Ten Years After Beijing

March 12, 2005 - (The Monitor - Kampala) By Danson KahyanaThe United Nations Fourth World Conference on Women (FWCW or Beijing) held in Beijing, China, September 4-15, 1995, was the largest and most influential of all the World Conferences on Women. Over 17,000 registrants, including 5,000 delegates from 189 UN member states, 4,000 representatives of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and more than 3,200 media representatives attended to discuss a broad range of issues concerning women.

This Conference was called by the General Assembly of the UN to review the Forward Looking Strategies drawn up ten years earlier, at the third women's conference held in Nairobi, which stimulated the formation of Uganda's indigenous Non-Governmental Organisation, Action for Development (ACFODE).

Some of the declarations made by the governments that participated in the conference included the determination to advance the goals of equality, development and peace for all women everywhere in the interest of all humanity, and to acknowledge the voices of all women everywhere, and the recognition that there are inequalities between men and women.

The governments committed themselves to unreservedly address constraints and obstacles slowing down the advancement and empowerment of women; ensure the full implementation of the human rights of women and of the girl child as an inalienable, integral and indivisible part of all human rights and fundamental freedoms; eradicate poverty among women; reaffirm the right of all women to control all aspects of their health, in particular their own fertility, to their empowerment; promote and protect all human rights of women and girls; ensure respect for international law, including humanitarian law, in order to protect women and girls in particular; and ensure women's equal access to economic resources.

Multilateral financial and development institutions, including the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund and regional development agencies promised to mobilize new and additional financial resources to contribute towards the goal of poverty eradication for women living in poverty.

Commercial banks and specialized financial institutions promised to reduce transaction costs and to open special windows for lending to women, including young women, who lack access to traditional sources of collateral; to encourage saving by reducing the minimum deposit and other requirements for opening bank accounts; and to ensure the participation and joint ownership, where possible, of women clients in the decision-making of institutions providing credit and financial services.

National and international non-governmental organizations and women's Groups promised to mobilize all parties involved in the development process, including academic institutions, non-governmental organizations and grass-roots and women's groups, to improve the effectiveness of

Anti-poverty programmes directed towards the poorest and most disadvantaged groups of women; to engage in lobbying; to establish monitoring mechanisms; and to get involved in other relevant activities to ensure implementation of the recommendations on poverty eradication outlined in the Platform for Action and aimed at ensuring accountability and transparency from the State and private sectors; to improve educational opportunities for girls; and to protect women's right to full and equal access to economic resources, including the right to inheritance and to ownership of land and other property, credit, natural resources and appropriate technologies.

In view of this, it is important to have a look at what Uganda has achieved ten years down the road in the political, economic, social and cultural fields.

Ms Olive Lumonya, Public Relations Executive, National Social Security Fund (NSSF)
Attended the Beijing Conference, observes that the conference has been instrumental in enhancing the woman's voice in Uganda. "The female voice is more listened to," she says. "For instance, there are more women involved in the public sphere like Parliament. In the employment sector there are policies that encourage women to compete on equal basis with men."

Although these achievements may not be directly related to the Beijing conference, it is clear that the determination to enhance women's rights in a way relates to the resolutions of the conference, some of which have been given at the beginning of this article.

The emphasis placed on girl child education, observes Ms Lumonya, is one such achievement. "For instance I am involved in a drive to have underprivileged girls in Busoga kingdom go to school. This is done through Busoga Young Professionals Association that raises money to help girls who have passed their primary leaving examinations but have no money to pay for secondary education."

Ms Jacqueline Mwesige, Former Coordinator, Uganda Women's Network (UWONET)
Observes that the Beijing Conference has had an impact on the way the world looks at women, especially with regard to political representation, women's rights and social status. "Uganda has achieved a lot in mainstreaming gender in the political sphere, as far as more women hold political posts compared to 10 years back," she says.

"There is also a lot that has been done in the area of women's land rights and fight against violence committed against women."

But there is still a lot to be done, she warns lest we lose even the little gained. "Poverty and political conflict continue to affect many Ugandan women, and if we don't work hard to eradicate these two enemies, the gains we have so got could be rolled back."

Ms Beatilda Bisangwa, Founder/Coordinator, Rema Ministries Limited, a Christian Women's Network
Attended the Beijing Conference as a representative of Bank of Uganda's gender department. To her, the conference was instrumental in fuelling the campaign against women's marginalisation. "Many organisations started soon after Beijing, for instance Council for the Economic Empowerment of Women (CEEWA) and Rema Ministries Limited in order to help enhance the emancipation of Ugandan in particular and African women in general."

But not everything said at the conference went down well with all women There were some feminists who carried the emancipation talk a little too far and started calling upon all women to accept sexual practices like lesbianism, abortion and prostitution in the name of women's sexual rights - a thing that some women like Ms Bisangwa opposed.

"We African women wanted equality with men, but this was to be equality with dignity. However, some western feminists wanted to promote funny practices like the worship of gods and goddesses, lesbianism and abortion," Bisangwa says.

She thinks it is important for African feminists to distinguish between value-based feminism and western feminism. "As African feminists we need to redefine our women's movement as one that values the African family. This is a value-based brand of feminism, not the kind that advocates hatred for men, female-female marriages and abortion," she adds.

From: http://allafrica.com/stories/200503160782.html