CELEBRATING INTERNATIONAL WOMEN'S DAY

EMPOWERMENT OF WOMEN IN AFRICA

Sunday the 8^th of March marked the international women’s day. This a day which is set aside each year to recognize the contributions of women to the advancement of the world as well as tackling challenges faced by women across the world. In this piece, I discuss how we can empower women especially in Africa.

It is quite cliche when writing, commenting or speaking on women empowerment to refer to the Beijing Declaration of 1995, yet I believe it is the most conducive standpoint from which to assess the state of the world’s women. Since that declaration, more attention has been focused on women issues especially in Africa where traditionally, issues concerning women are relegated to the background. There is a popular saying that “the way to a man’s heart is through his belly”, an axiom that makes an allusion to the fact that we all need food to survive. Women do not just feed us all practically at home, but it is estimated that women provide 90% of our most survival need-food. Therefore the advancement of Africa is intricately linked with women and their potential. They are not just there to cook sumptuous meals for us or to rock the babies to sleep; neither are they there to do household chores and nod to every cough of their domineering husbands. In my opinion women are a colossus of untapped opportunity.

It is conventional wisdom that governments will always invest in areas that yield the greatest returns for the country as a whole. The statistics are quite unequivocal in their illustration of the importance of integrating the interest of women into our economic policies. Yet the gap between men and women is not being bridged at the rate that was envisioned by the Beijing declaration. Amongst other things, the declaration bemoaned the untold hardships suffered by women. I do not believe that the situation has changed significantly. Most women especially from less endowed nations grow up with one hope in life; to get married to a responsible man who will take good care of them. They have no dreams for personal advancement. This is predictable because the majority of them are illiterate. Even though a lot of public education has been carried out to bring the attention of parents to the importance of educating their daughters, many parents are yet to accept it as a normal thing.

It is reported that women in Africa own less than 1% of the total land mass. This is quite paradoxical because even though women produce the bulk of our food, they have virtually no right to land in the community. Beyond just being given equal land opportunities as men, women should be supported with agricultural inputs and soft loans to expand their farms

Another really important way of empowering women is to remove the perennial impediments to their survival. In sub-Saharan Africa, women unfortunately constitute 60% of people living with HIV/AIDS. The disease is killing a lot of able-bodied women who could have contributed to the human resource base of the country. Violence against women because of their vulnerability has contributed a great deal to the increased incidence of HIV in women. Unfortunately, when they are infected, there are no support systems and sometimes even barriers exist for seeking information on HIV. It is very common to see people stigmatizing women living with HIV as social misfits who are being punished for their past lifestyle, yet men who in my opinion are responsible for infecting many women do not take any blame. Tackling the HIV scourge is a major way of empowering women because it ensures their survival and also lessens the repercussions of the disease.

General programs will not solve the problems facing the empowerment of women in Africa; they face peculiar challenges and they need special attention. We all have to shun the inferior mentality towards women and see them as equals capable of transforming the fortunes of Africa. There is no need walking on a tiny rope across a valley when there is a beautiful bridge to walk leisurely on. Investing in women is investing in husbands, wives and children. Let us create the opportunities to bring women on board the developmental agenda of Africa.

Wutor Mahama Baleng

DISCOVER THE GIFT WITHIN YOU: GRADUATE UNEMPLOYMENT IS A MYTH

Many school leavers have one big but important question in mind. How am I going to secure a job once my certificate has been handed over to me? This is because, there has been an almost endless talk about graduate unemployment to the extent that it seems to be the status quo instead of being the exception when one is transitioning from school to the world of work.

Many graduates are out there without any decent job to do and waiting patiently for the government to do some kind of magic and get all of them employed. The discussion on the cause of graduate unemployment is quite cliche and I would for the sake of remaining brief  not join that discussion. However I believe that the idea of finishing school and not finding a job to do is a myth and a victim mentality that unfortunately has become well grounded in the mind-set of most graduates. And this myth has generated so much fear in these capable graduates to the extent that many of them have become virtually paralyzed by circumstances. The "victim mentality" where graduate have indoctrinated themselves that it is because of the inaction of the government that is responsible for their predicament does not hold any water.

Many graduates have searched for jobs with futility. You would see them searching frantically everywhere else but themselves for a job. I dare say that they should stop looking elsewhere for a job but rather focus the searchlight on themselves. I believe the almighty God created all of us with some thing unique and special in each of us which  cannot be found in another person. Therefore if you do a careful introspection of your abilities and systematically examine them, you would realize that deep down within you lies not just a job but a potential employer of others.

I am talking about entrepreneurship. The most successful people today did not get as much training as many of our graduates have. But they looked within themselves instead of without and used their ideas and innovations as raw materials to solve societal problems and as a reward for such a feat, society pays them handsomely for their services. The skeptical ones would be quick to shoot down the talk about entrepreneurship and rather say "if everyone one becomes an entrepreneur then there will be no profit in it". The sky they say is too wide for any two birds to collide. The are many societal problems today then ever before and if everyone sets out to solve a particular problem, at the end of the day we would even have better solutions and approaches and that will all culminate at the end of the day in societal development.

If you are a graduate, or a graduate to-be reading this, I would like to encourage to look within yourself and discover that unique and untapped resource that the almighty creator has implanted deep within you. This would not be an easy task, but if you make the conscious effort to discover this wonderful gift, you would not just lift yourself out of the woes of poverty but you would become part of the solution instead of the problem itself.

Wutor Mahama Baleng