We done it how we want to

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We done it how we want to!

• Dictating the terms of engagement for decision
  making over NRM

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(No Transcript)
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So much rhetoric!

• Women are silent!
• Without a voice!
• In the shadow of decision making!
• Weak!
• Invisible
• Marginalised!

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Very much a personal journey!

• Some turning points
• 1.how many grandmothers per hectare do you need
  to know before making a soil fertility management
  decision?
• 2.we chose a men to lead because it gives the
  impression we are serious

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Why focus on gender!

• There is womens business just as men have mens
  business, but it all comes together you know!

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Where and how does it come together!

• In the home
• In the extended family
• In the interest groups
• In the community
• in other levels too ----- its there for you to
  see!
• Women are the parliament we are the cabinet, the
  two work together, that is government you know

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Buzz words!

• Gender mainstreaming!
• Inclusive democracy
• Empowerment
• Equity and social justice

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Whose views prevail?
Culture
Self determination
External world views
Local world views
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Re-engaging science!
Changing visions inspired by world experience

• What/who informs development discourse?
• Whose voice counts?
• How do local women perceive themselves?

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The gender struggle!

• Decades of gender advocacy
• UN conferences on women (4)
• National action plans
• Years of gender targeted development

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Beyond struggle!

• Where are they?
• How many speak?
• When do they speak?
• How do they speak?
• What do they say when they do speak?

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Too few by a long shot!

• Incredible, controversial, charismatic, powerful
  women of our times!
• Mbuya Nehanda, Winnie Mandela
• Special attributes as wives, witches, mediums,
  mistresses and politicians
• Mai Sibanda
• Alexander MacCall Smiths Mma Ramostwe

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Reality and illusion!

• Do women want empowerment?
• Are women really constrained by culture?
• Are they really weak?
• Are they really invisible?

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Empowerment!

• Women access decision making because of the good
  manners of their husbands!
• Why do you want us to become men in our dresses?

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Power

• Women have influence. Men have power to define
  and enforce rules by which society is governed.
  This power allows them to monopolise the
  structures of governance. Influence in contrast
  is not institutionalised.

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What do we make of the silence?

• Who is interpreting the silence?
• When do we interpret the silence?
• Multiple interpretations
• We dont care
• We dont hear/understand
• We need time
• This is not the place

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Democracy

• Democracy has a female face look carefully and
  you will see it
• we vote and we choose to vote for men

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Participation

• You are looking for participation in the wrong
  places
• We have our ways, we prefer them! We done it how
  we want to!

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Are women invisible?
Our men bring us back into the picture, they
dont operate alone. Perhaps you dont see me but
my husband does
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What informs decision making?

• Complex networks of relationships and
  obligations.
• Decisions are thus products of complex social
  processes that we dont tune into

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Candid questions!

• Did we misdiagnose the problem?
• Do we use the wrong tools?
• Whose questions are we addressing?

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Taking stock?

• Do women want the type of power we want them to
  have?
• Can they and do they have the means to excise it?
  
• Does culture change at the pace of
  advocacy/development?

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Can decision making be inclusive?

• Yes it can be if it gives space for local
  processes of engagement to take place, allows
  negotiations and bargaining to take place.
• Yes if allows and gives recognition to informal
  arenas and provides avenues for the informal to
  feed into the formal arenas.

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Cont.

• Yes if need for change is from below not
  externally determined.
• Yes if different gender are given enough room to
  manouvre!
• If we understand enough about social processes of
  negotiations, complex relationships, hierarchies
  and cultural norms and motivations to identify
  the right interventions.

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You come and go, but we live here, with the
setting of the sun I go home to my husband, my
family, my people, it is with them I must live
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We done it how we want to! We dont want to be
men in our dresses!

• Life in an African village allows me to be in my
  skin (Susanna Herrera)