Women in Law and Development in Africa (WiLDAF)
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Women in Law and Development in Africa (WiLDAF)
2nd Floor, Zambia House, Kwame Nkrumah
P.O. Box 4622, Harare, Zimbabwe
Tel: 263-4-751189 / 752105 / 771958-9
Fax: 263-4-781886
E-mail: wildaf@wildaf.org.zw
Website: http://www.wildaf.org.zw
Description
Women in Law and Development in Africa (WiLDAF) is a network of over 350 African Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs), and 1,000 individuals in 31 African countries who utilize the law as a strategic tool to promote and protect women’s rights. Its main aim is to ensure that women are aware of and fully utilize their rights for self and societal development.
The WiLDAF network includes focal points in Ghana, Tanzania, West Africa and Zambia. Its work is made possible through funding from a number of donors, including the European Union, Open Society Initiative for Southern Africa (OSISA), and The Global Fund for Women.
Track Record
WiLDAF’s key strategic focus is on “Women and Good Governance”, especially with important policy developments taking place at the African Union and SADC levels. It is critical that women’s rights activists lobby for gender parity and transformation of all structures for women to take their rightful place in key decision making processes on the continent. Its West Africa program is currently implementing a European Union-funded project on women and good governance in seven West African countries.
Ratification, domestication and implementation of international and regional instruments on the rights of women remains the mainstay of WiLDAF’s work. In cooperation with other partners under the Solidarity of African Women’s Rights (SOAWR) initiative, WiLDAF has helped advocate and lobby for the signing and ratification of the Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa.
WiLDAF has also been active in the Southern Africa Gender Protocol Alliance, which provides technical expertise to the SADC Secretariat, as well as lobbies at the national level for the upgrading of the 1997 SADC Declaration on Gender and Development and 1998 Addendum on the Prevention and Eradication of Violence Against Women and Children.
WiLDAF keeps its partners, members and focal points updated through a periodic newsletter titled WiLDAF News, produced in French and English. It contains information on the discourse and practices on the rights of women in Africa, expert presentation of papers and legal opinions on various women’s legal rights issues, and development and democracy forums at national, regional and international levels.
WiLDAF has developed an effective Trainer's Manual titled ‘Legal Rights Organizing for Women in Africa‘ (2000 Revised Edition). The manual’s content is geared towards building women’s capacity to organize and mobilize them to use the law for sustainable development, using participatory methodologies. It provides step-by-step information to guide organizers and trainers in the development of legal rights strategies in the African context. Key women’s rights instruments such as CEDAW including the Optional Protocol, the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa are an integral part of the training content.
Challenges
The survival and strength of the network depends on regular and efficient communication amongst members and the regional Secretariat. This could be achieved via the Internet but given that some of its focal points have not received training on effective use of ICTs this runs the risk of becoming a hindrance to their work. The Contacts Database is also not accessible on the web for ease of communication amongst WiLDAF’s members.
Opportunities
WiLDAF recently entered into a partnership with the Harvard School of Public Health, Program on International Health and Human Rights (PIHHR) and Culture, Gender and Human Rights Branch of the UNFPA Technical Support Division (OGHRB) to work on a manual on “Human Rights Based Approach to Programming: A Practical Implementation Manual, Training Materials and Training of Trainers”. This constitutes a significant opportunity for WiLDAF to provide technical input into the development of the manual as well as widen its partnership base for future cooperation.
