wfn.org | AANA Bulletin BULLETIN No. 31/02 August 12, 2002 (c)

[Worldwide Faith News <wfn@igc.org>]

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AANA Bulletin								Bulletin APTA
  Editor - Mitch Odero							Acting Editor - Silvie Alemba

FEATURES  SECTION

Africa's Marginalisation In The Global Trade Is Bound To
Continue Until Africans Master The Art Of Negotiations

Africa continues to be marginalised in the global trade because of the 
international patterns of trade and various forms of protectionalism 
erected by wealthy nations.  Our correspondent Stephen Mbogo has found that 
African's negotiation capability is a major factor if Africa is to reverse 
the trends.

I
n the face of Africa's poor trade negotiation capability at the global 
trade negotiation forums, and the presence of international trade rules 
biased against the continent, a regional drive aimed at improving Africa's 
trade negotiators capability has been initiated.

Trade negotiators from the Common Market for Eastern and Central Africa 
(COMESA) and the Southern Africa Development Cooperation (SADC) met 
recently in Nairobi to strengthen Africa's participation in post Doha World 
Trade Organisation negotiations.

A regional centre for improving the human resource development with a 
specific focus on trade negotiations capability is now operational at the 
University of Nairobi in Kenya.

Africa and other Third World countries have been getting a raw deal every 
time international trade negotiations are held. Trade related proposals 
presented by these countries, which are aimed at improving international 
trade earnings for them and eventually socio-economic development usually 
do not receive the required attention from developed countries.

The needs for Third World countries and in particular those of Africa are 
that developed countries should cease domestic support for farmers in form 
of subsidies or otherwise.

African countries also want removal of trade tariffs that inhibit exports 
from Africa into developed countries, technology transfer into Africa and 
assistance to allow human resource development. However, Africa is not able 
to articulate these issues effectively and ends up getting a raw deal.

While developed countries have increasingly come under focus as being 
insensitive to the plight of African trade needs and not fully appreciating 
the fact that they have a moral role to play in Africa's quest for 
development, African countries are also blamed for not being proactive on 
the issue of trade negotiations.

Kenya's Minister for Trade and Industry Mr. Nicholas Biwott says the 
negotiation capability of Africa is improving but more capacity building 
efforts are still needed. "In Doha, we decided not to agree to any trade 
rules that will not help Third World countries.  We are now able to speak 
and strategise as an entity. Unfair trade rules however still exist", says 
Mr. Biwott.

"For instance the European Union has been upping quality levels of Kenya's 
horticulture exports into their market despite the fact that those exports 
are of high quality. Its an unfair strategy to avoid competition", he adds.

Agriculture provides livelihood for over 80 percent of the rural 
population, contributes 35 percent of the gross domestic product, 40 
percent of export earnings and 70 percent of employment. Agriculture is 
also a key source of raw materials for Africa's industries.

Development experts believe that lack of technology transfer into Africa is 
responsible for Africa's marginalisation in the global trade.

While the developed countries advance the argument that the issue of 
technology transfer is a matter of intellectual property rights, which 
cannot be given for free, African countries differ and call on 
establishment of mechanisms that will make technology transfer a reality.

Edward Chisanga, the First Secretary of Zambia Mission at the WTO 
headquarters in Geneva says technological knowledge is critical because it 
is the knowledge on which a product, process or service is based. 
"Technology is embodied in machinery, equipment and managerial skills. The 
transfer process included the transfer of capacity, which is of greater 
developmental value than a mere transfer of a piece of hardware."

He says only transfer of technology would improve productive capacity and 
competitiveness of African countries.

But without the required technological knowledge, Africa, for instance, 
finds herself exporting primary commodities, which fetch very low prices at 
the international commodities market. The commodities are processed and 
re-exported back to Africa at very high consumer prices.

Reports published by United Nations Conference on Trade and Development 
suggest that the nature of commodity production and the state of the 
international primary commodity market are major contributors to Africa's 
poverty status.

The problem is that primary commodity prices have fallen drastically in the 
international market. In addition, agricultural subsidies in primary 
commodity markets of Europe and United States have meant low volume and 
less price sales for Africa.

Estimates reveal that the annual average foreign exchange losses to least 
developed countries associated with changing commodity terms of trade from 
1998-99 alone were $2.4 billion.

Perhaps if Africa's trade negotiation capability was good enough to 
influence removal of agricultural subsidies in developed countries and 
ensure acceptance of technology transfer, the lost resources could have 
been diverted to other socio-economic development needs.

The challenge is also to the African countries themselves to give the 
required attention improving her trade diplomacy, which would in turn help 
to improve her negotiations capability.

The weakness of Africa is exhibited by the fact that, out of 38 African 
members of WTO, 26  have a presence in Geneva; the headquarters of WTO and 
12 are non-resident.  Those with missions in Geneva however do not have 
enough personnel to cover all the WTO councils, committees, and working 
groups.

Africa should probably consider an investment in commercial diplomacy 
courses at tertiary institutions and establish national coordination 
mechanisms on trade policies.

Violence Against Women Spreads Across Lines Of Class

Despite determined campaign to halt violence against women, the crime 
continues.  Is there any redress for women?  What are the available 
penalties for the perpetrators of violence against women?  Our 
correspondent John Mwai set out to find the answers and filed the following 
report.

I
t was a painful, tormenting, saddening and a worrying tale to hear or to 
narrate. Kenyans could not believe their ears and eyes when they watched 
television screens only to see her writhing and groaning in pain in her bed 
at a national hospital in very painful and fatal injuries.

She had been repeatedly hit on the head with a cooking stove by her husband 
who was a policeman. She was admitted in the hospital for six months before 
she succumbed to her injuries and died about three years ago. This is non 
other than the late Betty Kavata, a symbol of violence against women in 
many Africa countries.

At around the same period in 1998 a policeman had doused his girlfriend, 
one Pauline Mueni, in paraffin and setting her ablaze. As a result of her 
body sustaining 54 percent burns, Mueni died soon after the incidence.

And according to reports by Associated Press in March 2000, Kifaya, a 
Jordanian girl of 12, was intelligent and full of curiosity. But when she 
returned home one evening from a walk in the neighborhood with some 
friends, her enraged father confronted her.

Shouting that she had dishonored the entire family, her father proceeded to 
beat Kifaya with sticks and iron chains until she was dead. When police 
inquired why he killed his daughter, the father said it was was because she 
went for walks with her friends without his permission.

There is no way we can illustrate cases of violence against women worldwide 
than illustrated by the three cases above. Girls and women worldwide 
and  African countries in particular, across lines of income, class and 
culture are subjected to physical, sexual and psychological abuse.

Over the years, violence against women has taken all forms, which includes 
rape, genital mutilation and sexual assault. It may also include forced 
pregnancies abortion, human trafficking and dowry related violence.

According to a survey done by an international organisation on violence 
against women and girl child around the world in year 2001, at least one in 
every three women has been physically assaulted, coerced into sex, or 
abused into some other way.

Mostly, this is done by someone she knows, including her husband or another 
male family member. One woman in four , studies continues to show, has been 
abused during pregnancy.

In African culture, where women are seen as subjects of absolute submission 
to their men, violence against women is deeply embedded so much so that 
millions of women in this continent are misled to consider it a way of 
life. The right of a husband to beat or physically intimidate his wife is 
deeply embraced conviction in many countries.

For instance, according to a survey done by researchers in Egypt three 
years ago, 80 percent of women in rural areas said that beatings were 
common and often justified, in some circumstances.

Worldwide research and studies have shown a number of events that trigger 
violent responses from women's partners. These include not obeying the 
husband, talking back, refusing sex, not having food ready on time, failing 
to care for children or home and questioning a man about his money or 
girlfriends.

In addition,  "women in Kenya and Zimbabwe, for instance often hide their 
contraceptive pills because they are terrified of consequences should their 
husbands discover that they no longer control their wives' fertility," says 
a United Nation Population Fund report of the year 2000.

The report also says that in a study done in Ghana, close 50 percent of all 
women and 43 percent of men said that a man was justified in beating his 
wife if she used a family planning method without his expressed consent.

Is there any redress for women who fall victims of these heinous crimes? 
What are the available avenues where women can go when their rights are 
violated? Put in other words what are the penalties for men who are 
perpetrators of this violence against women?

Many countries in Africa and across the globe have set legislative reforms 
that are able to recognise women rights in violence against women situations.

Institutional frameworks and criminal justice systems have also been 
strengthened and adjusted so that domestic and other forms of violence 
against women are handled as any other crimes in a wider non-restrictive 
and unconservative sense.

Non-Governmental Organisations have also risen to hear the cry of the 
African woman, which cry had for centuries been one in the wilderness.

Among the Non-Governmental Organisations that try to champion women's 
rights is the Federation of Women Lawyers (FIDA) that has established its 
chapters in many Africa countries.

It has been able to educate women on their rights and tries to fish them 
out of retrogressive cultures like female genital mutilation and early and 
forced marriages .

FIDA has also been able to commence in court, cases of women whose rights 
have been violated but with no legal fees to meet the case expenses. 
Through its members, most of them lawyers by profession, they have been 
able to successfully bring court cases on humantarian grounds without 
charging victims of domestic and other violence against women.

In addition, women rights NGOs, have combined efforts with other human 
rights lobby groups to champion the cause for the enactment of laws that 
recognise women rights in the society.

These include laws relating to outlawing of female genital mutilation, wife 
inheritance and laws that forbids inheritance of property in case the 
husband dies.

For instance, in Kenya, the women rights lobbies have tirelessly tried to 
see the Equality and Affirmative Action Bills passed as laws by parliament 
and with them women will have an edge for claiming their rights.

Remarkably and at international level, recognising the growing use of 
violence against women as a weapon of war, a conference of International 
Criminal Court in July 1 7, 1998 added to its definition of war crimes a 
statute on gender justice stating that rape, sexual slavery enforced 
prostitution, forced pregnancy, enforced sterilisation and other forms of 
sexual violence are "grave breaches" of the Geneva Conventions against war 
crimes.