through major reform, and the Africa Center for Women, I suppose that you can now know better our priorities and we now what you are expecting from us. It was very interesting this morning to hear your questions and your critiques. It will be helpful for us to better orient our priorities.
I will conclude by saying that the collaboration with the World Bank for this meeting has been very nice. I think that it has been nice because of the sympathetic character of Gita [Gopal], Shu−Shu Tekle−Haimanot, and Sena Gabianu. They were the three people who have worked closely with the Women's Center. I'd like to finish by thanking all of you, but in particular the heads of the delegations. I have been very impressed by their simplicity and the way through which they involved themselves in the discussions. It has been very, very rich and useful. I would like to thank all of you and hoping that it is a start of a process of collaboration and partnership with you.
away from her by her husband's relatives or his community, or a woman entrepreneur seeks credit to begin or expand her productive work and is denied because she is a woman, or if she is beaten at home and is told—by the police—to try not to upset her husband, how much faith can she have in equality before the law?
The political will of policymakers at the highest levels is required to make progress in all these areas and to ensure that the laws are revised or enacted, that there is a deliberate effort to build a social consensus for the laws, and that the application and implementation are done with vigor and impartiality. While legal systems are under the authority of the state, civil society has a critical role to play in asserting rights and influencing policy. Thus it is the countries themselves that must articulate the issues and problems and define the strategies and solutions to reach the goal of gender−equitable and sensitive human development.
Inaugural Address (H. E. Dr. Kebede Tadesse)
The sub−region, particularly the Horn of Africa, is trying very hard to establish peace and a participatory political system so as to concentrate more on development activities, which are crying out for attention. A well−thought out political outlook and socioeconomic strategy implemented in a sustainable way will be very crucial if the subregion is to come out of the miserable economic condition it is in. In this respect, a socioeconomic
development endeavor that does not involve the whole gamut of available resources, particularly human, cannot be successful.
Thus, it would be hard to imagine that a truly democratic political setup and a sustainable socioeconomic system can be established without the full participation of half the population, that is, women's participation. It would also be a shaky strategy and can hardly be called a
well−thought out one if it precludes a vast section of the community. Empowering women is thus not only part of a political agenda but also an economic need. Accepting this reality would, of course, require a change in
perception and a great leap in attitude. We need to perceive that gender issues are our common problems, which require immediate attention and a concerted effort from all of us. Any change in our thinking and in our social attitude toward women must also be considered for the common good of society, and it would play a vital part in our socioeconomic endeavors.
We must accept that women do not require our pity, neither do they expect us to graciously give them what is rightfully theirs. They have been, and are, urgently demanding equity and they ought to be listened to. It is an undeniable fact that societies throughout the world, ancient or new, big or small, developed or underdeveloped, have made it easier—admittedly to a variable degree, for women not to benefit equitably from common resources and to achieve their full potentials but also have, and still are, precluding them from full participation in the political, social, and economic spheres in a meaningful manner. This situation has not only been irrational and a detriment to women as a group but also to the whole human community. Thus, it would be to our benefit as a society to create, as soon as possible, the environment for equitable sharing of our resources and for utilization of our human capacity to its full extent, lest we continue on the well−trodden and exhausting road to disaster.
Opening Remarks (Mr. Sherif Hassan)
While there is no doubt that much greater understanding has developed around the centrality of empowering women to any effective socioeconomic development and the absolute necessity of addressing gender issues in any development framework, we have only relatively recently started addressing issues related to the effectiveness of the legal enabling framework that is necessary to achieve this desirable goal.
We all want an element of continuity in our culture, in our identity. We need to see sociocultural evolution, not rupture. Sociocultural evolution can be accelerated and can be channeled in desirable ways by the interaction of
Inaugural Address (H. E. Dr. Kebede Tadesse) 157
the law and society. No law can be dissociated from the cultural milieu from which it springs, tempered by the innate sense of fairness that all people have. History teaches us that laws which do not have wide public support tend to not be obeyed or enforced. Obtaining that wide support is frequently a matter of mobilizing the
stakeholders
and educating the public. In the case of gender issues, it already involves all of society, and it is a topic about which few are indifferent.
The key is not to remain locked in abstractions but to move in the domain of the practical everyday manifestations of the needed regulatory changes, confronting the issues of land tenure, inheritance, commercial rights, schooling, labor market, and other topics of immediacy and impact. In addressing such issues, we must recognize the
enormous diversity and the wisdom in some of the communal practices and traditional legal frameworks. We must, where possible, build on these cultural foundations, but we must also acknowledge their limitations and their deficiencies, where they are in fact discriminatory against women's rights; because remember, women's rights are human rights. Human rights are indivisible. Only from such a posture can we properly address the needs and the realities. Only thus will the enabling legal frameworks be of the empowering kind; the law seen as those wise constraints that set people free.
Opening Remarks (H. E. Anatole G. Tiendrebeogo).
It should always be recalled that while gender issues focus basically on women, they also and most naturally should focus on men. Viewed in that context, action would need to be targeted in three directions: avoidance of unnecessary conflict−prone competition between men and women or vice versa; identification of the aspects specific to each gender; and development of those aspects that are specific to both genders.
We must be courageous enough to acknowledge that, in several respects, women are and have been at a disadvantage compared with their male counterparts although this is more often than not the outcome of the natural and historical evolution of the two genders. Clearly, such a status and condition must not necessarily be static. This under−privileged status of women is the experience and fate of the over−whelming majority of women in the world and of virtually all the women in Africa. Unfortunately, there is some dissimilarity in the priorities of the women of Africa that requires careful consideration. Consequently, if due care and attention are not taken, the enhancement of the status of women, desired and achievable, might be limited to a minority of women in the world and to a negligible proportion of women in Africa.
No doubt, positive change in the status of women can occur through the agency of the law, as has been verified throughout history in the case of workers. The basic question, which then arises, is one of knowing how the status of the African woman, often maintained by certain
unwritten, but solidly rooted attitudes and mores of society, can be salvaged through a law, which although written, is only accessible to a small minority of educated women whose struggle is not always understood by the huge silent majority of African women in the rural areas.
Exchange of Perspectives on Gender and Law
In an attempt to showcase the views and experiences of other countries and organizations, the morning plenary of the second day of the conference was devoted to the exchange of perspectives on gender and law.
Opening Remarks (H. E. Anatole G. Tiendrebeogo). 158
The Norwegian Experience (Kristin Mile)
There are many differences between the Eastern African countries and Norway, yet there is one thing that most countries in the world have in common. The social systems, traditions, and attitudes seem generally to
discriminate against women to a greater extent, and different treatment of women and men seems to take place in practice as well as in the legislation, or in the enforcement of it, in most countries.
In Norway great changes have taken place during the last hundred years. The changes in the lives of Norwegian women are partly due to changes in attitudes, but more important are the changes in formal positions written down in legal documents. Equal treatment of women and men, and equal rights for both sexes, are essential in a fully democratic society. Gender equality does not mean that men and women must be similar. It means that the dissimilarity between women and men should not lead to inequality in terms of status or treatment in society.
In 1978 Norway established the Gender Equality Act, which had a twofold aim. On the one hand, it was to ensure substantive gender equality in most areas of society. On the other hand, the Act was intended to influence
attitudes toward roles of women and men and to improve the position of women. The Gender Equality Act regulates the rights to equal treatment in the workplace as well as in the other areas of society. Of special importance is the right to equal treatment in employment, equal pay, and education. An important tool for
establishing such legislation is the use of existing international commitments. An active use of the United Nations Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women and an active use of the Beijing Declaration and the Platform for Action can bring the work on gender and law to a more satisfactory level.
The ECA Experience (Josephine Ouedraogo)
The African Center for Women was created in 1975. It is the oldest regional structure charged with promoting the concerns of women. During its first 10 years, it contributed to a better understanding of the situation of African women through several publications. Today, with the new United Nations strategy to improve African women's social development, ECA's main objectives will be the recognition of the African woman's role and place in rural and urban economies, equitable distribution of resources, and women's involvement at all levels of
decisionmaking within the family, the community, and the nation.
Women should be able to participate in the decisionmaking process and the drafting of laws and regulations relating to resource management. The African Center for Women is conducting a study in Burkina Faso, Kenya, Guinea, Senegal, Tanzania, and Uganda on women's access to and control of basic priority resources. This study will define the legal decisionmaking mechanisms that impede women's access to basic priority resources and explore concrete ways and means of eliminating any obstacles.
The African Center for Women has three strategic objectives to improve women's social development:
formulate analytical methods enabling experts in industry, business, agriculture, forestry, health, law, and finance to observe, in a systematic manner, the inequalities, injustices, and damages that women suffer as a result of the policies, programs, and projects that the experts prepare;
promote women's participation in decisionmaking on development;
create forums where women can express their opinions, their concerns, and their desires and where they can be heard and given due consideration.
In the twenty−first century the African Center for Women would like to promote the active participation of both African women and governments in its strategic objectives and help to bring an end to the daily violations of
The Norwegian Experience (Kristin Mile) 159
African women's basic rights.
World Bank Framework for Law, Gender, and Development in Sub−Saharan Africa (Mark Blackden and Doris Martin)
Women have not always realized meaningful benefits from economic development programs that directed increased resources to them; in fact, women have sometimes been left worse off as a result of such programs.
Inadequate attention to institutional constraints, such as gender−
biased laws and customs, is the main reason for this. Discriminatory laws and customs create systemic constraints that must be identified and related to economic objectives before responsive strategies can be formulated. The framework given here is proposed as an aid to discern the pattern of appropriate questions needed to draw out the relationship between gender−biased laws and customs and economic capacity.
The framework provides the basis for applying an integrated analysis through a series of inquiries. It has three institutional dimensions: economics, law, and gender. The gender dimension is the prism through which analysis takes place. There is a reciprocal relationship between the law dimension and the economic dimension, for example, the legal rules on property and their administration and enforcement will affect the access, control, and use of resources in the productive economic sectors. Fundamental change in the resource sectors will influence change in the legal system and vice versa.
Application of the framework involves a two−phase process. Phase one, which is within the economic dimension, examines gender−based disparities in the access, control, and exploitation of resources in the agriculture,
education, health, or business sectors; and it identifies specific laws and customs that are constraints to women's access, control, and exploitation of resources in these sectors. Phase two, which is within the law dimension, examines the historical rationale underlying the laws and customs identified as constraints, the integrity in applying or interpreting the laws and customs, and the extent to which these are enforced; and it identifies key areas of the legal system that should be considered for reform.
Final Thoughts (Fayez Omar)
Over the last couple of days the participants have raised very important issues, put forward very important proposals. The challenge now is to move to implementation. The World Bank would be looking forward to working with the countries, the NGO community, bilaterals, and so forth and to seeing the participants in future conferences, work−shops, and the like, so that they provide an update as to where they are. The hope was that we would hear many success stories coming out of Africa on gender and law.
Note: This appendix focuses on the opening plenary session and the session on different perspectives concerning gender and law. The summary was prepared by Maryam Salim of the Africa Human Development Department of the World Bank.