Feminism
emerged globally as a philosophy, a methodological approach and a theoretical
perspective in studies. The international community embraced this ideology
which bred international activists and eventually, the feminist perspective
became a central issue of global politics and a subject of international debate
times raising heated controversies between its proponents and antagonists.
However ,it wasn’t until the 1980s that feminism
movement gained popularity in Tanzania. Feminism has been globally defined by
its focus on changes in women`s social status and is therefore about power and
changing gendered power relations.
Gender
inequality is an area of concern that led to the formation of international
platforms and enactment of international policy agreements such as those
contained in the Beijing Declaration of 1995.The
reality of women in Africa and most of third world is that they remain a vulnerable,
marginalized group that is yet to enjoy equality in status and access to social
services and resources withy male counterparts. Women are found at the bottom
rung of poverty, of illiteracy, of landlessness and are concentrated in rural
areas where facilities are scarce. They are the most affected by negative
impacts of economic adjustment programs, cuts in social expenditure like
healthy and education and are the victims of the worst forms of violence. They
have for ages been exempted from decisions that affect resources and
environment. These are among issues that constitute gender inequality
especially in third world and this inequality is believed to have fuelled the
emergence of strong feminists across the globe to seek restitution. This work attempts to review progress and achievements of the global war to empower women
and uses Tanzania as a study case representing third world. Today, I examine
the implementation and achievements of international agreements and national
policies aimed at promoting empowerment of women.
The
dawn of 2015 marks the full achievement of Millennium Development
Goals(MDGs).In the UN millennium summit of September 2000, eight MDGs were
drawn and among them elimination of gender inequality featured as a priority. The
millennium Summit composed of 144 Heads of States and Governments representing
189 member states of the UN .It renewed commitments for development made in
previous conferences such as the World Conference on education For all in 2000,
the World Summit for social development in 1995, the UN conference on the 2020
Initiative (1998).These commitment s were consolidated in the Millennium
Declarations and later updated with additions such as MDG 5B marking 2015 as
the full achievements of improved Human development as reported by the Planning
Commission of Tanzania in 2013.
The
United Republic of Tanzania had participated and committed itself in all the
world conferences on women which culminated into the 1995 Beijing Conference. The
philosophy of the Beijing Platform for Action (BPA) is based on women`s rights
and human rights.The Commitments were grouped in twelve areas of concern
summarized as ;Economic status and poverty, access to education and health,
violence against women, armed conflict, legal status and rights, power and
decision making, Human rights, media, environment, the girl child and
institutional mechanisms, TGNP (2004).The Government of Tanzania chose to focus
on four areas among them being, the enhancement of women legal capacity,
economic empowerment, political empowerment, Access to education, training and
employment as reported in the governments implementation report on BPA. This
brings me to the core of this blog which examines the milestones achieved by
the United Republic of Tanzania in fighting gender inequality in the eve of 2015
with special regard to national policy frameworks and institutional frameworks
for gender development.
To
begin with, the national development policy enshrined in vision 2025 identified
gender equity as one of the underlying principles of development and in
particular, the vision by 2025 aims at reforming imbalances and redressing such
issues to ensure that economic activities won`t be identifiable with gender .
Also,
the Tanzania Poverty Reduction Strategy(PRS) acknowledged that women are
generally perceived poor than men. The PRS was important to achieve gender
equity because it was accepted as a cross-cutting issue thereby accepting the
principle of gender mainstreaming across all sectors . In addition, one target was designed to
improve gender equity namely, “Achieving gender equality in Primary and
secondary schools”. The PRS was successful for some time until 2004 when a
review of its progress revealed its inadequacy in gender mainstreaming and a
new strategy spanning between 2005- 2010 was formulated. It has been referred
as the National Strategy for Growth and reduction of Poverty (NSGRP) or MKUKKA
in Kiswahili.
NSGRPS
main objective was broad based growth and reduction of poverty and improving
social well being. Contributions were solicited from key groups e .g Macro
Group, and Civil Society Organizations like Tanzania Gender Networking Program
(TGNP). , Feminist Activist Coalition (FemAct), and the Policy Forum. The
stress for gender equity is on earnings thus the strategy succeeded in
main-streaming gender far much compared to its predecessors .In each of its
clusters, gender was prioritized as a critical issue. In the National Strategy for Growth and reduction of Poverty, main-streaming good governance and gender into policies, plans ,budgets
and implementation mechanisms including gender monitoring and assessment were
adopted.
On
the other hand, institutional framework was put in place to promote gender
equity. The constitution of the United Republic of Tanzania had already
acknowledged gender equity in 1977 and in 1984 kit was enshrined in the Bill of
rights. The major actor in institutional framework establishment being the government
reached a resolution to address gender inequality in a number of ways.
The
government of Tanzania created the Ministry of Community Development Gender and
Children(MCDGC) in 2000 with a mandate of promoting gender equality and women`s
development nationally and to represent the Government of the United Republic
of Tanzania internationally in making commitments on gender equity and women`s
development. Its main acidities included advocacy for gender equality, equity
capacity building and gender sensitization for strategic partners for example
Members of Parliament (MPs), supporting gender focal points from national to
ward level, formulation and dissemination of policies, and action plans for
gender main-streaming.
Further,
there was increased policy statements in all sectors and at all levels of
Ministries, Departments, and Agencies (MDAs).Some MDAs managed to mainstream
gender in their policies and collected gender disaggregated data to varying
degrees of comprehensiveness.For instance, the gender
unit in the president’s office Public services management (PO_PSM) which
includes mixed staff collected and published gender disaggregated data to
monitor progress in public sector at all levels.
Furthermore,
at local level the Ministry of regional administration and Local government in
the prime minister’s office oversees local administration consisting 21 regions
in the mainland Tanzania and 5 in Zanzibar .In rural areas, local governments
administration unit is a District with a council headed by District Development
Director(DED).Affirmative action was used to ensure equitable gender
representation in all district councils and the Constitution of the United
Republic of Tanzania was amended to accommodate these affirmatives. The.The
amendment stated that no gender shall have a representation of more than two
thirds in the district councils.
In
political parties, gender balance was also highly encouraged. The ruling party,
Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM) created a strong wing of women called Umoja wa
Wanawake ( Union of Women) which has been in active politics since Tanzania`s
independence. Out of eighteen major parties, only CCM formulated a policy to
include women`s mandatory representation on its National Executive Council
(NEC).
Moreover,
some Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) focusing on lobbying for gender
equality and equity emerged among the
strongest CSOs in Tanzania. These include among others; Tanzania Gender
Networking Program (TGNP), Tanzania Media Women`s Association (TAMWA), Tanzania
Women Lawyers Association (TAWLA), Women`s Legal Aid Centre (WLAC) and others .
Other
organizations organized themselves into large networks and coalitions. For
instance, the Feminist Activist Coalition lobbies and advocates for gender
equity and human rights. Others include the Policy Forum and the Tanzania
Association of Non- Governmental Organizations (TANGO).
I
have analyzed Tanzania`s development in fighting for gender equity. The
indicators measuring the implementation of international agreements founded in
the Millennium Declarations show that though effort has been expended towards
the same, Tanzania, like many other countries in third world has a long way to
go. In its rationale for post –MDGs 2015 Development Agenda, the Government of
Tanzania acknowledges that infact it will only have achieved two of the MDGs at
2015 . The latter has called for formulation of a new framework to
combine the current set of goals with necessary modifications together with new
aspirations .
In
Africa most countries are no better and they face a similar challenge like that
of the United republic of Tanzania. The Beijing Platform for Action has yielded
some progress but the journey to achieving full gender equality is still on
course and will remain so decades longer. Some parts of Asia and Latin America
are also characterized by similar phenomena to that of Africa. The major
challenge hindering full realization of gender equality is obviously connected
to the shaky economies and ailing financial capacities in third world nations.
The budget allocated to champion such an agenda is very small and due to other
demands for social services and utilities in an environment of high levels of
poverty.
Secondly,
cultural hindrances prevail amongst highly illiterate populations further
slowing social development .Practices such as Female Genital Mutilation (FGM)
prevail even in the 21st century and this calls for intervention
from the international community to curb such practices. Attempts made in these
areas include creation of International organizations mostly non-governmental
as well intergovernmental ones to deal with such issues. However, the battle
against negative cultural practices is not yet over. In Tanzania, the
Kilimanjaro area inhabited by the Yao and Nyamwezi has high incidences of FGM.
In Kenya, Meru, Kajiado and Samburu areas face similar challenges.
As
a conclusion, half a century has elapsed as the world intensively sought to
eradicate gender inequality. It has taken half a century for third world to
reach its current level of socio-political and economic development. It is
therefore crystal clear that a mere decade was totally inadequate for African
countries to implement commitments made in the Millennium Declarations and
resolutions reached in the Beijing Platform for Action. There is need for a
re-direction of more resources for research in gender development areas and
also in supporting advocacy for empowerment of women and eradication of gender
inequality. This will be a step towards full eradication of inequality and a
step in creating a successful future for women across the globe.
By
Maina Munuhe.
Maina Munuhe.
