Report of the Follow up Meeting, Ghana
REPORT OF THE MEETING OF WOMEN ORGANISING FOR CHANGE IN AGRICULTURE AND
NATURAL RESOURCES MANAGEMENT (WOCAN)
DATE : THURSDAY, 4TH DECEMBER, 2008
VENUE : ELLKING HOTEL, EAST LEGON, ACCRA
TIME : 11.00 A.M
1.0 Introduction
The maiden meeting of the Women Organizing for Change in Agriculture and Natural Resources Management (WOCAN) came off on Thursday, 4th December, 2008 at the Ellking Hotel, East Legon, Accra. The purpose of this meeting was to introduce WOCAN to professionals and practitioners in Agriculture and Natural Resources Management and also those interested in gender issues and the mainstreaming of these issues in the overall development agenda, and to share with them results of the AWID Forum in South Africa.
2.0 Attendance
Participation in this maiden meeting attracted sixteen (16) men and women from academia particularly the Departments of Geography, Home Science, and Nutrition and Food Science and the Regional Institute for Population Studies (RIPS), all at the University of Ghana, Legon. Other participants were from the Forestry Commission, the Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration (GIMPA) and the Gender Development Institute. (See Appendix 1 for the list of Participants)
3.0 Opening
The meeting started at 11.15 a.m. with a prayer by Dr. Charlotte Wrigley-Asante after which, Prof. Elizabeth Ardayfio-Schandorf, the Steering Committee Representative of the Western/Central Africa Office of WOCAN and the Convenor of the meeting welcomed participants. Dr. Wrigley-Asante then introduced the Chairman. In his opening remarks, Prof. Samuel Agyei-Mensah, the Head of the Department of Geography and Resource Development accepted to chair the session and hoped the session would be a fruitful one. He invited participants to introduce themselves. From the introduction, it was realized that many of the participants present had served as consultants on gender issues and to institutions and organizations such as the United Nations; run courses at the graduate level on gender and development and had done research on issues affecting women in agriculture and natural resources.
4.0. Presentations
Prof. Ardayfio-Schandorf made two presentations. The first was on WOCAN and what it is and stands for, its vision and mission, goals, membership of the organization, the programmes and activities and the scope of operation which is at the local, national, regional and international levels. Though a women-led global network, Prof. Ardayfio-Schandorf intimated that WOCAN is one network for both professional women and men who are engaged in agriculture and natural resource management and are committed to environmentally sustainable development and organizational change for gender equality. WOCAN has 489 members in 79 countries worldwide. She made mention of WOCAN's programme on gender and organizational change which began in 2007 and places emphasis on change from within. She added that the gender and organizational change programme seeks to build the capacity of identified change agents who can bring about change in gender perspectives in their organizations. Over the past year, two international workshops were organized in June 2007 and March 2008 in Ghana and Cameroun respectively which saw the participation of other African countries like Zambia and Mozambique (see appendix 2 for full presentation). At the end of this presentation, participants were asked to deliberate on the following: ‘What should be the beneficial relationship between women professionals and women practitioners in Agriculture and Natural Resource Management'.
The second presentation was on the 11th International Forum of the Association of Women's Rights and Development (AWID) which took place in Cape Town, South Africa from 14-17, November, 2008. There were 1900 delegates from over 144 countries globally. According to Prof. Ardayfio-Schandorf, AWID started as an organization in 1983 for American Professional Women who were engaged in the development work in the United States under the banner of Women in Development and who were interested in better understanding women's issues. The Association has now transformed from a women's organization to a women's rights' organization. From the foundational membership of 25, the association now has a membership spanning the globe and meet every 3 years. This year's meeting attracted more than 40 percent of participation from Sub-Saharan Africa and a fifth of all delegates were young women under 30 years.
Under the theme, "The Power of Movements", the Forum aimed at advancing movements to strengthen gender equality and promote women's rights for peace. The presentation also focused on the issues discussed and raised such as power of movements and climate change and general impressions about the contents and organizational aspects of the forum. She also shared what she learnt from the various debates and interactive and plenary sessions she participated in. (Appendix 3 for full presentation). She attended sessions on Movement building, Networking, Climate Change and Gender Equality, Climate Change in Africa and the Belief in the Power of Movements. Giving instances of the power of movement, Prof Ardayfio-Schandorf said the formation of a South African Women's Political Party was announced during the forum. The establishment of the Youth Development Fund also emerged at the meeting.
However, according to Prof. Ardayfio-Schandorf, the forum did not give much attention to agriculture and environment, economic rights, impacts of the neo-liberal model and the role of mainstream media in shaping the world and controlling public perception. Lessons learnt point to the fact that every woman counts and the sharing of knowledge is the way forward through the use of the community radio, for example. She emphasized that movement building was a race in which one should give attention to continuity and empowerment. Older women could work with the young ones and learn from each other. This, the presenter, said was manifest in the presence of 20 percent of the young women at the forum, many of whom were sponsored. In conclusion, the organization of the forum was described as being an impressive, superb and worthy of emulation.
5.0 Discussion and Interaction: After the presentations, the Chairman, Prof. Agyei-Mensah thanked the presenter and opened the floor with comments on the presentation. He reiterated the importance of Climate Change in the African context linking it to food insecurity and spousal problems and expressed interest in one of the debates - ‘Women's Empowerment: What do Men have to do with it?' He was also of the opinion that for the change that women seek to be effective, the change should be a positive, systematic and fundamental one dealing with the systems from the very root. The chair intimated that such a change involves a gradual process. He then invited participants who had any comments, contributions and questions. Participants generally found the presentations very informative and interesting and thanked the presenter for articulating well the proceedings of the sessions attended. Of particular interest to participants were sessions on Climate and Environment, ‘Women in decision making have not made a difference, and Women's Empowerment: what do men have to do with it?' Others also asked questions which Prof. Ardayfio-Schandorf responded to.
One participant wanted to know whether there were any examples of the positive effects of Climate Change. This attracted responses from Prof Ardayfio-Schandorf who gave some historical background to some of the geographic observations in countries with dry climates and temperate areas like Morocco which point to changes in climate from wet to dry which has resulted in loss of lives (both human and animal) and changes in the environment. A participant also drew attention to the fact that there could be positive aspects of climate change. However, she was of the view that before advocacy could be done, some research might have been done and the negative effects might outweigh the positive ones, which then makes the emphasis on finding solutions to the negatives the most prudent thing to do.
Commenting on the point made by the Presenter that ‘every woman counts', a participant shared her experience with an association of commercial sex workers whose existence she did not know. The association, she intimated, had a queen mother and a linguist and involved quite a number of high class and respectable people. She described the touching experience where even before the meeting; a prayer was said for God's mercy on the group acknowledging that their means of livelihood is something into which they have been forced.
On ‘what a beneficial relationship between women professionals and women practitioners in Agriculture and Natural Resource Management should be like', participants agreed that there was a gap between professional and practitioners exemplifying it in the failure of researchers to go back to the various communities that they carried out research in, to share the findings or observations with the community members. This was identified as one of the helpful ways in which community members could hold their leaders accountable. Pushing the point further, a participant mentioned that this gap accounts for the failure to hold leaders who promise to push women's agenda, responsible so that promises such as ensuring 40% representation of women are not fulfilled.
There was a suggestion for the inclusion of women in agricultural development of the Ministry of Food and Agriculture to bridge the gap between professionals and practitioners. This was agreed to as a laudable idea, however, a participant who had consulted for the Ministry indicated that there were challenges of capacity building, intergenerational gap and the low number of women trainers that had to be addressed to make it effective. She added that the country has a National Gender and Children's Policy with a 3 year strategic implementation plan, but no mention is made of it anywhere. She emphasized that attention should be given to the document and where it is lacking, a review done.
Another participant drew attention to the importance of the link between women as food processors and the environment and noted that many a time, professionals interested in agriculture stop short of including issues of women and how their activities of processing bring about environmental change. She explained that activities such as oil and gari processing generate waste that when not properly disposed of can change the vegetation, the soil and the environment of the area. However, there is not much knowledge to this effect and appealed to all concerned to go beyond looking at agriculture as putting a seed in the soil and extend it to the processing, too.
Other concerns raised had to do with the lack of emphasis on agriculture at the AWID forum and how in partnering with the Forestry Commission, the issue of women in agriculture could be taken on board by the Ghana Chapter since many women make their livelihood from that sector. To this, Prof. Ardayfio-Schandorf explained that in Cameroun, WOCAN works with rural women in agriculture. As a young organization, WOCAN has to start on pilots in Africa with possibility of replication when successful.
6.0 Membership: At this point, participants interested in becoming members of WOCAN were informed of the procedures involved in getting registered and encouraged to visit the association's website, www.wocan.org. Five participants present were already members of WOCAN and 10 participants also expressed their interest in becoming members of the network. A participant shared her observation about membership of the network at the international level and added that though members at that level, there is a disconnection at the national level among members. She therefore suggested that the members in Ghana should get to know each other and be in contact. This was unanimously agreed to by participants and the convenor. She explained that one's membership of WOCAN opens up avenues for membership of other associations. Concerns about dues to be paid were expressed and it was explained that WOCAN membership was free for those in developing countries.
7.0 Any Other Business
The Chairman at this point wanted to know how men are accommodated in all the discussions. It was explained that men are part of the processes and rather women are the ones who have been kept out and need to be brought in. A participant commended the convenor for the generations of women and men present at the meeting.
In the absence of any other issue and discussion, Prof. Ardayfio-Schandorf thanked participants for their presence and insights shared. She hoped that members would still find time to attend subsequent meetings to discuss ideas, to promote working between the professional women inter generationally, to assist women in the rural areas who are into agriculture and natural resource management and finally to forge action and promote women's development.
To appreciate the presence and punctuality of the participants, WOCAN bags were given out to the first three participants, who arrived at the meeting for their punctuality.
Closing
The meeting came to an end at 1.25 p.m. with a prayer by Dr. Joana Opare.
