang rape among Canadian employees in Papua New Guinea and the use of forced labor in mines in Eritrea. Many incidents go unreported and therefore cannot be remedied. The Canadian government has typically elected not to impose new oversight or regulations on the industry, and the Trudeau government has followed this pattern.

Foreign Policy Concerns

Also of concern are certain aspects of Canada’s foreign policy and how they impact the human rights of foreign citizens. Canadian law stipulates that the exporting of military technology to is only legal if “there is no reasonable risk” that the arms will be used against civilians and places limits on what can be sold to countries with poor human rights records. However, Canada has previously exported military vehicles and other goods to Saudi Arabia. These were used in 2011 and 2012 to violently suppress peaceful protests.

Solving these Problems

As in most of the world, there are issues with the protection of human rights in Canada as well as Canada’s protection of human rights around the world. Despite this, it is clear that the state has the structures necessary to address these issues. Laws regarding human rights in Canada stem from the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights, created by the international community after World War II.

The first two articles of the declaration, which concern equality and freedom from discrimination, are the foundation of the Canadian Human Rights Act. Passed in 1977, this act protects Canadians from identity-based discrimination and harassment. While the protections afforded through this legislation have not been explicitly integrated into the constitution, the Supreme Court has decided that Canadian laws must be interpreted in ways that are consistent with them.

The Canadian Human Rights Commission is a federal agency that works to promote the principle of equal opportunity and prevent discrimination through educating the public on human rights cultures; conducting and publishing relevant research; managing citizen complaints and representing the public interest.

Many complaints brought before the commission are referred to the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal, a separate, independent entity which operates much like a court. The tribunal hears the cases and has the authority to order remedies or award damages.

With these mechanisms in place, Canada has the means necessary to respond to human rights crises within its borders. While further international pressure may be needed to pursue the state to pursue justice and reforms both at home and within its foreign policy. However, given the strong record of protection of human rights in Canada, it is likely that the state will continue to work to adhere to its policies and uphold international norms.

– Alena Zafonte
Photo: Flickr

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Human Rights in San Marino: The Fight for Gender Equality

Human Rights in San Marino

Securing human rights in San Marino, one of the world’s oldest republics, has been a progressive and relatively successful venture. The state is a multi-party democracy where authorities maintain effective control over law enforcement.

According to the Department of State, no outrageous human rights abuses have taken place in San Marino in recent years. Although, according to various international organizations, the state still needs to reduce gender inequality and further the protection of women’s rights in particular.

The Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights, Nils Muižnieks, recently congratulated the state for its success in combating violence against women during his visit in 2015.

The prevention of violence against women has been successful due to legislation passed throughout the last decade, including the “Prevention and elimination of violence against women and gender violence” in 2008. The decree to implement the law was passed in 2012, according the U.N. It also provided an assistance center for victims of violence.

Additionally, during this time, a special study group was established by the San Marino delegation which specializes in meeting the requirements of the Council of Europe Convention for preventing and combating violence against women.

Despite progress against violence, women in San Marino continue to face hurdles in practicing their human rights. According to Muižnieks, action should be taken to address the gender gap in employment and political participation, along with action to combat harmful gender stereotypes.

The commissioner suggested in 2015 that these goals regarding human rights in San Marino, particularly for women, can be achieved through increased efforts by and resources towards the Authority for Equal Opportunities in the state. He also suggested goals of gender equality could be made through the state’s ratification of the Council of Europe Istanbul Convention. San Marino ratified and entered the Istanbul Convention early in 2016, confirming its commitment to ensure human rights and women’s rights in the country.

– Melanie Snyder

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Reproductive Health App for Youth in Rwanda

Health App for Youth in Rwanda

Tantine is an app that has been developed for youth in Rwanda. It was created by Sylvie and Sylvain Muzungu Uhirwa to tackle the issue of lack of reproductive and sexual health information. A barrier to sexual and reproductive health information has teens in Rwanda vulnerable to unintended pregnancies and diseases, which can hinder their ability to complete their education as well as find stable employment in the future.

Sylvie and Sylvain Uhirwa are twin medical students at the University of Rwanda who originally won the Youth Spark Innovation Grant in 2015. This grant is an initiative from the Resilient Africa Network in Partnership with USAID and the Makerere University School. It has helped them to build a website containing reproductive health information as well as youth mentorship opportunities.

As one of four initiatives chosen at the iAccelerator challenge 2017, the pair received $10,000 to further develop Tantine. Half of the funds went to developing the Android app and website content, as well as to continue to advance and develop the platform.

The app was recently shared in the Mahama camp of 50,000 Burundian refugees. The app for youth in Rwanda, specifically in the camp, gives reproductive health information via the web. Tantine works with a medical professional and psychological team to deliver this education, mentorship and counseling services.

Sylvie has stated that members in the camp do not have consistent access to wi-fi and do not own smartphones, so “…that’s why we thought of bringing those tablets and establishing a centre where they come and then access the internet in the camp. So we are going to equip them with those tablets and then a router with wi-fi.”

Therese Karugwiza, a gender and human rights program specialist at UNFPA, has stressed the importance of Tantine also targeting youth who may not be in school, as it is crucial that they also have access to this information. By taking Karugwiza’s account into consideration, the Uhirwa twins are putting Rwandan youth on a multimodal track to better reproductive health.

– Gabriella Paez

Photo: Flickr

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Conflict in Myanmar and Gender Equality

Conflict in MyanmarSince winning independence from colonial rule in 1948, ethnic conflict in Myanmar has plagued the country. Myanmar endured the world’s longest ongoing civil war, in which the ethnic Bamar Buddhist majority living in the central valley has tried to control other groups living in the mountainous outskirts of the country.

An impressively free election in 2015 gave power to Daw Aung San Suu Kyi of the National League for Democracy (NLD). The foremost goal of the administration is to end the decades of ethnic conflict, but the complexity of these issues does not allow for easy solutions.

The Alliance for Gender Inclusion in the Peace Process works to promote women’s rights and gender equality as a method to end Myanmar’s ethnic conflict.

Obstacles to women entering decision-making roles include the prevalence of gender violence and entrenched societal expectations that women must play supporting roles in society. Myanmar’s constitution condones discrimination, with section 352 stating “nothing…shall prevent the appointment of men to the positions that are suitable for men only.” Women are frequently characterized as “decorative.”

The conflict affects women, men and children differently since they occupy different roles in society. Men are susceptible to combat-related injuries, while women bear the burden of sexual violence, damage to property, and mental trauma. Despite these obstacles, women take an active role in mitigating the damage done by the conflict in Myanmar.

Women have convinced conflicting groups to fight in locations farther from villages. They have also protected men and children by sending them away or hiding them and stepped up to keep the village functioning as their men fled for safety. Excluding women from the peace process prevents the perspective and experiences of 52 percent of the population.

Women better understand the impact of conflict on women, children, the disabled and the elderly. The role of men in these conflicts effectively prevents them from being able to effectively represent large portions of society in negotiating solutions.

International research has shown that women tend to best represent marginalized groups. According to a study by the United Nations, women participating in the decision-making process is a crucial element for achieving sustainable peace.

Involving women in political processes is also an effective strategy for countering extremism. Extreme religions tend to restrict women’s rights, but funding and supporting women weakens the influence of extremists.

In Myanmar, women have crucial roles in dealing with and responding to conflict, and the efforts supported by the Alliance for Gender Inclusion in the Peace Process are a promising step in the right direction to ending decades of conflict in Myanmar.

– Kristen Nixon

Photo: Google

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Menstrual Hygiene and Girls’ Education in Uganda

Education in UgandaEducation, especially for girls, is one of the best ways to increase a developing country’s welfare. A nation’s GDP can rise by three percent when the number of girls in school increases by 10 percent. On an individual level, every year a girl stays in school, her potential income increases by about 15 to 25 percent. These numbers show that education in Uganda is, just like everywhere else, an ever-important issue.

In Uganda, girls have a low track record of completing their education. Studies show that only 22 percent of Ugandan girls are enrolled in secondary school, contrasting the 91 percent enrolled in in primary school.

Analysts have often pointed out that early marriages and social stigmas keep girls from receiving a complete education in Uganda. But there’s a simpler, more intimate reason behind those causes: menstruation.

This topic remains uncomfortable and awkward in developed countries, but Ugandan girls face this problem on an entirely different level. Many developed countries, including Uganda, have myths and stigmas surrounding periods that shame girls when they menstruate. As a result, most girls have no understanding of what is happening to their bodies or how to take care of themselves.

Adding to this difficulty is the lack of availability of feminine hygiene products. Drugstores that carry disposable pads, tampons and other products can be more than 40 minutes away. Even then, these products are usually imported and are too expensive for most Ugandan women to afford.

Desperate to stop the monthly flow, Ugandan women often resort to using pieces of cloth, shreds of foam mattresses, toilet paper, newspapers, banana plant fibers and even leaves. Not only are these options ineffective and uncomfortable, but are also extremely unhygienic, putting girls at risk for diseases.

About half of Ugandan girls skip three days of school every month because they do not have any feminine hygiene products and do not want to stain their clothes. As the absences stack up, many girls find it too hard to continue their education and eventually drop out. Social stigmas also place pressure on girls to marry once they get their periods and not remain in school.

However, despite the struggle, many girls want to stay in school and complete their education in Uganda, and they’re getting help from several international organizations to do so. Wateraid, a nongovernmental organization that seeks to provide clean water and sanitation efforts to developing countries around the world, started hygiene clubs in Ugandan schools. At these clubs, girls learn about menstruation and how to make their own pads and products.

One of these clubs, located at St. Mary’s School in northeastern Uganda, has taken things a step further. This hygiene club travels to other skills singing, dancing, and even rapping about their periods. This group of girls wants to raise awareness about the stigmas surrounding menstruation and promote education in Uganda.

Despite the work of Wateraid and other groups, many girls in Uganda are still skipping school because they don’t have feminine hygiene products. Wateraid ambitiously plans to supply the necessary sanitation products, from tampons to toilets, for every child and every school in every part of the world by 2030.

On an entrepreneurial level, start-up AFRIpads donates reusable pads to women in Uganda and other areas where women do not have easy access to menstrual products. These organizations hope that soon every girl in Uganda will be able to attend school every day of the school year, whether she has her period or not—and no one will shame her if she does.

– Sydney Cooney

Photo: Google

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Learn about the Protecting Girls Access to Education in Vulnerable Settings Act.

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Gender Inequality and Causes of Poverty in Swaziland

Causes of Poverty in SwazilandAs 63 percent of Swazis continue to live below the national poverty line, it is clear that there is an urgent call for change. While the causes of poverty in Swaziland are many, gender inequality serves as one of the primary factors — an issue that needs to be addressed in order to aid in poverty reduction efforts throughout the nation.

Among the many causes of poverty in Swaziland, a lack of effective health care is one of the largest concerns. The nation holds the highest rate of HIV prevalence in the world, with 28.8 percent of the adult population living with this life-threatening disease.

As the key driving factors of Swaziland’s HIV epidemic include low and inconsistent condom use, transactional sex, gender inequalities and gender based violence, it is clear that the cycle of poverty supported by this disease disproportionately affects women.

With 120,000 of the 220,000 people living with HIV in Swaziland being women, studies reveal that 31 percent of all women within the country live with HIV, while only 20 percent of men are affected.

Many driving factors contribute to women’s increased risk of contracting HIV, including a lack of access to proper reproductive education and health care. While 14 percent of women between the ages of 15 and 24 have been involved in intergenerational sex with older men, their adolescent age and lack of reproductive education cause them to be at more of a risk to the spread of the disease, often without their knowledge.

According to AVERT, one in three women in Swaziland also report experiencing some form of sexual abuse by the time they were 18. These and other significant gender disparities have ranked Swaziland 137 out of 159 countries in the Gender Inequality Index.

The inequalities women face in Swaziland not only leave them in a more vulnerable position to disease but also serve as the major causes of poverty in Swaziland. As women are the primary caretakers and providers for children worldwide, those disadvantages that women face create a ripple effect of a detriment for the next generation as well.

For every 100,000 live births in Swaziland, 389 women die from pregnancy-related causes, leaving 24 percent of children aged zero to 17 as orphans and 45 percent as either orphans or vulnerable.

These high maternal mortality rates reveal the reality that women’s disproportionate access to health care in Swaziland serves as one of the direct causes of poverty in Swaziland, as it not only affects the mother but also leaves almost half of Swaziland’s adolescent population at an increased risk for poverty.

Through analyzing the direct effects of gender inequality on the next generation’s vulnerability to the cycle of poverty, it is clear that a greater focus needs to be placed on addressing gender disparities within the nation — especially those of female’s access to education and reproductive health care — so as to encourage a significant drop in the poverty rates in Swaziland.

– Kendra Richardson

Photo: Flickr

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Human Rights in Croatia

Human Rights in CroatiaAs a newly elected member of the United Nations Human Rights Council, Croatia is promising to protect human rights and fight against discrimination. Considering the unfair treatment of minorities and hate crimes that were written of in the Human Rights Practices report for 2016, the country has a great deal of work to do.

Out of the 24 reported hate crimes in 2015, 15 were related to racism and xenophobia. A recent example of xenophobia in the nation can be seen through the way policemen have been treating asylum-seekers from Serbia. Out of the 10 Afghani asylum seekers who were interviewed, nine reported that the Croatian police were physical with them. Not only did they punch them, but they also seized some of their possessions. After doing all of this, the Croatian police officers forced them out of the country and back to Serbia.

Another large issue in Croatia is the segregation of people with disabilities. People with disabilities in Croatia tend to lack control in their lives because they are placed into institutions rather than communities.

Although human rights in Croatia still need to improve greatly, the people are still making a conscious effort to fix the problems they are faced with. For example, the Humans Rights House Zagreb addresses the country’s issues and introduces solutions to help them. In 2016, they partnered with Gong to explain both the importance of and how to combat hate speech.

To combat segregation of people with disabilities, de-institutionalization has begun in Croatia, in an attempt to legally give those with disabilities their rights. So far, 24 percent of institutions have begun de-institutionalization. While this number may be small, it is a start to a solution.

Croatia, like every other country in the world, is nowhere near perfect. However, with the help of citizens and activists who advocate for what they believe is morally right, human rights in Croatia will continue to progress.

– Raven Rentas