Download - Mokoro

More documents

Recommendations

Info

2.0 Welcome and Opening RemarksFlorence Shakafuswa welcomed the honoured guests and participants to Zambia and tothe first National Workshop on Women’s Property Rights and Livelihoods in the contextof HIV and AIDS. She expressed great appreciation for the presence of Senior ChiefNkomesha of the Soli people of Zambia’s Lusaka Province and Assistant Chief PeterMuteru of Kenya. The presence of senior politicians and Members of Parliament was notonly an endorsement but also an indication of their political will to addressing women’sand orphans problems.In his keynote address, Stanley Mhango, the Chairperson of Justice for Widows andOrphans Project (JWOP), thanked the organisers and in particular JWOP for improvingthe lives of women in Zambia. He expounded on how JWOP is pushing forward theagenda of widows and orphans by protecting their rights through various interventionsand advice. Mr. Mhango emphasised on how traditional leaders needed to be supportedso as to respect the rights of women and children. JWOP was challenged to create morepartnerships with organisations working on similar work in Zambia and in the region.The FAO representative, Qingsong Dong, reiterated FAO’s mission of building a food–secure world and in the process how it aims to remove obstacles for women’s and men’sequal participation in and enjoyment of the benefits from agricultural and ruraldevelopment. He explained how FAO is committed to continue working towardsempowerment of women and girls in the context of poverty and HIV and AIDS. He alsochallenged the workshop participants by saying, “let the tragedies that happen everydayaround HIV and AIDS in women and children’s lives be an incentive for urgent action byall partners in Zambia and in the southern and east African region”.Officially opening the workshop, Honorable Deputy Minister of the Ministry ofCommunity Development and Social Services, Sebio Mukuka expressed his gratitudefor being invited and explained how his Ministry has an interest in the welfare ofvulnerable groups. This invitation was a sign of strong working relationship betweengovernment and civil society. According to the latest statistics in Zambia, 16% of thepopulation is infected with HIV and AIDS. Mr. Mukuka indicated how the number oforphans was growing now having reached 19% of the total population of children inZambia. The government’s job was to enact conducive laws and policies that stand thetest of time. The deputy minister thanked the Embassy of Finland for funding JWOPsince the inception of the project as well as the partnership between JWOP, ZLDC andFAO Sub Regional Office. He challenged and urged all participants to come up withresolutions that are realistic and achievable so that programmes and activities can beplanned and ultimately implemented.Robin Palmer, the Global Land Advisor for Oxfam GB, gave a global perspective onwomen’s land and property rights. Mr. Palmer began by giving recognition to KaoriIzumi for her tireless efforts on addressing issues around women’s land and propertyrights in southern and eastern Africa. He explained how Dr. Kaori has over the yearsmobilised donors, lobbied governments and others at many levels in a tireless pursuit for6
justice of women’s rights and particular those women who have suffered discriminationas a consequence of the HIV and AIDS pandemic. In general, issues discussed at theworkshop were complex and difficult through out the world. Their complexity accordingto Robin Palmer, stems from the fact that they operate at different levels and thus requireresponses at different levels. The most critical level being the household and also at thelevel of ‘traditional institutions’.The women’s fight over land and property rights has been observed across the world.Despite the resistance confronted by women, successes have been recorded in parts ofIndia and Latin America. At independence in 1947, successful pressure for gender equityin inheritance law in India brought successful results. Likewise, a relatively enlightenedlegal tradition in Latin America enabled many women to acquire land throughinheritance. South Africa and Brazil have also enacted new gender sensitive constitutionsthat protect the rights of women. Apart from Africa lagging behind Latin America andAsia in terms of social and political mobilisation, it also suffers from the impacts of theHIV and AIDS pandemic. Problems in Africa have been exacerbated by the fact thatwomen’s and men’s interests within marriage and households are both joint and separate.In most cases, such arrangements have resulted in discrimination and injustices for manywomen.This workshop was building on the lessons learnt from the FAO/Oxfam workshop on“Women’s Land Rights in southern and eastern Africa” held in Pretoria 2003. ThePretoria workshop emphasised among other things, the need to continue building amovement, sharing experiences and documenting best practices. Zambia created a goodenvironment for such initiatives because of a tolerant political tradition and peace that hasexisted for over 40 years and these needed to be treasured and preserved.Kaori Izumi though still recovering from an operation, shared her passion on women,land and property rights by narrating a recent case of a Zimbabwean widow who waskilled by her stepson over property. Women and children were the most vulnerableespecially in the face of HIV and AIDS. However, HIV and AIDS also provided anopportunity for exposing discriminatory laws and practices existing in the region. Manychanges are happening and issues affecting women are slowly being understood but inreality women continue to suffer. Dr. Izumi expressed how she has over the years visitedmany countries in the region and witnessed lots of suffering by women, especiallywidows affected/infected by HIV and AIDS. Despite such scenarios, organisations wereresponding to the crisis with minimum resources and support. Building the resilience ofwomen in the region required that basic support be provided at the right time. A numberof women have been lost in the region as a result of trauma, poverty and worseninghealth.Property grabbing can be invisible and not recognised through statistics, especially ofchildren and orphans. Many organisations were failing to reach these people due to lackof appropriate procedures. HIV and AIDS provided an opportunity to address an issuethat has grown into an emergency. Dr. Izumi challenged everyone to find answers to whatdrives people to grab property.7
Page 1 and 2: Justice forWidows and OrphansPO. Bo
Page 3 and 4: 8.3 WIDOWS’ AND ORPHANS’ INHERI
Page 5: 1.0 Executive SummaryThe context of
Page 9 and 10: norms. Some of the tribes are matri
Page 11 and 12: ownership of land through informati
Page 13 and 14: According to the Honorable MP, Mrs.
Page 15 and 16: come and stay with us. I accepted b
Page 17 and 18: Ntengwe Community Development in Zi
Page 19 and 20: 7.2 Customary laws and property rig
Page 21 and 22: sensitization efforts. There is nee
Page 23 and 24: and recovery and building resilienc
Page 25 and 26: uilding the capacity of women and g
Page 27 and 28: • Documentation of “best practi
Page 29 and 30: Annex 1: Working Group Deliberation
Page 31 and 32: • Herbal gardens e.g. Moringa, Af
Page 33 and 34: Responsibility: Civil society5. Col
Page 35 and 36: Annex 2: Press release, Opening and
Page 37 and 38: Chairperson, while there are scanty
Page 39 and 40: Women’s Land and Property Rights
Page 41 and 42: collaborative or a mix of both? I
Page 43 and 44: Closing Speech by Mr. Qingsong Dong
Page 45 and 46: In closing, I would like to refer t
Page 47 and 48: OPPORTUNITIESMESSAGETAKE ACTION47
Page 49 and 50: 9:00-9:20 The role of traditional l
Page 51 and 52: Esnart BandaWomen for Field Animato

Download - Mokoro

You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles

Delete template?

Save as template?