Gender Justice in Latin America and Caribbean by SADD IEAB

CHAMPIONING GENDER JUSTICE IN LATIN AMERICA AND THE CARIBBEAN

Boys and girls watering plants at a pre-school for the children of women working in the flower industry - Corporación Cactus, Colombia © Christian Aid / Rachel Lees © Christian Aid/Hanna Richards

Contents

Overview ......................................................................................................................................... 2 Inequality and violence: strong laws, weak implementation ...................................................... 2 Economic autonomy ...................................................................................................................... 4 Reproductive health........................................................................................................................ 5 Gender Inequality in LAC and the Caribbean – a few indicators ................................................... 6 Our work across the five strategic change objectives .................................................................... 6 Looking ahead ............................................................................................................................... 13

Championing Gender Justice in LAC, March 2015

Internal document

Overview Latin America and the Caribbean is a region beset by high levels of inequality, including stark territorial and racial inequalities. Gender inequality is also a major barrier, which means poverty and its myriad negative impacts disproportionately affect the region’s women and girls. Women are not a homogenous group – inequality exists between women and men, but also between women, particularly in relation to race, ethnicity, class and location (urban or rural). Gender inequality manifests itself in a number of ways in the region. While women have taken up more roles in politics in recent years, they are under-represented in leadership positions compared to men. More girls and young women than men are attending school and gaining access to higher education, but poorer, indigenous and afro-descendant girls often miss out. While increasing numbers of women are entering the labour market, their incomes are lower than those of men; they often work in the informal sector under poor conditions. Women spend a disproportionate amount of time caring for children and elderly people, and carrying out domestic chores compared to men, which affects their employment opportunities, economic autonomy, independence and quality of life. Gender-based violence is prevalent in the region, including rape and femicide, often carried out with impunity. Even though laws have been enacted in many countries to combat this violence, implementation has failed. Although gender-based violence affects both men and women, poor women, especially indigenous and afrodescendants, are particularly affected. This is why Christian Aid in LAC has prioritised the Equality for All strategic change objective and the gender justice strategy as transformative pathways to address poverty and inequality in the region. Our work with partners includes: supporting civil society and faith leaders in addressing damaging social norms and proposing alternatives (e.g. new masculinities); fighting impunity for gender based violence and proposing changes in laws and policies to promote equality as well as scrutinizing implementation; advocating for fairer fiscal policies (ensuring public revenue and expenditure addresses gender imbalances); improving the autonomy of women by advocating for their labour rights, access to inclusive markets, and rights to essential services.

Inequality and violence: strong laws, weak implementation Most States in the Latin America and Caribbean region have taken important steps to combat gender imbalance and gender based violence – at least on paper. All of them have ratified the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) and 14 countries have ratified its Optional Protocol. Some countries have introduced laws to promote gender equality and some have introduced quotas to increase the participation of women in politics. The Inter-American Convention on the Prevention, Punishment, and Eradication of Violence against Women (the Belém do Pará Convention), a regional instrument widely ratified across the region and an authoritative instrument for the eradication of violence against women, has prompted the introduction of national laws to address gender violence across the region. Sadly, such laws are still elusive promises rather than reality. The commitment made by legislators with the introduction of gender equality laws has not been followed up with effective implementation and resources, due to lack of specific budget lines and political will. One civil society report on the advances of the implementation of the Beijing Platform for Action argues that while many governments claim to have gender 1 equality plans of action, there is little public information about the actual resources devoted to this issue. The

Latin America and the Caribbean NGO/CSW, 20 years of Beijing Platform for Action: Strategic goals and areas of concern, December 2014, http://fifcj-ifwlc.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/Beijing-20-Regional-Document-December-2014.pdf

Championing Gender Justice in LAC, March 2015

Internal document

same report highlights that the few resources available are dependent on foreign aid, and vulnerable to cuts. 2 For example, in the Dominican Republic, resources decreased from 0.0013% in 2008 to 0.0008% in 2014. 3

Women’s active participation in politics has increased in the last few years, however it is still low. Even in 4 those countries where affirmative action has been introduced by law, such as quotas for women standing for office, women face tough challenges. In Bolivia for example, elected women regularly face harassment and violence as well as pressure to conform to official party lines – so much so that this prompted the introduction of specific legislation to combat harassment and political violence against women. Yet this law is far from being 5 applied. Violence against women in the LAC region remains endemic, an every day, hardly visible occurrence. A 2012 regional report found that in the 12 countries surveyed, between 17% and 53% of women reported having suffered physical or sexual violence by an intimate partner and that between 28% and 64% of them did 6 not report the abuse or seek help. Femicide also remains widespread: according to a 2012 study, of the 25 countries with the top femicide rates in the world, more than half were LAC countries. Topping these 7 appalling global statistics are El Salvador, Jamaica and Guatemala. Civil society groups across the region, who have fought long battles to achieve anti-violence legislation, have raised strong concerns about lack of implementation. These groups often end up being the only sources of reliable public information on levels of violence against women. Impunity is the norm, particularly for poor or marginalised women. Key concerns include inadequate investigations, prosecution and sanctioning of violence against women; the little availability of disaggregated statistical information to guide interventions; and the lack of support services available (including few or no shelters) for women living with violence. Again, women are not an homogenous block , and those on low-income, living in rural areas or with an indigenous or Afrodescendant background, are those least likely to access essential services and justice. Gender inequalities continue to be addressed as just another development problem, and not as a structural cause of poverty and violence, whose analysis ought to be a determining factor in the search for solutions – in 8 fact, some of the assumptions behind certain laws and government interventions are simply misdirected. For example, during a recent evaluation of the Belém do Pará convention at the Inter-American Commission of Human Rights, participants considered that a key challenge was that “laws in the Americas focus on women as needing protection, rather than as fully participating citizens. Most States put domestic violence at the centre of their efforts for gender equality. Participants argued that this is not an adequate response […] because the Belém do Pará framework is much broader than domestic violence, requiring States to address the social 9 structures at the root of gender inequality”. Equally, legislation and practices that hamper the exercise of

Informe de la República Dominicana sobre la Aplicación de la Declaración y Plataforma de Acción de Beijing, May 2014, http://www.cepal.org/mujer/noticias/paginas/3/51823/Informe_Republica_Dominicana_Beijing_20.pdf, 3 In the 9 countries where Christian Aid is present (via its 5 programmes), there are on average less than 20% female members of parliament (see table below). 4 Countries with laws to establish quotas for women in elections: Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Honduras, México, Panamá, Paraguay, Perú, Dominican Republic, Uruguay and Venezuela (2012). 5 UN Bolivia, 154 cases of political violence against women – no one brought to justice” (“Violencia política contra mujeres suma a 154 casos, todos impunes), 7 March 2014 http://www.nu.org.bo/noticias/destacados-nacionales/violencia-politicacontra-mujeres-suma-154-casos-todos-impunes/ 6 PAHO/WHO, Violence Against Women in Latin America and the Caribbean: a comparative analysis of population-based data from 12 countries, 2013 http://www.who.int/violence_injury_prevention/media/news/2013/17_01/en/ 7 Small Arms Survey Research Notes no. 14, February 2012, http://www.smallarmssurvey.org/fileadmin/docs/HResearch_Notes/SAS-Research-Note-14.pdf 8 ECLAC, “CEPAL pide eliminar desigualdades que inciden en la violencia contra las mujeres”, 7 November 2014 http://www.cepal.org/es/comunicados/cepal-pide-eliminar-desigualdades-que-inciden-en-la-violencia-contra-las-mujeres 9 Center for Human Rights and Humanitarian Law, “Challenges of Protecting Women from Violence 20 Years after the Belém do Pará Convention”, March 2014 http://hrbrief.org/2014/03/challenges-of-protecting-women-from-violence-20years-after-the-belem-do-para-convention/

Championing Gender Justice in LAC, March 2015

Internal document

women’s sexual and reproductive rights, are widespread in the region and affect maternal mortality as well as teenage pregnancy rates. Simply introducing new legislation, without specific resources and an accompanying action plan to tackle gender inequality in all spheres - including efforts to change damaging social norms which play a key part in the high levels of killings of younger men as well as femicides – will do little to stem the gender gap and the violence in the home and the community.

Economic autonomy 10

Women´s autonomy hinges around three main dimensions: economic, decision-making and physical. The realisation of these dimensions is key to overcome the imbalances of power that generate gender inequality and gender violence. Achieving economic autonomy means being able to have a decent quality of life and accessing the means to achieve this, without depending on others’ decisions. This is about being able to generate sufficient own income (as well as capacity and freedom to decide how to spend it), access to decent jobs or social security (pensions, benefits), access to quality services (health, education), but also about sharing the burden of unpaid domestic work. Enabling women to achieve economic autonomy can have huge transformative effects, including poverty reduction. Taking into account that women’s labour participation in LAC rose by 35% between 1990 and 2010, a study calculated that “if female labour income had remained the same during this period, holding all else constant, extreme poverty in Latin America and the Caribbean would have been 30% higher in 2010”. Equally, if women hadn’t had access to income through work between 2000 and 2010 “the Gini inequality index [would 11 have been] 28% higher”. Yet, in LAC, an already highly unequal region, women are over-represented amongst the poor, particularly those living in rural areas and those with an Indigenous or Afro-descendant background. According to ECLAC, in spite of economic growth and falling poverty rates, the proportion of women amongst the poorest is 12 growing and extreme poverty affects 43% of households headed by women. Women are affected by higher unemployment levels, and they are overrepresented in precarious, low paid, informal jobs, and have comparatively lower salaries than men. Even though more women are in work than in the past, there are still gaps in employment levels (including higher proportions of women with no own income, particularly in rural areas – e.g. in 2010 in Nicaragua 73% of rural women had no own income as opposed to 29% of men) and generally the unemploment rate is higher for women than for men, with indigenous and afro-descendant women more affected than their male counterparts. Pay gaps continue to be 13 substantial, with average differentials in 2011 ranging from 25% Peru to 2% in Venezuela. 14

Unpaid care work continues to be an issue, as 90% of all unpaid domestic care is provided by women - this represents a major obstacle to seeking paid work, and contributes to a higher proportion of women with no own income. According to some estimates, women on average spend 37.8 hours weekly on paid work while men tend to work 47 hours weekly. However, women spend 27.4 hours carrying out unpaid work, while men only dedicate 9.3 hours to this. Effectively, women’s unpaid work contributes to the economy, but it is not recognised. In fact, certain government programmes and policies rely on this status quo. For example, certain cash transfer programmes, such the Brazilian “Bolsa Familia”, though a lifeline for many of the poorest

ECLAC/Gender Equality Observatory of Latin America and the Caribbean, Confronting Violence Against Women in LAC, Annual report 2013-2014, http://www.cepal.org/mujer/noticias/paginas/9/53409/Annual_Report_2013_2014._C1420458_Web.pdf 11 World Bank, The effects of women’s economic power in Latin America and the Caribbean, 2012 https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/bitstream/handle/10986/11867/9780821397701.pdf 12 ECLAC /Observatorio de Igualdad de Género de America Latina y el Caribe, Informe anual 2012: Los bonos en la mira. Aporte y carga para las mujeres, March 2013 http://www.cepal.org/publicaciones/xml/7/49307/2012-1042_OIGISSN_WEB.pdf 13 Ibid. 14 http://americalatinagenera.org/es/documentos/post2015_fichas/Health.pdf

Championing Gender Justice in LAC, March 2015

Internal document

families, have been criticised because their design relies on women’s unpaid work (staying at home taking care 15 of children), discourage them from seeking paid work, and reinforce traditional roles. When in paid work, women tend to be employed in lower paid, or in lower position, non-managerial jobs and when qualified they overwhelmingly work at the level of a nurse, teacher, but rarely a doctor, an engineer or a 16 bank manager. Increasing school enrolment and better educational achievements by women and girls (except in indigenous and afro-descendant communities, where girls are more likely to be left behind), still do not translate into better career outcomes for them – there continues to be a pay and employment gap as well as occupational and hierarchical segregation. This is due to persisting and unchallenged expectations about gender roles (women are not expected to study engineering, science or finance or seek a managerial role and given fewer opportunities to do so and work in care and education is perceived as less valuable and less well paid), but also other obstacles, such as lack of child care provisions (and little sharing of this task with partners). A major source of employment for women is paid domestic work, which is often informal and affords little protection of workers’ rights (including pay at below minimum salary levels, long hours, no contracts, and exploitative conditions). The International Labour Organisation (ILO) notes that between 1995 and 2010 the 17 number of domestic workers almost doubled, employing 18 million women across the LAC region. This growth could be attributed in part to an increasing number of middle class women entering the labour market (and a lack of corresponding family-friendly policies and provisions, or changes in social norms), but it is also a tell-tale sign of the staggering inequality in the region, as higher income households can easily afford low paid domestic workers, desperate to work even with the worst conditions. They are predominantly afro-descendant or indigenous poor women, or migrants from poorer neighbouring countries, prone to being exploited as they often have an irregular migratory status.

Reproductive health As well as violence against women mentioned above, another factor keeping women and girls behind is the issue of sexual and reproductive health rights and is a particular problem in LAC. Many countries have limited healthcare provisions, particularly for poorer and rural communities (e.g. Peru, in spite of a growing macro economy, has high levels of maternal mortality rates among Indigenous women) and several countries have legal or de facto total abortion bans in place. This, coupled with poor sexuality and sexual health education in schools (often due to a conservative religious mindset) and limited availability of contraceptives and family planning clinics, particularly for marginalised women and girls (poor, rural, indigenous, afro-descendant), has 18 led to higher maternal mortality rates and an increasing number of teenagers becoming pregnant and leaving school early. Indeed, family planning needs are still largely unmet among women and girls in Haiti, Guyana, and Guatemala. In Bolivia, though the situation has improved, one in five women still has no access to 19 contraceptives. While overall fertility rates have declined, the trend is going in the opposite direction when it comes to girls. The LAC region has very high teenage fertility rates, with 18% of births to girls aged 15 to 19 20 years. 15

ECLAC /Observatorio de Igualdad de Género de América Latina y el Caribe, Informe Anual 2012: Los bonos en la mira. Aporte y carga para las mujeres, March 2013 http://www.cepal.org/publicaciones/xml/7/49307/2012-1042_OIGISSN_WEB.pdf 16 H. Ñopo, New century, old disparities, 2012 http://www10.iadb.org/intal/intalcdi/PE/2012/10588.pdf 17 ILO, Domestic workers across the world, 2013 http://www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/---dgreports/---dcomm/--publ/documents/publication/wcms_173363.pdf 18 Maternal mortality s includes deaths deriving from obstetric complications, pre-existing conditions worsened by pregnancy, unsafe abortions, and suicide. In El Salvador, for example, the leading cause of maternal mortality among teenagers is suicide, Ministry of Health press release, April 2012 http://www.salud.gob.sv/novedades/noticias/noticiasciudadanosas/182-abril-2012/1323--16-04-2012-minsal-inauguro-taller-de-investigacion-regional-para-prevenir-suicidiosen-el-embarazo.html 19 Latin America and the Caribbean NGO/CSW, 20 years of Beijing Platform for Action: Strategic goals and areas of concern, December 2014, http://fifcj-ifwlc.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/Beijing-20-Regional-Document-December-2014.pdf 20 http://www.who.int/maternal_child_adolescent/topics/maternal/adolescent_pregnancy/en/

Championing Gender Justice in LAC, March 2015

Internal document

Gender Inequality in LAC and the Caribbean – a few indicators21 22 (some percentages are rounded to the nearest whole figure)

Rankings

Brazil

0.441

10%

52%

49%

59.5%

81%

El Salvador

0.441

26%

37%

44%

48%

79%

Nicaragua

0.458

40%

101

31%

45%

47%

80%

Colombia

0.459

14%

68.5

57%

56%

83%

Bolivia

0.474

30%

190

48%

59%

64%

81%

Honduras

0.482

19%

100

28%

26%

42.5%

83%

Dom Rep

0.505

105

19%

150

99.6

56%

53%

51%

79%

Guatemala

0.523

112

13%

120

97.2

22%

23%

49%

88%

Haiti

0.599

132

3.5%

350

22.5%

36%

61%

71%

Gender Inequality Index

Governance

Health Maternal Ranking Parliament mortality (out of 148 seats held per countries) by women 100,000 live births

Adolesce nt fertility rate

Education Adult women w/ some higher education

Jobs/Income Adult men Female in Male in w/ some labour labour higher market market education

Our work towards Christian Aid’s strategic change objectives In Christian Aid, our programmatic work in Latin America and the Caribbean has long been aware of these issues and the importance of prioritising gender as key to combating poverty, inequality and violence, with the result that it has been at the core of our work in-country. Our programme activities have taken different forms, such as:  Development of stronger gender sensitive programming in Christian Aid  Capacity building to foster gender analysis, gender policies, and gender sensitive programming in partner organisations;  Strengthening of women´s participation and leadership in movements and partner organisations;  Support for alternative social norms, including validation of a new masculinity model to prevent violence in the community;  Engagement of faith based organisations, leaders and churches in the efforts for gender equality, and active engagement of some programmes in the Faith Leaders Network for Gender Justice.  Empowerment at local level and promotion of women citizens participation;  Support of partner’s work to challenge violations of women’s rights by governments and generation of public policies to tackle gender violence and inequality;  Work to improve women’s access to markets and livelihoods and increased economic autonomy in rural and urban areas, including support in accessing and managing natural resources;  Support for national and international advocacy initiatives against gender based violence. Our work on gender justice is not compartmentalised – it is visible across all of our work, and is at the core of our regional strategy. The following are a series of examples that illustrate our work and how our programmes contribute to Christian Aid’s five strategic change objectives: Fair Shares in a Constrained World, Equality for All, Right to Essential Services, Power to Change Institutions, and Tackling Violence, Building Peace.

http://hdr.undp.org/en/content/table-4-gender-inequality-index These indicators give a flavour of the discrimination against women in the region. However, like most statistics, they should be taken with a pinch of salt. For example, while Nicaragua has a high percentage of women in parliament, none have leadership positions or are spokespeople when it comes to policy. Additionally, the government was exposed last year for maintaining two sets of figures on maternal mortality and was not reporting true figures to the World Health Organisation. 22

Championing Gender Justice in LAC, March 2015

Internal document

Fair shares in a constrained world

 Bolivia: identifying gender bias in tax One of our Bolivian partners, CEDLA (Centro de Desarrollo Laboral y Agrario - Centre for Labour and Agricultural Development) provides quality analysis to inform economic and social policies with a view to combat inequality and poverty. Building on previous work, such as gender sensitive budgeting and resource allocation, and openness on the issue of gender equality by the government, in 2015 CEDLA published an analysis of how the Bolivian tax system 23 exacerbates gender inequalities . The study found that indirect taxes affect women more than men. As well as being a regressive system for tax collection, indrect People marching for a new Constitution in Bolivia. Over the last decade, taxation, as a consumer tax, CEDLA advised the government on fairer taxation of the hydrocarbon disproportionately affect women because industry, which led to more redistribution of the resources available, they are more likely to have no own income particularly to the poorest © Christian Aid/Hanna Richards or a lower income than men. The report shows how fiscal policies are not gender neutral – in fact they are biased (either implicitly or explicitly) and “treat men and women differently, affecting different decisions such as whether to seek paid work or not, how 24 much time is dedicated to paid work or even personal consumption habits”. As a result more attention to how taxes are levied can play an important role in a fairer redistribution of resources and opportunities between men and women. As well as important pieces of policy research such as this, CEDLA promotes labour rights as well as conducting numerous successful advocacy campaigns leading to important changes in government laws, policies and 25 practices. There is currently more openness than in the past by the Bolivian government towards gender issues – so this type of policy work is key to prepare the ground for pro-active advocacy in the future with a view to educate decision makers in to how to make tax fairer and less gender blind. Christian Aid will continue to support this kind of policy research and advocacy.

 Brazil/Bolivia: inclusive market development in the Amazon Inclusive market development is a fast growing area of work across many of our LAC programmes. In the case of the people living in the Amazon region, an area which the Brazil and Bolivia programmes share, it is common for forest communities, particularly people of indigenous and African descent and, and especially for the women in these communities, to be excluded from access to markets and to be affected by agroindustry and megaprojects. When it comes to gender relations, paid activities remain predominantly masculine while feminine participation is often considered to be complementary to the male head of household. It is within this context that the women workers have restricted access to markets, which jeopardizes their decision-making, physical and economic autonomy. To address this exclusion, our work has included partner-led advocacy as an integral part of country agendas on tackling inequalities, changing power and gender relations, engaging with the private sector and promoting transparency. Key highlights include the work by Brazilian partners to provide access to government procurement food programmes for small farmers, indigenous and quilombola 23

R. Coello Cremades and S. Fernandez Cervantes, Política Fiscal y Equidad de Genero en Bolivia, CEDLA, 2014 http://www.justiciafiscal.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/Armado-ONU-Mujeres-Coello-Fern%C3%A1ndez-54-pofavim.pdf 24 25

Ibid. CIU report “Just Tax - Tax changes benefiting the poorest in Bolivia”, 2009.

Championing Gender Justice in LAC, March 2015

Internal document

communities long-term support to secure land reform and land management, and tax justice work to promote more progressive fiscal systems favouring a more equitable distribution of the resources. Some of our key partners in this work in Bolivia are CIPCA (Centro de Investigacion y Promocion del Campesinado – Centre for Research and Promotion of Campesino Communities) and Fundación Nuevo Norte (New North Foundation); in Brazil, they are MAB (Movimento dos Atingidos por Barragens – Movement of People Affected by Dams) and CPI-SP (Comissão Pró-Indio de São Paulo - Pro-Indigenous Commission of São Paulo) – focusing on the production and marketing of cocoa, brazil nut, handicrafts and other agroforestry products. A priority for our projects is to ensure that at least half of leading producers and community organizations are made up of women and that they have the space and opportunity participate in decisionmaking. On the issue of governance, our projects also aim at integrating women’s interests and needs in territorial management plans and promote organisational changes through the implementation of inclusive policies and practices, as well as increased government fund for women’s initiatives.

Equality for all

 Central America: tackling damaging social norms Christian Aid partner CEPREV (Centro de Prevencion de la Violencia - Centre for the Prevention of Violence) works in the field of violence prevention across Central America, and particularly in Nicaragua’s urban communities, where it successfully carried out projects in 38 neighbourhoods of the capital Managua. Thanks to a deep understanding of family and community dynamics and of Nicaraguan society in general, the organisation was able to identify some of the root causes in the rise of violence – in which chauvinism (‘machismo’) play an important part. As a country ravaged by civil war in the not so distant past (1990s), Nicaragua was awash with weapons and ex-combatants with few employment alternatives as the economic crisis loomed. While more women were able to find employment (especially in low paid jobs in factories opening up in free Humberto, an ex- gang member and drug dealer, has now trade zones), expectations about male behaviour failed to turned over his life thanks to CEPREV. A caring single dad change at the same pace as society and the economy. of two, he now volunteers with the organization © Traditionally seen as providers and expected to dominate Christian Aid/Paula Plaza others, men are conditioned from a young age to be tough, competitive and aggressive – which could lead to frustration and violence as men lack productive outlets to express their emotions and opportunities to occupy their time. CEPREV’s programme of work thus focusses on promoting an alternative model for being young and male, certainly a novel approach in Central America and in contrast with punitive approaches usually favoured by the State. Activities include cooperation and dialogue with families and entire communities (including schools and churches), group workshops and individual psycho-social support to young men – as well as training of law enforcement officers and the judiciary. Central to this is the promotion of alternative masculinity models, as well as practical help with employment prospects, such as vocational training and apprenticeships. Since its inception in 1997, CEPREV has seen violence drastically decrease in the neighbourhoods of Managua where they have focused their work - far more effective than the heavy handed approach by the State elsewhere. This was the main conclusion of a study financed by CAID in 2013 to assess the impact of CEPREV’s work. It found that in the neighbourhood where CEPREV had been implementing their programme, crime and violence decreased by over 50 percent, while in a neighbouring area where CEPREV

Championing Gender Justice in LAC, March 2015

Internal document

was not working (used as a control group), violence actually increased by over 16%. Unsurprisingly, young men and their families in both neighbourhoods have asked CEPREV to continue their life-saving work.

 Haiti / Dominican Republic: combating statelessness and exclusion In the Dominican Republic, Haitian migrants and their descendants often bear the brunt of discriminatory policies and attitudes. The situation of statelessness faced by many Dominicans of Haitian descent, particularly since 2013, as well as the recent mass repatriations, show just how far the Dominican Government is prepared to go. Christian Aid partner MUDHA (Movimiento de Mujeres Dominico-Haitiana - DominicanHaitian Women´s Movement), founded by renowned activist Sonia Pierre, has a long history of challenging the exclusion of Dominican women of Haitian descent in their society. Run by and for Dominico-Haitian women, it defends their legal rights – such as the right to a name and nationality – campaigns for justice and helps secure basic services for predominately women and children who otherwise may not have access to education and healthcare. MUDHA works in 20 ‘bateyes’, communities that were originally temporary housing for sugarcane workers. In total, more than 200,000 people (of which MUDHA reached directly about 8,000) still live in bateyes in precarious conditions, with limited access to healthcare, education, electricity, water and sanitation. Sirana Dolis, a MUDHA staff member told Christian Aid: “we always work with women first, as they’re the ones who get involved first. We also have activities for men, women and young people - open activities – so they’re involved together. Our work with men also includes reproductive health and new masculinities. This is to do with perspective, the vision of a new man, not the typical traditional male. It’s about being a man who is responsible, sensitive, capable of accompanying his partner, being a responsible father and respecting his family. Of course there is resistance by men! […] But we saw that something began to 26 change; women began to start asking for respect, demanding their rights”. In the bateyes, 48% of children under five born there have no birth certificate and 33% of over 16s have no identification papers. This leads to serious difficulties with school enrolment, career opportunities, and a range of other practical difficulties including travelling even within the country or getting married. The Dominican situation has effectively created a group of people who, on the basis of their ethnicity, have been denied the most basic rights. As a woman’s organisation MUDHA has focussed their work in helping mothers to register births, provide information on migration and labour rights and support people to get the legal identity documents they need to go to school, get a job or get married. Currently MUDHA is working with 349 legal cases to help people living in the bateyes get their indentity documents or regularize their immigration status. MUDHA has also been involved in litigating for years to change discriminatory laws and support individuals with their complaints. In 2014, MUDHA (together with GARR and others) won a dispute with the Dominican government before the InterAmerican Court of Human Rights, whereby the Court ruled that the State must provide redress for human rights abuses suffered by Dominicans of Haitian descent and Haitians as a result of illegal deportations, denial 27 of identity documents and arbitrary deprivation of nationality.

Tackling violence, building peace

 Colombia: reclaiming women’s rights in a context of conflict For the high levels of acts of sexual violence against women over the course of the Colombian conflict, impunity has been the norm. Sexual violence, the Constitutional Court said, was part of an “habitual, 28 extensive, systematic and invisible practice”. This had led to vast underreporting and also to reinforcing pre-

26 27

CIU Report 2014, Dominican Republic: Tackling inequality.

http://mudhaong.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/Sentencia-Caso-de-Expulsiones-de-Dominicanos-y-haitians-Vs-Rep.Do..pdf 28 ABColombia and Sisma Mujer, Colombia: Women, Conflict-Related Sexual Violence and the Peace Process http://www.abcolombia.org.uk/downloads/ABColombia_Conflict_related_sexual_violence_report.pdf

Championing Gender Justice in LAC, March 2015

Internal document

existing damaging social norms and violent patterns against women. A study conducted between 2000 and 29 2009, revealed at least 12,800 cases of conflict rape, while over 1,500 were forced into prostitution. Christian Aid started working with new partner SISMA Mujer in 2014. Sisma Mujer has long been working to visibilise the impact of conflict-related sexual violence in Colombia and supporting women in the long process of achieving justice and reparations. It has also advocated for women’s rights in the peace process, for example by calling for perpetrators to be fully accountable (violence against women in conflict is a war crime and should not be included in amnesties). Over 15 years, Sisma Mujer’s work has benefited over 20,000 women and girls survivors of violence from all walks of life (survivors sexual and domestic violence, threatened community leaders and human rights defenders, marginalised campesinas, indigenous and afro-descendant women, internally displaced people). Sisma Mujer has also had many important advocacy wins, such as: putting forward civil society proposals for national legislation on violence against women; litigation of cases of violence against women as a grave human rights violation; a Constitutional Court ruling on special and preferential attention needed by displaced women; legislation aimed at strengthening women’s participation in politics; as well as a range of rulings and recommendations by the Inter-American and UN human rights systems. The particular project that Christian Aid is supporting is the protection and access to justice for survivors of sexual violence related to the conflict – given that only 18% of women report sexual violence and the impunity rate is more than 98%.30 Since last year, Sisma Mujer has been conduct strategic litigation and legal representation of several emblematic cases to to gain favourable jurisprudence and thus benefit and encourage other women to come forward. At the same time, Sisma Mujer is also influencing the peace negotiation agenda and raise awareness of the need to bring justice and truth to survivors.

Right to Essential Services

 Haiti/Dominican Republic: enabling access to essential services for women in displaced people camps The recovery of post-earthquake Haiti is still as painfully slow as the need is great. Women and children suffered disproportionately and continue to be vulnerable today – especially as the proportion of women and girls in IDP camps is still high. Recently, sister agency Church World Service reported that the Haitian Government expected to have a 500,000 national shortage of homes by 2020 and that only 27,353 houses had been repaired and 9, 032 31 had been built as of October 2014. Amidst this housing crisis, women and girls still suffer high levels of insecurity, domestic and sexual violence, sexually trasmitted diseases, as well as MUDHA supports women who lost their home and income in Haiti’s difficult access to water and sanitation. At the earthquake. Here women sell their products at the market © Christian /Kate Tuckett same time, more women tend live in poverty and additionally many of them have to bearAid the burden of sustaining a family alone, given the high proportion of single parent families. To respond to this need, Christian 29

Campaign ‘Rape and Other Violence: Leave my Body out of the War’, First Survey of Prevalence, Sexual violence against women in the context of the Colombian armed conflict, Colombia 2001‐2009. http://www.usofficeoncolombia.org/uploads/application-pdf/2011-03-23-ExecutiveSummary.pdf 30

ABColombia, Colombia: Women, conflict-related sexual violence and the peace process, 2013, http://www.christianaid.org.uk/images/ABColombia-conflict-related-sexual-violence-report.pdf 31

For a wider picture of the housing crisis, see this short briefing by CWS: http://www.haitihousingdc.org/uploads/1/1/6/0/11608788/housingconferencefactsheet_revised_and_corrected.pdf

Championing Gender Justice in LAC, March 2015

Internal document

Aid has been working with partner organisations GARR, KORAL, Haiti Survie and SSID to build permanent housing. All of these organizations ensured that Haitian women were given priority for titles to houses, were eligible for all livelihood packages and given priority for access to micro-credit and conditional cash transfers for commerce For example, in the case of SSID, out of the 196 beneficiaries of housing in Ganthier/Boen, 103 were women. Fieldwork has indicated that women are active participants in community structures (cooperatives, Local Civil Protection Committee, etc.) In the rural communities where Christian Aid partners are active the main economic activities are farming, small scale businesses, and manual labour - mostly done by women. In 2012, after a prolonged drought and two hurricane force storms, the harvest was practically devastated – and as such the livelihoods of women and the families they support. This was confirmed by partner KORAL, working Les Cayes department, which found after needs assessment with communities affected by hurricane Sandy, that women need to be prioritised with recovery initiatives as they are heads of households, income generators and caretakers. Christian Aid partners have also used recovery initiatives to involve women and men as equal partners in recovery work. They are included in all stages of the project cycle from planning, implementation to monitoring and evaluation.

Power to Change Institutions

 Brazil: empowering informal workers Across the LAC region, a large part of the population is dependent on informal 32 employment for their livelihoods. At least 130 million workers in the region are employed in conditions of informality, with no form of social security 33 protection. About 31% of Latin and Caribbean women of active age have no income. In the city of São Paulo this number reaches 40%. Amongst the people working in informal conditions, women and minorities groups tend to be overrepresented. In São Paulo, most street vendors work in conditions of informality, CGGDH supports informal workers organize and claim their rights. In this picture a woman employed at a recycling cooperative set up with the support of and about 40% of them are women. People CGGDH. Before the cooperative, informal workers had no rights or regular in this sector work long hours and barely income © Christian Aid/Sian Curry scrape a living. Additionally, women vendors often face violence and harassment at home and on the streets, including at the hands of the police. It is common that women vendors suffer violence in the home and are expected to take care of domestic work as well as paid labour. They are not considered on the same level as men by the community or the police. One of them, Geni Vicente, said “I work from Sunday to Sunday, without break. In fact Sunday is the best day as the police won´t show up […]I can’t read or write, I’m fifty-three and can’t get any other job. [...] Since I was a 34 child, I was raised working as a vendor, so for me it is really important to be able to work in the street.”

ILO, Decent work and the informal economy, 2013 http://www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/---ed_emp/--emp_policy/documents/publication/wcms_210442.pdf 33 ILO, 2013 Labour Overview. Latin America and the Caribbean, 2013, p. 11 34

Geni’s full testimony is available on CGGDH’s publication Street Vendors and the right to the City, 2014, http://wiego.org/sites/wiego.org/files/publications/files/Gaspar-Garcia-Centre-Street-Vendors-Right-City.pdf

Championing Gender Justice in LAC, March 2015

Internal document

Christian Aid partner CGGDH (Gaspar Garcia Human Rights Centre - Centro Gaspar Garcia de Direitos Humanos) supports these workers with a range of activities, including legal advice to enable individuals to claim their rights, support with union organising, and advocacy with local institutions and authorities to visibilise the role and needs of informal workers (e.g. lack of access to credit, welfare benefits, access to housing). A successful activity has been the creation of the “Street Vendors Forum” which gives São Paulo informal vendors a platform to organize and enables them engage with a variety of local institutions and authorities to claim their rights and combat exclusion. Identifying women vendors as the main target of violence in the home and in the streets, CGGDH has recently focused its work on empowering them – particularly inside the Forum and also creating more opportunities for them to become leaders in the sector and organising the defence of their rights, since they were largely marginalized – in fact, the request to receive 35 this kind of support came directly from the women vendors. The activities conducted so far include legal aid, information surgeries and workshops. The direct targets of CGGDH’s project are an estimated 3,000 women vendors and 500 women who participate in the “Street Vendors Forum”, as well as other regional organisations - with an anticipated positive impact on over 20,000 members of families of women street vendors. In the first year, CGGDH set up a Referral Centre for Women vendors, which attended directly 740 women. The women who suffer most are those who do not hold a permit (affected by precariousness) or work in the most marginal, insecure areas. These women are those who suffer most at the hands of partners, other vendors, passers-by, and police. Becoming aware of their rights or even acquiring a vendor’s permit, has enabled these women to organize, solidarize, and defend themselves from police harassment, but also achieve independence from abusive partners.

 Central America: advocating against imbalances in government spending As well as changing damaging social norms, finding out how much a country spends to combat poverty and help vulnerable and marginalised among women and girls is an indispensable step towards achieving gender justice. In Guatemala, Christian Aid partners with CODEFEM (Colectiva para la Defensa de los Derechos de las Mujeres en Guatemala - Collective for the Defense of Women’s Rights in Guatemala), an organisation with a long experience of public budget monitoring through a gender lens. It has contributed to the creation of a Gender Budget Classifier, a tool that helps visibilise the different impact of public expenditure on men and women and enables monitoring and evaluation of public expenditure (quantity and quality). The ultimate goal 36 is to ensure that resource allocation does indeed address gender imbalances. After a decade of work and in alliance withother feminist organizations, in 2013 CODEFEM successfully advocated for a modification to the National Budget Law (Ley Órganica del Presupuesto – the law that regulates the formulation and execution of 37 the public budget) to include the gender budget classifier permanently. Even though the Gender Classifier 38 had been known and used by certain government institutions for some time , this modification in the law means that from now all public institutions are obliged to use this tool – and is therefore an important advocacy win for CODEFEM. The next challenge however, is the implementation of the law. Throughout 2014, CODEFEM has been sharing information, training public authorities and conducting other advocacy activities to promote the use of this tool and at the same time denouncing its weak implementation by public authorities. For example, in a public event organised in December 2014, CODEFEM criticised the insufficient use of the Gender Budget Classifier and commented that, while there has been an increase in the total 35

Christian Aid internal blog, Partner Gaspar Garcia Human Rights Centre EC project has successfully strengthened the street vendors in their struggles for the right to the city, January 2014 http://division/site/id/lacia/Lists/Climate%20change%20blog/DispForm.aspx?ID=64&Source=http%3A%2F%2Fdivision%2Fs ite%2Fid%2Flacia%2FLists%2FClimate%2520change%2520blog%2FAllItems%2Easpx 36 CODEFEM, Monitoreo y Evaluacion del Gasto de Género 2012 http://codefem.org/wpcontent/uploads/2014/09/Monitoreo-Gasto-de-Genero_2012_CODEFEM.pdf 37 The law also establishes classifiers on different areas of expenditure: indigenous people, security and justice, education, reduction of undernourishment, water and sanitation, childhood and youth. 38 The 2011 edition of the Gender Budget Classifier Manual, published by the Women’s Ministry (Secretaría Presidencial de las Mujeres) can be found here: http://www.presupuestoygenero.net/images/documentos_biblioteca/B1166SepremGUA.pdf

Championing Gender Justice in LAC, March 2015

Internal document

expenditure of the national budget on gender issues (from 1.33% in 2012 to 8.6% in 2014), this increase translates to a less than USD 2 per day per woman in Guatemala – a nominal amount in a country with high levels of feminicide and stark inequalities affecting women and girls.

Looking ahead Gender inequality and gender violence is an issue which governments in the region are increasingly aware of also thanks to the advocacy work of local women’s rights organisations. Yet statements of commitment and legislation alone do little to tackle the problem, as persistent gender inequality remains at the very basis of the inequality in Latin America and Caribbean. Women in general tend to be the most affected by LAC’s unsustainable development model, and those most affected are minorities such as indigenous and afrodescendants women and girls. 39

It is local organisations who have demonstrated that it is they who drive the real change. Therefore, Christian Aid is committed to reinforcing our ongoing gender programming work with existing partners, and in alliance 40 with other organisations working towards for gender justice. This is why our work in LAC will continue to support initiatives that have the potential to break new ground and transform lives affected by inequality and discrimination. Some of our future projects include: - establishing a regional gender programme of work to drive increased capacity and commitment to implementing the Gender Justice strategy and address the root causes of gender inequality, as well as communicate how we are achieving this. - establishing a gender justice faith movement by mobilising existing faith networks and allies to participate in ecumenical activities and publicly challenge discrimination and gender inequality activities in their faith communities, starting from Brazil and Haiti; - a project promoting sexual and reproductive health and rights, focusing on culturally appropriate services for marginalised communities in Central America (El Salvador, Nicaragua, Honduras, Guatemala) and a new gender-based violence and masculinities project in Nicaragua, focused on opinion makers and media, as well as local communities, authorities and schools; - a new project in Brazil, strengthening the women’s resilience and ability to claim their economic and social rights, specifically their participation in peaceful resolution of conflicts stemming from the construction of megaprojects in the Amazon region; - ongoing work with new partner Fundación Nuevo Norte (see above), which specializes in inclusive market development handicrafts with indigenous producers in Bolivia, prioritizing women’s access to markets. - a regional project to support faith based organisations in Colombia, to prevent gender based violence in humanitarian zones in the context of the ongoing peace process, from the successful experiences of Brazilian partner SADD (Anglican Service of Diakonia and Development – Serviço Anglicano de Diaconia e Desenvolvimento) and Haitian MISSEH (Social Mission of Haitian Churches, Mission Sociale des Eglises Haïtiennes ), with the possibility to scale up to other regions.

S. Laurel Weldon & Mala Htun, Feminist mobilisation and progressive policy change: why governments take action to combat violence against women, Gender & Development, 21, 2, 2013 231-247 http://policypractice.oxfam.org.uk/publications/feminist-mobilisation-and-progressive-policy-change-why-governments-take-action295457