Published in Links : a newsletter on gender for Oxfam GB staff and partners
Terrorism in Algeria has made women a primary target; this has only served to make the women there more determined to change their status, a process that began with independence in 1960. During preparations for the Fourth UN Conference in Beijing, Algerian women began networking with women from Tunisia and Morocco. Since then, Nadia Ait Zai, a lawy...
Published in Links : a newsletter on gender for Oxfam GB staff and partners
Oxfam's Gender and Development Unit (GADU) began in 1985 without scheduled time (all personnel had full-time jobs), premises (whatever space was vacant at the time), or money. David Bryer, incoming overseas director, supported the group and gave it an office and a half-time post. GADU's goal was to raise awareness about gender issues within Oxfam, ...
Published in Links : a newsletter on gender for Oxfam GB staff and partners
Oxfam staff in Latin America and partner women's organizations were brought together through the Women's Linking Project (WLP) Conference in Thailand to discuss gender. The presence of partner organizations and experts at the conference helped to overcome impasses on theory and provided a wealth of practical experiences. The WLP consultative method...
Published in Links : a newsletter on gender for Oxfam GB staff and partners
I have always believed that women should be given equal recognition and treatment. My upbringing, observation and experience taught me that I would get nowhere unless I broke the rules. Equal recognition happens only when women are consciously encouraged to reflect and led to understand their worth by looking at their own lives. I use the strategy ...
Published in Links : a newsletter on gender for Oxfam GB staff and partners
The Gender and Development Unit (GADU) was established in 1985 at Oxfam. The unit challenged previous development assumptions; gender analysis required recognition of inequalities based on class, caste, age, and education, as well as on gender. Personal attitudes and professional actions were scrutinized, views on how to achieve gender equity diffe...
Published in Links : a newsletter on gender for Oxfam GB staff and partners
An Oxfam Emergency Team arrived in Ingushetia in the Northern Caucasus region of the former Soviet Union in August 1996 to set up a program of shelter, rehabilitation, and relief in response to the large influx of people displaced by conflicts in the neighboring republics of Chechnya and North Ossetia. The team was also tasked with contacting commu...
Published in Links : a newsletter on gender for Oxfam GB staff and partners
To work effectively in conflict situations, development workers must seek tools of analysis which look at the personal and psychological dimensions of the conflict. This allows them to consider how women deal with the aftermath of war which leaves them bereaved, violated, widowed, and in a population which has too few potential husbands. The next c...
Published in Links : a newsletter on gender for Oxfam GB staff and partners
There is a high level of domestic violence in South Africa. In response, the new government has committed itself to gender and racial equality in its new constitution, the Prevention of Family Violence Act is in place, and the Convention for the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) was ratified in 1995. Domestic violence is a particu...
Published in Links : a newsletter on gender for Oxfam GB staff and partners
Oxfam UK/I in Chad has been building the capacity of women's income-generating activities through a strategy of long-term small-scale support over a period of many years to the Said Al Awine program. In the new Chad strategic four-year plan, gender is central to the development of a new phase of increasing the capacity of such organizations to netw...
Published in Links : a newsletter on gender for Oxfam GB staff and partners
Under the Taliban, which took control of Kabul in Afghanistan in October 1996, Shari's law has been interpreted strictly; women cannot work outside the home, cannot be educated, and must wear the burkha. Professional and educated women have moved to Pakistan. According to United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) 1995 figures, the literacy rate among...
