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- Introduction
Men and women have differential roles and responsibilities
most of which are socially constructed. As a result of these
different roles and responsibilities of women and men, the causes
and experience of poverty differ by gender. Socio-cultural and
ideological norms about appropriate roles and behavior for women
and men constrain women’s scope for independent activity. e.g.
in Ethiopia the taboo against women and ploughing and planting,
a practice which puts significant constraint on women’s role
in agriculture. Likewise, the rigidity in the gender division
of labor confines women to certain tasks and locks them in a
narrower range of income-earning or employment opportunities.
Cultural constraints reinforce generalized socio-economic disadvantages
in restricting women’s participation in the labor market and
in governance.
There is ample evidence that shows that women
and men experience poverty differently and that they become
poor through gender differentiated processes. Poor women in
Ethiopia have very little access to land, credit and other productive
resources and experience myriad forms of other deprivations
such as longer working days, women specific ill health, much
lighter rates of illiteracy and low levels of education relative
to men. Women’s access to productive resources is highly constrained
both in terms of legal rights and in the application of laws,
and operation of institutions of resources allocation (e.g.
Peasant Associations or land allocation committees in Ethiopia).
Both the market and public institutions, such as extension services
and the market through financial institutions, exhibit explicit
and implicit gender bias by ignoring the need of women farmers
or refusing loans to women. In addition to material deprivation,
poor women experience the qualitative dimensions of poverty
such as lack of free time, poor self-esteem and dependency much
more than poor men.
A gender-aware poverty eradication program
is one that provides a through analysis of the multidimensional
links between gender and poverty followed by a multipronged
approach which is tailored to address existing gender differentials.
This document is an effort by an ad hoc group
of concerned women who wanted to ensure that unlike the IPRSP
the PRSP will be based on Ethiopia's constitutional commitment
to gender equality as well as the many other subsequent policies
and strategies that reflected this principle of equality. The
substantive message of the document is acknowledgements that
yes a considerable number of laws and policies have included
gender concerns. While that is indeed a mark of progress, without
allocation of the requisite resources and the actual implementation,
these laudable rights and policies remain trapped in paper.
In our attempt to analyze the various macro
and sectoral policies with relevance to gender and poverty reduction,
we came across a number of cross cutting issues that affected
all sectors. In brief these include,
- Culture broadly defined including but not
limited to the gender division of labor and culturally condoned
forms of violence against women and girls
- Lack of gender disaggregated data in all
sectors
- Lack of infrastructure
- Inadequate investment in the reproductive
economy, water, fuel, mills, and other labor saving devices
- Minimal capacity building of women on the
one hand and policy makers, planners and administrators on
the other
- Resistance to and selective implementation
of affirmative action measures
- Possible Entry Points
- Confronting Harmful Traditional
Practices
Here again the awareness of these
cross cutting issues brought us back to the vexed problem
of policies that are not implemented or only minimally so.
For instance, Article 35 (4) of the FDRE constitution clearly
states that "the state shall enforce the right of women
to eliminate the influences of harmful customs. Laws, and
practices that oppress or cause bodily or mental harm to
women are prohibited". These same sets of principles
have been reflected in the National Women's Policy, the
Cultural Policy of 1997 as well as the Social Welfare Policy.
While we clearly recognize that customs and practices can
not be eliminated easily and such an effort takes time,
our concern is the inadequacy of efforts to initiate the
implementation of these policies.
Our analysis clearly revealed that practices
such as child marriage, FGM, abduction continue to hamper
the health, education and over all well being of girls
and women. In fact some of these practices are on the
rise. In general for a variety of reasons, some of which
are hard to comprehend, violence against infants, young
girls and women is definitely on the rise. Given the high
probability of such forms of violence resulting in HIV/AIDS
and other health and social hazards, we feel that the
response by the government has not been commensurate with
the gravity of the problem. We are convinced a well thought
out strategy that dissects the various types of violence,
those that take place in the home, in communities, in
schools, health institutions work places is urgently needed.
We feel that wide range public consultations will bring
about tangible and positive outcomes in terms of health,
education and other indicators of well being.
Our understanding of customs and
traditions also extend to taboos and practices that limit
the development of women's capabilities, their public
participation and thus their ability to access livelihood
resources. Such taboos and practices included false and
poverty causing beliefs about what women can and can not
do, about where women should or should not go or speak.
In short without confronting a large number of customs
and practices that continue to belittle women's abilities,
that perpetuate a lack of self worth, a well thought out
strategy of poverty reduction will at best register partial
success but most likely fail to have a substantive and
sustainable reduction of poverty in Ethiopia.
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