Focusing on our women and children
The story is told of a little town, where not much happened and local people barely got by from month-to-month. Fortunately, for the local community, a transnational company was given the right to catch fish in the area, thus bringing economic development to the region. The community was delighted there would be work opportunities in an area of great unemployment and that household income would be raised, which ultimately means wealth and social progress for all.
Three years later, the reality was different. The fishing company controlled the waters surrounding the little town, which was no longer a community but had been reduced to trudging factory workers. Women, who had traditionally collected food from the beaches, now had to walk much, much further for food for their family.
Household income had indeed risen – but that had not meant a raised standard living for all. Instead, the men spent most of their money on alcohol and cigarettes at the newly provided company canteen.
This story illustrates how many development initiatives proceed as if women are invisible, assuming that what is good for men must be good for women. Yet, this story illustrates two important problems with this assumption.
The first problem appears when a modern and technical development programme is imposed upon a culture with a different set of priorities. All kinds of assumptions about the roles of men and women and their contribution to the livelihood of the community are made by outside companies.
When the male leadership of the company talked to the male leadership of the community about how the project would proceed, it never occurred to either group that the fishing activities would hamper the lives of local women. When the women complained, they were criticised for objecting to progress and jobs for the men (and the larger community).
Here, we reach the second problem illustrated by our story, which is the imbalance of power. In almost all cultures, relationships between women and men are imbalanced: a rise in income does not necessarily benefit the women.
Many economists would argue that a household earning N$10 is better off than one earning N$5. But if the husband keeps N$ 8 to himself and only gives N$2 to his wife and children, they will be in a worse position than if the N$10 would have been shared equally.
Development that addresses distribution of wealth but does not address the balance of power between women and men will always fail to address the real-life situation of women. A nation’s gross domestic product may rise, a society may generate wealth and a community may see a rise in income, yet women may experience little actual change to their lives.
In the name of development, we must ensure women emerge as leaders and agents. We must focus on the concerns of women that are ignored by men, such as domestic violence, the education of girls, working conditions for women, crèche facilities, rape, maternal and child health programmes, and female literacy. This is also true for Namibian society where women and girls still experience high levels of gender-based violence, teenage pregnancy and restrictive socio-cultural norms that limit the full exercise of human and womens’ right (UNFPA).
This alternative vision for development was well expressed by representative from civil society at the Millennium Forum in 2000 sponsored by the United Nations (UN). Their declaration calls on government
“to develop genderbased methodologies to address the feminisation of poverty and to recognise the leading role of women in eradication poverty”.
In a key section on human rights, the report examined “promoting and protecting the rights of women and girls”. The UN, governments and civil society are asked “to recognise and assure equal opportunity an full participation of women in all aspects of society, including leadership, the economy and decisionmaking.” The UN and most world leaders have also recognised that not just development, but development which by design includes the promotion of women’s rights. This is also true in Namibia where genderbased violence remains a deeply concerning reality. However, if we apply an alternative model for development, such as the one suggested above (an inclusive, women-centric approach to development), here in Namibia, there is no reason why we cannot turn things around – after all, we, Namibians, have overcome far larger demons as a nation.