1 - 7 March 2001
Issue No.523
|
Al-Ahram Weekly On-line 1 - 7 March 2001 Issue No.523 |
||
| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 | Current issue | Previous issue | Site map | ||
Critical tools, wise investments
The mission of the National Council for Women (NCW) is to give prominence to women's issues and rights. Accordingly, the NCW has drawn up a five-year plan (2002-2007) for women's advancement, which emphasises the conviction that women must be part and parcel of the country's social, economic, and cultural development. Women cannot play a role, however, as long as their status continues to lag behind that of men. They must be trained before they can engage in productive work. Without education, the NCW states, there can be no genuine progress. Enhancement of women's educational opportunities is therefore a national priority.
The NCW is giving priority to the enhancement of women's role in public and political life. According to the five-year plan, women's involvement in politics should not be confined to voting in general elections, or even running for a seat in parliament; it should entail full and active participation in the national development process. No social progress can be achieved if women are excluded from public life. The NCW is calling for effective policies that guarantee equality between men and women, in accordance with provisions of the Egyptian Constitution, and that will eliminate all forms of discrimination against women. Only in this way can the principle of equality be transformed from mere theoretical provisions into actual reality.
Reinforcing women's political participation, according to the plan, entails promoting their participation in governmental and non-governmental organisations such as civil society organisations, trade unions, labour unions and sporting clubs. The NCW plans to conduct studies on possible amendments to existing legislation that will ensure greater parliamentary participation for women.
Another goal is to ensure the presence of an organisational and legal framework that supports women on the political, economic, and cultural levels. The plan also calls for cooperation between governmental and non-governmental organisations in the elaboration of all development plans. These organisations, furthermore, must realise that they are addressing several categories of women, with different intellectual, economic, and social backgrounds, as well as different aspirations.
The second section of the five-year plan is concerned with developing equal chances for women in mass media. Women in the media, it asserts, generally work in male-dominated environments. Despite the large number of women journalists and the long history of women's involvement in the press, women in editorial and managerial positions are rare except in women's magazines. They may have better chances in TV and radio, where some have reached exceptionally high positions. The plan reveals that the NCW intends to organise training courses for women in the use of information technology. The Council is also working on the implementation of media strategies to promote balanced, non-stereotypical images of women. The NCW, furthermore, will establish a Media Watch body to evaluate what is published and broadcast in the Egyptian media about Egyptian women. Moreover, the Council is setting up a women's documentation centre where the latest research, statistics and documents about women in various fields of life will be archived. The NCW also plans to work with media experts to raise awareness about women's rights and responsibilities. Linking between practitioners and academics in the field of communications, it is argued, will allow for the exchange of expertise and professional information.
According to the Council, the media may serve as a powerful tool across the social spectrum, since it can also help educate rural women and raise their educational standards, thus benefiting society as a whole. By giving special attention to women's issues in drama and entertainment programmes, it is believed, it will be possible to convey an indirect message encouraging women's development. This, in turn, will develop all society. Finally, the plan urges the media to refrain from presenting women as commodities.
While such measures may work on a subliminal level, in the long term, the NCW's plan also addresses the urgent matter of violence against women. It intends to work on establishing a special department for women within every police station, where women can report abuse without shame. The Council is also designing workshops designed to increase women's legal awareness, in order to combat different types of violence against women. Other programmes are being set up to eliminate legal illiteracy among Egyptian women, especially in rural areas. One of the NCW's main goals is to eradicate all the obstacles that prevent women from exercising their legal rights. As an influential body with a say in policy formulation, the Council is concerned with matters ranging from women's political rights to work, education, social security, nationality, health care, marriage and family. In working to improve women's status in all these fields, the NCW will coordinate its activities with those of the judiciary.
Every day, women die as a result of direct complications in pregnancy and childbirth. The NCW is planning to set up programmes in cooperation with the Ministry of Health to decrease the rate of death among mothers. Other programmes will increase awareness of the danger of female genital mutilation (FGM). Further goals include: improving health services for women, especially mothers-to-be; providing fresh water for people living in villages in order to eliminate the dangerous diseases caused by canal water; and paying more attention to the health of the girl child. Improvements to the health insurance system are also in the offing.
Increasing the scope of literacy programmes, providing school uniforms for those who cannot afford them (especially girls in rural and slum areas, who are most affected by illiteracy resulting from poverty): these points are also on the five-year plan. In coordination with the Ministry of Education, children will be taught how to use computers; but the NCW also recognises the need to increase the number of one-class schools.
The plan states that women's empowerment and community empowerment should go hand in hand. It emphasises the importance of overcoming poverty in general, and women's poverty in particular; this cannot be achieved in the absence of mechanisms to manage limited resources and thus ensure their sustainability. Nor do women constitute the NCW's exclusive focus; according to the plan a new strategy against poverty is necessary, entailing more resources, sharper focus and greater commitment. Anti-poverty plans should be comprehensive, the NCW believes; they demand adequate funding and effective government coordination. The plan notes that good governance is the missing link between anti-poverty efforts and poverty reduction; transparency and accountability are essential in the fight against poverty.
Among the solutions the plan suggests is micro-credit, described as "a critical anti-poverty tool and a wise investment in human capital." When the poorest, especially women, receive credit, they become economic actors with power to improve not only their own lives but, in widening circles of impact, the lives of their families, their communities and their nations. Micro-credit affords women control over the means to make a living. It allows them to lift themselves out of poverty and vulnerability. It is about women achieving economic and political empowerment within their homes, villages, and countries. The NCW plan, thus, aims at reaching the poorest women and empowering them.
© Copyright Al-Ahram Weekly. All rights reserved
 |
|
|||||||||||||||||
| ARCHIVES Letter from the Editor Editorial Board Subscription Advertise! |
WEEKLY ONLINE: www.ahram.org.eg/weekly Updated every Saturday at 11.00 GMT, 2pm local time weeklyweb@ahram.org.eg |
 Al-Ahram Organisation |
Recommend this page