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Mozambique: The People's Wall of Maputo

Mozambique: The People's Wall of Maputo
Published date: 
26 Mar 2012

At the same time that we increasingly see the advance of new technologies which facilitate communication and information, such as smartphones, tablets, Twitter and Facebook, in Maputo, the capital of Mozambique, the People's Wall has emerged: the extensive outer wall of the building housing newspaper Jornal@Verdade [pt], where the population can write letters and direct reflections to the governing leaders.

It is an original form of communication, whose effectiveness and accessibility are inherent in its very simplicity. In a way, it acts as an authentic ”offline Facebook wall”, as conceived of in the blog Menina do Javali:

The idea of the Wall was to create a permanent and offline space for readers to read (simple) and to comment (simple).

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A critique of the World Bank's 2012 gender report

Published date: 
26 Mar 2012

The 2012 WDR reflects a conceptual shift in how the World Bank views women's rights, but will the Bank put its conclusions into practice?

The World Bank's 2012 World Development Report: Gender Equality and Development, is 458 pages long. By contrast, the German Development Institute's critique of the World Development Report is a 4 page brief, but these pages have punch.

The gist of the paper is how the World Development Report shows that the Bank now acknowledges that "....social and cultural factors make it difficult for women to participate with equal rights in the social and political life of their societies." This statement isn't groundbreaking in itself, but it shows a sea change in how the World Bank thinks about women's equality.

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Reporters Without Borders: Beset by online surveillance and content filtering, netizens fight on

Reporters Without Borders: Beset by online surveillance and content filtering, netizens fight on
Published date: 
26 Mar 2012

This report, which presents the 2012 list of countries that are “Enemies of the Internet” and “under surveillance,” updates the report published on 12 March 2011 by Reporters Without Borders.

The last report, released in March 2011 at the climax of the Arab Spring, highlighted the fact that the Internet and social networks have been conclusively established as tools for protest, campaigning and circulating information, and as vehicles for freedom. In the months that followed, repressive regimes responded with tougher measures to what they regarded as unacceptable attempts to “destabilize” their authority. In 2011, netizens were at the heart of the political changes in the Arab world and elsewhere. They tried to resist the imposition of a news and information blackout but paid a high price.

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Transforming Economic Power to Advance Women’s Rights and Justice, the 12th AWID International Forum

Date of event: 
19 April 2012 - 22 April 2012

Transforming Economic Power to Advance Women’s Rights and Justice, the 12th AWID International Forum, will gather up to 2000 women’s rights leaders and activists from around the world from April 19 to 22, 2012 at the Halic Congress Center in Istanbul, Turkey.

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Gender Justice and Local Government Summit

Date of event: 
16 April 2012 - 18 April 2012

Gender Links is a NGO committed to a region in which women and men are able to participate equally in all aspects of public and private life in accordance with the provisions of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) Protocol on Gender and Development.

Gender Links is hosting the Third Annual Gender Justice and Local Government Summit from 16-18 April 2012 under  the theme ‘365 Days of Collective Local Action to End Gender Violence’ in Johannesburg.

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Sonke Gender Justice Network: Deputy Director - Operations

Application Deadline: 
31 Mar 2012

Sonke Gender Justice Network is a NGO that works across Africa to strengthen government, civil society and citizen capacity to support men and boys to take action to promote gender equality, prevent domestic and sexual violence, and reduce the spread and impact of HIV and AIDS.

Sonke Gender Justice seeks to appoint a Deputy Director - Operations, based in Cape Town.

S/he will provide training and guidance to partner organisations to ensure consistent, effective, and timely project finance administration and reporting.

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Film Screening - International Women's Day 2012

Date of event: 
8 March 2012

In commemoration of the International Women’s Day, the Legal Resources Centre, a human rights organisation, is screening a short film about forced sterilisation in Namibia titled: ‘They Took My Choice Away’.

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International Day for Women: Women as peacemakers

Published date: 
8 Mar 2012

It is only when women start to organise in large numbers that we become a political force, and begin to move towards the possibility of a truly democratic society in which every human being can be brave, responsible, thinking, and diligent in the struggle to live at once freely and unselfishly.

8 March is the International Day of Women first proposed by Clara Zetkin (1857-1933) at the Second International Conference of Socialist Women in Copenhagen in 1911. Zetkin, who had lived some years in Paris and was active in women’s movements there, was building on the 1889 International Congress for Feminine Works and Institutions held in Paris under the leadership of Ana de Walska. De Walska was part of the circle of young Russian and Polish intellectuals in Paris around Gerard Encausse, a spiritual writer who wrote under the pen name of Papus. For this turn-of-the-century spiritual milieu influenced by Indian and Chinese thought, ‘feminine’ and ‘masculine’ were related to the Chinese terms of Yin and Yang. Men and women alike have these psychological characteristics. “Feminine” characteristics or values include intuitive, nurturing, caring, sensitive, relational traits, while “masculine” characteristics are rational, dominant, assertive, analytical and hierarchical.

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Lerato House: Social Worker

Application Deadline: 
12 Mar 2012

Lerato House is a nonprofit, empowerment programme for young girls at risk (between 11-18 years old), including abused children, children affected by prostitution, and victims of human trafficking.

Lerato House seeks to appoint a Social Worker, based in Pretoria.

S/he will offer holistic, empowering individual case work and family reintegration services to the girls at Lerato House and in aftercare programme.

S/he will report to the Programme Coordinator.

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What way forward for African Protocol for Women’s Rights?

Published date: 
8 Mar 2012

Ending gender-based violence will mean changing cultural concepts about masculinity. This includes recognition of the importance of active engagement of men and women at all levels, whether they are policy makers, parents, spouses or young boys and girls.

It is significant that the organizers of the Africa UNiTE campaign have chosen to climb Mount Kilimanjaro as a way of drawing attention to the terrible and pervasive scourge of violence against women and girls in our continent.

Yes, Africa must shout it from the mountain-top, and the highest mountain-top in Africa, for all to hear because the resounding silence down below has been deafening.

It is instructive and quite ironic that commitments made by African countries, through ratification of various international and regional instruments that specify obligations for the elimination of violence against women, speaks volumes about their paper commitment to address violence against women; but this commitment is not adequately reflected in action.

Signatures by African Heads of States and Ministers to the “Say NO Petition in 2009” signifying their commitment to end violence against women and girls at the national level, is another paper commitment, and the symbolic “turning on” of the light for their country on the map of Africa, at the launch of Africa UNiTE in January 2010, as a sign of their commitment to participate in the United Nations Secretary-general’s UNiTE to End Violence against Women campaign.

In order to raise awareness on ending violence against women and to accelerate efforts and implementation of commitments in Africa, a climb to Mount Kilimanjaro has been organized for 5-9 March 2012, under the theme “Climb Up, Speak Out”, as a major advocacy event of the Africa UNiTE Campaign.

The Mount Kilimanjaro Climb to End Violence Against Women and Girls is coordinated by the Africa UNiTE Secretariat, working with participating agencies and in partnership with the Kilimanjaro Initiative and with support from the United Nations Federal Credit Union (UNFCU), SAY NO-UNiTE and the UN System.

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