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Won't Wait! Women Can't Wait

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Won't Wait! Women Can't Wait Women Can’t Wait, Won’t Wait! 2019 ANNUAL REPORT © FEMNET 2020 For a copy of this report, contact: The African Women’s Development and Communication Network (FEMNET) KUSCCO Center, Kilimanjaro Road, off Mara Road PO Box 54562 -00200, Nairobi Tel: +254 20 271 2971/2 Fax: +254 20 271 2974 [email protected] www.femnet.org Editorial Team: Rachel Kagoiya, Information Manager, FEMNET Mildred Ngesa, Head of Communication, FEMNET Photo credits: FEMNET Photo Library Description of cover image - Olabukunola Bukky Williams, Executive Director, Education as a Vaccine, Nigeria leading a panel session during the Africa Beijing+25 Regional Consultation in October 2019, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Design & Layout: James Chunguli Crimson Communications Ltd. [email protected] Contents 2 Poem: An invitation to brave space, by Micky ScottBey Jones 3 Gender Equality & Women’s Rights Cannot wait for another 25 years! 5 “We will Keep Fanning the Fire – We will Safeguard the Revolution!” 7 “When we went to Beijing” Re-igniting the Fire 25 Years Later 8 Our Strengthened Networks Equals Greater Impact! 11 The Audacity to Disrupt the Macroeconomic Realm 12 Listen to the Roar of African Teenage Girls 15 The Maputo Protocol Must be Fully Implemented 16 Women @ Work! 17 #RatifyILO190 for a World of Work Free from Violence and Harassment 18 Men Involvement in Gender Equality is a NO Brainer! 20 Feminists Want System Change! The Personal is Political: Rethinking SRHR from an African Feminist 21 Perspective 23 Closing the GAP: Gender Action Plan on Climate Justice 24 Unity of Purpose & Power of Diversity! 25 We Pushed, We Compelled, We Urged…and the Struggle Continues! 26 Growth of FEMNET’s Digital Family & Footprint 26 OUR 2019 FEMNET FAMILY 27 The FEMNET family continues to grow! 28 Financial Statements Women can’t wait – won’t wait! FEMNET Annual Report 2019 1 An invitation to brave space By Micky ScottBey Jones Together we will create brave space Because there is no such thing as “safe space” We exist in the real world We all carry scars and we have all caused wounds. In this space We seek to turn down the volume of the outside world, We amplify voices that fight to be heard elsewhere, We call each other to more truth and love We have the right to start somewhere and continue to grow. We have the responsibility to examine what we think we know. We will not be perfect. This space will not be perfect. It will not always be what we wish it to be But It will be our brave space together, And We will work on it side by side. Gender Equality & Women’s Rights Cannot wait for another 25 years! Word from The Chairperson y fellow courageous African sisters in the continent, the year 2019 presented us with a challenge that must not go uncontested. We stepped into a year that was significant to the struggles of women in Africa and across the globe in terms of gender equality and women’s rights. It is in this year that we began the thorough serious reflections on the impact of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action of 1995 which will mark exactly 25 years in 2020. It is also the same year when we gear up to mark 25 years of the ICPD (International Conference on Population & This year, it has been quiet revitalizing Development). But this is not all, in this to sustainably reflect on Beijing +25 and 2019, we began our reflection on the end to do so, without ceasing to push for of the African Women’s Decade that will greater commitment to women’s rights also officially lapse in 2020. This is not all, and justice in spaces where a dedicated this year also curtain-raises the marking of approach to these rights seems to have the United Nations Security Resolution 1352 waned. I have had the privilege to sit in which will be on its 20 year anniversary several platforms across the continent since its inception. as organized by FEMNET where we have My dear sisters and partners from across gone back to the drawing board of 1995 the five sub-regions of Africa and the when all women globally flooded the city diaspora, you do realize that 2019 is of Beijing to bring out a global protest indeed the year when we consolidated against discrimination, violence against our gains, analyzed our strategies, started women and many other forms of violation. reflecting on where our journeys begun As traversed conferences in Johannesburg, but most importantly, strategized on the Nairobi, Lusaka and Addis Ababa as end-game which is total gender equality organized by FEMNET, we continued to and women’s emancipation. seek for answers to the glaring gaps still Women can’t wait – won’t wait! FEMNET Annual Report 2019 3 dodging our aspirations for total gender equality and women’s emancipation. In the unwavering spirit of Beijing +25, and as we continue to reflect on the As we seek to grow twelve critical areas of concern that our resource base we emanated from the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action of 1995, it is becoming must continue to work increasingly clear to us that unfortunately at fracturing patriarchal the same battles that we were engaged systems that create in that provoked the Beijing convening unequal access to funding are the very same battles we are fighting for women’s rights today. organisations. It is concerning that women are still missing or lagging behind in areas of political representation, education, economic actualization, health and even governments and policy implementers in environmental consideration. We do not relent on ensuring that women’s are still pushing for inclusivity, agitating rights and gender equality are indeed for balance and shouting at the top of a reality. We have several policies and our voices for governments and law instruments to invoke as we pursue this enforcement agencies to take seriously goal this year and the years to come. the rising cases of sexual violence and We have the great CEDAW, the Maputo femicides. How is it that we as the women Protocol, and the Beijing Declaration of Africa can be fighting for exactly the Platform for action, the ICPD, the 2030 same things, against exactly the same Agenda for Sustainable Development aggressions and still see not much of a (SDGs) and many other instruments at change in how women are treated and our disposal to strongly and courageously viewed in their communities? Why is it push our agenda. that year in, year out, we still converge to lament the very same atrocities Whatever the challenges or circumstances committed against us because of our ahead of us, we surely cannot wait for gender? Why are our governments and another 25 years to realize gender equality societies at large seemingly complacent and women’s rights, we must act NOW! towards ending all forms of violence and discrimination against women and girls? 2019 has given us yet another opportunity Mrs. Emma Kaliya, to tighten our resolve and strategies Board Chairperson, FEMNET even better in demanding that our 4 Women can’t wait – won’t wait! FEMNET Annual Report 2019 “We will Keep Fanning the Fire – We will Safeguard the Revolution!” Word from The Executive Director e started the year 2019 inspired by a poem by the “justice doula” Micky ScottBey Jones - “Invitation to Brave Space”. We reflected and committed to work side by side to create and nurture brave spaces. Yes, acknowledging our brave space may not always be what we wish it to be, we gave ourselves permission to the right to start somewhere and continue to grow. Throughout 2019, it was inspiring, energizing and refreshing to see, behold and experience the rich and boundless determination of African women in all As we wrap up 2019 and gear up for a new their diversities as they collectively and decade starting in 2020, we share with you fiercely pushed boundaries for freedom some of our most significant moments, from oppressive systems and structures. resulting impact and lessons learned. We In our fight for women’s human’s rights, are super grateful to our members, board we learned a lot and asserted our inter members, partners and allies for your sectional feminist movement building, continued and assured support in our we claimed spaces and created our own collective quest for justice and fight for spaces, we courageously made bold women’s rights and a feminist future. We demands for accountability to gender will keep fanning the fire, we will keep the equality and women’s rights, we refused to revolution, we will keep rising because be silenced, excluded or be made invisible. gender equality! Women can’t wait! We used our power of convening, our creative and innovative tools to influence In Solidarity, policy and connect the global to local. The commitment and tenacious spirit of African women and girls in claiming their Memory Kachambwa, rights is unmatched. Executive Director, FEMNET Women can’t wait – won’t wait! FEMNET Annual Report 2019 5 “When we went to Beijing” Re-igniting the Fire 25 Years Later omen worldwide continue and feminists. Close to 70% of the people to organize and demand for were in the space for the first time, including equality, justice and peace, with young women, veterans/elderly women, defiance and determination. sex workers, LBTIQ, women from informal Throughout 2019, FEMNET led settlements, women with disabilities, media, in informing and coordinating the reflection representatives of trade unions, grassroots, and position of African women’s rights and faith groups, cultural and religious leaders, civil society organizations on the 25 years politicians and feminists.
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