Concord Times (Freetown)
Tanu Jalloh
11 May 2004
opinion
Freetown — Gender parity suffered tremendously as a result of the stereotype male dominated policies and programs, which range from political activism to sustainable economic development even at local/rural level. But the advent of democracy has undoubtedly created the dais for a balanced gender based interaction compatible for development.
This has created a positive and healthy competition that has proven the efficacy of women when it comes to community development. Even more encouraging is the giant strides women took and are still taking in the political scenes. Human Development analysts might have recognized the fact that the successful implementation of development policies greatly depends on the active involvement of women in both political and economic decision making.
However, the prospect for success is visible when government and other stakeholders resolve to increase the proportion of women as decision makers, planners, managers and to some extent as technical advisers in the design, development and implementation of policies and programs for sustainable development. 51% of our country's current populations of about 4.6 million are women. In the rural settings, women still dominate food crop production though subsistence farming owing to the type of farming ventures.
Sierra Leone in spite of the abundant natural resource reserve is yet to do away with the ignominy of the UNDP's Global Human Development Index report. It is constantly being rated as the poorest and least developed country in the world. This ugly occurrence might show its features once more if urgent measures to strengthen and empower women's bureaus and women's groups especially at rural level, in enhancing capacity building for sustainable development are not fixed up.
The Ministry of Education Science and Technology recently focused on the primary education of the Girl Child. Such timely measures might go a long way in eliminating the high rate of female illiteracy in the country and thus enhance the gradual expansion and enrolment of women in higher educational institutions.
Also this might be a ready-made effort to promote the goal of universal access to primary education of the girl child and in the process concurrently increase Technical/Vocational education and Training opportunities for women/girls particularly to certificate and diploma level.
Women are mostly deprived of their basic rights, which is tantamount to vehement discrimination of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. For instance, in a typical African setting, Sierra Leone included, some traditions had decreed it and other cultural/customary adherence had clogged the active participation of women in sustainable community development, local politics and the laws binding married couples. This has crassly eaten up the dignity of women and rendered them mere properties to husbands who mistakenly took the bride price and dowries to mean otherwise. It is against this background that authorities concerned should design programs that would promote the reduction of the heavy domestic workload on women. Equally so, government, local authorities and relevant organizations should promote the provision of environmentally sound knowledge being designed, developed and improved in consultations with women.
The public health sector should be capacitated to be able to create programs that will encourage safe preventive and curative health measures, which include women centered, women managed, safe and effective reproductive health care and reasonably priced, reachable, and even responsible family planning of family size, which is apposite in the maintenance of virtual autonomy, self-esteem and personally held values. Also, it should provide comprehensive health care, including pre-natal care, education and information on health and responsible parenthood, and if possible, the opportunity for all women to breastfeed at least the first six months post-natal.
It should support and guide women's productive and reproductive roles and well being and most importantly the need to provide equal and improved health care for all children to reduce the rate and risk of child mortality and sicknesses.
The just concluded war brought with it indescribable portions of infant mortality, teenage pregnancies and sex related diseases like Gonorrhoea etc. Majority died in labor either there were zero medical facility (pre-natal) or complication caused by unsafe attempted abortions and the unprofessional dispensation of preventive pills which has left majority women barren.
This problem is yet to be tackled, as cases of similar nature are still rife outside the labor rooms.
Women should be given the opportunity to employment on merit, and evenhanded recompense both in the formal and informal sectors with sufficient economic, political and social support systems particularly equal access to credit, land and other natural resources. Also focus and emphases should be laid on rural training of women through research and resource centers. These will serve, as contact bases for development-oriented information, thereby improving on the technological know-how of these deprived sets of women.
The already perceived decentralization process in the country might loose its essence if women are marginalized in the pending local government bureaucratic setup. Low-income women should be empowered and engaged to participate in decision making. In a nutshell women should form the fulcrum in promoting operational programs on sustainable development.
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