| Additional Information |
On March 23, 2001, EASSI, supported by the Isis Women's International Cross-Cultural Exchange (Isis WICCE), launched a new pressure group to support women's participation in politics and decision-making. The Coalition for Political Accountability to Women (COPAW) is a loose coalition of non-partisan women activists and academicians interested in supporting women's entry and participation into politics both as voters and as elected members.
EASSI Sabbatical Programme 2007
Since the year 2000, EASSI has successfully conducted young women’s leadership programme every year. This programme aims at mentoring the young women and developing their potential as leaders in the women’s movement. In 2004, during the review of the EASSI Strategic Plan it was resolved that EASSI should also develop, initiate and implement a sabbatical programme for older women. This is because in the process of working with the young women and recognizing the benefits of the programme EASSI came to realize that the (seasoned) women leaders that gave of their time and mentored the current crop of young leaders in the region seem to have been forgotten.
The EASSI sabbatical platform will offer a forum for women leaders to take time off for a period of two months and begin to document their personal experiences as women activists, leaders and feminists in Eastern Africa or that of other key women as agents of change in the women’s movement. However, their focus will have to be in line with EASSI’s programme areas. To add to the impetus, the issue of documentation of ‘Herstory” was given prominence during the 7th African Regional Conference on women that was held in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, in October 2004 when it was noted with concern that we were losing our ’story’ and experiences due to lack of documentation. Since two months will not be adequate to finalize, produce and complete a comprehensive piece of work EASSI will offer the following:
- A facility for research for the initial documentation or for a wind up of an already on-going documentation process
- Computer and Internet facilities
- Research facilities on documents available in Ease's resource center. It is envisaged that this work will be published within a period of twelve months to coincide with the annual life cycle of the activity
- Transport to and from the home country, accommodation and health insurance, and a stipend for daily requirements
- It may be possible for participants to enroll in the programme while living in their own homes/country. In such a case EASSI will make the necessary adjustments to the support it will offer.
In this current work plan - January to December 2007, EASSI will begin the implementation process by hosting one-woman leader at its Secretariat in Kampala, Uganda. The programme will run from October to November 2007. The criteria for selection are:
- Aged 50 years and above
- Demonstrated activism in women’s leadership and affiliated to any organized feminist/transformative women’s agency
- Present to EASSI an abstract of what they intend to document prior to arrival
- Must be recommended by a reputable women’s organisation
- Be ready to participate for the full period of 2 months
- Must come from any of EASSI’s areas of mandate namely Burundi, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, Somalia, Tanzania and Uganda
Preference will be given to those women who have not previously had any works published.
For more information, please contact Beverley Nambozo Segiyunva at nambozo@eassi.org.
EASSI Website Launch and Election of New Board
At a very colourful ceremony on 14 July 2007, EASSI launched its website. The incoming Chairperson, Dr. Akinyi who presided over the ceremony was very optimistic about the positiveness this new IT step would take. With the need to communicate at every level in the advancement of women’s causes, this website is an opportunity to have dialogue with women from all over the world. With a clear home page, one can easily click onto the flag of any member country, information about the member organizations, their role, their general profile and their work as part of the women’s movement are all given in detail. There are also important links to other websites.
While the previous website emphasized captions of members, this new one has advanced to highlight current news, important regional and world events, member countries, EASSI contacts and also an invitation to take part in the discussion forum. The discussion forum is an adventurous way of keeping in touch with members, friends and partners. To take part all you have to do is click onto the forum, sign in your name and password and other details and after that, you can log on and participate at your leisure. Topics will be changed on a monthly basis. The first topic of discussion was whether affirmative Action was a plus for women. The current topic of discussion is on donor aid. Is donor aid crippling or empowering? You are all welcome to be a part of this. Make your voices heard!
At the same function the new board of EASSI was elected. They are:
Chairperson - Dr. Akinyi Nzioki (from Kenya)
Vice Chairperson - Ms. Bazgenawork Wolde Medhin (from Ethiopia)
Secretary-Associate - Prof Dr. Grace Bantebya (from Uganda)
Individual members:
Beatrice Nyamoya - Burundi
Elizabeth Kharono - Uganda
Representative from National Women's Oranisations of Uganda (NAWOU)
The country organisational representatives are as follows:-
EASSI - Internship Programme for Young Women, 2007
EASSI’s annual Internship Programme commenced from 1st April 2007. Four young women aged 20 - 30 years were selected from Burundi, Ethiopia, Rwanda and Uganda to join the Internship Programme. Last year, the interns were drawn from Eritrea, Kenya, Somalia and Tanzania. The programme provides opportunities for learning, interacting and travelling. Its objective is to develop and enhance young women’s skills in leadership, lobbying and advocacy, programme management, report writing and analysis, research and documentation, information management, developing resourceful data bases, website maintenance and resource centre management.
The interns are provided with the opportunity to gain hands on experiences in working within a women's organisation. They have the opportunity to bring their own perspectives into the work of EASSI and to shape the internship programme. The programme will also shape their approach to feminism and issues at regional and global level that impact on women. At the end of the internship programme, each intern is expected to produce a research report on an area of their choice but related to the work that EASSI does, based on their experience at EASSI.
Commonwealth Women’s Network (CWN): Poverty Remains the Face of a Woman, “Will the new aid modalities transform commonwealth societies to achieve gender equality?”
On 23rd January 2007, Commonwealth women came together to discuss and debate this crucial question at the World Social Forum in Nairobi, Kenya. The deliberation on the issue of gender in relation to poverty was part of preparations by civil society in the run up to the two key summits of 2007, the Commonwealth Women’s Affairs Ministers Meeting (June, Uganda) and the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (November, Uganda).
Despite many aid initiatives, poverty remains endemic in most commonwealth countries. Poverty is particularly embodied in the roles placed on women as it affects key fundamental human rights such as access to education. The Commonwealth is host to some of the world’s poorest nations as well as four of the world’s richest nations. More than 800 million people in the Commonwealth live on less than $1 a day. Throughout the early 1990s many Commonwealth countries were urged by the World Bank and other donors to develop national poverty reduction strategies in exchange for debt relief. Also in Monterrey in 2002, there was commitment by aid agencies to scale up development aid in order to meet Millennium Development Goals.
In 2005, the Commonwealth Foundation produced “Breaking with Business as Usual” that sought to assess how far countries were achieving the MDGs. Clearly, many Commonwealth countries will not be able to achieve the MDG targets by 2015. To further improve upon aid effectiveness, development partners are now committed to the Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness, which was endorsed in 2005. The Declaration hinges on 5 key principles of Ownership, Alignment, Harmonization, Managing for Results and Mutual Accountability.
These new aid modalities should ideally provide the opportunity for development partners and Commonwealth states to actualize commitments to gender equality. Uganda and Mozambique are examples where this is possible. But this is not the case for most Commonwealth countries.
Courtesy:
Commonwealth Women’s Network (CWN) Secretariat
C/O Eastern African Sub Regional Support Initiative for Women (EASSI)
P.O Box 24965, Kampala, Uganda
E-mail: cwn@eassi.org
Call to participate in EASSI Internship Program for Young Women 2007
The Eastern African Sub-regional Support Initiative for the Advancement of
women (EASSI) was formed in 1996 as a post-Beijing support mechanism for
Eastern Africa covering the countries of Burundi, Eritrea, Ethiopia,
Kenya, Rwanda, Somalia, Tanzania and Uganda.
EASSI is specifically seeking four young women aged 20-30 years from
Burundi, Ethiopia, Rwanda and Uganda to join the 2007 Internship
Programme. The internship Programme is an innovative and exciting
Programme for young women from the Eastern Africa sub-region held every
year from April to December.
The Programme provides opportunities for learning, interacting and
traveling. Its objective is to develop and enhance young women’s skills in
leadership, lobbying and advocacy, programme management, report writing
and analysis, research and documentation, information management,
developing resourceful data bases, website maintenance and resource center
management.
The programme provides opportunity to the interns to gain hands on
experience in working within a women’s organization. They have the
opportunity to bring their own perspectives into the work of EASSI and to
shape the internship programme. The programme will also shape their
approach to feminism and issues at regional and global level that impact
on women.
At the end of the internship programme, each intern is expected to produce
a research report on an area of their choice but related to the work that
EASSI does, based on their experience at EASSI.
Applications for the Internship Programme are invited from young women
within the sub-region who wish to take up such an opportunity. The interns
must be recommended by a national women’s organization within their
countries. The recommending organization should have an interest in
developing the young woman for a career in the organization or elsewhere
in their countries of origin. EASSI will provide comfortable accommodation
and a monthly stipend for interns.
Applicants must posses a first degree in any field and must demonstrate
commitment to gender equity and equality. They must be interested in
working on women’s issues in the East African sub-region and to be ready
to stay away from their home countries for a period of nine months. To
learn more about EASSI please got to the website, url provided above.
All interested should send their application with a contact telephone and
e-mail addresses, and recommendation letter from a women’s organization
not later than 31st January 2007 to:
The Executive Director
Eastern African Sub-regional Support Initiative
for the Advancement of women (EASSI)
P.O Box 24965
Kampala, Uganda
Fax: 256 41 285306
E-mail: eassi@eassi.org
Ten Years of "Strengthening the Women’s Movement in the Eastern Africa Sub Region" - November 2006
EASSI’s mission is to facilitate follow-up of the Dakar and Beijing Platforms for Action (BPFAs) in order to enhance the advancement of women and social justice through Research and Documentation, Advocacy, Capacity Building, Networking and Information Sharing. EASSI specifically tracks government’s implementation of the BPFAs within the eight Eastern African countries of Burundi, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, Somalia, Tanzania and Uganda.
EASSI will celebrate its 10 years Anniversary in Kampala, Uganda in November 2006. The theme for the celebration will be “Strengthening the
Women’s Movement in the Eastern Africa Sub Region”. Other key themes to be discussed at the Forum include “Women and peace situation in the region, Land and food insecurity, Young women’s leaderships roles and Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).” The Forum will be attended by participants from different women’s organizations in the sub region and beyond. Special focus will be made on participation of grassroots women, especially women from the host country. For more information and/or to obtain registration forms, contact eassi@eassi.org
Report of Sub-regional Decade Review Meeting on the Implementation of the Beijing Platform for Action in Eastern Africa, Kigali, Rwanda, 2-4 June 2004
The Intergovernmental Meeting of Experts took place in Kigali, Rwanda from 2-4 June 2004 to review the implementation of the Dakar and Beijing Platforms 10 years after their adoption. The meeting was preceded by a Forum of NGOs and Civil Society organizations which was held at the same venue from 31 May to 1 June 2004. The Meeting received a comprehensive report from the NGO Forum and listened to presentations by UN Agencies including UNIFEM and Habitat. The Meeting endorsed most of the conclusions and proposals emanating from the NGO and Civil Society group and further decided to adopt the document as one of the basis of their assessment of the Beijing process. The meeting subsequently undertook an extensive review of the implementation of the Beijing Platform taking stock of the progress achieved, constraints and challenges, and reflecting on the way forward. In doing so, participants looked at policy issues, legislative achievements, conventions as well as the overall environment surrounding the circumstances under which member countries exerted efforts for the attainment of objectives and targets in the Beijing Platform’s twelve (12) areas of concentration.
Click to download the following documents in WORD format:
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