Poverty Remains the Face of a Woman

Will the new aid modalities transform commonwealth societies to achieve gender equality?

On 23rd January 2007, Commonwealth women will come together to discuss and debate this critical question at the World Social Forum in Nairobi.

The deliberation on the issue of gender in relation to poverty will be part of the preparation of Wildaf in the run up to the two key summits of 2007, the Commonwealth Women’s Affairs Ministers Meeting (June, Uganda) and the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (November, Uganda).

We are urging women from all over the Commonwealth to bring strong and consistent messages to these summits.

Despite many aid initiatives, poverty remains endemic in most Commonwealth countries. Poverty is particularly embodied in the roles placed on women as it affects key fundamental human rights such as access to education.

The Commonwealth is host to some of the world’s poorest nations as well as 4 of the world’s richest nations. More than 800 million people in the Commonwealth live on less than $1 a day. Throughout the early 1990s, many Commonwealth countries were urged by the World Bank and other donors to develop national poverty reduction strategies in exchange for debt relief. Also in Monterrey in 2002, there was commitment by aid agencies to scale up development aid in order to meet the Millennium Development Goals.

In 2005, the Commonwealth Foundation produced ‘Breaking with Business as Usual’ that sought to assess how far countries were achieving the MDGs. Clearly, many Commonwealth countries will not be able to achieve the MDG targets by 2015.

To further improve upon aid effectiveness, development partners are now committed to the Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness which was endorsed in 2005. The Declaration hinges on 5 key principles of Ownership, Alignment, Harmonisation, Managing for Results and Mutual Accountability.

These new aid modalities should ideally provide the opportunity for development partners and Commonwealth states to actualise commitments to gender equality. Uganda and Mozambique are examples where this is possible. But this is not the case for most commonwealth countries.

About the Commonwealth Women’s Network

Introduction

The Commonwealth Women’s Network (CWN) moved to Uganda from Trinidad and Tobago in June 2006. This is in preparation for the 8 Women’s Affairs Ministers Meeting (8WAMM) to be held in from 11-14 June 2007 in Kampala, Uganda. The CWN was set up with the aim of improving the quality of life of women throughout the Commonwealth.

It is currently hosted by the Eastern African sub Regional Support Initiative for the Advancement of Women (EASSI) Secretariat in Kampala. EASSI is a sub regional organisation formed to monitor government implementation of the Beijing Platforms for Action. http//:www.eassi.org.

The CWN will remain in Uganda for the next three years and then move to the host of the 9WAMM.

The objectives of the CWN Network are as follows:

o To provide a gender perspective to Commonwealth programmes
o To create and strengthen relationships among women in the Commonwealth
o To create and strengthen links among women’s and gender NGOs in the Commonwealth
o To create and strengthen links with policy makers in the Commonwealth

Role of the Common Wealth Network

One of the major roles of the CWN is to work in partnership with governments in the implementation of the Commonwealth Plan of Action for Gender Equality 2005 -2015 and to plan civil society input into Commonwealth Women’s Affairs Ministers Meetings as well as to keep Commonwealth civil society informed about commonwealth processes and meetings. It will organize the ‘Partners’ Forum where civil society participates in the wings of the 8WAMM. The partners Forum will take place from 4-6 June 2007 in Kampala. At the 8WAMM itself, every 6th speaker will represent CSOs. This process of engagement enables civil society to develop a collaborative and co-operative relationship with government, for a more comprehensive and co-ordinated national approach to addressing issues of gender inequality.

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Contact Address

Commonwealth Women’s Network (CWN) Secretariat

C/O Eastern African sub Regional Support Initiative for Women (EASSI)

P. O BOX 24965

Kampala

Uganda

Email: [email protected]

Contact Persons:

Marren Akatsa-Bukachi

Executive Director, EASSI

and

Chairperson CWN

[email protected]
Dr. Florence Kyoheirwe Muhanguzi:

Coordinator CWN

[email protected]