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Article 4 Gender Training Works:Achievements within ACORD and at the community level Highlights of a Gender Workshop held in Angola, November 2001 By Angela Hadjipateras In November, 2001, ACORD staff from all the Angola programmes, which include two urban-based programmes (Ang/07 and Ang/06 in Luanda and Lubango, respectively) and one rural programme (Ang/05 in the Gambos), along with representatives of Angolan NGO partners based in the South, came together to discuss their current and future work on gender. In this report, Angela
Hadjipateras, who facilitated the process, reports on what she sees as
the main highlights of their discussions. This was the third time she
has worked with the Angola teams over the last five years and she came
away feeling greatly encouraged by the 'great leap forward' that seems
to have been made, both in terms of the genuine commitment to
promoting gender equality and also in terms of the results. Although
cultural resistance still poses major constraints, especially for Ang
5 and partners working with rural communities, the general feeling
among both staff and partners is that gender awareness in the
communities where they work has been greatly enhanced and women are
playing a more prominent role at all levels of society. The enhanced level of participation of women in management and decision-making processes within community-based organisations and other local structures appears to be one of the main changes that has been brought about through the gender-awareness-raising of ACORD and partner organisations. a) Community-level impact At the workshop, it was reported that ACORD influence has helped to shift the traditional pattern of male domination within the local NGO sector in Namibe province, where ACORD has recently extended its activities and provides capacity-building and accompaniment for local NGO partners. Until ACORD appeared on the scene, women very under-represented in the management of most NGOs in the province. The one exception was APAM, a women's organisation, where the reverse applied - that is, men were notably absent from the management of the organisation. As shown in the table below, ACORD's influence has helped to ensure a good gender balance in the management of these organisations:- Analysis of ACORD's Gender Impact in Namibe Province
-> increased gender-sensitivity Several examples were given to demonstrate the effects of these changes. For example, AMMIGA, an NGO working with war disabled, formerly had no gender perspective, but now works with war widows and disabled women, as well as male war wounded. In general terms, it was noted that women's groups have been formed and are participating actively in community affairs. Another example is the election of women representatives to attend meetings outside the community where this would previously have been unheard of. Need for further research and monitoring Clearly, there is a need for more systematic follow-up and analysis - in order to assess the impact of these changes in terms of the nature and content of decision-making processes within these organisations. Does women's presence make a difference to the issues discussed, the priorities agreeed and the projects taken forward? These are the kinds of questions that need to be investigated in order to ascertain whether and to what extent women's participation in senior management has a favourable impact in terms of promoting the rights and interests of women and other marginalised groups in the community. b) Impact within ACORD staff teams Alongside these achievements at the community level, efforts to improve the gender balance within the programme teams were also noted.. Ang 6 now has more women in senior management. And in the case of Ang 5, with the promotion of one of the Community Assistants to the position of Technical Officer, the former imbalance has now been addressed, not only in terms of numbers, but also in terms of status and power, though salary differentials still discriminate against women and need to be addressed. That said, the predominance of men representing partner organisations at the workshop was commented on, suggesting that some work is still needed to ensure equality of opportunity for men and women within the NGO sector. Use of Gender Tools of Analysis: Case example from Luanda Since the previous workshop, which focussed on improving staff understanding of the uses and practical application of gender tools of analysis, teams have been putting into practice many of the lessons learned. The Luanda based programme (Ang 7) provided a case study showing how they have employed some of these tools in schools with promising results. Changing school policy towards pregnant schoolgirls The programme has been working with Parents and Teachers Commissions in the peri-urban areas of Luanda to address the issue of high drop-out rates among young school girls, which was identified as a problem in the area. The ACORD team decided to use the Moser triple roles framework, along with a PRA method - the daily clock - as a way into understanding the root causes of this problem. With the help of these tools, the parents and teachers were able to identify some of the key underlying causes for the high drop-out rates among this group. Two key issues were identified. First, the incidence of premature pregnancy among young girls, which was seen as being linked to lack of parental guidance. And second, the tendency for parents to prioritise boys' schooling while young girls are kept at home to help their mothers with the housework. Following on from this discussion, the Commission recommended a change in school policy with respect to pregnant school girls. The recommendation seems to have been adopted as ACORD was informed that soon after, two schoolgirls were allowed to continue their schooling instead of being expelled as would have occurred previously. ACORD will continue to monitor school drop-out rates for girls at the school in order to assess the impact of this awareness-raising work with parents and teachers. In future, ACORD will also endeavour to involve school children in such discussions so as to ensure their views are adequately represented. Persistence of cultural barriers: need to exchange ideas and adapt tools The Ang 5 team spoke of the difficulties of using some of the gender tools of analysis, with pastoral communities in the remote Gambos area where the team is based. For example, the Harvard framework requires information to be gathered about men and women's access to and control over resources. This is far from easy in a context where its is culturally unacceptable to even talk to women on their own, let alone getting them to discuss the dynamics of household decision-making processes, and other such matters. For example, women are not at liberty to disclose information about property ownership: if they own cows, tradition requires them to say that their husband is the owner. During the workshop, some time was spent discussing ways of overcoming these obstacles. It was felt that this is a problem common to many ACORD programmes, as well as other NGOs working in remote areas with strict cultural traditions and that it would be very useful to organise a workshop where people can exchange ideas and information about how to tackle these problems. It was noted that such an initiative could potentially be supported under the Gender Thematic Programme, which is currently in the process of being developed. Consolidating Angola's gender strategy and activities: recommendations At the workshop, the teams produced a list of recommendations for follow-up, which will be discussed within each team and incorporated into programme plans and objectives:
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