Let’s Talk Oxfam in the Horn East and Central Africa Regional quarterly newsletter, March 2013
Hi everyone, Welcome to our first regional quarterly newsletter for 2013! In marking this year’s International Women’s Day celebrations, this edition features some amazing women who are doing remarkable work within their respective societies. Oxfam’s common phrase; “putting poor women rights at the heart of what we do” is illustrated through some these stories and here you can read what we mean and the impact of this. It is also exciting to highlight our innovative land rights campaigning and public
Ngele Ali/Oxfam
health work using mobile technology, which I am optimistic we can replicate elsewhere. I hope each one of us will take the opportunity to read and to learn something from these articles. Thank you to all our contributors for the stories and colourful imagery covered in this issue and as usual, we welcome your comments, thoughts, ideas and stories. Happy reading!
What next for Congo?
Celebrating Women across the region
SOLD! – activists sell off Tanzania’s famous landmarks
Tom Pietrasik/Oxfam
Musa Msafiri Shabani/Oxfam
Laura Pannack/Oxfam
In this issue:
James Akena
Fran.
Health and sanitation for better standards of living
Oxfam buzz word: What does it mean?
RESILIENCE
Laura Pannack/Oxfam
When we talk about “resilience” we mean improving the ability of women, men and children to realise their rights and improve their wellbeing even in the face of shocks, stresses and uncertainties - from disasters to conflicts, climate change to rising food prices. “Being resilient” is also about being aspirational - the poor should not just be able to “cope and survive” but to thrive and realise their ambitions. People are likely to be less reslient the poorer and more socially and politically marginalised they are. So Oxfam’s approach to resilience is based on rights - we aim to increase income and improve livelihoods, but also to address the structural causes of inequality that make some groups more vulnerable to crises in the first place.
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My mother did not go to school because there was no money, but I have the opportunity to go to school...when I grow up, I want to be a doctor
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We will challenge entrenched power and gender inequalities; support people’s right to resources; and help communities hold their governments and institutions to account.
Ngele Ali/Oxfam
James Akena
What next for Congo? During the 20th AU summit in Addis Ababa there was a lot of focus on the crisis in eastern DRC. Joanna Trevor reports: In January I spent a week in Addis Ababa at the African Union Summit. Leaders gathered from across the continent and the crisis in eastern DRC was high on the agenda, offering a great opportunity to finally deal with one of Africa’s longest and bloodiest conflicts. The current emergency affects hundreds of thousands of lives in North and South Kivu, but it is ultimately a 20-year-old regional crisis drawing in neighbouring countries and affecting the whole of the Great Lakes. Any solution needs to see the AU taking the lead with the International Conference of the Great Lakes Region (ICGLR – a body made up of 11 African states) to resolve not just the immediate crisis but also the long-standing issues that underpin the conflict, such as poor governance, the need to reform the Congolese army, and tensions over land and resources. At the summit Oxfam and the AU held an exhibition with photos and testimonies capturing the human consequences of the conflict and the resilience of people caught up in the crisis. One of our partners from North Kivu spoke powerfully to a room full of ambassadors, dignitaries and journalists about the suffering and the urgent need for peace. A speech by the Commissioner of the AU Peace and Security Council echoed this. We also worked with the Africans Act 4 Africa campaign - a network of African citizens, activists and musicians - who brought messages from Congolese, Kenyan and American singers in solidarity with people affected by the crisis. They urged AU leaders to “Act 4 Congo”. The AU had planned a ceremony a few days later where an agreement would be signed by the leaders of DRC, Rwanda and Uganda – and other countries involved in peace talks and peacekeeping. It looked like a positive deal, but at the very last minute it was cancelled, it seemed due to disagreements between the UN and southern African countries. Politics got in the way of peace. At the exhibition we heard the story of women like Kakuru, who fled fighting in Sake last year and whose 12 year old son was killed in an explosion. She is now sheltering with 35,000 other
people in Mugunga camp on the edge of Goma. For them, every day delayed is another night stuck in a camp, constantly afraid of attack and uncertain when they can go home. As politicians argue, families are uprooted by more fighting, women are raped, children recruited into militias, farmers robbed as they try to plant their crops, and men forced into labour by armed groups. A few weeks afterthe failure at the Summit, leaders met again in Addis Ababa and on the 25th of February a peace plan for eastern DRC was finally signed. The new Peace, Security and Cooperation Framework is a huge opportunity for ending the conflict. Getting so many Heads of State and senior officials in the same room shows a level of political engagement that was sorely lacking over the past few years. But will this deal make any difference for the people caught up in the conflict, or will it become just another piece of paper? Lots of agreements on DRC have been signed before and made no difference to the lives of people on the ground. The new plan will only work if five key steps are taken: 1. We must make sure that leaders’ promises are actually implemented this time, not just more empty words 2. Peace deals cannot be imposed by above, and there has been very little involvement of Congolese civil society in the process. They must be engaged to provide oversight and accountability 3. The framework sets the stage for a new “Intervention Force” but military interventions in DRC have previously just made things worse. We must ensure any new force protects civilians 4. A crisis of this scale needs high level diplomatic attention. The right UN Special Envoy must be appointed. 5. Finally, we need to drive forward the Congolese national dialogue that gives ordinary Congolese a greater voice in the decisions that affect their lives . The new peace plan is a good step. But to enable women like Kakuru to return home and start rebuilding their lives. we need to keep up the pressure on the AU, the UN and national leaders. If we miss this opportunity now then it is likely that the crisis in DRC will rumble on for years to come. Hopefully this is the last peace agreement signed on the Great Lakes, but only time will tell.
Musa Msafiri Shabani/Oxfam
SOLD! – Activists ‘sell’ off Tanzania’s famous landmarks
February saw the Global Day of Action on Landgrabs. Sharon Mariwa reports from Tanzania: The magnitude of land grabbing in Tanzania is alarming. Some deals have resulted in displacement and evictions of villagers, and rural people have been pushed into extreme poverty. Many land deals have little accountability or transparency. Yet, with a growing and urbanising population, there will be increasing pressure for more land and more food. On 7th February Oxfam staff, partners and activists all over the world took over monuments or places that are nationally and internationally recognised and “sold” them off. “Sold” signs were placed on landmarks like Sydney Opera House and the Colosseum in Rome in order to ignite public awareness of what is happening. Here in Dar es Salaam, Oxfam and activists from the ‘Let’s Talk Land Tanzania’ coalition (www.letstalklandtanzania.com) commemorated the day by symbolically ‘selling’ the Uhuru (National Independence) Monument and the famous Coco Beach. Rogers Ruhiye, from Let’s Talk Land Tanzania, explained: “To highlight this sensitive issue and get Tanzanians talking about land grabbing we decided to ‘sell off’ Uhuru monument, our national symbol of freedom, to foreign investors. Selling our land to foreign investors is selling our freedom. We are therefore appealing to our government to protect our land as the source of
our livelihoods, identity and sovereignty.” Globally, in the first ten years of this century, deals for over 200 million hectares of land have been reported, often resulting in farmers and pastoralists losing land and ending up in poverty. In Tanzania some studies estimate over a million hectares of land has been acquired - not including other local deals at village level involving village leaders and local investors. Speaking at the event, activists said they appreciated the commitment shown by the Tanzanian government in recent months to put limits on large land deals. They also presented a petition with five resolutions calling for: 1. Land to be made available to Tanzanian farmers and pastoralists, especially women (while 67% of women are farmers, less than 3% of women own land) 2. Support for the motion in Parliament for a moratorium on foreign land investment 3. Tanzania to adhere to the AU Framework and Guidelines on Land Policy in Africa, and the Voluntary Guidelines on the Responsible Governance of Tenure of Land adopted by all governments under the FAO 4. Transparency, and active and fair participation of local people, especially women, in discussing large land acquisitions 5. A reduction in the length of agreements made with investors, and monitoring of these investments to ensure local communities benefit
Helping Rwandan women’s thriving pineapple businesses
Simon Rawles/Oxfam
An Oxfam project in Rwanda is helping entrepreneurial rural women get access to the techniques, markets and technology they need to set up thriving pineapple businesses. Women like Uwamwezi are already turning a profit, expanding their business, and have used the training to come up with new and improved methods of their own. Uwamwezi Mercianna is a married mother of four children in the Rwandan village of Ntoma. A small-scale farmer with a very modest production, in the past she worked her farm with only a hoe and a machete and had no idea of how to use manure or fertiliser. Since participating in a new project, she has begun a booming business, saved money, and helped improve her family’s life. The project is part of Oxfam’s work to enhance Rwandan women’s livelihoods and economic leadership. Together with a local organisation called Duterimbere ASBL, we have focused on improving the value chains of pineapple and mushroom production – supporting 1,000 small-scale producers, and linking them up with new markets, suppliers and technology to help them maximise their profits. Why pineapples? They are high-value crops that grow bi-annually, so the women have two harvest to gain income. Their “suckers” – a part of the fruit – multiply very fast and can be sold when pruned, and are an extra source of income for the women, as well as the fruit itself. Dried pineapples and juice provide other sources of income. Pineapples also give high yield from relatively little land – an important factor given the scarcity of land in Rwanda. The small amount of land that pineapples need also make them an ideal crop for women – as men are often more reluctant to allow women control over larger land areas. Uwamwezi is just one of the many women who have benefited from this programme, and got involved after attending a session organised by Duterimbere staff. She had
previously started cultivating pineapples, but on a very small scale. She was selected as a community facilitator, and – along with 27 other women – went on a two-day visit to the Institut des Sciences Agronomiques du Rwanda (ISAR), an agricultural research centre in the capital, Kigali. There they learnt how to multiply the pineapple suckers through macro propagation techniques – a practice of rapidly multiplying stock plant material to produce a large number of offspring plants. After the hands-on experience at ISAR, Uwamwezi returned home and started a new pineapple sucker enterprise. The local women struggled to get pineapple crowns in their area, so Uwamwezi and 40 other women bought pineapple stems from Uganda and tested using them instead of crowns. The results were amazing. They grew not only more suckers, but bigger and better quality ones, and they grew even faster. They informed ISAR of their discovery and researchers from the centre visited the women and documented their innovation. Entrepreneurial Uwamwezi bought crowns and stems for 20 Rwandan Francs (about $0.03), keeping some for herself and selling the rest to other local women for 30 Francs, filling a gap in the market and developing the value chain. She has since planted more than 40,000 pineapple crowns or stems and she’s expecting each to produce at least 10 suckers. She has already sold 5,000 suckers at 25 Francs each, totalling over $200. With the profits, she opened a bank account and started saving. She asked for a loan of 600,000 Francs (nearly $1000) to expand her business, and with some of the other women is exploring the possibility of setting up a pineapple processing plant. With help from Oxfam, Duterimbere and ISAR, together with the women’s own ingenuity and hard work, their future looks increasingly bright.
Ethiopia: Women health workers changing bad practices and traditions Tigist Gebru reports from Moyale: In Moyale, southern Ethiopia, Oxfam is working with local women to change harmful sanitation and hygiene practices, training them as community volunteers and health extension workers so they can pass on knowledge throughout their community. At the end of January the first two training sessions were held, informing 53 participants about environmental and personal hygiene, and preventing Acute Watery Diarrhoea (AWD) and other serious illnesses that remain a big risk to public health in the region. Tadit Halo was among 18 women who participated. At home she regularly goes from house to house to educate families about health issues, and she was selected for the training by her community because of her ability to influence other women and her exhaustive knowledge of Borena culture and traditions. A prominent issue to emerge was the challenge the women face due to the community’s traditional practices and resistance to change, especially on tackling AWD. “There are still a number of people who do not want to learn about health and sanitation because they still don’t believe in it,” says Tadit. Cultural associations mean people sometimes resist the idea of health education. Sadiya Jarso, another trainee, says they sometimes even get chased out of the house when trying to educate people about sanitation and hygiene. She says that many traditional beliefs can be harmful. “If a child is suffering from an eye infection, there is a belief that water should not be applied to the eye to clean it. My community believed that the eye would heal quickly if it is not messed with water – not knowing that in fact the reverse works best”. Another trainee, 35-year-old mother of eight children Abdiya Warabo, agrees. “Mothers in the community tend to give soft drinks when a child experiences diarrhoea. Without realising that they are actually putting the lives of their children at risk, they continue to give them soft drinks, yoghurt and even un-boiled milk.” After the training, participants were clear that this would only exasperate dehydration and ill health. “These are some of the practical issues we will be teaching the community, bringing about changes to such customary practices,” Abdiya says. She says she will teach her community for years to come because “the training can save lives.” After attending the sessions, Abdiya has made plans to train her own family first and then move on to teach five new houses per day. Oxfam believes that the training will help bring behavioural change – and goes hand in hand with another Oxfam project that is improving people’s access to safe water. Together, the two projects should have an enormous positive impact on public health in the region. The project is due to end in May 2013 – however, Oxfam exits knowing that women like Tadia, Abdiya and Sadiya will be there to constantly educate residents and change harmful practices. Tom Pietrasik/Oxfam
Mobile phones help tackle cholera in inaccessible parts of Somalia Mobile phones offer innovative ways of educating communities with life-saving information as Jesse Kinyanjui reports. Oxfam and our partner Hijra started a pilot project to provide public health information to people’s mobile phones, timed to coincide with the peak cholera season, when many displaced families living in crowded camps in Mogadishu are particularly at risk. Despite the many challenges in Somalia, there is good network coverage and phones are cheap and available. Many Somalis use phones to receive remittances from relatives overseas. A messaging centre was set up in Hijra’s office, capable of sending 10,000 messages an hour – as long as there is power. The messages can be received on any ordinary phone. 10,000 people took part and received five “sessions” of messages explaining cholera prevention and control. An evaluation of the pilot phase found notable impact among the youth, who are most keen to use new technology to connect to the outside world. Young people were talking about the project at school, and said it was seen as “cool” to get involved and learn about cholera in this new way. Peer pressure got many new youth involved. The main expense was setting up the platform and software. But the software can be changed to fit the context, local language and subject matter without an IT expert, so programme staff are able to manage it. The sessions cost about 60 cents. Although many people have phones, not everyone has credit – so users are refunded $1. Just like traditional public health campaigns, (where staff and volunteers go out into communities to engage face-to-face) the software is interactive, allowing people to text questions for staff to reply. Feedback has been mostly positive. Unlike traditional campaigns, people said they liked being able to store the messages to look at in their own time – particularly women who were at home looking after children. One said it was like “attending a workshop in your own home.” People remembered the text messages more than radio bulletins (which cannot be saved) or posters. One man said he made up an Oral Rehydration Supplement (ORS) for his sick child after referring back to the text messages. One woman had wanted to use chlorine but did not remember the
dosage and had to refer back to her text message. There were many recommendations for us to take forward. Youth said they would like to receive “private” information about HIV/ AIDS and sex education, as well as health songs as downloadable ringtones. Other suggestions included using e-vouchers for aid distributions, and community feedback via text to help us increase our accountability. While the youth liked to receive text messages, older generations – particularly women – preferred a real voice, so a Voicemail component was recommended. Mobile phones are not a perfect solution on their own, but done in coordination with traditional methods they have so far proved successful. Traditional public health promotion may be more participatory, but youth are increasingly engaged with new technologies and, in areas where access is not guaranteed (whether due to security or weather), the mobile phone based platform offers a new way for Oxfam to engage with communities. A second phase of this project is now underway, comprising a fully fledged mobile phone Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (mWASH) platform, with the capability to undertake rapid assessments, distribute non food items (NFIs), conduct community education, and conduct monitoring.
“In Somalia, one of
the most difficult and dangerous places for aid agencies to work, the conflict has left many communities hard to reach. Mobile phones offer an innovative way of educating such communities with lifesaving information.”
Oscar nominated Actor, Djimon HOunsou visits South Sudan As the United Nations gears up for a final round of negotiations on the international Arms Trade Treaty, Oscar-nominated actor and Oxfam Ambassador Djimon Hounsou visited South Sudan, where he saw first-hand the devastation that the poorly regulated weapons trade is having on families and communities. Hounsou joins a number of Nobel Peace Prize winners, celebrities, faith community leaders, retired generals, and civil society organizations calling on President Obama to support a robust Arms Trade Treaty. More than 325,000 people are estimated to have lost their lives because of armed violence since negotiations for the treaty were halted last year, and next week negotiators start anew in the hope of finally delivering an international treaty. During the week-long trip to South Sudan Hounsou visited the states of Warrap and Lakes where community members explained that the free flow of guns and ammunition have made the problem of inter-communal violence and cattle raiding worse. “It felt like a Hollywood movie to see young boys carrying AK-47’s,” said Hounsou. “A strong Arms Trade Treaty would help restrict the flow of such weapons and bullets to countries like South Sudan. We all have a moral obligation to bring about a robust ATT and make the world a safer place.”
The proliferation of guns in South Sudan where war raged for nearly five decades has led the government to begin collecting guns from civilians. However, collection has only occurred in some areas and recently disarmed communities have fallen prey to heavily armed attackers.
Getting to know the AFRICAN UNION
Oxfam’s “Pan African Professional in Residence” programme seconds young civil society members to help them better engage with the African Union. Agnes Yawe of Oxfam partner PELUM spent time in Addis Ababa: My wish is for all Africans to know about the AU and contribute to the good vision of our forefathers. This is what will make the AU truly African. But we are still far from this. We know the AU as a political organisation, and for its disruptions – the traffic jams caused by AU meetings. I now know more about the AU and how best to contribute. Making it possible for African citizens to engage is not just the work of the AU. We as Africans have a role to play in making it better and seeking more information about it. The organisation is now 10 years old and is like a teenager to be shaped. Many continental policies and big programmes shaping Africa’s agricultural development and trade are being made at the AU, with major impacts (positive or not) on communities across the continent. Part of our role as citizens is to hold our leaders accountable to implementing the decisions they have made – or else save us the resources in making decisions that they are not willing to implement. This is the big challenge - at present, just 10 percent of decisions are actually implemented.
Ngele Ali/Oxfam
I spent time at the Department of Rural Economy and Agriculture, which focuses on the Land Policy Initiative, the Pastoral Policy Framework, and particularly the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP). This requires member states to increase investments in agriculture above 10 percent of national budgets – but has yet to be done by many member states. The CAADP policies are good but not a given – we need to contribute to shaping the mechanisms that would deliver this to rural smallholder producers. Our role as civil society, if we are to make an effective AU that really meets the needs of its citizens, should be to technically contribute in shaping policies and demanding implementation.
Faith Ochieng/Oxfam
One Billion Rising
Nairobi’s historic Uhuru Park was alive with song and dance on Valentine’s Day as gender activists - among them the Gender Justice team from Oxfam’s Pan Africa Programme joined other activities around the world in One Billion Rising. The event aimed to raise public awareness about violence against women. In Kenya, this year’s event was organised by Coalition of Violence Against Women (COVAW) and was well attended by human rights activists such as Ann Njogu, the winner of International Women of Courage and a key advocate instrumental in the passage of Kenya’s Sexual Offences Act. The crowd danced to the One Billion Rising theme song, “Break the chains,” in support of all those who have been in one way or another victims of gender-based violence. The Pan-Africa team shared documents about the Maputo declaration on women’s rights, and drummed up support for it to be ratified by all AU member states.
Marking International Women’s Day across the region
Jenny Matthews/Oxfam
Laura Pannack/Oxfam
We held a big event with over 400 people in Maban county and the day reminded us that, although women have achieved a lot over the past few decades, the successes vary between continents, countries and communities. The day was a wake-up call that there is still a lot to be done to address the social, economic and political inequalities for women in South Sudan. There were speeches, songs, drama and dancing. Local school children attended and the headmaster challenged parents to send their daughters to school. He said many girls drop out due to early marriages and that for the past six years not a single girl has gone on to secondary school. The children then presented songs and drama about domestic violence. A local government representative called for an end to early marriage. “If my father didn’t send me to school I wouldn’t be where I am today,” she said. The local Chief gave the final speech and cautioned the men to stop violence against women. He also encouraged men to support their wives in domestic work, and told the crowd: “The celebration is enlightenment to men and through this Day men are learning new ways of living in peace with their wives and children.” The humanitarian response team also held a demonstration for refugee women on how to use new fuel efficient stoves, which reduce the time and risk for Mwanahamisi Salimu in Tanzania: women collecting firewood for cooking. Oxfam organised an event in poor areas of Dar es Salaam. More than 1000 people attended and over 400 women received free legal and medical services, including examinations for breast cancer and blood pressure. 86 women received interest free loans from the Vodacom Foundation. There was poetry, dancing and the event was attended by the Deputy Minister for Gender
Marc Wegerif in Ethiopia:
In the town of Ziway around 1000 people – mostly women farmers – attended an event called “Unleashing the power of women food producers” as part of the “Together for a food secure Ethiopia” campaign. Speakers included farmers, government officials, and women from the Female Food Heroes competition. Abado Gafo, the FFH winner, called on women “to follow our pathway to reach where we have reached today. We wish them to be strong and not to feel that women are weak.” A popular poet praised the positive changes for women, such as improvements in education and increasing participation in organisations and recognition of their role in the economy. There was an art competition and cultural events. Hundreds of women gathered in a circle to demonstrate the tradition of ‘sike’ in which every woman is given a stick by her mother when they are about to get married. If a woman is attacked or abused she can raise the stick outside her house and call other women for assistance. The perpetrator will be brought to the village authorities to face punishment. This tradition is now being revived as part of efforts to end violence against women. Women work hard daily to produce food and put food on the plates of their families. Their work is often overlooked, but today these women food producers took the limelight and got the recognition they deserve as well as the platform to speak that they are so often denied. Marc Wegerif/Oxfam
Gloria Ekuyoa in South Sudan:
Rebecca Boyce in DRC:
Richard Mukeh in Uganda:
The team held an internal event to discuss some of the inequalities affecting women in the country. A partner in the “Raising Her Voice” project explained their campaign to get the Maputo Protocol on Women’s Rights domesticated in Uganda. Staff then had to write down and draw pictures of practical steps and commitments that they will make to improve women’s rights. It was very interesting that male staff were very willing to share their steps!
We finalised the Solidarity for Gender Justice project, a nationwide collaboration between Oxfam and 16 partner organisations, with events in Kinshasa and Bukavu to promote a short awareness raising film and discussion of gender issues. We named two Gender Champions in each site for their commitment to gender justice in their social or professional lives. Street theatre raised issues affecting women such as access to education for young girls, and there were discussion groups for couples to talk about women and men’s different perceptions of roles and responsibilities.
Please feel free to send us your comments, suggestions and feedback to the Regional Information and communications desk through the following email: NMwarimbo-Ali@oxfam.org.uk and you may also follow us on Twitter @OxfamEAfrica or check out our blog for latest updates around the region on: http://www.oxfamblogs.org/eastafrica/ or join our facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/groups/oxfameastafrica/