Asian Breeze No.94

Online Newsletter

94

No.

February
2023

KITAKYUSHU FORUM ON ASIAN WOMEN
Kitakyushu Otemachi Building 3F, Otemachi 11-4,
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E-mail: kfaw@kfaw.or.jp
URL: http://www.kfaw.or.jp

Kitakyushu Forum on Asian Women (KFAW) Web-based Newsletter

Contents
Promoting Gender Equality and women’s empowerment in Egypt- Rasha Hassan, Ph.D. (Gender Advisor) ................................................................................................................... 1

Gender Equality and Women Empowernment: A Smart Way to Achieve Development- James Twene (AG. Director, Department of Gender, Upper East Region, Ministry of Gender, Children and Social
Protection (MoGCSP), Ghana) .................................................................................................................................... 4

Ever since the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) commissioned KFAW to hold the“1st Seminar for Government Officers on the Improvement of the Status of Women” in 1992, KFAW
has been conducting the JICA training course on “Gender Mainstreaming Policies for Government
Officers.” For 30 years this course has brought together 473 government officers working for genderissues from central and local governments of 91 countries to share and learn about issues on gendermainstreaming promotion policies.
Former JICA participants are our dear friends and KFAW has built a strong network with them.
This time we are introducing reports of two former participants from Egypt and Ghana.

Promoting Gender Equality and women’s empowerment in Egypt- Rasha Hassan, Ph.D. (Gender Advisor)
Egypt is the most populous
country in the Arab Region
and ranks 14th globally 1 . In
2022, its population has
exceeded102
millioninhabitants and is growing at
an annual rate of 2% 2 during the last eight years.

The 2014 Egyptian Constitution established theprinciples of justice and equality, with more than
20 provisions guaranteeing the rights of womenin all spheres of life. The National Council for
Women’s (NCW’s) report on women’s
empowerment 2021 indicated that Progress is1) Worldometer, Population by Country (2023) -https://www.capmas.gov.eg/Pages/Publications.aspx?page_id=5104&YearID=23573

Worldometer (worldometers.info)2 ) CAPMAS,1

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recognized on several levels,
including political and will tofulfill women’s constitutionalrights, and commitment that isevidence-based as it becomes translated into
strategies and programs that are implemented bygovernmentalandnon-governmental
3organizations .
In accordance with women’s employment in
Egypt, the Labor Force Survey (LFS, 2021),
estimated labour force participation has
increased from 28.5 in 2020 to 29.4 in 2021.
Male participation rates have declined from 83.2
percent in 2020 to 82.8 percent in 2021, whilefemale participation grew marginally from 16.8
percent to 17.2 percent. According to statistics,
the unemployment rate has declined from 7.9 in2020 to 7.4 in 2021. Male unemployment rates
have also declined from 6.0% in 2020 to 5.6% in
2021, while female unemployment rates havedeclined from 17.7% in 2020 to 16% in 2021. It
is worth mentioning that over 75% of the overall
unemployed held technical intermediate, above
intermediate, university, or postgraduate degrees(CAPMAS, 2022 4).

Online Newsletterwith the Egyptian constitution, Education is aright for every citizen in Egypt, and it iscompulsory until the completion of the generalsecondary stage. As a result, Egypt is improving
in terms of key educational indicators. In 2019,
female net enrollment in primary school reached97.0%, while gross enrollment in secondary
school increased to 89.9% and upper secondary
enrollment increased to 77.6%. Egypt also boasts
an extensive and well-developed tertiary
education system, with 35.2% of Egyptians
taking advantage of it (gross enrolment rate in
tertiary education in 2018). (CAPMAS, 2022 5).
Despite Egypt's progress toward economicand educational empowerment, as well as thecountry's strong provisions in the 2014
constitution and Egypt being a signatory tointernational agreements requiring the state to act
against all forms of gender-based violence(GBV), Egyptian women strive to face physical,
emotional, and verbal violence in public andprivate places. According to a survey conductedby the National Council for Women (NCW) andthe United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA),
7.888 million women were victims of all formsof violence each year, whether perpetrated byspouses, fiancés, or individuals in her close circle
or strangers in public places, with the calculated
cost of violence against women and their families
estimated to be at least EGP 2.17 billion (USD
$134 million). (UNFPA, 2015 6).
Inequalities was rooted in the Egyptian culture,

Moving to Educational rights, in accordance3) National Council for Women. (2021),

https://www.capmas.gov.eg/Pages/IndicatorsPage.aspx?page_id=6142&ind_id=1082
6) United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), The
National Council for Women and the Central Agency
for Public Mobilization And Statistics, (2015),
https://egypt.unfpa.org/sites/default/files/pubpdf/Costs%20of%20the%20impact%20of%20Gender%20Based%20Violence%20%28GBV%29%20WEB.pdf

http://ncw.gov.eg/PdfTag/%D8%AA%D9%82%D8%A
7%D8%B1%D9%8A%D8%B1/312/2
4) the Central Agency for Public Mobilization And
Statistics, (2022),
https://www.capmas.gov.eg/Pages/SemanticIssuesPage.aspx5) the Central Agency for Public Mobilization And
Statistics, (2022),2

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and as a result, Egypt’s constitution (2014), cameto prohibits inequality and discrimination(Article 9) and notes that the state shall ensure
equality between women and men in all political,
civil, economic, social and cultural rights(Article 11). Accordingly, in article 214, theconstitution enforced the state to establish anindependent institution that implement key
national strategies and programs in support ofgender equality and social protections. Anddescribes the mandate for the National council
for women (NCW) 7 , the National Council forChildhood and Motherhood (NCCM) 8 , theNational Council for Human Rights (NCHR) 9 .
To empower this institutions, the constitution
give them to report against any violations
pertaining to their fields of work to the publicauthorities (Egypt’s constitution, 2014) 10 . InOnline Newsletterthat the Egyptian state prioritizes human rights,including gender equality.

Several strategies have been launched as partof the implementation of the establishedinstitutions to align with Egypt's constitution as
well as Egypt's Sustainable Development
Strategy Vision 2030. The NCW launched theNational Strategy to Eliminate All Forms ofViolence Against Women in 2015, followed by
the National Strategy for Egyptian Women'sEmpowerment 2030 in 2017 as a policy topromote women’s economic and social
empowerment. The NCW has also contributed toestablishing 32 equal opportunity units (EOUs)
in Egyptian ministries to promote genderequality in all Egyptian ministries. In order toreduce the prevalence of child marriage, theNational Council for Childhood and Motherhood(NCCM) launched the National Strategic Planfor the Prevention of Early Marriage in 2014. Inaddition, in 2015, NCCM launched the National
Strategy for Motherhood and Childhood as apolicy to protect children and mothers from allforms of violence and harm. In 2018, The
Supreme Standing Committee for Human Rights(SSCHR) launched the National Strategy for
Human Rights, as the first integrated national
human rights strategy in Egypt. That builds onthe progress achieved and takes into
consideration opportunities and challenges at thenational level.
The strategies outlined above have actionplans that are divided into programmes andpolicies aimed at empowering women in all
economic, social, cultural, political, and civil
fields. These action plans include measurable
qualitative and quantitative indicators to track

7) The National Council for women, http://ncw.gov.eg/10) https://www.sis.gov.eg/newvr/theconistitution.pdf

Motherhood , http://www.nccm-egypt.org/9) The National Council for Human Rights,
https://nchr.eg/enRights (SSCHR),
https://sschr.gov.eg/en/about/background/

addition to the Egyptian state's efforts tostrengthen the institutionalization of humanrights promotion and protection. The SupremeStanding Committee for Human Rights(SSCHR) 11 was established in 2018 by Egypt
President Abd-El Fatah El Sisi. Theestablishment of these institutions demonstrates

8) The National Council for Childhood and11) The Supreme Standing Committee for Human

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empowerment.

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Online Newsletter

women's

Gender Equality and Women Empowerment:
A Smart Way to Achieve Development- James Twene (AG. Director, Department of Gender, Upper East Region, Ministry ofGender, Children and Social Protection (MoGCSP), Ghana)measures for gender equality
and women's empowerment,
and successive governments
have tried to ensure theirimplementation.
Provisions of Internationaland National Instruments as well as policies andactions are implemented successfully to thebenefits of Ghanaians, but there are systemic
challenges and implementation gaps that
obstructed the achievements of intended results.
Consultations and involvement with key
stakeholders, including Ministries, Departments,Agencies (MDAs), Metropolitans, Municipaland District Assemblies (MMDAs), and therecipients of all policies pertaining to genderequality and women's empowerment, were used
to identify the difficulties. As the regional genderofficer for Upper East Region of Ghana, I haveobserved and highlighted a number of obstacles
to attaining gender equality and women'sempowerment, including:Introduction
Ghana is among the countries that have
ratified a number of agreements on Gender
Equality (GE) and Women's Empowerment(WE), making it legally required for the nation toimplement the treaties domestically. Gender
Equality and the Empowerment of women haveadvanced in Ghana. However, there arechallenges that exist. This paper is focused onoutlining some of the difficulties currentlyexperiencing in my line of work as genderadvocate.
National Context
Governments' efforts and initiatives topromote equality between women and men canbe seen in the successful adoption of laws, thedevelopment of policies and strategies, andcommitments to international agreements that
support the development of women, men, boys,and girls from a variety of challenges aimed atachieving equitable benefits. The struggle forgender equality and women's empowerment
faces a number of obstacles which are diverse.
The 1992 Ghanaian constitution contains

Socio-cultural, traditional beliefs andsocialization- Due to the patriarchal nature of the4Asian Breeze No.94
majority of Ghanaian societies, institutions andstructures that institutionalize male dominanceand female subordination, as well associocultural and discriminatory practices,prevent women, particularly the marginalized
and the most vulnerable, from having access toequal opportunities and other support systems.
The girl child is over-exposed to maltreatment,
including child and forced marriages, sexual
violence, teenage pregnancies, and denial of
education due to systemic gender and societal
prejudices in cultural practices.
Negative
gender relations, the value placed on gender roles
and obligations, and ongoing discrimination
against women and girls all have a negative
impact on society.

Online Newsletter
land. This is as a result of their lack of collateral,
inability to obtain formal credit from financial
institutions, and reliance on expensive informal
credit options. Even if they are able to access theformal ones, the amount is so minimal that it
cannot meet their demands for farming. In spiteof the fact that extension services are skewed
toward men due to the dearth of female extension
officers and other socio-cultural factors, womenrequire the credit to employ labor and receive
knowledge on new technologies.
Women’s limited access to wage
employment and decent livelihood- Women's
access to wage employment and decent labor is
crucial for achieving gender equality andwomen's empowerment. Due to theirpredominance in the informal sector, householdlabour, and traditional farming operations,
women's employment is still in "poor pay jobs.".
The major issue here is the requirement todevelop Ghana's macroeconomic policies andmethods that support rapid economic growth inconjunction with, among other things, initiatives
for affirmative action and increased education.

Limited Access to Land and other
Productive resources by Women for
Agricultural purpose- Ghana's system of land
tenure is predominately governed by customarylaw. According to customary law, the family head,
who is often a man, is responsible for managing
property as a family asset. Women havecomparatively limited access to land andagricultural inputs as a result. This partiallyarises from inheritance laws that are mostly
based on patrilineal laws that emerged inpatriarchal societies.
Despite this, women in matrilineal tribes doinherit land from their male or female ancestors
to some extent. In general, if they have access toit, women need loans or financing to prepare theWeak informal mechanisms for women'sempowerment and gender equality posedifficulties for government measures. Urbanization has caused a breakdown in social
protection at the local and informal levels via theextended
familystructure.
Livelihood
Empowerment Against Poverty (LEAP), among
other social protection initiatives launched bysucceeding governments, aim to reduce andeventually eradicate poverty while preserving
the rights of the weak and the marginalized.
However, many initiatives have struggled withtargeting.

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Online Newsletter
empowerment. There are 1080 club members(720 males and 360 females). Myself and theclub members are spreading the message of
gender equality, women's empowerment, and theavoidance of gender-based violence among theLimited attention to issues and aspirationsof Women with Disability (WWD)- The issues
of women with disabilities have not been fullyand explicitly addressed by the current programs
for women. The design, implementation, andmonitoring of women's activities through thelens of Women with disability are impacted by
the lack of knowledge and comprehension of thestatus of women with disability.
Low male involvement/inclusion inreproductive health and gender issues- Male
engagement in problems relating to reproductive
health has not received the attention it merits ordeserves, hence my focus on male inclusion.
However, evidence shows that men who areknowledgeable about their sexual andreproductive health are more likely to choose
healthier lifestyles for themselves, their partners,
and their families.

community leadership and various identifiablegroups, including churches, mosques, youth
groups, men/women groups, and others. Radioengagement is also another strategy to reach out
to the masses.
The attitudes and opinions in the communities
towards women's and girls' empowerment areslowly changing. I really believe that the issues
and difficulties might be resolved incollaboration with the men and boys in the local
communities and the nation at large.

Action taken- In the Upper East Region ofGhana, I have established Men and Boys'
Clubs/Parent Advocacy Movement (PAM) in 36
communities across 6 districts to advocate
against harmful cultural practices like Female
Genital Mutilation/Cutting, Child Marriage,
Sexual and Gender-based Violence, and topromote gender equality and women's and girls'

Thank you for reading. Any comments and suggestions are welcome.
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info@kfaw.or.jp
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