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Grassroots Women Agree: Our Biggest Problem Is Gender Violence

Kanya D'Almeida

UNITED NATIONS, Feb 23 2011 (IPS) - Nearly three-quarters of activists and grassroots organisers working globally to safeguard women’s rights are convinced that ending violence against women must be the top priority of the newly formed U.N. Women, according to a report launched Wednesday by Oxfam and VSO UK at the annual meeting of the Commission on the Status of Women in New York City.

Unveiling the findings of the new “Blueprint for U.N. Women” at the U.N. Church Center a day ahead of the official launch of U.N. Women, representatives of Oxfam and VSO UK outlined the views and efforts, documented in the report, of some 100 civil society organisations working in over 75 countries on human rights, gender equality and social justice.

Oxfam and VSO UK jointly commissioned the survey, which formed the basis for the Blueprint, last year. Its findings give solid proof to the claim that has long been made by advocacy and grassroots organisations worldwide – that the U.N. and governments are largely failing women in the developing world.

In 2011, more than 70 percent of people living below the poverty line are women, 60 percent of people living with HIV in sub-Sahara Africa are women and girls, one in five girls will experience rape or severe sexual assault in her lifetime, and over three million girls annually are at risk of Female Genital Mutilation/Cutting (FGM/C).

While intentions within the new U.N. body may be golden, experts fear that practical logistics and tangible funding are far from adequate.

When the curtain was raised on U.N. Women earlier this month, Kathy Peach, the head of external affairs for VSO UK, told IPS, “I’m personally very anxious about whether U.N. women is going to raise the money it needs – it’s currently got a shortfall of 300 million dollars on the initial target set by member states.”

“We are even concerned than the initial target of 500 million isn’t realistic to achieve the ambition of U.N. women and won’t be sufficient to make the change that is absolutely needed to tackle the entrenched discrimination and inequality that women face, or address the issue of gender violence that our research highlights,” she added.

“U.N. Women needs to act on the report, but it also requires funding at levels not previously seen in order to deliver,” said VSO Chief Executive Officer Marg Mayne, stressing that this once-in-a-generation opportunity must not be allowed to fall through the cracks due to a dearth of funding.

“As U.N. Women is officially launched tomorrow, it is still awaiting a funding commitment from both the U.S. and UK governments. Having received just one percent of the U.N.’s budget to date, it is at risk of failing before it has even begun,” Mayne warned.

“Even as we speak, U.N. Women is still experiencing a massive funding shortfall – the new pledges that have been made this year only amount to 55 million dollars,” Peach told IPS. “We are now at a critical point – if governments do not step up and make a bigger contribution U.N. Women will not be able to do all the things that our research says is crucially needed.”

Oxfam International and VSO UK, both acclaimed international development organisations, have a strong presence in grassroots communities throughout the world.

“VSO and Oxfam have both been campaigning together for the last three years for the creation of U.N. women,” Peach told IPS. “So it seemed like the logical progression, now that we have U.N. Women, to go to our partners on the ground and ask them what U.N. Women can be doing.”

The suggestions and warnings of veteran organisations that have their ears to the ground in every continent in the world should be heeded if U.N. Women is to have a smooth take-off.

The extensive survey poses the question, “What does civil society at the country-level expect from the new U.N. agency?” and proceeds to answer it from the perspective of local women’s organisations.

“The message hundreds of activists are telling U.N. Women is loud and clear: reach out to women and help empower them to change their lives. Without aligning its work with the needs and priorities of women at country level, especially in rural areas, it’s unlikely the agency will achieve its mission,” said Farah Karimi, executive director of Oxfam Novib, based at The Hague.

“U.N. Women needs to stand out from the traditional ways of operating to have impact on the ground by leaving the U.N.’s comfort zone of doing business as usual,” Karimi stressed.

The survey found that 84 percent of respondents insisted that rural women were most in need of a targeted approach, and found a strong conviction that disabled and uneducated women were also in need of urgent attention.

The survey revealed a perception among 30 percent of respondents that U.N. agencies lack knowledge of the daily realities of women on the ground and are not visible to the groups striving for the same goals.

Sixty-six percent of respondents want U.N. Women to strive for more independence, and more than a quarter of those polled said the U.N.’s close relationship to national governments is an obstacle to progress within local communities.

Although the U.N. has hitherto focused heavily on safeguarding women’s rights in wartime, the survey indicates that women expressed a greater desire for representation in political processes, freedom to determine their own marriages, and access to reliable justice systems than for protection during armed conflict, indicating that the root cause of the problem is not sporadic conflict, but a constant state of systematic inequality and violence.

“It is no longer an option that U.N. Women succeeds,” Karimi told IPS. “It has to succeed, and we will do everything in our power to make it so.”

“Global policy is no longer enough. U.N. Women cannot rely on the U.N.’s old tactic of talking and producing papers – it must act, and it must act now,” Karimi concluded.