Inter Press Service - October 11, 2003
Miriam Kagan

The Hunger Project, a global strategic organisation that is committed to ending hunger worldwide, sponsors the 50,000-dollar award.

The annual prize recognises activists' bold leadership to legally guarantee women's full human rights on the African continent. This year's award winners have campaigned for years to promote women's rights in their respective countries and throughout Africa.

Ashenafi, a lawyer by training, established Ethiopia's leading women's legal aid, education and policy forum organisation -- the Ethiopian Women Lawyer's Association (EWLA).

In 2001, EWLA's activities were temporarily suspended by the Ethiopian government in retaliation for the group speaking out against the Justice Ministry's failure to prosecute domestic violence offenders.

Ashenafi's work has been crucial in a country where in 2002 only 36 percent of women were literate and only 28 percent attended primary school, where there are over 2 million people infected with HIV/AIDS, and where tribal tradition still prevails.

In an IPS interview, Ashenafi noted that some progress has been made. She noted that while in law school she was the only female in her class, while now law school classes are over 20 percent women.

"Still when you look at education statistics, the gender gap is still large," she said. "The progress is still sluggish. And there are new challenges, like HIV/AIDS and globalisation."

"Definitely, the issue of HIV is a serious challenge when 52 percent of people living with HIV in Ethiopia are women," she added, explaining that lack of information and decision-making power regarding condom use are hastening the spread of the virus.

"Although our government adopted laws, accepted different international conventions, they don't really go far in terms of accepting and acting," Ashenafi said.

"Donors like the United States should negotiate the condition of women under grant or loan terms," she added, expressing hope that pressure from foreign aid donors could help "inspire" the Ethiopian government to enforce women's rights laws and treaties.

Sara Longwe has long been a grassroots organiser, winning several landmark battles in Zambia, one of the poorest countries in the world. For over six years, Longwe headed FEMNET, the African Women's Development and Communication Network.

Longwe told IPS she fights for women's rights because "nobody takes notice of what they (women) think because they are not part of the decision-making processes at any levels -- and if they are, they are in a minority and their views are ignored".

In Africa, said Longwe, as elsewhere in the world, "the most victimised person is a woman. She is poor, unhealthy, she has a lot of children she does not want, a lot of diseases she could not prevent even if she knew how".

Like Ashenafi, Longwe said HIV/AIDS is hindering women's progress in Africa..

"AIDS has made the situation even more complex because women are biologically more susceptible and the fact that they are not decision-makers, they are treated as property and sexual objects. Sexual objects cannot decide sexuality," she said.

Longwe strongly criticised the Zambian government for its handling of the HIV/AIDS crisis (over a fifth of Zambia's adult population is living with HIV/AIDS).

While the Zambian government receives money from a global fund to help governments in need deal with the AIDS epidemic, according to Longwe, "there is so much corruption, democracy is a laugh and there is no accountability, and the funds are not getting to the most vulnerable and most in need -- women".

Criticising globalisation for aggravating a North-South knowledge and wealth disparity, Longwe expressed hope that foreign donors can pressure the Zambian government, 60 percent of whose budget comes from aid donations and loans, to disperse the funds more fairly.

"The silver lining of globalisation is we can make our governments accountable through global sisterhood, brotherhood," she said.

Both women criticised U.S. President George W. Bush's 2001 gag order that prohibited USAID and the State Department from awarding funds to any groups that educate women about abortion as a reproductive planning option. Both women consider reproductive health and choice to be essential women's rights.

Ashenafi said the gag order is a "serious problem, because for example the (Ethiopian) government has no budget for contraceptive services so all support comes from donor countries. A few months ago because of funding cuts, there was a contraceptive crisis".

"My world does not treat women in the same way it treats men," said Longwe.

The activist added that while "education is the answer, the question is what type of education? Because the kind of education we (women and Africans) are getting right now is the education of subordination, not education for empowerment".

*****

+Hunger Project African Prize (http://www.thp.org/prize/03/index.html)

+FEMNET (http://www.femnet.or.ke/)

(END/IPS/AF/HD/SD/MK/KS/03)

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