Diaspora Britain
Africa stem directly from women’s lack of position in society. When women have the status and power to engage, children thrive, communities flourish, and nations prosper.” GREAT has four long-term aims: First: To award African presidents who do the most to support gender equality; second: to support FAS to build the first Pan Af- rican Centre for Gender, Peace and De- velopment; third: to raise awareness and funds for specific gender equality grass- roots projects in Africa; and fourth: to promote education as the primary agent for change in Africa.
Laudable aims; and when Frostrup was asked what moved her to set up GREAT, she replied:
“Anger really… at what women have to face especially on the continent. African women are doing great things and we need to know about that too – they are not only poor and to be pitied.”
Tis sentiment was also echoed by Karen Ruimy, who during our brief con- versation on what African women are able to overcome in the face of what seems, especially to Western women, insurmount- able odds said: “I know... African women are really strong. I mean really strong!” Strength and courage are virtues that certainly sustain someone such as Bineta Diop, FAS executive director. She is a dynamic grandmother whose family is originally from Touba, the holy Muslim city and centre of the Mourides brotherhood, in Senegal. Bineta knows only too well that in Africa, nothing will change without women being fully involved. She founded FAS in 1994 in Geneva with women from 33 African countries – as Ticky Monekosso, a jour- nalist and one of the original women told me. Now an FAS board member, Ticky spoke highly of their partnership with GREAT.
Bineta now travels between conflict- torn regions on the continent and dedicates her life campaigning for gender justice and equality, and getting Africa’s decision- makers to listen to women.
In fact, African Union (AU) ambas-
Bineta Diop, recently included in Time’s top 100 list of the most influential people in the world
92 | October 2011 | New African
sadors in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, were re- duced to tears several months ago, during a meeting organised by Bineta and FAS, in which a group of 12 women from Côte d’Ivoire, Guinea and Uganda told their harrowing and horrific personal stories of
ago, Bineta was key to the AU electing five out of the ten commissioners as female.”
“Only eight years
rape and police brutality. Only eight years before, Bineta had been instrumental in the AU electing five out of the 10 com- missioners as female, as well as adopting two landmark legal instruments to pro- tect women on the continent; namely the Protocol to the African Charter on Hu- man and Peoples’ Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa (Maputo Protocol), and the Solemn Declaration on Gender Equality in Africa. So after the fundraising gala, what can one look forward to as the impact of the GREAT initiative on women in Africa? It needs to be seen if action follows words and funds follow promises.
Women are a driving force behind Africa’s economy, running an estimated 48% of small and medium-sized businesses and growing 80% of the food, yet they have significant barriers in accessing credit and finance and only own 1% of the land.
Taking heart from a publication, Africa’s future is female, women’s groups note how women are already playing a critical role in advocating for more hon- est and committed African leadership. In seven countries – Angola, Mozambique, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, Tanzania and South Africa – women hold 30% or more of the seats in Parliament.
Indeed, a World Bank study of over 100 countries found that when there were more women in government, there was less corruption.
For every year of schooling a mother has received, infant mortality drops by 5-10%, and a child’s probability of survival is increased by 20% when the household income is controlled by the mother as opposed to the father, who tends to invest more in the education and welfare of the family.
Tus, to tackle poverty and encour- age development in Africa, we must invest in educating and empowering girls and women to lead and assert their fun- damental human rights.
(Patricia Lee-Sang is an international educationalist and development consultant and was one of the founding members of the Pan African Women’s Movement, cre- ated after the 7th Pan-African Congress in 1994 in Kampala, Uganda. She is now the director of Aspire Education Group in the UK).
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