Rose Buabeng
Ghana
I am passionate about women’s rights issues especially the environment and livelihoods for
African women.
I am a Ghanaian and work for the African Women’s Development Fund in
Accra as a Programmes Officer-Anglophone Africa. In particular, I am in
charge of all applications and reports from English speaking African countries.
My role includes reporting, analysis of grant-making activities of AWDF,
networking and building relationships with a wide range of partners in Africa
region; site-visits, setting and monitoring targets for grant-making on a thematic
and regional basis; and representing AWDF at relevant events. I also provide
technical assistance to grantees and maintain interactions throughout the
grant cycle.
I am a feminist, sure, but I take it for granted. I learnt through the example of my
illiterate mother who was a hardworking entrepreneur and always supported
young unemployed women with financial assistance and advice to engage
in sustainable business ventures to support their households. By example, she
taught me how to be strong and industrious as a woman in order to gain the
confidence and respect of your community. Hopefully, I am teaching my two
daughters the same lesson.
I am passionate about women’s rights issues especially the environment and
livelihoods for African women. I think that the most pressing and urgent issue
is increasing violence against women on the continent despite all international,
regional and national instruments protecting the rights of women. Secondly
increasing poverty levels among women has rendered most women vulnerable,
is compounded by climate change and its attendant impact on livelihoods of
women. As feminists we are challenged because the resources to convene,
strategize and deliberate are dwindling. We need to seriously look at alternative
means of resource mobilization to sustain convening and the creation of safe
spaces to engage on critical issues affecting women on the continent and finding
lasting solutions. Secondly, we need to strengthen grassroots mobilization
and movement building and integrate these into national and regional level
movement building. Finally, we need to mentor and attract more young women
into the movement and to sustain their interest in activism. We also need to
popularise The Charter within the feminist circles and even beyond. Women’s
organizations must also be provided with the needed capacity building to use the
Charter more effectively to transform their organizations.
At the personal level, I have adopted some young girls at the high school level
am mentoring in gender equality and feminist issues; this is to groom them and
enhance their interest in feminist activism.
What inspires me most is the hard work of previous generations of feminists;
the power of women to champion their own development and the need to
fight for women’s basic rights to have a voice, to make our own choices, to be
respected and safe in our society.
VPS II
. 33