AFRICAN WOMEN'S REPORT 1998
Post-conflict Reconstruction in Africa: A Gender Perspective
© 1999 United Nations Economic Commission for Africa
Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
VI. CONCLUSIONS
African women in conflict situ- ations are not passive sufferers,
but are some of the cor- nerstone forces that anchor the society. In
conflict situations, women are often forced by necessity to carry out
previously male-dominated activity, acquiring skills and ex- perience
that can be applied in the post-conflict soci- ety. Similarly, skills
training for women must re- spond to market demand and pro- vide women
with the tools neces- sary to play their part in recon- struction; women
on their part, can use their posi- tioning for new opportunities to
challenge gender stereotyping of ‘appropriate work for women’ which
often turn out to be un- remunerative and low status, with little chance
of advancement.
Gender roles are not im- mutable and should
not be confused with biological roles, although the two in- terrelate.
Especially in conflict and post-conflict situations, divisions of
labour need to be func- tional and flexible, not rigid and ritualistic.
Social stability is a necessary precon- dition for poverty alleviation
and eradica- tion. While tangible progress has been made in African
social sectors, lack of po- litical will and financial constraints have
meant that the war on poverty is still not won especially in conflict-prone
societies. Poverty is increasing in Africa rather than decreasing. Thus,
the quality of life for the majority in most countries has not generally
improved. The capacity of African countries to “take off” and support
the social sector is not high. Public expendi- ture on the social sector,
especially in war- affected countries, has been low, with few social
safety nets. Governments and their development partners need to improve
their macro-economic reform packages to ensure that they are country-specific
and reflect social objectives. The rate of growth of African economies,
external capital flows, and domestic resource mobilization and investment
have not provided suffi- cient income-generation for impacting positively
on the social sector.
True partnership strengthens, not weakens. It brings together all parties
and facilitates planning and consensus build- ing around such shared
goals as civil so- ciety participation, capacity-building efforts and
Africa-led policy leadership. A major partnership institution for the
future may be the African Development Forum spon- sored by OAU, ADB
and ECA, to promote the partnership process.
For the people to increase their par- ticipation in development now
and into the future, education and technical and voca- tional training
efforts have to be intensi- fied. Without the necessary human re- sources,
development cannot take off. Governments should seek to provide uni-
versal access to education, with free and compulsory primary education
a first step. Innovative approaches should be explored to facilitate
greater access and reduced dropout rates, especially for girls. Special
recruitment and training programmes should be designed to fill the gaps
in the job market in priority sectors and projects, especially for women.
Health care systems in post-conflict societies are usually in a state
of near or total collapse. For various reasons, including the ab- sence
of male sol- diers and combat- ants from their mates, and high rates
of prostitu- tion among other- wise destitute women and girls, combined
with poor health care or detection services, post-conflict soci- eties
show high rates of HIV/AIDs and of venereal and sexu- ally transmitted
diseases. Rebuilding of health care systems with adequate rural outreach
should be a top priority. Innova- tive financing mechanisms are needed,
since basic infrastructure needs to be re- established and expanded.
Priority must be given to any outbreaks of epidemic pro- portions, such
as cholera, typhoid, ma- laria or tuberculosis and to the fight against
HIV/AIDS and other diseases, but a pri- mary health care system accessible
to all is key to the effectiveness of the health sector. Reproductive
health services for men and women are also crucial to the health system
capacity, and should receive special attention and facilities in the
re- construction of a national health sector.
Africa’s development partners should support
conflict prevention and peace processes and use their monitoring
mecha- nisms to guard against corruption and theft of resources
meant for the benefit of the people.
The role of the media is essential for disseminating information on
development activities. Government, private sector and the NGO and civil
society organizations should provide regular development infor- mation
to the media. Civil society should form partnerships with media houses
to advocate for an immediate end to conflicts so as to redirect available
resources to employment creation and construction of social and economic
infrastructure.
Sound governance systems should be established which guarantee public
and private sector conduct to minimize corrup- tion and discrimination.
Civil society orga- nizations also need to develop self-regu- lating
codes of conduct to increase their credibility, transparency and accountabil-
ity. Partnerships among public, private sec- tor, government and civil
society stakehold- ers must be based on a relationship of equality,
trust, accountability and mutual respect. All countries need to establish
con- sultative mechanisms at all levels, espe- cially in post-conflict
societies. Such con- sultative and reconciliation forums should meet
regularly at all levels.
Within the structural adjustment programmes, various African countries
such as Uganda have seen improvement in macroeconomic policies, including
lib- eralizing trade and investment regimes, re- ducing tariffs and
subsidies, rationalizing exchange rates, modernizing regulatory regimes,
and the gradual restructuring of public expenditures, with greater empha-
sis on social development. The private sector in Africa is now receiving
greater attention as the engine of growth best able to make use of market
forces. Public sec- tor policies to develop Africa’s private sec- tor,
which in the case of women is largely informal, have to be liberal and
innova- tive, instead of stifling and repressive. Civil society participation
in governance for de- velopment is also a spreading principle. These
are the approaches that guarantee any degree of success in rebuilding
war- torn societies left with groups alienated from each other and watchful
of how the spoils of war are being redistributed. All the inter- est
groups watch to see how the benefi- ciaries and locations of post-conflict
re- construction programmes are chosen.
Africa’s economic recovery, measured by sustained economic growth in
the 1990s, has received much publicity. Sus- tained economic growth
in a wide range of countries over the last four consecutive years is
convincing evidence of improved economic performance. On average, coun-
tries in Africa grew by 4.5 per cent during 1995 to 1998, the highest
growth rate of any region in the world and Africa’s best economic performance
since the late 1970s. More than 30 African countries have achieved real
per capita growth for the last four years [45].
However, only a few countries met the essential conditions in 1998 to
sustain growth consistent with the defined poverty reduction objective
of 7 per cent per annum growth required to reduce poverty by half by
the year 2015. Human development is one of the most important ways to
reduce poverty and en- courage peaceful, stable growth. Post-con- flict
societies would do well to remember this and apply inclusive, people-friendly
structures of governance and public ex- penditure accordingly.
Inter-ministerial, inter-agency collabo- ration as well as collaboration
between government and NGOs geared to initiate gender-balanced and sustainable
develop- ment in an environment of scarce human, material and institutional
resources is criti- cal, in view of the magnitude of the chal- lenge
posed by post-conflict reconstruction.
Such forms of collaboration would provide an opportunity to depart
from piece-meal approaches toward integrated and mutu- ally reinforcing
solutions to the problem of gender disparity and disadvantage.
In cases where, gender-aware policies have been financed, implemented
and monitored, there has been very encourag- ing progress. The lesson
of success is that while gender-sensitive policies are abso- lutely
necessary, they are not sufficient. Some attempts to implement policies
pro- voke new, unforeseen, difficulties, which must also be addressed.
A good example of this has been the policy of putting women in decision-making
structures with- out providing them with the necessary skills or resources
for gender-sensitive plan- ning, policy-making and implementation. While
the principle of increasing the num- ber of women in decision-making
positions conforms to democratic electoral prin- ciples, ensuring that
they are positioned to introduce much-needed new policies and impact
on resource allocations from national and local budgets is more mean-
ingful.
With increased education and train- ing and with an enabling social,
political and economic environment, African women can play even greater
roles in re- construction and development, at both lo- cal and national
levels. True gender part- nership between men and women in Af- rica,
that seeks to maximize advantages and minimize disadvantages for all
would further development in leaps and bounds. The foundations for such
partnership can be laid to a great extent during post-con- flict reconstruction.
This Report has taken the view that out
of trauma and tragedy can emerge opportunity for societal reorganization,
new and amended political phi- losophies and avenues for socioeconomic
growth and capacity building. The reconstruction period is a time
when women and other disadvan- taged groups in a society can mobilize
for change, occupy new roles in the economy and in the community,
pressure for legal and institutional reforms, and mount political
campaigns at the national and local level for legitimate inclusion.
The post-conflict period in the history of any society is therefore
not only a time of confused mourning, but is potentially one of
planned renaissance, when a conscious decision is made in the minds
of people to reconcile and move forward. It can be a time of social
and political innovation, in which governance takes on a more benign,
trans- parent and accountable face. In fact, if the socio-political
and economic formulae and structures evolved during the reconstruction
period are ineffective from not having suitably addressed the root
causes and conse- quences of the violent conflict, it is likely
that peace will not be sustained on a meaningful scale and violent
upheavals will again occur, destroying and delaying national progress.
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NOTES
[1] Anne-Marie Goetz, “Gender and administration” in IDS Bulletin,
Vol. 23, No 4, Institute of Development Studies, University of Sussex,
1992.
[2] WHO. World Health Report 1998, pp. 96- 98.
[3] FAO. Women and developing agriculture. Women in Agriculture
Series, No. 4, Rome, 1985.
[4] See P. Moock, ioThe efficiency of women as farm managersly
in American Journal of Agricultural
Economics, Vol . 58, No. 5, pp. 831Š835, 1976; K. Saito, D. Spurling
and H. Mekonnen, Raising
the productivity of women farmers in sub-Saharan Africa. Discussion
Paper 230, World Bank, 1994;
Lyn R. Brown and Joanna Kerr, eds. The gender dimensions of economic
reforms. The North-South
Institute, 1997.
[5] United Nations. The Report of the Secretary-General to the
Security Council, New York, April 1998.
[6] O.E. Akwetey, 1996, p. 103. 7 Janie Hampton, ed., Internally
Displaced People: A Global IDP Survey, Earthscan Publications, 1998.
[7] Janie Hampton, ed., Internally Displaced People: A Global
IDP Survey, Earthscan Publications, 1998 .
[8] M. Ravallion and S. Chen , “What can new survey data tell
us about recent changes in distribution and poverty?”, World Bank Economic
Research, Vol. II, No.2, 1997.
[9] ADB, 1995, p. 36
[10] Ibid., p. 37
[11] Newsweek, March 1999
[12] ADB, 1995, op.cit.
[13] UNHCR. Population Reports, 1996, p.7
[14] Ibid., p.7
[15] Forced Migration Review, August 1998.
[16] AFWIC and UNICEF 1994, p. 5.
[17] UNFPA, 1996
[18] Baden, 1977, p 15-16.
[19] Community Development Journal. "Refugee Survival and
NGO Project Assistance: Mozambican Refu-
gees in Malawi", Vol.31, No.3, July 1996, pp.214-229.
[20] Oloko-Onyango, 1995
[21] Beyani, 1994, p. 8
[22] Made, 1994, pp. 17-18.
[23] Richard Black, "Putting Refugees in camps", Forced
Migration Review, August 1998.
[24] UNCTAD, 1998, p. 139.
[25] ADB, 1996, 39
[26] UNCTAD, 1997, p. 139
[27] ADB, 1998, p.16
[28] UNCTAD, 1998, op. cit.
[29] Baden, 1997; Tadesse, 1994; UNIFEM and UNICEF, 1994.
[30] M. A. Koblinsky, et al.
[31] ILO. Public works programmes: A strategy for poverty alleviation.
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[32] UNRISD. 0p. cit., p. 30
[33] Report of the Inter-Agency Workshop on Best Practices in
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[34] Baden, 1997 op. cit., p. 57.
[35] FDRE, 1994
[36] Butegwa, 1997
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[39] Budlender,ed. 1996 and 1997.
[40] Agarwal, 1994.
[41] UNECA: Economic Report on Africa 1998, p. 14
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