In this study, the authors set out to determine whether countries with high gender empowerment have a higher female-to-male smoking prevalence ratio. They explored the relationship between the United Nations Development Programme’s gender empowerment measure (GEM) and the female-to-male smoking prevalence ratio (calculated from the World Health Organisation’s 2008 Global Tobacco Control Report). Because a country’s progression through the various stages of the tobacco epidemic and its gender smoking ratio are thought to be influenced by its level of development, they explored this correlation as well, with economic development defined in terms of gross national income (GNI) per capita and income inequality (Gini coefficient). In their findings, the authors note that gender smoking ratio was significantly and positively correlated with the GEM. In addition, the GEM was the strongest predictor of the gender smoking ratio after controlling for GNI per capita and for Gini coefficient. Whether progress towards gender empowerment can take place without a corresponding increase in smoking among women remains to be seen, the authors conclude. They argue for stronger tobacco control measures in countries where women are being increasingly empowered.
Values, Policies and Rights
In this paper, the authors examine the growing convergence between human rights and development thinking, particularly with regard to social and economic rights. They ask how the dialogue between human rights and development can contribute to furthering progress on the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). They argue that developing countries need to secure relatively good rates of economic growth to make progress, but may be hampered by the fact that they remain far behind the developed world in terms of technology. Given a good enabling environment, most developing economies would be able to raise productivity fairly rapidly by absorbing existing knowledge from abroad, rather than inventing it for themselves. The rapid growth of South-South trade and investment flows among developing countries would be another supportive factor, but the authors caution that economic growth alone will not guarantee reaching MDG outcomes: governments need to ensure that the economic benefits of growth are equitably distributed.
This paper examines parental control and monitoring and the implications of this on young people's sexual decision making in a rural setting in North-Western Tanzania. Data collection involved 17 focus group discussions and 46 in-depth interviews conducted with young people aged 14-24 years and parents/carers of young people within this age-group. The researchers found that parents were motivated to control and monitor their children's behaviour for reasons such as social respectability and protecting them from unwanted pregnancies and sexually transmitted diseases. Children from single-parent families reported that they received less control and researchers noted that a father's presence in the family seemed important in controlling the activities of young people, while a mother's did not appear to. Girls received more supervision compared to boys. Despite parents making efforts to control and monitor their young people's sexual behaviour, the researchers conclude that parents are faced with major challenges, such as too little time available to spend with their children, which make it difficult for them to monitor them effectively. The researchers argue that there is a need for interventions, such as parenting skills-building, that might enable parents to improve their relationships with their children and help guide their sexual behaviour.
The primary objective of this study was to explore risk factors for sexual violence in childhood in a nationally representative sample of females aged 13 to 24 years in Swaziland. During a household survey respondents were asked to report any experiences of sexual violence before the age of 18 years. A total of 1,244 respondents were included in the study. Using the survey data, the researchers then analysed the association between childhood sexual violence and several potential demographic and social risk factors. They found that, compared with respondents who had been close to their biological mothers as children, those who had not been close to her had higher odds of having experienced sexual violence, likewise with those who had had no relationship with her at all. In addition, greater odds of childhood sexual violence were noted among respondents who were not attending school at the time of the survey, who were emotionally abused as children, and who knew of another child who had been sexually assaulted or was having sex with a teacher. Childhood sexual violence was positively associated with the number of people the respondent had lived with at any one time. Inadequate supervision or guidance and an unstable environment put girls at risk of sexual violence, the authors conclude, calling for greater educational opportunities and improved mother-daughter relationships.
A HIV-positive South African man has won a case of discrimination and unfair dismissal against his former employers in the Labour Court, and he says he hopes the ruling will encourage other HIV-positive people who are being discriminated against by their employers to come forward. The court ruling stated that he was unfairly dismissed by his employer because of his HIV status. The man was dismissed two years ago immediately after his former employer discovered that he was HIV-positive. Human rights organisation Section 27 has hailed the ruling, saying it sends a clear message that HIV-positive people cannot be discriminated against. According to Section 27, people with HIV should come forward and seek the protection of the law because if they go to court and their case is clear, they will win in court and the employer will be forced to pay compensation or legal costs. Advocates identified two major barriers to seeking legal redress in cases of discrimination against HIV-positive people – most people are not aware of their rights, and lawyers are inaccessible because the cost of their services is beyond the means of ordinary South Africans. Without proper legal services, they warn, it’s unlikely that claims will succeed.
Despite a growing body of research into risk factors for intimate partner violence (IPV), methodological differences limit the extent to which comparisons can be made between studies. The authors of this study used data from ten countries (including Namibia and Tanzania) from the World Health Organisation’s Multi-country Study on Women's Health and Domestic Violence to identify factors that are consistently associated with abuse across sites. Standardised population-based household surveys were conducted between 2000 and 2003, with one woman aged 15-49 years randomly selected from each sampled household. Those who had ever had a male partner were asked about their experiences of physically and sexually violent acts. The researchers found that, despite wide variations in the prevalence of IPV, many factors affected risk similarly across sites. Secondary education, high socio-economic status and formal marriage offered protection, while the risk of IPV increased with alcohol abuse, cohabitation, young age, attitudes supportive of wife beating, having outside sexual partners, experiencing childhood abuse, growing up with domestic violence, and experiencing or perpetrating other forms of violence in adulthood. The strength of the association was greatest when both the woman and her partner had the risk factor. The authors conclude that current IPV prevention programmes should pay greater attention to transforming gender norms and attitudes, addressing childhood abuse and reducing harmful drinking. Development initiatives to improve access to education for girls and boys may also have an important role in violence prevention.
Kenyan AIDS activists are demanding a full apology from a Kenyan cabinet minister who recently suggested that isolating HIV-positive people may be the way to eradicate the pandemic. At a 28 January 2011 meeting with members of parliament on HIV and AIDS, Esther Murugi, Minister for Special Programmes, put forward the option of permanently ‘locking up’ positive people to keep them out of general society. Kenya's National AIDS Control Council falls under the Ministry of Special Programmes. Nelson Otwoma, coordinator of the Network of People living with HIV/AIDS in Kenya, said her comments were highly irresponsible and only contributed to stigma surrounding the disease. She believed that the minister’s comments could prompt a wave of hatred against HIV positive people among ‘people who might hold a view like hers and who were simply waiting for a trigger’. Jacqueline Sewe, a member of local NGO, Women Fighting AIDS in Kenya (WOFAK), has called on the minister to either publicly apologise to people living with HIV or resign, highlighting the fact that HIV is not a contagious disease.
This report is the fourth in a series of annual reports published by Plan examining the rights of girls around the world throughout their childhood, adolescence and as young women. The short section regarding the health of girls is based on Plan’s cohort studies in Togo, Benin and Uganda. Their research find that nutritional deficiencies in early childhood are linked to learning difficulties and lower educational attainment. Girls not only faced a daily challenge of poor nutrition, but were more vulnerable to illness and disease. Despite immunisation coverage rates of above 90% of girls, many still face persistent illness. Malaria, for example, continues to affect many girls in Uganda, with the children treated at various times over the year either at the local health centre or the nearest hospital. Plan calls for governments to increase their investment in prevention and treatment of the range ofillnesses that affect girls, like malaria.
As part of the 11th edition of the World Social Forum (WSF) in Dakar, African civil society presented the draft of an African Consensus, to spur endogenous development of the continent. The WSF is an initiative of civil society and a democratic meeting place that aims to stimulate debate and deepen the collective thinking. This is a space where all types of social movements come to discuss world problems in a democratic way. Members of the International Committee of the Forum discussed the prospects for social movements to make proposals and alternatives to "a neoliberal system that is currently going through deep crisis". Inspired by that of the Himalayas, an innovative approach to development, the "African Consensus" refers to the implementation of economic platforms and autonomous enterprises programmes based on local realities, through skills transfer that give a sense of responsibility. Unlike the "Washington Consensus", which enhances the immediate liberalization of markets, privatization of enterprises, the elimination of subsidies, the "African Consensus" is based on the fact that Africa is not poor, but that it enjoys great wealth and the mosaic of cultures and ethnicity.
This paper deals specifically with the gender issues that arise in the role of faith-based organisations (FBOs) in service delivery. The author analysed secondary sources on FBOs affiliated to organised religion and other faith movements. The FBO services reviewed were in Africa, Asia, Europe, Latin America, the Middle East and the United States. The author presents no generic conclusions about this diverse group of actors but raises questions about the implications of FBOs as service providers for the advancement of gender equality. She raises questions on the nature of an FBO’s gender agenda, especially because a single organisation often takes different standpoints on various gender issues. Secondly, she questions the way the spiritual and social activities often provided relate to the way FBOs often delineate how women are expected to exercise their agency. She observes that while many FBOs work successfully at grassroots level, this does not necessarily mean that they all emerge from within the community or that they are necessarily ‘indigenous’. She notes the dilemma women face when the extension of services and assistance is conditional on their conforming to the FBOs’ interpretation of religiously appropriate gender roles and behaviour. Referring to ethnographic studies, she suggests that services may sometimes be used overtly or more subtly to inculcate religious values and ideologies. The complexity and variation in FBOs means that one needs to be cautious about drawing policy conclusions that re applicable to all faith-based actors engaged in service delivery. She rather argues for measures to engage with faith leaders on their gender agendas and the manner in which services take into account embedded partriarchal and other power relations.