Gender Equality Futures

Can there be sustainable development in Africa without gender equality?

Hundreds of millions of people suffer from discrimination in the world of today. This not only disrupts a most basic human right, but has serious social and economic consequences. Discrimination suppresses opportunities, and thereby economic progress, and emphasizes social pressures, inequalities and problems.

The situation of women has never been easy, especially in Africa, yet it has witnessed some changes over the last years, though discrimination remains a serious issue in the region.

One of the most urgent matters is the high levels of violence against women. South Africa, for example, has one of the highest incidents of rape in the world. It is estimated that one in three married women faces domestic violence. According to Amnesty International, girls and women are still raped in war-torn countries like Chad, the Central African Republic, Ivory Coast, eastern Democratic Republic of Congo and Sudan. In addition, women situated in these countries are affected by institutional discrimination which reveals significant socioeconomic and cultural barriers.

Read the full feature article.

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Gender Equality II
Post Agenda 2015: Gender approach

by Sana Afouaiz

I was honored to represent women in two international events that emphasized changing history: the “World Conference on Youth” in Sri Lanka and “UNAOC: Unity in Diversity” in Indonesia. I used this opportunity to be the voice of many women around world, and negotiate the right for gender equality to all women.

The outcomes of the post-agenda 2015 are a future promise to girls and women to live a normal life. It is now time to stand up for quality of girls’ secondary and higher levels of education and learning outcomes. “If you educate a woman, you educate a nation” cannot be possible if girls and women are forced to stay at home instead of studying. Ensuring the right of education for women, means giving them much better economic forecasts, more decision-making autonomy, greater control over their own productivity, healthier children, and a better chance of educating their own children.

Read the full feature article.

Youth Policy II
Youth Policy in Africa: a promising future for the African development?

by Sana Afouaiz

Young people are perceived to be an important strength of Africa, as well as globally. This urges a necessity for practical policies and related programs that engage youth successfully in all aspects of growth of their countries.

Today, Africa needs more than ever to address the necessity of implementing youth policies to support the development and inclusion of the young generation. One of the biggest challenges facing governments in Africa is providing employment opportunities for more than 200 million young people so that they can have decent lives and contribute to the social and economic development of their countries.

The establishment of youth policies in Africa is quite difficult because of limited data which delays the measurement of the well-being of the African youth. Although the available data says that the youth population is largely growing, African youth has educational attainment but at the same time high unemployment rates.

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Futurist profile of the month

Sana Afouaiz is a student, women advocate activist, trainer in the field of climate change and women’s rights, journalist and blogger. She is the Regional Coordinator of the Moroccan Youth Climate Movement, Correspondent for the Voice of Women Initiative, Member and Journalist at World Pulse. Sana answered a few questions about her perspective and on being a futures thinker.

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Interested in being profiled as a futures thinker on FFD? Submit your profile here.

Gender Equality Bibliozone

Featured in Bibliozone this month is a collection of publications related to the future of gender equality. The selection of documents is partial and based on accessible material. Therefore, we would like to invite everyone to supplement our library with additional materials.

Publications from our FFD library:

Various other publications are available in our FFD library on gender equality.

The Future of Gender Inequality
by Ruth Aine

“Empowering women and girls is not only the right thing to do: It’s also smart economics and vital to ending poverty and boosting shared prosperity. For example, an extra year of secondary schooling for girls can increase their future wages by 10% to 20%. And evidence shows that resources in the hands of women boost household spending in areas that benefit children. But despite a range of significant advances, too many women still lack basic freedoms and opportunities and face huge inequalities in the world of work.” - World Bank

The world system recognizes that there is gender disparity. That is why the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) paid critical attention to this. To be able to understand gender inequality, we need to know and understand why such a term even exists. Is it a question of socialization, tradition or biology? I would say that tradition (especially in African culture) and socialization could be the causes.

Read Ruth's full blog.

Gender Equality: Forward or Backward?

by Aya Chebbi

Since the early 20th century, Tunisian women played a key role in securing the independence of their country. August 13, 1956, marked the promulgation of the Code of Personal Status (CPS) that included progressive laws aiming at the institution of gender equality.

The Code is known for abolishing polygamy, creating a judicial procedure for divorce, the regulation of family law, marriage, social security, and abortion, among other issues. At the time, it also gave women a status that allows them to create their own businesses, have a bank account and the ability to have their own passports.

The Tunisian woman then, has been portrayed and perceived in the region as independent and emancipated. This image has been well used by both former presidents, constituting a main argument for the country's favorable image in the West, because the suppression of free expression and political opposition tarnished the country's reputation abroad. Under Bourguiba's administration, Tunisia profited from a solid reputation as a civil and secular republic in a region more often comprised of military dictatorships and religiously dependent monarchies.

Read Aya's full blog.

What would an equal tomorrow look like?

by Chioma Agwuegbo

Everything I wanted to do as a child, my parents encouraged and pushed me to achieve - every single thing, without question. From tumbling about with the boys, to drawing, to entertaining talks about my ambitions that ranged from being a surgeon, to being a builder (I’ve always been fascinated with the way mortar takes shape), to being a truck driver. Anything I wanted to be, I was told I could be.

As I grew older, my ambitions changed dramatically, but it was not until university that I fully grasped that there might be things I wouldn’t be able to do because I was female. Obviously, growing up I was aware of cultural divisions of roles, where women tend to the home and the men provide, where women are forbidden to eat certain parts of animals (example, gizzard in chicken) because it was reserved for men - those kinds of things.

Read Chioma's full blog.

Gender Equality Futures

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