NGO "ANOTHER WAY" (STICHTING BAKENS VERZET), NETHERLANDS, SUSTAINABLE INTEGRATED SELF-FINANCING DEVELOPMENT PROJECTS AND ADVANCED DEVELOPMENT TECHNOLOGIES

Integrated development projects do not need to make a lot of noise over the innumerable benefits they bring to women in project areas. Populist slogans of the day on the rights of women are not used.

Read C. de Albuquerque’s report Stigma and the realization of the human rights to water and sanitation, Report A/HRC/21/42 of the Special Rapporteur on the human right to safe drinking water and sanitation., agenda item 3, Promotion and protection of all human rights, civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights, including the right to development Twenty-first session, Human Rights Council, New York, 2^nd July, 2012.

Read how women often function as “Women often end up being the shock absorbers of household food security” in Quisumbing A. et al, Helping Women Respond to the Global Food Price Crisis, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), Policy Brief 7, Washington, October 2008.

For information on the relationship between women and the Millennium Goals , see Corner L., Making the MDGs Work for All – Gender Responsive Rights-Based Approaches to the MDGs, United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM), New York, 2008.

On page 5 of her report, Mrs Corner cites the Human Rights Commissioner as follows:

“ Four basic principles must be met in a rights-based approach. [Source :Draft Guidelines: A Human Rights Approach to Poverty Reduction Strategies.

Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, New York, accessed April 2008.] ”

Mrs Corner continues

“The four principles are:

participation in the process of decision-making by all those who are potentially affected, particularly women and poor people;

accountability that enables rights-holders—females and males—to claim their rights and ensures that the State fulfils its obligations as duty bearer;

empowerment that gives women and men the power, capacities, capabilities and access to resources to enable them to change their own lives;

non-discrimination and specific attention to vulnerable groups. Discrimination is defined as ‘any distinction, exclusion or restriction made on the basis of sex which has the effect or purpose of impairing or nullifying the recognition, enjoyment or exercise by women, irrespective of their marital status, on a basis of equality of men and women, of human rights and fundamental freedoms in the political, economic, social, cultural, civil or any other field.”

“For the purposes of the present Convention, the term "discrimination against women" shall mean any distinction, exclusion or restriction made on the basis of sex which has the effect or purpose of impairing or nullifying the recognition, enjoyment or exercise by women, irrespective of their marital status, on a basis of equality of men and women, of human rights and fundamental freedoms in the political, economic, social, cultural, civil or any other field.” Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) (1979), Article 1, United Nations, New York, Department of Public Information [accessed April 2008]. ”

In her preface to Mrs Corner’s work, Dr Jean D’Cunha writes (p. vii) “the MDGs appear as stand alone goals, blurring the multi-sectoral links between all goals, targets and indicators, including the cross-cutting gender link.”

Integrated development projects provide the multi-sectoral links referred to.

Participation.

During work on fourth block: the structures to be created , and especially in section 2: the social structures, attention was paid the the (majority) involvement of women in the decision taking process.

1. Opnion.

Use the material from your report on section 2 and in two pages prepare an article for the main newspaper in your area on the participation of women in integrated development projects. Begin with a short introduction. Then discuss in turn women’s participation in the health clubs, tanks commissions, well commissions, and the central committee, and in the social security structures. Draw your conclusions. Advise of the eventual publication of the article in your report to this section.

Accountability.

There are some things integrated development projects can do to protect the rights of individuals (especially those of women) and there are things they cannot do.

2. Opnion.

On one page make an analysis in two sections:

a) How human rights can be respected within the framework of integrated development projects.

b) Make a comparison with the present situation in your project area.

Empowerment.

In the fourth block: the structures to be created , especially in section 3: the financial structures the empowerment offered to women under the local money systems, the interest-free micro-credit systems and their participation in cooperative purchasing was stressed.. Numerous service structures help women to better organise their time and to benefit from education.

3. Opnion.

Using material from your reprt on section 2 , write a two-page article for the leading newspaper in your chosen area on the empowerment of women through participation in integrated development projects. Begin with a short introduction, then discuss the possibilities open to women by the financial, productive, and service structures put at their disposal. Draw your conclusions. Advise of the eventual publication of the article in your report to this section.

Non-discrimination.

For an up-to-date analysis of the position of women in Islamic countries see : Musawah, ed. Moussa J. et al, CEDAW and Muslim Family Laws : In Search of Common Ground, Sisters in Islam (SIS Forum Malaysia), Petaling Jaya, 2011 [www.musawah.org].

There are some things integrated development projects can do to help elimination of discrimination against women and there are things they cannot do.

4. Research.

Make a one-page analysis in two sections on the application of article 1of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women(1979),