Q&A: Studying Kenyan Farmers’ Efforts to Adapt

March 24, 2011 by

Global Geopolitics & Political Economy / IPS

Zukiswa Zimela interviews JUDI WAKHUNGU, executive director, African Centre for Technology Studies

NAIROBI, Mar 24, 2011 (IPS) – Climate change has become an important part of the development agenda. In Africa, farmers and consumers alike are feeling its effects on productivity and food security.

Professor Judi Wakhungu is the lead researcher on the Community Based Adaptation to Climate Change project, which is gathering data and case studies of adaptation to provide policy makers with technical and scientific evidence to guide them.

Q: How will the results from the research project help farmers?

A: We are working in eight different countries and looking to see how communities are coping with climate change.

What we are doing in Kenya is comparing the dry land area in eastern Kenya with another one which is in western Kenya, close to Lake Victoria. The experiences in the two zones are almost opposite each other in this regime of erratic weather that we are experiencing.

The one closest to the lake is challenged with continual flooding every year, while in the zone on the eastern side, rains fail to fall.

We don’t have the answers: what we are doing is trying to look at what the different communities are experiencing and then drawing on that to inform policy.

What we hope to see is plans to be implemented as international policy so that we can have institutions and laws on how we are supposed to respond when the situation becomes tragic. At present we do not have a response mechanism.

Q: What are examples of farmers who are already successfully adapting to climate change?

A: For instance in eastern Kenya in the Makueni district, we saw a lot of innovation in terms of how farmers were coping with drought. Whereas in Oyola and Wakesi, which is near Kisumu we saw that farmers were having difficulties coping with the flooding.

In some cases farmers depend almost entirely on the national government  to get seed [with drought or flood-resistant qualities]. On the other hand, in some communities, we have found that the farmers themselves have really become innovators. In the sense that some farmers now became specialists and are able to produce hybrid seeds which could cope with the extreme climate.

Q: What are your concerns with farmers relying on the government for seed?

A:  It brings a sort of dependency which as a subsistence farmer is a very dangerous position to be in. The whole notion of being a subsistence farmer is to be self-reliant.

On the other side we have seen that farmers have started to depend on what we call "orphaned crops". Farmers used to depend on sorghum and millet, then they moved on to maize and in some cases rice. Now they have turned back to the old crops.

Farmers ought to be the custodians of the seed.

Q. But would it not be better for farmers if governments had a well-managed system that would provide them with seed in times of need?

A:  Absolutely. That’s why we continue to do the work that we do is so that government can put programmes in place where they have the infrastructure to get food to people who need it.

Q: If agriculture and food security are priority areas when facing climate change, how can using arable land for biofuels be justified?

A: The answer is yes and no. You have to look at the conditions in each and every African country we cannot make a blanket statement.

Let me give you an example: Tanzania has made agriculture a national priority they even have a national slogan which says, Agriculture first and agriculture for the future.

Tanzania has a lot of land and a different land tenure system in that the land belongs to the government. So they have set aside a trust and some of the land has been set aside for biofuels in the form of jatropha and sugar cane farmers for ethanol. The argument is that if the ethanol production is successful, then the people will be able to earn revenue in order to grow food.

Q. Yet in the case of Tanzania, IPS recently reported on a botched biofuels project in the Kilwa District…

A. That particular project was badly planned, and they also chose to use one biofuel – jatropha – which is not the best for this area.

So this was rushed through, without the policies in place and the company seemed ill-prepared to deal with the local conditions and the local politics. Also, misinformation was given to the farmers on how they were to benefit.

We have used this project to show how important it is to have the right policies in place, the right legal framework in place so that all partners understand what their responsibilities are.

A: In Kenya, we just don’t have that kind of land [availabl], to put aside tracts of land to attract foreign investors for biofuels production. This has been attempted, but it has been very politically charged with people coming out and saying that some of these deals are not being conducted above board.

So it would be a disaster here and it would lead to food insecurity.

All rights reserved, IPS – Inter Press Service, 2011.

This article may not be republished, broadcast, framed, or redistributed without the written permission of IPS – Inter Press Service. Republication of this material without permission from IPS, the copyright holder, constitutes a violation of United States and international copyright laws and may result in legal action.


Filed Under: Africa, Agriculture, Development, Interview Tagged With:

Q&A: "Microfinance Is Much More Than Just Credit"

March 23, 2011 by

Global Geopolitics & Political Economy / IPS

Kanya D’Almeida interviews MARY ELLEN ISKENDERIAN of Women’s World Banking

UNITED NATIONS, Mar 23, 2011 (IPS) – A day after U.S. assistant secretary of state for south and central Asian affairs Robert Blake appealed to the Bangladeshi government to reconsider its dismissal of 70-year-old microfinance guru Muhammad Yunus from the Grameen Bank, IPS spoke with the president and CEO of Women’s World Banking (WWB), currently the most comprehensive network of microfinance institutions (MFIs) in the world.

Mary Ellen Iskenderian, who has worked with WWB for well over a decade, believes that what she calls a political smear campaign against Yunus has no bearing on the tangible changes provoked by MFIs.

She dismissed the notion, which is swiftly gaining momentum in many quarters, that microcredit is ineffective as a sustainable method of poverty alleviation and must be replaced.

Iskenderian argues that the long-term positive impact of MFIs and their projects in the global south will help to close the poverty gap and empower rural, third world women – a population who shoulders the brunt of structural inequality.

Excerpts from the interview follow.

Q: How has Muhammad Yunus’s dismissal from Grameen Bank affected WWB?

A: We were very concerned about what the general public might think and what this confusion would do for the "microfinance brand" so to speak – it’s extremely unfortunate that his dismissal has nothing to do with microfinance and is in reality nothing but a politically motivated move against the founder of Grameen Bank.

Bangladesh is a place in which you can literally track the positive impact of microfinance efforts on poverty reduction and it’s very disheartening that political officials are attempting to discredit this.

Q: How has WWB dealt with this media blow?

A: We’re trying as hard as we can to get the word out about how effective microfinance has been. Today microfinance is so much more than just credit – we are working on a whole range of other products that can add a level of security to low-income households to soften the repeated blows of poverty.

Q: How does WWB respond to the barrage of critique that has come at MFIs and the MF industry in recent years? Does WWB share any of the concerns of critics of MF?

A: We feel that there is a much bigger story that isn’t always being told in its entirety. While giving women access to credit achieves short-term goals – such as allowing women to build small businesses – the long-term changes created by women who choose wisely how to expend the income generated form these activities is often ignored.

For example, a woman who owns her own business often makes wise investments that lead to structural change over a longer period of time – the education of her children, for instance. Those changes happen much more slowly than the few months dedicated to a controlled study allow you to see.

The impact of a family allowing a girl child to be educated rather than pulling her out of school to contribute a small amount of income towards the household is enormous – but it cannot be observed and recorded during the duration of a research study. Some of the critique, despite being well- intentioned, does not present an accurate picture of the kind of change microfinance is capable of inducing.

Q: Are there any examples that saliently address these critiques?

A: I would look at one of our earlier members, Sewa Bank in Gujarat, India, which does not just dispense credit but also mobilises savings. One of the most salient aspects of this is that institutions who can take deposits not only ensure their clients greater stability and security, but the institutions themselves can secure a stable source of low- cost local currency funding by way of deposits.

Sewa is not only interested in providing enterprise credit and agricultural credit but is also taking savings and making highly successfully pension-products so that women can save for the long term. Sewa also provides healthcare on the ground, through what they call the ‘barefoot doctors’, as well as health insurance.

Sewa is a great example of the kind of institution in our network that is very focused on a woman’s life cycle needs. As the CEO of Sewa always says, "poverty is like a game of chutes and ladders" – by which she means unpredictable events can destroy everything a woman has built in her life and MFIs like Sewa can protect against that kind of catastrophe.

Q: Does WWB believe in alternatives such as peasant cooperatives? Are you dedicated to bringing more women from the grassroots to the decision-making table at the highest level?

A: Absolutely. You’ve hit the nail right on the head. We think one of the most worrying trends is that as more private and commercial banks come into the picture, fewer and fewer women are visible in the ranks and staff of microfinance at the executive level, the senior level and even at the loan officers’ level.

The question then becomes, how can you design a product to help poor women without consulting women on the issue? WWB is very strict in any product launch that we do with our members. We do market research as a first step and talk to the community organisations and to grassroots leaders to find out what they’re actually looking for.

Since women tend to save more than men we always consult with women when designing savings products. Most of these women need confidentiality because they don’t want their husbands or neighbours to know they’re saving. So coming up with saving mechanisms where women can formally save money in their own name without the knowledge of the community needs to be built into our product design.

All rights reserved, IPS – Inter Press Service, 2011.

This article may not be republished, broadcast, framed, or redistributed without the written permission of IPS – Inter Press Service. Republication of this material without permission from IPS, the copyright holder, constitutes a violation of United States and international copyright laws and may result in legal action.


Filed Under: Finance, Interview, Politics Tagged With: , , ,

Q&A: "Women Must Be Part of the Peace Equation"

March 21, 2011 by

Global Geopolitics & Political Economy / IPS

Rousbeh Legatis interviews MAVIC CABRERA-BALLEZA, Global Network of Women Peacebuilders

UNITED NATIONS, Mar 21, 2011 (IPS) – Eleven years ago, 192 countries – all the United Nations member states – agreed to step up the integration of women in international peacebuilding and security processes, a promise that has remained largely unmet.

Mavic Cabrera-Balleza notes that by having specific provisions compelling their members to implement and report progress, regional organisations like the European Union and the African Union "are a step ahead" of the United Nations, which lacks a regular accountability mechanism.

As international coordinator of the Global Network of Women Peacebuilders (GNWP), consisting of 50 women’s and non- governmental organisations (NGOs) from Africa, Asia and the Pacific, Europe and Latin America, Cabrera-Balleza spoke to IPS about developments and challenges in supporting women around the world.

Excerpts from the interview follow.

Q: Recently you conducted a stock-taking study to look at the progress made in 11 countries in terms of women’s involvement in national efforts to prevent war and build peace. What did you find?

A: One of the biggest problems is what we refer to as the ‘accountability gap’. There is nothing that compels U.N. member states to report on what they are doing to put resolution 1325 [on women, peace and security] into practice, apart from the beautiful statements that they all say during the open debate in the U. N. Security Council every October. But that is not an accurate reporting.

A second finding of our report is the enduring lack of women ‘s participation in decision-making, which is also related to an absence of women in official peace negotiations. When negotiations are informal then women are there and recognised, when they become official and national they disappear. The reason is that in these peace negations a bigger premium is put into parties who had guns or who were engaged in actual combat. So it is not because women do not have anything to contribute, but there are structural barriers to their participation and that has to be changed.

We have also found that women’s participation in the justice and security sector is still very low, in general, across the 11 countries. There has been a change in the judiciary, but not in critical mass, meaning at least 30 percent. The security sector – police and military – is still very male in all the analysed countries. Women’s participation in the military, for example, was less than nine percent in eight of the nine countries for which data were provided.

Q: Did you find ways to confront these problems?

A: To begin to fill the ‘accountability gap’ we have been advocating for the adoption of a general recommendation on armed conflict for the U.N. Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW). The general recommendation is the CEDAW Committee’s interpretation of state obligations under international laws.

So what will happen if a general recommendation on women and armed conflicts gets adopted is that member states who have ratified the CEDAW – there are around 186 of them – will be obliged to include in their regular compliance report to the Committee how they are actually implementing resolution 1325. And NGOs which are providing or presenting on their own shadow reports to CEDAW will also more consciously integrate 1325 implementation, even when they are already do it. It will raise their awareness.

Q: Some critics say that NGOs and U.N. agencies are competing for visibility and resources instead of working together.

A: This happens a lot, I cannot believe how much it happens. We [women's groups, civil society organisations and U.N. agencies] go to the same donors. What we are encouraging the U.N. is that they should not duplicate what NGOs or other agencies are already doing, but provide the models or catalytic examples, meaning examples that one can replicate in other areas. The world is big, there are many problems. We should not try all of us working in the Democratic Republic of Congo or Afghanistan. There are many places which need attention.

The existing lack of appreciation and the competition is in some ways driven by the need for visibility and the need to attract donor’s attention to our individual work and not to our collective work. And here I would really challenge the donor community to encourage collective work, partnership and not just to put their stake on the bigger and more visible agencies or organisations. They are accountable to their constituencies, to their parliaments and to their congresses, but they should also educate their constituencies and not just work on one priority country when there is already presence there.

Q: GNWP was part of the NGO executive committee at the 55th session of the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW), which just held two weeks of meetings in New York. What do you see as the greatest challenges yet to overcome?

A: The CSW remains the only regular global policy discussion space dedicated to women, there is nothing else. It brings in a very good number of participants together, no matter what the theme is. I want for the CSW and UN Women, which serves as a secretariat to the Commission, to realise the convening and mobilising power of this event.

Unfortunately, there is a persistent procedural or you may say structural problem with the CSW. It is not clear where do the agreed conclusions – which is the main outcome document at the end of the two-week meeting – actually go to, how are they influencing other U.N. policy discussions.

Another persistent problem is the refusal by some U.N. member states to recognise that gender equality is upfront and central in any policy discussion. There is no escaping it, women are totally part of the equation. When you are talking about peace, human rights and development – which are the major areas of U.N. work – gender is an integral component. There is no meaningful, substantive discussion that could happen in this policies if do not integrate that.

All rights reserved, IPS – Inter Press Service, 2011.

This article may not be republished, broadcast, framed, or redistributed without the written permission of IPS – Inter Press Service. Republication of this material without permission from IPS, the copyright holder, constitutes a violation of United States and international copyright laws and may result in legal action.


Filed Under: Conflict, Gender, Interview, Peace Tagged With: , , ,

Q&A: Needing Surgery Shouldn’t Be a Death Sentence

March 13, 2011 by

Global Geopolitics & Political Economy / IPS

Rousbeh Legatis interviews REINOU GROEN of Surgeons OverSeas

UNITED NATIONS, Mar 12, 2011 (IPS) – Surgery saves the lives of millions of people around the world, but only a tiny percent of them live in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), where a shortage of skills, supplies and infrastructure can turn easily treatable accidents and illnesses into lifelong disabilities and even death.

The world’s poorest receive only four percent of all major surgical operations worldwide, while 75 percent benefit the richest third of the world, according to a 2010 Harvard University School of Public Health study.

In the LMICs, people often "die instead of being operated on", says Reinou Groen from Surgeons OverSeas (SOS), a New York-based group that improves surgical care in resource- poor environments through training and support programmes.

Recognition of these enormous shortfalls in basic and emergency surgical care is urgently needed at the local, national and international level, underscored the surgeon, who has worked in Niger, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Sierra Leone.

Groen spoke with IPS about the problem, why women are especially affected, and how this imbalance affects the U.N. Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

Excerpts from the interview follow.

Q: You have compared the state of surgery in Sierra Leone today with the U.S. Civil War era (1861-1865).

A: Basically we found that the surgical capacity of present- day Sierra Leone is worse off than in the civil war in the 19th century in the USA. Running water was well organised in the U.S., every health facility had a good water supply. In Sierra Leone, we only found two hospitals out of 10 that had running water all the time.

Without running water, sterilisation of surgical equipment and proper hand-washing before operations is impossible. This runs the risks of transmitting diseases. Also electricity is not continuously available in Sierra Leone’s hospitals nowadays.

This means for us that we will never go to work without taking a headlamp, since we have needed that more than once during operations.

In our study we have found also that there are only 0.2 government hospital surgeons per 100,000 people in Sierra Leone compared to 300 surgeons per 100,000 Union Army soldiers. While things like open fractures, limb dislocations, and amputations were commonly employed in U.S. Civil War hospitals, they are rarely managed in Sierra Leone.

Q: What does this mean for patients?

A: Take knowledge of treatment for open bone fractures as an example, where the bones are exposed without overlaying skin. In Sierra Leone, 80 percent of the hospitals cannot perform good care for open bone fractures. This is due to knowledge gaps, lacking human resources and appropriate material.

As a consequence, an infected bone, so-called osteomyelitis, is a common cause of disability and mortality. The treatment for infected bone, which should have been prevented in the first place by good trauma care, is difficult. Long courses of antibiotics and operations to remove the infected bones are needed to first stabilise the critical condition of the patient.

Thereafter the patient often needs subsequent interventions to reduce disability and a long physiotherapy is needed. This full process can take up to months and years. One can imagine the cost which comes with this treatment. An initial good trauma care would have prevented this.

And when it comes to costs, there are actually two types of them: the actual medical costs and the fact that the patient is not able to work in this period of rehabilitation and has no income. This is not affordable for the majority of people in Sierra Leone.

Q: Can you quantify the problem?

A: Well, in Sierra Leone there are only 10 surgeons for 5.3 million women, men and children and in Liberia are only three surgeons for 3.5 million people.

There is no reason to believe that these [same] illnesses are not happening in countries where fewer operations are done, it just tells us that people with these diseases are not taken care of and die instead of being operated on. In developed countries emergency surgery is available for everyone, every hour of the day. In the developing world it is currently simply not available.

Q: Do these shortfalls in emergency and essential surgical care affect overarching development strategies like the U.N. Millennium Development Goals (MDGs)?

A: Yes, definitely. There is a strong need to integrate surgery in the existing MDGs, since there are so many related topics and subtopics: The reduction of poverty (MDG 1), child health (MDG 4), maternal mortality (MDG 5) and the combat against HIV/AIDS (MDG 6) will not be achieved if the surgical capacity is not strengthened. To give you some examples:

Five to 10 percent of [pregnant] women or their child will die in labour if they don’t get their live-saving Caesarean section. This means that you need a hospital with an operating room with anesthesia and skilled personnel to achieve MDG 5.

According to a studies conducted in 2010 in eight low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) – amongst others Sri Lanka, Mongolia, Tanzania, Afghanistan, Sierra Leone and Gambia – this common kind of operation, however, could be done only by 44 percent of rural, community, provincial, or general hospitals and major health centres.

Particularly women will gain from a better surgical care system. If a Caesarean section is available in the hospital, she initially attends to her baby, has more survival chance and she has less risk of developing severe complications when giving birth.

All rights reserved, IPS – Inter Press Service, 2011.

This article may not be republished, broadcast, framed, or redistributed without the written permission of IPS – Inter Press Service. Republication of this material without permission from IPS, the copyright holder, constitutes a violation of United States and international copyright laws and may result in legal action.


Filed Under: Development, Economic Policy, Health, Interview Tagged With: ,

Q&A: ‘Women Are Shackled During Childbirth’

March 11, 2011 by

Global Geopolitics & Political Economy / IPS

Mehru Jaffer interviews FABRIZIA FALCIONE, UN WOMEN

VIENNA, Mar 10, 2011 (IPS) – Female Palestinian prisoners detained in Israel are often denied legal representation and medical care while being housed in squalid conditions that can include sharing cells with rodents.

According to Fabrizia Falcione,project manager for the Women Human Rights Unit at UN WOMEN, the United Nations entity for gender equality and empowerment of women, told IPS that it is crucial to reveal the human face behind this breach of international law and international humanitarian law in order to address the plight of Palestinian political prisoners, including women and children.

Since 1967, more than 700,000 Palestinians have been arrested or detained in Israeli prisons and detention centres. Approximately 10,000 of these prisoners were women.

Today, 37 female Palestinian prisoners continue to be held in Israeli prisons – out of a total of about 7,500 inmates. The reason is primarily political – most of the prisoners are members of the Palestinian Legislative Council.

Falcione’s work includes providing legal aid and representation to female prisoners, psychosocial support to family members of prisoners, and preparation for release and reintegration of prisoners into family and society.

This week Falcione participated in the first international meeting of its kind organised by the United Nations to focus on the question of Palestinian political prisoners in Israeli detention. During the two-day meet she took time out to talk to IPS about the absolute urgency of specifically addressing the rights of female prisoners.

Q: What are the most immediate concerns for Palestinian women prisoners in Israeli prisons today?

A: The situation of Palestinian women and minors in Israeli detention facilities is bad. In terms of numbers, Palestinian female political prisoners and detainees in Israel prisons almost disappear compared to the hundreds of thousands of Palestinian male political prisoners. But the plight of female prisoners is worse than the men.

The situation, condition and violations faced by women in jails in Israel needs to be addressed from a gender perspective. At present the number of women prisoners is considerably lower than before, but women and girls continue to be arrested, their special needs continue to be neglected, and their rights violated.

Q: You talk of physical and psychological problems faced by female prisoners. What do you mean?

A: There is medical neglect and lack of specialised medical services for the prevention and treatment of illnesses of women.

The female prisoners at present are mainly incarcerated in two Israeli facilities in Hasharon and Damon – both of them located outside the occupied Palestinian territory, in violation of Article 76 of the Fourth Geneva Convention.

Former Palestinian female prisoners in both these prisons and family members of women currently in prison say that the cells are infested with insects, particularly cockroaches as well as rodents. A former inmate released a few months ago said, "No matter how hard I try to describe the cell to you, I cannot. It is like an underground grave… There are so many insects in the cell, the mattresses and cover sheet were damp and smelled awful. Sewage was overflowing. I could barely make my ablutions to pray."

Beyond general healthcare there is no gynaecological support. Women require medical attention regularly, which is their right during confinement as recognised by CEDAW [the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women].

The great majority of Palestinian women political prisoners in Israeli prisons suffer from various health problems.

Q: Is it true that pregnant women are shackled during childbirth?

A: It is true. Pregnant women are shackled while giving birth, and soon after. There is a total lack of medical care, particularly during childbirth. Women lament that infants born to them are taken away after two years. In Israeli prisons, the rights of Palestinian women prisoners is recognised, but not respected.

Q: And the psychological concerns?

A: Women bear the brunt of the infringement upon their cultural and religious rights. A former prisoner said, "They took away my jilbab [long dress] and gave me their special brown prisoner uniform. It was short sleeved. I asked for a long sleeved shirt that I could wear under the uniform. Again they refused. I moved between cells among male guards in a short sleeved uniform… what hurt me most were the insults they hurled at me."

Women’s privacy is violated and male guards conduct room searches without any consideration for religious norms. Prisoners are counted four times a day, including very early in the morning, and punishment is inflicted if women are found asleep or do not reply immediately to the count.

The most troubling aspect is the denial of family visitation rights. Family visits to prisoners are allowed twice a month, theoretically, but are drastically restricted due to the fact that the prisons are outside the occupied Palestinian territory.

A round-trip visit to the prison is a ten-hour journey – not only due to geographical distance but also because the movement of Palestinians in Israel is controlled. If families succeed in making the journey, they are allowed to visit for 30 minutes – speaking through a thick glass divider that prevents any physical contact, even between mother and child. This affects the well being of not just the mother but also the children. The break in family and social relations is severe on the psychological state of the women.

Q: What exactly is the crime of these women?

A: Many women are imprisoned without trial for belonging to organisations banned by Israel, under the guise of protecting the national security of the Jewish state.

Untried Palestinian women political prisoners are detained in Neve Terza prison in the women’s section allocated to convicted criminal offenders in clear violation of Rule 85 of the United Nations standard minimum rules for the treatment of prisoners that says, "Untried prisoners shall be kept separate from convicted prisoners."

This allows Israeli prisoners to threaten and humiliate Palestinian women through verbal and physical abuse. Palestinian women prisoners and detainees are further prevented from using prison facilities like pens, reading material and recreational time.

All rights reserved, IPS – Inter Press Service, 2011.

This article may not be republished, broadcast, framed, or redistributed without the written permission of IPS – Inter Press Service. Republication of this material without permission from IPS, the copyright holder, constitutes a violation of United States and international copyright laws and may result in legal action.


Filed Under: Gender, Human Rights, Interview, Middle East Tagged With: , ,

Q&A: Rural Women Need Concrete Actions

March 4, 2011 by

Global Geopolitics & Political Economy / IPS

Rousbeh Legatis interviews CATHERINE MABOBORI, Chairwoman of the Solidarité Femmes Parlementaires (SOFEPA)

UNITED NATIONS, Mar 3, 2011 (IPS) – Burundi will put U.N. Resolution 1325 on Women, Peace and Security into practice with a National Action Plan (NAP) that is ready to be signed within the coming months.

"It is the appropriate moment" to push for adopting the NAP in the coming months, even if "having enough funds to implement the plan" still poses a major challenge, says Catherine Mabobori, Chairwoman of the Association of Women Parliamentarians in Burundi (SOFEPA).

Since 1993 Mabobori has been educating Burundian women on their rights, and showing them how to assume an active role in rebuilding their society after 15 years of civil war.

Despite an officially signed peace accord violence remains an endemic problem in Burundi – particularly for women. During the war women became "fragile economically and even socially", Mabobori told IPS, but today they are exposed to widespread sexual and gender-based violence.

Mabobori spoke to IPS about how internationally adopted resolutions can lead to progress in national gender policy and bring change for Burundian women.

Excerpts of the interview follow:

Q: To what extent can resolutions like 1325, designed to address the disproportionate and unique impact of war on women, and 1820, addressing the problems of sexual violence in conflict situations, help Burundian women?

A: I think resolution 1325 came at really good time in Burundi, because it was adopted when the country was in a peace process. In fact, 1325 is the same age as our peace agreement – both were adopted in 2000.

Together with the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) – which was adopted in 1979, and has been ratified by Burundi – 1325 came as an additional tool for us to lobby for engendering laws… and integrating women in the national post-conflict reconstruction and peacekeeping efforts.

Today, we have many women heading governmental institutions – including the Ministries of Justice, Finance, Labour, Agriculture, Telecommunications and Gender. In total we have nine female ministers out of 22. And while we have 32 percent women in the National Assembly, 46 percent of Senate members are women. This is an improvement compared to what we had before 1325.

Q: International resolutions are one thing. To work on the ground is another thing. What are you experiences?

A: Our country is 90 percent rural, and among the rural population women are the majority. So talking about 1325 or 1820 or any other resolution we say is like speaking ‘Chinese’, because it is a language they do not understand.

We women activists know about those resolutions of course and we use them to empower rural women to claim their rights. Rural women need concrete actions – they do not need to be taught about these resolutions. Even when they understand them, it is not easy for them to apply what for example a law says. To give an example, if a woman has been a victim of violence by her husband and you tell her that now she should take her case to the court, it might not be possible for her. When she goes to the court that means no one is doing her work at home. Instead of losing time to go to the court she will stay there, cultivating the land, looking after her children, fetching water and so forth.

Q: Is there political will to implement provisions and norms for realising the three "Ps" – women’s protection, participation, and prevention – of resolution 1325?

A: I think there is, because in Burundi we have made progress in terms of gender policies and laws. We could not have made progress without the political will.

The problem is the implementation, because it requires a collective commitment. Take our penal court as an example, which takes into account all kinds of human rights violations, including gender-based violence (GBV). What we have seen at the local administration level is that there is a kind of ‘banalisation’ of violence against women. We still need to sensitise the local administration so that they take the matter seriously. Whenever the cases are taken to the penal court judges, however, they judge according to the law. There are still gaps that we have in implementing laws.

We need our National Action Plan (NAP) to be adopted as soon as possible. So that our work can be well organised, because we need to include all the stakeholders in a better coordinated way which will help us to know who is doing what. And so we have a mechanism to evaluate what we are doing. For me the political commitment will be also translated in the adoption of the NAP.

Q: How was Burundian NAP developed?

A: We started in 2007 with a wide sensitisation campaign targeting women’s organisations, after we have noticed that the resolution was not known seven years after its adoption. Subsequently, we did a baseline study for mapping the progress of implementing 1325 in Burundi and based on the findings we drafted our National Action Plan. To make it as inclusive as possible we invited about ten related Ministries, civil society, international NGOs and U.N. agencies. Now, we are waiting for the official adoption of the NAP within the next three months.

Q: Why is it still not adopted?

A: The problem is we have had a heavy political agenda, because of the elections and the peace process. Our plan was not really a priority… This is the appropriate moment, since we have a new government, a new parliament a new Senate.

We are working in all directions so that the NAP can be adopted as soon as possible. And even if our NAP is not yet adopted officially by the government, the implementation is already in progress. We have managed to secure a women’s quota in governmental institutions and we have a specific budget line just dedicated to implement 1325 – this shows that there is a political will and maybe it will encourage other donors who are interested in investing in peace in Burundi.

All rights reserved, IPS – Inter Press Service, 2011.

This article may not be republished, broadcast, framed, or redistributed without the written permission of IPS – Inter Press Service. Republication of this material without permission from IPS, the copyright holder, constitutes a violation of United States and international copyright laws and may result in legal action.


Filed Under: Agriculture, Development, Gender, Interview Tagged With: ,

Q&A: Ordinary Women Have Extraordinary Stories to Tell

March 1, 2011 by

Global Geopolitics & Political Economy / IPS

Rousbeh Legatis interviews LOGA VIRAHSAWMY of Gender Links

UNITED NATIONS, Mar1, 2011 (IPS) – Ordinary women’s voices are too often ignored when it comes to solving their own problems, admonishes Loga Virahsawmy, Director of the Southern African NGO Gender Links, Mauritius and Francophone Office.

As a freelance journalist and gender activist, Virahsawmy has spent years analysing how Southern African media cover women, and recently completed a study in 15 countries that showed a discouraging lack of improvement from previous years.

On the sidelines of the 55th session of the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) in New York, Virahsawmy spoke to IPS about the importance of hearing the voices of ordinary women and the shortcomings of mass media. Excerpts from the interview follow.

Q: What are some of the important things ordinary women have to tell?

A: Ordinary women have lots of things to tell. Ordinary women have more things to tell than people in power, because they are experiencing the problems. Their voices must be heard. You know it is good to do scientific research, it is good for scientists to talk, but who implements? Who puts the strategies and plans in action, and who suffers? These are the grassroots women. They are very knowledgeable and maybe this knowledge has not been put on paper.

It is about time that we listen to them and take this knowledge into account. Had we listened to all these women with their ancestral knowledge maybe we would not have been in so much trouble today.

Q: Do you think the voices of ordinary women are being heard here at the CSW?

A: It really depends what session you go to. I went, for example, to a conference where grassroots women exchanged their experiences when it comes to climate change. These women had to do their presentations in their own language, so they were given proper space, even to talk in their own languages. This is important, because these are grassroots women and it is crucial for people here at CSW to know what is happening in these countries.

What could be seen as problematic, however, is that there is a lack of mixture between grassroots NGOs and high-level representatives, since there are official events, debates and meetings on the one side, and NGO presentations and parallel events, often outside the U.N., on the other.

At official events I met ministers, members of parliament and other crucial decision-makers when it comes to gender policy-making. The majority of them were not attending the mentioned parallel events. Furthermore, it is true that when high-level people like that talk they do not speak the language of the people. They use more a sort of an academic language, which does not trickle down to the ordinary citizens.

Therefore, it is crucial for women organisations who are attending the CSW here in New York that they must make sure of meeting and talking with their delegations and representatives, to learn what is happening and to communicate what they are doing.

Q: Your work focuses on the link between media and gender.

A: Very often we forget how important media is, because media shape opinions of people. Day in, day out when people listen to their radio, they think that is God’s voice. While listening to the radio, reading the newspaper or watching TV, they do not question the content. It is therefore important for people, both women and men, to know how to read the media.

In 2010, we conducted the Gender and Media Progress Study because we wanted to see what developments have happened in recent years. We have not made much progress, unfortunately. From 17 percent of women’s voices in the media [in 2003], we are now at 19 percent in 15 analysed Southern African countries. After five years and only two percent more, I think there is a major problem.

Q: How do you approach changing this situation?

A: We do it quantitatively and qualitatively, as well. Quantitative are all the statistics about where the women’s voices are, on what they talk, how many female journalists there are, what sort of beat they get to cover in comparison with male colleagues, what kind of positions women have in senior management positions and so on.

And qualitatively, we are looking at the media coverage, how the articles, for example, could have been better, what other voices are missing. Very often you have an article with a beautiful picture of a woman and when you read it her voice is not there.

Once we come up with our findings, we do trainings in media houses and with journalists. We present them our results to show how they can change their work. We are living in a very patriarchal society and journalists have been used to go and access male voices all the time. They do not realise themselves that they are not doing it correctly, until you show them the results and train them. Then maybe we can see change happening.

All rights reserved, IPS – Inter Press Service, 2011.

This article may not be republished, broadcast, framed, or redistributed without the written permission of IPS – Inter Press Service. Republication of this material without permission from IPS, the copyright holder, constitutes a violation of United States and international copyright laws and may result in legal action.


Filed Under: Africa, Gender, Interview Tagged With: ,

Q&A: "The Verdict Against Chevron Is Enforceable, Because It Is Just"

February 23, 2011 by

Global Geopolitics & Political Economy / IPS

Gonzalo Ortiz interviews JUAN PABLO SÁENZ, prosecuting attorney in Chevron case *

QUITO, Feb 23, 2011 (Tierramérica) – On Feb. 14, a provincial Ecuadorean court issued the harshest environmental verdict in history against a major oil company, the U.S.-based Chevron. But is there any chance it will be carried out?

"We wouldn’t keep working on this if we didn’t think success was possible. On a scale of one to 10, it’s a 10," the youngest of the litigant attorneys, Juan Pablo Sáenz, told Tierramérica in an interview.

It is the environmental trial of the century. The ruling of the court of first instance orders Chevron to pay 9.5 billion dollars to pay for the damage to human health and the environment in an Amazon forest area of northeast Ecuador, in the provinces of Sucumbíos and Orellana. That is where oil exploration and drilling operations took place for 26 years under Chevron or Texaco, which Chevron acquire in 2001.

At the time that this Tierramérica edition was published, the company had presented a request for clarification and an extension of the ruling, which in practice freezes the 72-hour deadline the parties have to appeal once the verdict is issued.

When the legal battle began in 1993, Juan Pablo Sáenz was just finishing primary school. Now, at age 29, he is part of the legal team that has tallied a major win. He joined them four years ago after winning a contest as he finished his legal studies.

Q: On a scale of one to 10, what would you say are the chances of the ruling being enforced?

A: We wouldn’t keep working on this if we didn’t think the chance was a 10. Many people said that this was never going to succeed, that an Ecuadorean court would never rule against a big transnational corporation.

But we have several options and we have the advice of a U.S. law office, Patton Boggs LLP, which is an expert in enforcing this type of sentence. We are absolutely convinced that this can be carried out because it is just.

Q: The reality is that justice does not always win, especially when there are such powerful interests on one side.

A: Of course, but we have to believe in miracles. What differentiates us from similar cases is that we are working directly with the communities.

We are dedicated, in the end, to following the decisions that they make, and that gives us strength. As Pablo Fajardo (coordinator of the legal team) said, this is a matter of principles. And even if it takes many, many years, I am sure that we — and I am speaking not just for the attorneys, but especially for the communities — are going to last much longer than our opponents.

Q: It’s clear that the lawsuit did not seek money to distribute to people, and the sentence states that the fines should go to specific rubrics of environmental remediation and health care, and that these resources will be managed by a trusteeship. How many potential beneficiaries are there?

A: All of the residents of Orellana and Sucumbíos provinces. A few years ago they talked about 30,000 people. They are directly affected because they live in areas neighbouring petroleum zones. But according to the latest census, we would be talking about around 223,000 people in the two provinces.

Q: How many plaintiffs were there?

A: The people who signed the lawsuit, and who have continued with admirable tenacity, are not going to receive any money. This is a collective lawsuit, meaning that it was done in the name of all who live in the area. It is an undefined but identifiable group.

Q: How do you take legal action against Chevron outside the United States to ensure that the sentence is carried out, given that the company has not operated in Ecuador for years? What countries are you considering?

A: There is the Convention on the Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Arbitral Awards, of which Ecuador is a signatory. The easiest would be to look for enforcement in a country that is also a signatory of the treaty, because the process would be faster, but we could focus on any country where Chevron has oil platforms, ships, any type of goods, and seek their embargo until Chevron recognises its obligations.

Q: Do you have a country in mind?

A: We have a list of countries, but it would be premature now because it is obvious that they are going to file all possible appeals in the case, and there still are a few higher instances.

Q: The first is before the full court of Sucumbíos. Then, if Chevron continues filing appeals, it would have to take the case to the National Court of Justice for cassation, right?

A: Yes, but cassation is a much more limited type of appeal because the deeper issue would not be discussed, but rather three or four specific considerations. The timing would be accelerated because it is a summary verbal judgment for which the law gives judges shorter deadlines.

Q: So a one-year deadline is reasonable?

A: Yes. The first appeal should not take longer than six months, because new evidence is presented; it is simply judged based on what exists in the writs.

Q: What is your view of the appeals Chevron filed before the Permanent Court of Arbitration, based in The Hague, and in a New York court to prevent the sentence from being enforced?

A: They are suing Ecuador and are trying to re-litigate the whole matter as if the Ecuadorean government were party to it, and it isn’t. It is hard to imagine that the arbitration court of The Hague would ask the Ecuadorean government to interfere in the judiciary’s operations. It is ridiculous to think that.

The court of The Hague cannot prejudge the rulings made by courts in Ecuador, which are independent, and much less tell the government not to respect the judicial rulings.

The cases in New York and The Hague have no chance of interfering in the enforcement of the sentence. There is no supranational forum in which we are going to confront Chevron.

Q: And when the moment comes to enforce the ruling?

A: When we request injunctions against Chevron, any judge or court will review whether certain basic requirements were followed: that nobody has been deprived of the right to a defence, that due process was followed, but nothing more.

Q: But Chevron is already taking action in other ways…

A: What it is doing is lobbying against Ecuador, for example, trying to prevent the renewal of preferential tariffs. It wants the Ecuadorean government to interfere in due process. Chevron has spent millions of dollars over the past few years to drive a wedge between the U.S. government and Ecuador. They have no interest in this being heard in court: they have no arguments.

(*This story was originally published by Latin American newspapers that are part of the Tierramérica network. Tierramérica is a specialised news service produced by IPS with the backing of the United Nations Development Programme, United Nations Environment Programme and the World Bank.)

All rights reserved, IPS – Inter Press Service, 2011.

This article may not be republished, broadcast, framed, or redistributed without the written permission of IPS – Inter Press Service. Republication of this material without permission from IPS, the copyright holder, constitutes a violation of United States and international copyright laws and may result in legal action.


Filed Under: Energy, Environment, Interview, Latin America Tagged With: , , ,

Q&A: Tunis and Cairo Reveal a New Popular Militancy

February 14, 2011 by

Global Geopolitics & Political Economy / IPS

Andrea Lunt interviews activist and intellectual BOAVENTURA DE SOUSA SANTOS
Boaventura de Sousa Santos / Credit:Courtesy of Boaventura de Sousa Santos

NEW YORK, Feb 14, 2011 (IPS) – More than 200 years ago, one of the United States’ founding presidents, Thomas Jefferson, famously remarked: "Every generation needs a new revolution." Today, his words are more relevant than ever, as young people across the world mark 2011 as a year of change.

Judging by the recent uprisings in Egypt and Tunisia, and the strong turnout at last week’s World Social Forum (WSF) in Dakar, Senegal, activism is alive and well.

For a wrap-up on this year’s WSF and some insight into the recent uprisings, IPS spoke with Boaventura de Sousa Santos, author and professor of sociology at the University of Coimbra in Portugal.

Q: What were the highlights of this year’s WSF?

A: In spite of organisational difficulties, this was a successful WSF for various reasons. First, Africa’s problems and Africa’s contribution to the world were at the centre of the WSF, precisely at the same time as the people in Cairo celebrated liberation and showed new ways of struggling for it. This focus on Africa became a source of inspiration for the U.N. International Year for People of African Descent, just beginning.

Second, an unprecedented amount of time was allocated to convergence meetings among social movements aiming at jointly planned collective actions.

Third, the renewal of the WSF is definitely on the agenda. The objective is to allow for political demands to be advanced globally in the name of important sectors of the WSF – without compromising the inclusive nature of the world meetings every two years – and to strengthen the self- education and training across national borders.

Q: From Marxism to La Via Campesina, social movements have changed and evolved over the years. What do you think is the most successful approach to making real change in the world?

A: Tunis’s and Cairo’s uprisings are showing that a paradigmatic change in oppositional militancy is under way. If until now the central question for progressive politics was how to articulate progressive parties with progressive social movements and NGOs, the new central question is how to articulate progressive parties and social movements, on one side, with unorganised citizens, on the other.

The latter, mostly young people, whom the organised civil society viewed as apolitical, brainwashed by mass consumption and mass media – in sum, lost for social causes – are showing that real change in the world occurs when a threshold is reached beyond which politics becomes equated with human life and human dignity.

Social movements have not reflected on the conditions, times and spaces of such threshold for the simple reason that they didn’t believe that such a threshold existed. For them, being organised meant – and still means – to be on the right side, and being unorganised, on the wrong side.

The real change in the world will occur when multiple Cairos will occur synchronically around the world, all different and all similar. The newest social movements will focus on their relations with the unorganised society and on the intercultural translation that will make possible insurgent transnational aggregation without global homogeneity.

Q: What can we learn from the recent global financial crisis?

A: That capitalism is becoming more destructive than ever by squeezing more labour from workers that have a job and more subservience from those that don’t, by resorting to wage theft, by destroying all remnants of the social contract, by silencing, through the financial crisis, all the other crises – energetic, environmental, intergenerational, civilisational crises facing humankind.

We also learn that as long as the crisis is being "resolved" by those that caused it, the destruction will continue. At least, until when many Cairos emerge around the world, based on different grievances but united in the same struggle for social justice and democratic accountability.

Q: Do you think there is the possibility that the U.N. could be strengthened as a world parliament?

A: We should struggle, not for spatially inflated forms of representative democracy, but rather for sub-national, national and regional articulations between representative and participatory democracy. In some cases, these two forms of democracy should be joined by communitarian democracy, as stated in the Constitution of Bolivia of 2009. In other words, we need demo-diversity as much as we need biodiversity.

Q: Neoliberal policies prioritise money, profit and the free market as drivers of development. What does "development" mean to you? And what, as a worldwide community, do you think we should prioritise?

A: The concept of development emerged to legitimate its opposite: underdevelopment. All of a sudden the vast majority of countries of the world were labelled underdeveloped and the label reached much beyond their economies. Underdeveloped were also their institutions, their laws, their cultures.

The way out for all of them was to follow the path of the very few developed countries, that is, to obey the rules set by the latter for international relations at all levels. Concomitantly, the possibility of multiple modernities was precluded and modernity became, by definition, Western modernity. Indeed, the other "other" of development was not underdevelopment but rather socialist revolution.

Development is at heart a Cold War concept. Having this in mind, it is almost impossible if not self-defeating, to try to conceive of alternative conceptions of development. We need rather alternatives to development.

One of them could be the quechua concept of Sumak kawsay which, according to the Constitution of Ecuador of 2008, should preside over the socio-economic regulation of society. It means roughly buen vivir in Spanish or living well, in English. Living well means an aspiration of individual and collective flourishing that rather than setting us apart from nature – as inherent to the concept of development- conceives of nature as part of human society in such a way that human rights and the rights of nature are the two sides of the same struggle for social emancipation.

As the year of the Rio plus 20 (The UN Conference on Sustainable Development of 2012) approaches, giving credibility to the concept of Sumak kawsay may be a good way of indicating our priorities.

Q: The world is growing at an unprecedented rate. How can we handle this growth while being responsible to both people and the environment?

A: Food sovereignty and what it entails is the solution.

All rights reserved, IPS – Inter Press Service, 2010.

This article may not be republished, broadcast, framed, or redistributed without the written permission of IPS – Inter Press Service. Republication of this material without permission from IPS, the copyright holder, constitutes a violation of United States and international copyright laws and may result in legal action.


Filed Under: Africa, Interview, Middle East, Politics, Unrest Tagged With: , , ,

SOUTH AFRICA: Rising Leader With Her Feet on the Ground

February 10, 2011 by

Global Geopolitics & Political Economy / IPS

Fatima Asmal interviews ZANELE MAGWAZA-MSIBI, leader of South Africa’s National Freedom Party

DURBAN, Feb 10, 2011 (IPS) – Zanele Magwaza-Msibi is a woman with a mission: to serve the people of South Africa. She is poised to become leader of South Africa’s newest political party, the National Freedom Party (NFP), after breaking away from the Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP), where she served as national chairperson.

In this new role she comes into the growing tradition of female political party founders and leaders in South Africa, first achieved by Helen Suzman, one of the founders of the apartheid-era Progressive Party and one of the few white voices challenging racial discrimination at the time; Helen Zille, the current leader of the Democratic Alliance; and Patricia De Lille, founder and president of the Independent Democrats.

Fatima Asmal spoke to Magwaza-Msibi about her reasons for leaving the IFP and her aims and aspirations for her new party.

Q: What were the challenges you experienced as the female national chair of the IFP?

A: It is a fact that there are some people within the IFP who don’t believe that a woman can be a leader. It was ironic because I was the national chairperson of the IFP, the second to the president. Therefore, I was occupying the very highest position in the IFP and I was getting a lot of support from the president and other members.

But there are some within the party who don’t believe that a woman can take a leadership position and be at the helm of the party.

Q: Why did you break away from the party?

A: I did not want to do that. It took me about two and a half years to take a decision. In fact, it was not my decision but I felt I could no longer continue because I took it as a constructive dismissal from my party.

I don’t want to talk about what has been going on inside the IFP because I don’t want people to have a bad picture of the party as if I’m saying it because I’m disgruntled, because I’m not disgruntled.

I loved the IFP very much and the leadership of the IFP. It was a very difficult decision to take but, ultimately, I felt that there was nothing else that I could do because I tried to mend things between us but I failed.

Q: And your motivation for forming the NFP?

A: It was not me, it was the support — the ground support that I have and the aspirations that people had for me. I couldn’t just slaughter those aspirations, I couldn’t just try and break away from them because I have worked so hard since I was young for the communities and people know me very well. It was them having seen that I’ve gone through a lot in the party. They felt that they knew that ultimately the party was going to expend me or dismiss me and they came together and started something.

Q: What do you hope to achieve with the NFP?

A: My main objective is to serve the people of South Africa and to serve them better than anyone else. You can’t serve people unless you are in a political party and unless you are in government.

I have a track record, fortunately for me. I’ve been the mayor of Zululand for thirteen years. In the period I’ve been the mayor I’ve been chosen as the number one district in terms of service delivery. I’ve never had toyi-toyiing in my area of jurisdiction, even from within the municipality.

I believe very strongly that if you work, you have to work with the people, you have to inform them. I believe very strongly in clean governance, in service delivery, I believe very strongly that we have to fight corruption, I believe very strongly that the issues which affect more especially the voiceless – women and young people – those issues should have prominence in whatever I do, and also the elderly people.

In Zululand I’ve been working with all those people. I was the only municipality that was able to go out and get funding from overseas. I’ve built more than 450 classrooms in my tenure as mayor, [despite] that not being my responsibility and obligation as mayor.

My conviction is that in South Africa, we need a very strong opposition, an opposition that’s going to help the ruling party, to keep it on its toes – because if there is no strong opposition, the ruling party gets too much power and too much power corrupts and corrupts absolutely.

That is why there’s a lot of corruption, that is why there’s a lot of nepotism, that is why there’s a high level of unemployment and corruption that is going on in all levels of government, because the ANC has become too big.

I don’t want to see our country sliding into a one party state. Therefore I believe very strongly that we have to get an opportunity to serve the people and to serve them better than everyone else.

Q: How has the party been received thus far?

A: I’m very much humbled by the reception that I’m receiving from all the communities where I go. I received a call from a very passionate woman from Limpopo who was saying she learnt about me having started the party and they have spoken to a lot of people. She said she has already informally registered about 900 people to join our party.

We only introduced the party recently at the Durban City Hall but I was amazed at the number of people who attended – the newspapers were saying there were more than 5,000 people there – I was humbled.

That same day I went to Nongoma in Mhlabatini where the president of the IFP comes from. I was amazed. Over two days I had about 6,000 people who had registered as members there and more than 5,000 in Ulundi. It says to me the people are coming in in their numbers…I think people are taking it as a breath of fresh air.

Q: How do you rate your chances as woman leader of a political party?

A: There is always a first. I know that it is the first time that South Africa has a black woman as a leader of a political party. I know that it is still very difficult for some traditionalists to believe that a black woman can successfully lead a party but I think we are going to succeed because of the people that I have, the calibre of the leadership that I have and also the ground support that we have – I do believe that we will definitely succeed.

Q: Have you learnt any lessons from Helen Zille’s experiences?

A: One of the lessons I’ve learnt from her is to be there when people need you. Not be there only when it is elections. I’ve seen her traveling the whole country, going to the territories that were not pro-Democratic Alliance previously. I think that is a lesson – I personally believe very much in people and in communities and in working with them.

Q: As a woman, do you have any intention to canvas support from other women specifically?

A: I do believe that women will definitely support me. Women are more sympathetic towards the needs of the people…If there is no food at home on the table, you know best as a woman. If you don’t have money to pay your children’s school fees, the person who knows that first is the woman. As a woman, I would know first about the needs of the people, more especially the needs of the poorest of the poor.

All rights reserved, IPS – Inter Press Service, 2010.

This article may not be republished, broadcast, framed, or redistributed without the written permission of IPS – Inter Press Service. Republication of this material without permission from IPS, the copyright holder, constitutes a violation of United States and international copyright laws and may result in legal action.


Filed Under: Africa, Gender, Interview, Politics Tagged With: ,
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