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72. Gender and Statebuilding in South Sudan
- Author:
- Nada Mustafa Ali
- Publication Date:
- 12-2011
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- United States Institute of Peace
- Abstract:
- South Sudan’s independence ends decades of conflict as well as socioeconomic and political marginalization at the hands of successive governments in Khartoum, which affected women in gender-specific ways. Independence thus opens up opportunities for women’s economic and social empowerment, ensuring that the new country’s political and economic structures and institutions reflect commitments to women’s participation and human rights. In turn, empowering women will enable South Sudan to strengthen its economic and political structures and institutions. There is great potential for gender equality and respect for women’s rights in South Sudan. The government has expressed commitments to equality between women and men and to women’s participation. South Sudan is relatively egalitarian and lacking in religious extremism. International actors interested in South Sudan recognize that promoting gender equality and women’s empowerment and addressing gender-based violence (GBV) are key to maintaining peace and security and helping South Sudan’s economy grow. Challenges abound, however. South Sudan is severely lacking in infrastructure and has some of the worst human development indicators worldwide. Social and cultural practices harmful to women compound the effects of conflict and marginalization. There are constant internal and external security threats, a limited understanding of gender equality, and a tendency within communities to view gender as an alien and illegitimate concern, given the acute problems that South Sudan faces. The government of South Sudan, with the support of regional partners and the international community, should ensure that gender equality and women’s rights are fully integrated into and are outcomes of state building. National planning, developing the permanent constitution, and building the country’s new institutions and structures should reflect commitments to gender equality and input from women and women’s groups across South Sudan. The government should cost and meet the full budgetary needs of the Ministry of Gender, Child, and Welfare; ratify and implement the Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination against Women and the Protocol to the African Charter on Human and People’s Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa; strengthen efforts to prevent GBV and address the needs of GBV victims and survivors; and invest more in quality and accessible health and education.
- Topic:
- Conflict Resolution, Gender Issues, Government, Human Rights, and Politics
- Political Geography:
- Africa and South Sudan
73. A Case Study from Ghana: Understanding the Links between Sexual and Reproductive Health, Gender Equality and Poverty Reduction
- Author:
- Akosua K. Darkwah
- Publication Date:
- 01-2011
- Content Type:
- Policy Brief
- Institution:
- Institute for the Study of International Development, McGill University
- Abstract:
- Ghana is an interesting case study for this project for two reasons. First, it has an anomalous reproductive health profile. The country has the lowest Total Fertility Rate (TFR) in West Africa and one of the lowest in the sub-region. As at 2008, the TFR for the country was 4.0, for urban areas it was 3.1 and for the Greater Accra area, the most urbanized part of the country, it was 2.5 (GDHS 2008). This is a quite rapid decline from a TFR of 6.4 children per woman as at 1988. Even more interesting is the fact that the Contraceptive Prevalence Rate (CPR) stood at a low 24% in 2008. Some scholars such as Grey and Blanc (2002) argue that abortion rates help explain the gap between the CPR one should expect given the low TFR and what actually pertains as measured by the GDHS. Abortion in Ghana, however, inspite of a liberal law, accounts for between 13% (Sedgh 2010) and 25% (Baiden 2009) of maternal mortality cases in the country. In other words, in Ghana if the assertions of Grey and Blanc (2002) are valid, a low TFR has been achieved at the peril of women’s lives, quite contrary to what one would expect if reproductive health concerns were addressed systematically in the country. Second, the country exhibits quite some discord between its policies and its practices. Over the years, Ghana has been influenced and positively impacted by the global regimes in first Family Planning and later Reproductive Health. It joined the UN system of Population Censuses in 1960 and was an African Pioneer in the development of official Population Policy. It has an illustrious son, Fred Sai who is well known in international circles for his work on Reproductive Health. Fred Sai was the president of the International Planned Parenthood Association during the International Conference on Population Development (ICPD) held in Cairo in 1994 at which the conceptual shift from a narrow emphasis on family planning to the much broader notion of Reproductive Health was made. As president of such a key institution, he was instrumental in the processes that led to this effort and worked tirelessly to ensure that the Ghanaian State in its policies and practices reflected the conceptual shifts from Population Control to Reproductive Health. Two years after ICPD, the Ghanaian Reproductive Health Service Policy and Standards were developed and revised in 2003 to incorporate sexual health and gender based violence.
- Topic:
- Development, Gender Issues, Poverty, and Reproductive Health
- Political Geography:
- Africa and Ghana
74. How reform of the Fast Track Initiative should lead to a Global Fund for Education
- Author:
- Katie Malouf Bous
- Publication Date:
- 01-2010
- Content Type:
- Policy Brief
- Institution:
- Oxfam Publishing
- Abstract:
- Remarkable progress has been made in the last ten years toward achieving the education-related Millennium Development Goals. Many more girls are in school and enrolment rates are on the rise, due to higher-quality aid and to political commitment in developing countries. However, these achievements could be derailed by the global economic crisis, newly falling aid levels, and educational challenges. With 72 million children still out of school, the world's poorest countries urgently need a global financing initiative that can deliver the resources to scale up to Education For All.
- Topic:
- Development, Education, and Gender Issues
- Political Geography:
- Africa
75. Gendering the Security Sector: Protecting Civilians Against Sexual and Gender-Based Violence in the Democratic Republic of Congo
- Author:
- Randi Solhjell
- Publication Date:
- 01-2010
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Norwegian Institute of International Affairs
- Abstract:
- International responses to the conflicts in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) bordering Rwanda, Burundi and Uganda have been widely criticized as inadequate. The region is poorly understood by the international community. The general international preference for working with states and institutions – in a region where none of these exists in the form familiar to the West – complicates responses significantly.
- Topic:
- Crime and Gender Issues
- Political Geography:
- Africa and Democratic Republic of the Congo
76. Bridging the Digital Gender Divide in Africa
- Publication Date:
- 01-2010
- Content Type:
- Policy Brief
- Institution:
- Oxfam Publishing
- Abstract:
- African Heads of States and Governments gather in Addis Ababa for the 14th Ordinary Session of the Assembly of the African Union at a time when the continent faces a huge digital divide. African women are disproportionately affected by this divide.
- Topic:
- Gender Issues and Science and Technology
- Political Geography:
- Africa
77. The Economics of Population Policy for Carbon Emissions Reduction in Developing Countries
- Author:
- David Wheeler and Dan Hammer
- Publication Date:
- 11-2010
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Center for Global Development
- Abstract:
- Female education and family planning are both critical for sustainable development, and they obviously merit expanded support without any appeal to global climate considerations. However, even relatively optimistic projections suggest that family planning and female education will suffer from financing deficits that will leave millions of women unserved in the coming decades. Since both activities affect fertility, population growth, and carbon emissions, they may also provide sufficient climate-related benefits to warrant additional financing from resources devoted to carbon emissions abatement. This paper considers the economic case for such support. Using recent data on emissions, program effectiveness and program costs, we estimate the cost of carbon emissions abatement via family planning and female education. We compare our estimates with the costs of numerous technical abatement options that have been estimated by Nauclér and Enkvist in a major study for McKinsey and Company (2009). We find that the population policy options are much less costly than almost all of the options Nauclér and Enkvist provide for low-carbon energy development, including solar, wind, and nuclear power, second-generation biofuels, and carbon capture and storage. They are also cost-competitive with forest conservation and other improvements in forestry and agricultural practices. We conclude that female education and family planning should be viewed as viable potential candidates for financial support from global climate funds. The case for female education is also strengthened by its documented contribution to resilience in the face of the climate change that has already become inevitable.
- Topic:
- Agriculture, Climate Change, Development, Gender Issues, and Third World
- Political Geography:
- Africa
78. Start with a Girl: A New Agenda for Global Health
- Author:
- Miriam Temin
- Publication Date:
- 08-2010
- Content Type:
- Policy Brief
- Institution:
- Center for Global Development
- Abstract:
- Improving adolescent girls' health and wellbeing is critical to achieving virtually all international development goals, from reducing infant and child deaths to stimulating economic growth and encouraging environmental sustainability. Governments and donors seem to recognize this, but they have yet to take the specific actions needed to genuinely invest in adolescent girls' health and, thereby, the health and wellbeing of generations to come.
- Topic:
- Development, Gender Issues, Health, Human Rights, and Border Control
- Political Geography:
- Africa and China
79. The Winds of Change: Climate change, poverty and the environment in Malawi
- Author:
- John Magrath and Elvis Sukali
- Publication Date:
- 06-2009
- Content Type:
- Policy Brief
- Institution:
- Oxfam Publishing
- Abstract:
- A wind of climate change is blowing through the southern African nation of Malawi, bringing confusion to fisherfolk and farmers alike.
- Topic:
- Climate Change, Gender Issues, and Poverty
- Political Geography:
- Africa and Malawi
80. "Nobody Gets Justice Here!" Addressing Sexual and Gender-based Violence and the Rule of Law in Liberia
- Author:
- Niels Nagelhus Schia and Benjamin de Carvalho
- Publication Date:
- 06-2009
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Norwegian Institute of International Affairs
- Abstract:
- The international response to SGBV in Liberia – in spite of having been touted as one of the great success stories in implementing UNSC resolution 1325 by the UN and the Liberian government – has so far at best been misguided.
- Topic:
- Crime, Gender Issues, and Law
- Political Geography:
- Africa, United Nations, and Liberia