Beijing Platform for Action Progress in Africa - Report Example

Gender and Sexual Studies of A Review of the Beijing Platform for Action Progress in Africa Twenty years after theadoption of the Beijing Platform for Action, it is important to find out the objectives that have been achieved. It is also equally important to assess the ones yet to be achieved and the necessary measures that need to be taken. Taking Africa as the region of reference the study will help focus on five concerns of the platform namely. The concerns are: the burden of poverty on women the education and training of women women’s access to health care services violence against women and women and their participation in the economy African countries have been facing many economic problems ranging from civil unrest, financial crisis and draught and famine. That is the reason it has been selected as a reference for the Platform for Action to find out the extent to which the objectives of the Platform have been achieved under difficult economic conditions. The study will explore the progresses, which have been made in the selected areas. It will also explore the goals that still need to be achieved and recommendations for the initiatives. The fact that woman face socio-economic challenges in their pursuits necessitates the need to adopt and implement policies aimed at balancing the gender playfield in all involvements. Women and Poverty To reduce the poverty levels in Africa, the Beijing platform for action (BPFA) noted the need to address gender concerns. It is necessary to set out measures that would mainstream the gender concerns of the region (World Conference on Women, 1995). This can be achieved by ensuring that gender equality perspectives are integrated with the macroeconomic policies. It is the responsibility of the government to ensure their public expenditure is restructured, and allocations made to enhance equal economic opportunities and accessibility of productive resources for both men and women. The concerns related to educational, social and health needs of the women especially the ones living in poverty should also be addressed. All the countries in the region have managed to have poverty reduction among their priority objectives. Strategies and measures have been employed in order to ensure poverty levels are minimized. Some of the implemented strategies are “Poverty Reduction and Growth Strategy” in Democratic Republic of Congo and “National Economic Empowerment Strategy” in Nigeria (Economic Commissions for Africa, 2010). Steps have been made ensure the health and social needs are catered for as well. That has been achieved through HIV, social protection and post-conflict recovery programs. Gender principles and policies have been mainstreamed into the countries budgets and macroeconomic policies. Necessary structures have been put up in some of the countries to eradicate poverty. Over thirty countries in the region have now dedicated a section of their public expenditure to cater for women empowerment initiatives. Many projects and programs to help to reduce the level of poverty in women have been undertaken by the governments\. These programs are intended to reduce poverty through income generating activities and capacity building, which lead to economic empowerment of the women There has been an improvement in the social security system, which has been expanded in many of the countries. Programs and projects have been undertaken to ensure women get access to funding and credit. For example, Namibia and South Africa are currently providing financial support to women living with disabilities, the elderly and children. Some of the programs also ensure that vulnerable groups such as women are supported in terms of basic education, food and shelter (Economic Commissions for Africa, 2010). Access to economic resources has also been achieved through training, which provide the women with skills and financial support necessary for starting up their businesses. Micro- finance schemes have also been established by a good number of the countries to provide credit to the women. There is still a need to integrate further the macroeconomic policies of the region with the gender principles to ensure all elements of gender equality are covered in the policies. To achieve this, new macroeconomic policies need to be designed and implemented. The policies should be able to provide equality in terms of growth, distribution of resource and employment opportunities. A significant number of women are yet to have access to the projects and programs that are being made available by the government. There still a need in the region of ensuring all the women especially the poor get access to these initiatives. To ensure the resources get to everyone, the governments need to set up a monitoring and control units. Their role shall be to monitor the progress of the women and ensure resources are distributed to all regions of the countries (Beijing 20 Africa CSO Position Paper, 2014). Education and Training for Women Education has been recognized by the BPFA as one of the major platforms in which it can attain its objectives (World Conference on Women, 1995). That makes it an important tool that needs to be enhanced. The BPFA resolved to place measures that will ensure education for women is greatly improved. The measures include; provision of scholarships to female students, establishments of training programs for women and carrying out of promotions to encourage women the participation in the fields of science and mathematics that are under-presented. The BPFA expected governments to provide universal basic education to all the women, ensure the gender gaps in primary and secondary education levels are reduced significantly before the end of 2015. The governments also have the responsibilities of ensuring women get efficient access to tertiary education and training facilities. A number of countries in the region have managed to reform their educational systems. Primary education has been made free and compulsory in most of these countries. That has greatly improved the access of education to girls. Since it is compulsory, both female and male students get a fair chance in being educated. This has enabled gender parity to be achieved in the schools with some of the countries having more females enrolled than boys do. The reforms have also improved the quality of education that is being offered in the region. The education system is quickly catching up with the international standards. This has been a great achievement of the BPFA. The importance of providing education to women has been realized by many governments. As a result, scholarship schemes have been established to ensure women get the required financial support to join tertiary institutions. Initiatives have been placed to encourage the enrollment of women in academic institutions and measures placed to ensure their retention these institutions. Universities have been constructed in order to accommodate additional number of students. Programs have also been established to provide female adult literacy to women who were not able to access education while in the school attending age. There is still need to increase the number of female students in secondary and tertiary institutions and to ensure they do not drop out (Beijing 20 Africa CSO Position Paper, 2014). This can be achieved through free secondary education and subsidized tertiary education to encourage female students to pursue their education. Bursaries should also be provided. A priority should be made on the quality of education being offered. Improved access to education needs to be backed by quality education. Otherwise, it will not be beneficial to the recipients. Women and Health The BPFA notes that a good state of physical and mental health is an important human right, which all women need to be granted. That is not the case in the region because women have different access to basic health facilities. The women are facing unequal opportunities in terms of health protection, promotion, and maintenance. Working together with the governments the BPFA set measures to ensure there is adequate provision of health services and health facilities to all the women and with equal opportunities. Over 25 countries have managed to set up gender sensitive health programs, which have the provision of sexual and reproductive health services included. The programs also entail education on health matters to women and girls with a greater emphasis placed on maternal care (Economic Commissions for Africa, 2010). Governments have made great efforts in improving their health infrastructure and the services being offered. Special attention has been placed on maternal health and safe motherhood. This has become a priority of most countries with the aim of reducing infant mortality. Family planning programs have also been initiated to reduce the number of unwanted and unplanned pregnancies among the women. The reproductive health services have been made affordable with some of the countries completely making the delivery of mothers free. Such an approach has reduced maternal mortality in the region. Health awareness programs need to be expanded in the region. There is a need to create awareness on the importance of accessing health care services especially during pregnancies after delivering (Beijing 20 Africa CSO Position Paper, 2014). The restrictive laws on abortion also need to be eliminated because they lead to unsafe abortions, which have resulted in a significant number of deaths in the region. Priority should be on improving and increasing the maternity services in the region. That is to reduce the high mortality rates related to pregnancy problems. Violence against Women Violence against women is being considered as an obstacle to achieving the goals of gender equality, which the BPFA intends to attain. In many countries, there is still a violation of their fundamental human rights and freedom. Violence against women has been noted to be a major problem in Africa. Governments are required to place measures that will prevent these such of violence from occurring. They need to enforce or enact laws that will ensure the perpetrators of violence against women are punished so that justice is seen to be done. Besides, the victims of violence are compensated accordingly. Governments also need to implement intervention programs to provide protection of the women especially those in displaced situations and refugee camps. Some countries such as Botswana, Kenya and Cameroon have taken the initiative to reform their law to accommodate the concerns of domestic violence. The reformed laws specify the punishments on people charged with domestic violence against women (Economic Commissions for Africa, 2010). A number of countries have taken steps to prevent women trafficking. For example, Egypt has been able to reduce the cases of human trafficking establishing an anti-trafficking police agency that works together with border countries, tourist agencies and Interpol to curb the trafficking of women. There is also improved border patrol to regulate human trafficking especially against women. More than 25 countries have made efforts to reduce the acts of female genital mutilation (FGM). The governments to prevent and eliminate FGM have enacted laws. Programs have also been initiated to educate and sensitize the communities on the negative impact of the act on women and girls. There are large numbers of unsolved cases of violence against women in the region (Beijing 20 Africa CSO Position Paper, 2014). It is important for the government to enact and enforce strict the laws against violence that do not have any loopholes that enable perpetrators to escape justice. Women and the Economy Women contribute to economic development through taking part in various activities such as agriculture and production of goods and services. The BPFA has noted that most of the activities carried by women such as agriculture end up being unremunerated and undervalued. It is, therefore, important to have the unpaid women’s work included in the national accounts. Policies and programs also require to be implemented to encourage active participation of women in the economy. Some countries have enacted laws, which provide equal employment opportunities for both men and women. Measures have been taken to ensure employers comply with the provisions of these laws. Governments have managed to ensure that the women are granted access to capital and trade opportunities. Some countries have started special programs to encourage women to start up their businesses. This has been achieved through a number of trainings and provision of financial support and improved access to credit. Governments have made efforts to ensure gender perspective have been integrated into economic policymaking. This has made it possible for women’s need to be included in the public resources and has resulted in advancement in women. Reseach indicates that women make the largest number of unpaid employees (Beijing 20 Africa CSO Position Paper, 2014). Such a trend needs to be eliminated. The governments should implement functional mechanisms to recognize the unpaid work contribution in the economy. The infrastructures and technologies should also be improved in sectors such as agriculture for time-saving purposes and to lift the burden off women. From the above observatiob, priority should be placed on ensuring productive resources are made available to women to increase their participation in growing the economy. The Beijing Platform for Action was a good initiative. It can be seen that it has managed to bring about major changes on gender issues that probably would not have been achieved. Given more time and necessary measures, a lot would be achieved through the platform. References Beijing 20: Africa CSO Position Paper (2014). Equal Say, Share and Contol. The Africa We Want. CSO FORUM DECLARATION. Retrieved from http://www.uneca.org/sites/default/files/uploaded-documents/Beijing-plus- 20/africa_cso_position_statement_-_beijing20_final.pdf Economic Commissions for Africa (2010). A Fifteen-Year Review of the Implementation of the Beijing Platform for Action in Africa (BPfA) +15 From 1995–2009. Retrieved from http://www.uneca.org/sites/default/files/15yearreviewofbpfa.pdf World Conference on Women: The Beijing Declaration and the Platform for Action on Women and Health. (1995). Population And Development Review, 21(4), 907. doi:10.2307/2137797 Read More