Developing countries such as Ethiopia have not yet been that much convenient for women to exercise their human and democratic rights so far. However, these days the trajectory is tilting down to the marginalized segments of the society—women and started helping them taste the fruits of equality and freedom though a long journey remains to be stepped up. Women can have ability and willingness to make a difference if they are given opportunity under equal footing.
Obviously, women and girls need to be well eyed at as they are mothers, sisters, wives and capable of sympathetically treat human race. Unknowingly or calculatingly, these segments of the society especially in developing countries have been experiencing numerous barriers when trying to access basic services – such as education and healthcare – or opportunities to improve their livelihoods.
Despite relentless efforts exerted by many charity establishments and some public sector organizations, even gender equality implies equal rights, responsibilities and opportunities for women, men, boys and girls, women and girls are disproportionately affected by persistent gender inequalities in due process of accessing what they deserve.
The extent to which women and girls are at risk of being excluded depends on where they lie at the intersection of different underserved, disadvantaged or marginalized groups in any given context. Inclusive plans and programs that address these barriers and accounts for diverse needs can enhance access to quality services and development opportunities for the broadest segments of society, especially the underserved, vulnerable and marginalized groups.
Underdeveloped and gender-blind business development is also one of the leading causes for the inability of women and girls to access the basic services to support their upward social mobility and reduce the gender gap. Gender-blind business and other productive areas fails to consider the different roles, responsibilities of women, men, girls and boys in a specific context and how this affects their ability to use resources. In times of crisis such as the outbreak of COVID-19, this can have life-threatening consequences for women and girls. They are at risk not only from poor health and education progress, but from inequality of women and men across all sectors, which can limit access to essential services and prevent them from maintaining security and self-sufficiency during social and economic upheaval.
There is a lot to be gained by ensuring equal access to all inclusive services for women and girls. Not only will it improve and protect the lives and livelihoods of women and girls, but will benefit the entire global economy as well. Numerous studies have demonstrated the social and financial advantages of improving gender equality and empowering women.
Women and girls are negatively and disproportionately impacted by disasters and conflict. These crises affect their life expectancy, education, maternal health, livelihoods, nutrition, and the levels of violence they experience.
Transformative policy solutions to support women-oriented organizations in Ethiopia in particular and in Africa plus all developing countries in general should be well consolidated.
These policies shared perspectives from government, private sector and banking on how women-led businesses in tourism, trade, retail, hospitality, education, personal care and similar sectors have suffered as a result of COVID-19, and offered recommendations for immediate, short- and medium-term solutions to mitigate the impact on women-led businesses and overwhelming activities run by them.
The Ethiopian government has now been working for the elimination of discrimination against women and girls; the empowerment of women; and the achievement of equality between women and men as partners and beneficiaries of development, human rights, humanitarian action and peace and security.
The government should also prioritize the whole issue of women in a range of social, economic and political aspects and facilitating the ability of women to combine their reproductive and productive roles successfully. Yes, it should also work to prevent unequal treatment of women in employment
Basically, there very deep rooted norms and values that still militate against gender equality. As a result, we can witness that the current gender dynamics still weigh against the productive roles of women. The image of a woman is still predominantly of her reproductive role and less value is placed on the productive role of them—this has contributed to perpetuate gender stereotypes!
One key element is the recognition of the agency of women by themselves and emphasizing the importance of their economic empowerment.
Policy makers are now making the linkage between gender, economic growth and development. This is really a promising move in due course of encouraging women to discharge all their responsibilities as required. We cannot really talk about development without factoring in the fact that women are productive agents.
The government, as stated earlier, needs to look at the whole range of resources such as, business development, financial literacy, personal mastery or empowerment and access to other productive resources such as land, credit and access to finance.
Undeniably, our country’s value addition is women’s economic empowerment. It has a good record, though not as expected, in terms of women’s entrepreneurship and Small and Medium Enterprises development. Society benefits when a woman is productive. So it should always be an opportunity and a lucrative avenue to make a difference.
The Ethiopian Herald July 29, 2020
BY MENGESHA AMARE
