A long road for women

5 Sep 2012

A long road for women

"Twenty-five per cent, oyee!" blasted apopular tune by South Sudanese singer Gordon Kong at recent independence anniversary celebrations in Aweil.

The women singing and dancing in theNorthern Bahr El-Ghazal state capital's Freedom Square had a victory to celebrate -- the provision requiring that at least one-quarter of all positions in publicly funded institutions be set aside for their gender, as stipulated in the South Sudan Transitional Constitution.

Despite their jubilation, however, women in Northern Bahr El-Ghazal are far from attaining that 25 per cent goal.

Modest progress has been made, to be sure. The state legislative assembly elected its first ever female Speaker in July, shortly after a reshuffle of Governor Paul Malong Awan's cabinet doubled the number of female ministers – from one to two – and a woman was appointed to an advisory position.

Jacqueline Nyibol Benjamin, State Minister for Information and Communication, said this was not an entirely new development.

"Women were active participants in the struggle for independence," she said. "What is new is that we are now beginning to see more female faces in decision-making positions."

UNMISS staff members in the mission's Civil Affairs Division, which monitors gender issues in the state, noted that women's participation in politics at the state capital level in Aweil was more prominent than in rural areas of Northern Bahr El-Ghazal.

"Women are present at all levels of the executive in Aweil town," said UNMISS Civil Affairs Officer Luis Perez-Segnini. "But in rural areas, all county commissioners, payam (district) administrators and boma (town area) administrators are men."

That imbalance undermines progress towards implementing the nation's affirmative action policy, according to the focal point for gender issues in the state's Ministry for Social Development, Elizabeth Henry Angok.

"What is the meaning of 25 per cent, when in a total of 16 ministries we only have one female Director General? It's not because of a lack of educated women. They may be few, but they are there," she said.

Ms. Angok blamed limited education and language barriers for limiting the ability of women to participate in decision making.

"We have only a few well-educated women and most of these speak Arabic but not English, the official working language of the country. It leaves women at a disadvantage," she said.

Both Ms. Angok and UNMISS Human Rights Officer Sylvester Sammie pointed out that early marriages of girls, child labour and the use of girls as a family's source of wealth via generous wedding dowries were among other discriminatory practices hindering the development of women and girls.

Nonetheless, said Mr. Perez-Segnini, while it is true that women do not have as many opportunities as men to obtain an education, some jobs do not require a formal education.

"All around Aweil town, all the women I see are tea-sellers," said Ms. Angok. "What are we doing to give them other skills?"

The government was responsible, with support from the international community, to create a favourable environment for women and girl-children to thrive, she said.

UNMISS gender promotion

"Gender promotion is not only a matter of giving women the same opportunities and jobs that men have," said Mr. Perez-Segnini. "It is also recognizing that women have special needs and special obligations toward society and respecting those needs and helping to fulfil them."

Through the mission's Human Rights unit in its Northern Bahr El-Ghazal office, UNMISS has continually engaged the state Ministry of Education and other South Sudanese partners to safeguard the rights of the girl-child.

In early August, two meetings were convened to finalize community by-laws promoting girls' right to education.

"We participated in a consensus-building workshop and then in a technical committee meeting to incorporate observations from the workshop," said Mr. Sammie.

The findings from the workshop shall be presented to the state's Council of Ministers for review before they are submitted to the state legislative assembly for approval.

"The ultimate goal is to ensure that girls grow into women with the same access to opportunities as boys," Mr. Sammie said.

The state's recently appointed information minister Ms. Benjamin pledged to give a voice to women in government and prioritize women and girl-child issues.

"In Northern Bahr El-Ghazal, when you think of poverty, you see women and their children," she said. "All our work aims to bring improvement to the welfare of the people."