Abidjan: Training political parties (II)

Madam Nora Noviekou and my humble self then made the presentations on Women and Youth Mobilization and Gender Mainstreaming.There were various sessions and the first began with a History of Gender and moved to Exploring the Idea of Youth in West Africa and Frameworks for Women and Youth Inclusion. Other sessions were on the Role […]

Madam Nora Noviekou and my humble self then made the presentations on Women and Youth Mobilization and Gender Mainstreaming.
There were various sessions and the first began with a History of Gender and moved to Exploring the Idea of Youth in West Africa and Frameworks for Women and Youth Inclusion. Other sessions were on the Role of Women and Youth in Political Parties, Working against Exclusion and Enhancing Inclusion and Political Parties and the hate media Phenomenon. The workshop adopted the participatory methodology using brain storming to elicit from the participants their views and knowledge of gender. They were asked reflect and state how political parties in their country understand and cover the issue of gender in their party documents and activities and how they mainstreamed gender in their policies and activities.
From the response made by the participants, a robust discussion was generated around the concept of gender and assumptions often made about what it means and its application in all sectors. The first misconception that was cleared was to underscore that gender is not about women only but rather about women and men working together.
 Madam Nora then defined gender and its impact on the way society is ordered. Gender refers to the roles, rights, privileges and responsibilities and privileges allocated to men and women, males and females, boys and girls.
Gender is a crosscutting social-cultural variable or attribute similar to other units of social categorization such as class, race, ethnicity, poverty and religion.
It is a socially constructed concept that varies from one community to another and it is institutionalised through socialization process – the process of reproducing, learning, imbibing, adapting and transforming social knowledge, roles and responsibilities. In this sense, gender is dynamic – it is context specific and varies. It is changeable and never static because it keeps evolving over time. Finally, gender is essentially political it speaks to the scope and levels of expectations, what is allowed and valued, who gets what, when and how on the basis of gender identities in a given community.  
  Gender is relevant to issues and discussions about access to and control of resources, power, especially political power, e.g. government and the governed. Others are social classification patterns, especially between rich and poor, class etc.
Gender speaks to ‘Patriarchy’ – systemic societal structures that establish and sustain male physical, social, economic and political power over women. Patriarchy is a system and structure of male power (rule) over females, but its usage is not restricted to men; women could and do use patriarchal structures and practices. There are historical accounts in West Africa where women have exercised power using patriarchal structures and practices.
My presentation highlighted the difference between gender and biological differences. While biological differences, being born male or female such is God given, universal and never changes, gender is created by society; it is not universal changes over time and is reinforced by various means. The channels for transmitting gender identities, roles and responsibilities include:
-Legislation- when formal laws and conventions regulate conduct and specify the limits of rights and obligations in societies.
-Educational System – formal and informal institutions, practices and platforms of producing, gaining, transferring and adapting knowledge in a socio-cultural context.
-Political and economic system – the structures, institutions and practices of power and decision-making about resources, rights, obligations and opportunities in a socio-cultural context. And finally
-Culture and Tradition – the totality of social taboos, folktales, practices, and belief systems through which societies are governed, reproduced and adapted.
Examples of gender application of and reversal of gender roles in communities were cited to bring the issue home.
The session on youth and women identified the two categories as the most important pillars of most political parties. They are not only the most active blocs, but they as well make the most invaluable contributions to agenda setting, sustenance of party structure and mobilisation of votes, among others.
However they are often used and dumped immediately after elections, while party leaders most often do not accommodate these groups within the power structures. In addition, the two groups together constitute the majority of the entire population in West Africa and are the sources of major demands for the dividends of democracy. Mainstreaming them would not only enhance the representativeness of party structures but also contribute to leadership mentoring, and acceptance by the population.
The sessions on youth and women mobilization and mainstreaming focused on equipping political parties with the foundational knowledge and understanding of key themes and issues in women and youth mobilization, inclusion and mainstreaming.  Inclusion is defined as the acceptance and appreciation of all people regardless differences such as race, religion, ideological beliefs etc. It allows people to value differences in each other and recognizing that each person has an important contribution to make to the society.
Each participant made contributions on their political parties’ attempt to adopt and implement inclusive policies.
The workshop ended with distribution of certificates and in their evaluation, participants said they learnt a lot about mainstreaming gender, women and youth in their political parties.  However one of the most important things that happened during the workshop was the opportunity it provided for the political parties to meet, network and understand each other. It was a forum for bonding which ECOWAS, recognizes as a first step in conflict resolution and peace building.