UN WomeN Changing Lives in Africa 2012 UN WomeN Changing Lives in Africa 2012 We’ve had a year of significant growth and change. While we face a lot of hard work ahead, as we come to the end of 2012, it’s time for us to take a look back and reflect on our key achievements of the year. I wish we could tell every story, visit every country, meet every woman whose life UN Women has changed, and talk about all the programs in Africa, but we don’t have the space. In this first series, UN Women Changing Lives in Africa, we share fourteen inspiring stories from across the continent. Our focus here is the women and the communities whose lives have been positively impacted by our work. UN Women’s aim is to empower women and girls so that they are independent, gain equality and can strive for better lives for themselves and their families. These stories show how our work can transform lives and touch so many. Well done Africa team and thank you so much to all who contributed to this series of very moving and candid stories. Happy reading, Letty Chiwara Chief of Africa UN Women New York [email protected] 3 BURKINA FASO: Women running dairy farms 5 CAMEROON: Domestic workers - their rights 7 Darfur: Women in broadcasting - messages of peace 9 ETHIOPIA: Safe house - a place for girls to heal 11 GREAT LAKES REGION: Cross border trade builds lives 13 LIBERIA: Savings and loans - economic empowerment 15 MALI: Helping women to heal from wartime atrocities 17 MOZAMBIQUE: Girls know their rights - gender equality 19 NIGER: Women in office - political participation 21 RWANDA: Weaving baskets for peace and prosperity 23 SENEGAL: Women make gains in political participation 25 TANZANIA: Rural women’s empowerment – “Barefoot Solar Engineers” 27 ZIMBABWE: Blue berets police women – peace makers 29 ZIMBABWE: Women fishing crews succeed UN WOMEN changing LIvES in Africa | 2012 450 Women Dairy Farmers and Milk Producers in Burkina Faso Gain Economic Independence o S a f a N ki ur , B cer ffi o ns atio C i un oto: UNDP Comm H P WomeN At the DiAry UNit of Madame GAriko’s fArm At Sadipenga. adame Gariko has a telephone ondary school, as like in most families, it and marketing. They were also constantly line at her rural farm just was not a priority to educate girls. She was faced with small markets and price fluctua- outside the capital of Burkina married as soon as her husband asked per- tions. Gariko says she lacks adequate storage Faso, Ouagadougou. Her son mission from her parents. facilities for her perishable products, so often is now entering university, something she She negotiated with male relatives for she is forced to sell them at below cost. Some Monce thought was impossible. the right to inheritance after her husband’s women too face inadequate transportation. “This would not have been possible if I death. She lost most of their family assets, There are no accessible roads to their farms, did not fight for what rightly belonged to me. save for 4 cows. She used cheap construction making it costly and almost impossible to We cannot look at relatives to feed us. I advise material to build a simple wooden structure hire a truck to transport dairy produce. other women to be enterprising because the and fence at the back of her house to keep In 1998 she formed a women’s group benefits are many, and with the coming of the 4 cows. This number has grown to 35. known as Tal Djama, to enable women in milk UN Women’s support the future is bright,” She is now producing dairy products from production to collectively tackle problems says Gariko. the cows. related to discrimination in accessing markets Gariko’s life, until lately, sounded like As she began farming she learned that many across Africa. After her husband’s there were many other women in similar death in the mid-1990’s, Gariko struggled difficult circumstances. In some cases they but managed to keep all of her 7 children in owned the cows but were exploited by mid- school. Her own education stopped at sec- dlemen who were involved in making yoghurt EditEd by lEtty chiwara | [email protected] For morE inFormation contact Francis boogErE | [email protected] 3 o and land. Tal Djama now has 51 members. In S a f 2007, Madame Gariko approached UNIFEM a N ki (now UN Women) to support enhancing the ur entrepreneurial skills of women involved in , B cer ffi milk production through her association. o As a result of a national study on women ns atio C in milk production in 13 regions a programme i to support women who manage mini-dairy un units was developed. 450 women dairy farm- ers and milk producers in Burkina Faso are now benefitting from financing from the oto: UNDP Comm H program which will increase their entrepre- P neurial capacities and improve their working conditions. Close collaboration between different UN Women entities (including the UN Wom- en Sub-Regional Office, the headquarters Resource Mobilization and Partnership Unit and the Africa Section resulted in funding of up to 50,000 Euros for the pilot phase of the project being secured from the Fondation miLLeNiUm DeveLopmeNt village. L’OCCITANE. The grant will be used to im- prove working conditions of women entre- ACORD and the Fondation L’OCCITANE will About the preneurs in the dairy industry ultimately significantly impact the lives of women dairy leading to increased productivity and better farmers in Burkina Faso. Programme: income. The beneficiary organisation: Union The involvement with women in the UN Women does not have physical des mini-laiteries et des producteurs de lait dairy industry is the result of baseline studies presence in Burkina faso, but it local du Burkina Faso (UMPL) brings togeth- conducted by UN Women which enabled the provides programming and technical er the 450 women dairy farmers and milk identification of the dairy industry as having support through its sub-regional producers. potential to economically transform the lives office in Dakar senegal. UN Women’s UN Women also forged strategic part- of women. This direct initiative with women engagement with women in dairy nerships with the Ministry of Gender and in the dairy industry has the potential to pro- farming dates back to 2009, when civil society organizations in Burkina Faso. pel ongoing work on women in agriculture the former UNIFEM conducted a As part of its normal briefing with civil soci- and to provide a new dimension on the mul- baseline survey of rural women ety and other partners, UN Women met in tiple avenues for reinforcing women’s eco- and identified women in dairy Dakar with the Association de Cooperation nomic security. farming as a potential group for et de Recherche pour le Développement Madame Gariko is very optimistic that enhancing economic empowerment. (ACORD) Burkina Faso. Following this meet- with the launch of this project the quality extensive consultations with various ing, a mission was conducted to Burkina Faso and quantity of milk produced by women in stakeholders including private where UN Women consulted with ACORD her women group will improve with training foundations, CSOs and the and women entrepreneurs in the dairy in- in marketing and other entrepreneurship government have finally resulted in dustry. The ability to reach out to a variety of skills. With the construction of the central concrete support to the women in traditional and nontraditional implement- water supply centre for women in Tal Djama, dairy farming - with the potential to ing partners allows UN Women to draw in each woman will be able to produce a mini- reach an even larger group of women. and add value to untapped economic poten- mum of 20 litres of milk per day fetching tial for women. her approximately US$400 dollars a month, ACORD and the Fondation L’OCCITANE enough to comfortably take care of their were closely involved in the t formulation personal and family needs. and resource mobilization process. The cur- “Thank you UN Women, we have waited rent partnership between UN Women, long but we are now hopeful,” Gariko says. EditEd by lEtty chiwara | [email protected] For morE inFormation contact Francis boogErE | [email protected] 4 UN WOMEN chaNgiNg livEs iN africa | 2012 Exploited Domestic Workers Organize Themselves to Defend their Rights in Cameroon orizons femmes h Photo: Photo: ParticiPants of a national conference on domestic work in cameroon held at the centre Jean XXiii mvolyé in yaoundé. bused and exploited by her em- “I worked with seven different families clude 50 members in its fold. Encouraged by ployers right from the beginning over a period of ten years due to irregular and its success, the initiative was integrated into of her work-life, 50-year-old Fé- poor working conditions and pay,” she said. RENATRAD, a network bringing together licité Mbida, a domestic worker When she started working in 1996, Fé- 65 associations with an average of 20 to 50 for more than twenty years, fights to promote licité was often subjected to sexual as well as members. theA rights of workers in Cameroon as part of psychological violence from her employers.employers.. Supported by the UN Women Fund for the National Association Supporting Domes- She worked without a contract or social secu- Gender Equality, RENATRAD organizes train- tic Workers (RENATRAD in French). rity and had no clearly defined working hours. ing sessions on labour legislation, the draft- As is the case for a number of young girls Exhausted and fed up with such abuse, in ing of work contracts, as well as professional from Cameroon, Félicité started working as a 2004 she decided to set up an association for ethics.