African Women’s Development & Communication Network (FEMNET)
From TrustAfrica wiki - African Regional Organizations
FEMNET
Off Westlands Road
P.O. Box 54562, 00200, Nairobi, Kenya
Tel: +254-20 3741301/20
Fax: +254)-20 3742927
Email: admin@femnet.or.ke / director@femnet.or.ke
Website: http://www.femnet.or.ke
Ms. Therese Niyondiko, Ag. Executive Director
Description
The African Women's Development and Communication Network (FEMNET) was set up in 1988 to facilitate and share experiences, information and strategies among African women's NGOs through networking, communication, capacity-building and advocacy at the regional and international levels so as to advance African women's development, equality and other human rights. FEMNET also aims to provide a channel through which these NGOs can reach one another and share experiences, information and strategies so as to improve their work.
FEMNET works in three main programs areas: Advocacy, Communications and Capacity Building.
Advocacy: The advocacy program includes projects designed to evolve approaches and methodologies for dealing with barriers to the implementation of the Dakar and Beijing Platforms for Action (PFAs). FEMNET was the focal organization for African women's preparations for participation in the 1995 Beijing Fourth World Conference on Women. FEMNET continues to collaborate with African women's NGOs on follow-up activities to the Beijing NGO Forum, the parallel intergovernmental conference and the Beijing Plus Five review process. The program has also been involved in mainstreaming gender into regional processes and institutions, most notably engaging with the AU and its specialized mechanisms. It has also promoted women’s economic, social and cultural rights.
Communications: This program seeks to harness ICTs to provide African women with qualitative strategic information on women's development, equality and human rights and to build the capacity of African women's organizations to produce content for advocacy. In addition to its website, and in partnership with the Association of Progressive Communicators (APC) Africa Women's Program, FEMNET developed a website and listserv specifically for the Beijing Plus Five review process in Africa (http://www.flamme.org). FEMNET runs a documentation centre at its Secretariat, specializing in materials related to gender in Africa. The communications program also focuses on communications for advocacy, and communication policy processes at regional and international level.
Capacity Building: FEMNET has developed a model for training of trainers in gender mainstreaming which is applicable to the 12 priority areas outlined in the African and Beijing Platforms for Action. The model has been tested at the national level in a number of African states and is currently being developed so as to more explicitly address sectoral concerns. FEMNET has also produced a number of publications, which continue to be disseminated.
Governance: FEMNET works through national focal points in African countries whose representatives attend a tri-annual Programming Conference and General Assembly. Its governance structure includes an elected Executive Board which includes two Board members per sub-region and a Chairperson. In addition, there are two Ex-Officio Board members (immediate past Chairperson and the Executive Director). There is also an elected Board of Trustees to oversee FEMNET's assets, and a Secretariat that implements FEMNET's programs and is headed by an Executive Director.
Track Record
In terms of being strategically positioned, FEMNET is unique among other regional women's networks in that its mandate specifically includes coordination at the regional level for engagement with regional and international decision-making processes relevant to African women. In addition, it is neither approach- nor sector-specific. FEMNET is thus able to draw upon the strengths and outputs of other regional women's networks as well as its own Board members, national focal points and membership to mobilize African women for intervention when necessary at the international and regional levels on a broad range of issues.
Over time, FEMNET has undertaken conscious and progressive evolution of programs from coordination to monitoring of the Dakar and Beijing Platforms for Action, to advocating regional protection of African women’s human rights. It has also successfully advocated for the mainstreaming of gender in the AU and its specialized mechanisms. FEMNET is a recognized voice in the AU sphere.
The Network has facilitated discussion on women’s rights through regional and international Protocols as well as following up on their ratification and domestication processes. This has involved supporting the campaign for the universal ratification and domestication of the Protocol within Africa, ensuring a cohesive regional response by African women to Africa’s regional legal protection mechanism.
FEMNET has also conducted research and advocacy on women’s economic, social and cultural rights (for example the women’s access and control over land and the Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights projects). It has implemented programs providing gender-based perspectives and challenging economic policies such as the Poverty Reduction Strategy Process.
The Network has strategically included men as actors in protecting women’s rights, particularly in ending gender-based violence and promoting sexual and reproductive health rights (through the Men for Gender Equality Now Project). Teams of male advocates for gender equality have been created in Ethiopia, Kenya, Malawi, Namibia and South Africa. The model will shortly be replicated in francophone West Africa.
Gender mainstreaming training manuals have also been developed and the capacities of African women’s NGOs developed in gender analysis and mainstreaming. National teams of gender trainers have been trained across the African region.
Organizationally, FEMNET has systematically developed its internal capacity including staff, systems and resources. It has regularly produced and disseminated materials in French and English, and maintains strong partnerships with other women’s organizations as well as with development partners.
Challenges
A significant challenge is the vast disequilibria across the African continent in terms of differences that exist, posing a challenge to FEMNET’s mandate of supporting women’s empowerment in the region. One aspect of this is the multiplicity of African languages which constitutes a barrier to the strategic flow of information across the continent. Access to and the ability to disseminate strategic information on initiatives for African women's development, equality and human rights is hard enough in English and French, let alone Arabic and Portuguese.
FEMNET also faces difficulties in obtaining national information and statistical data on gender and women’s status. Its work is also hampered by limited access to and lack of skills in use of information and communication technologies (ICTs) among African women.
Networking challenges resulting from organizational pressures also get in the way of effective liaison between FEMNET and potential partners. A subset of its member organizations is deeply threatened by the idea of sharing information. While FEMNET’s vision may be the same, the approaches and strategies certainly change and can be distinct, leading to some unnecessary friction between member organizations.
Donor policies with respect to pan-African programs and projects also tend to work against an integrated approach to issues affecting women. This sacrifices the focus on women’s human rights. In addition, with many donors using the funding-projects-approach, sustainability of the institution is challenged in terms of finances and human resources.
Since 2002, the Swedish International Development Agency (SIDA) has provided FEMNET with institutional support. Resources to implement specific programs and projects are mobilized mostly from international donors including Action Aid International, African Women’s Development Fund (AWDF), Centre for Agriculture and Rural Cooperation (CTA), Canadian International Development Agency-Gender Equity Support Project (CIDA-GESP), Ford Foundation, Global Fund for Women (GFW), Heinrich Boll Foundation (HBF), HIVOS, Mama Cash, Open Society Institute (OSI)–UK, and the West and East Africa foundations, NOVIB, Oxfam GB, The Sigrid Rausing Trust, UNHCR-Uganda Office for Gender Training, and Urgent Action Fund.
Opportunities
Private foundations help strengthen FEMNET’s institutional capacity so as to enable it to effectively implement its programs. Among other things, this would entail investing in FEMNET’s setting up and equipping sub-regional offices to facilitate effective engagement with the RECs. Translation and dissemination of key documents on women’s human rights into major sub-regional languages could also benefit from such support.
Other benefits of institutional strengthening that foundations could support would include: partnerships to undertake advocacy work to consistently promote and protect African women’s human rights; mobilization of members to engage in networking with regional and international structures to strengthen strategies for development and democracy in Africa; effective communication inside and outside of Africa, using innovative ICTs, particularly for women; and enhanced capacity for FEMNET members to be able to engage effectively with the AU, particularly the Peace and Security Council.
