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Plan shares great example of CSO / Local Authority cooperation in combatting child labour in El Salvador

Plan and the Mayor of San Juan Opico meet up with EU officials in Brussels

Celina Rosales, Plan program manager in the Department of La Libertad, and Romeo Barilla Panilla, Mayor of San Juan Opico, flew all the way from El Salvador to meet with high level representatives and stakeholders in Brussels, and to present their mutual four year project for the prevention and eradication of child labour in market and street sales in the Department of La Libertad. Plan has implemented the project in collaboration with six municipalities of La Libertad, including Romeo’s municipality, to fight against child labour in El Salvador. During the two days that Celina and Romeo spent in Brussels, they attended meetings with members of three key European institutions- the European External Action Service (EEAS), the European Parliament (EP) and the European Commission (EC) – where they presented the outcomes of the EC funded project, using evidence based data to call on the European Union to continue supporting similar initiatives.

The first meeting took place on Monday 19^th at the EEAS’ premises, where Zuzana Sutiakova and Michael Swann from the Human Rights Policy Guidelines Division and Gerard  Schulting from the El Salvador Geographical Unit, listened to the Mayor and the Project Manager’s presentation of the project implemented. It was followed by an exchange of views on child labour eradication strategies and best practices in ensuring the sustainability of the project. Local authorities’ long term investment and partnership between the municipality and NGOs like Plan was perceived by both EEAS officials and the Mayor as a key element to ensure the sustainability and long lasting positive outcomes of the project.

In the afternoon, the Mayor was invited by the EP Delegation for the relations with Central America to present the EC project to the Members of the EP. Despite the fact that the Mayor had limited time to speak, he successfully pledged for the EU’s support in combating child labour, putting the emphasis on the links between regional and the local level to contextualise the presentation made to a delegation that focuses on region to region relations.

On Tuesday, Sophie, Grants and Policy Officer, and Patricia, Communications and Media Officer, interviewed the Mayor on his views on the challenges faced in his constituency to fight child labour. The Mayor recognised that much remains to be done to raise people’s awareness on child rights and comprehensive strategies, that include the generation of income for parents, must be developed to sustainably change the current situation, in which parents believe they have no other choices than to ask their children to contribute to the financial sustainability of their families. He stressed that the municipalities are committed to support such strategies, and consider the European financial support as crucial to support local initiatives of this kind, especially when it has been proven that the methodology used is effective and replicable at a larger scale.

In the afternoon, Celina and Romeo met with Patrice Lenormand, head of Human Rights Unit at the EC Directorate General for Development and Cooperation. When presenting the project, Celina highlighted that the EC funded project received an A from a ROM evaluation, meaning that the evaluators contracted by the EC considered the project as highly satisfactory and sustainable. Discussion evolved about upcoming funding opportunities available for non-state actors and local authorities in El Salvador, and Patrice Lenormand strongly encouraged Celina and Romeo to seek for more funding either to continue their project or to replicate it at a larger scale. He also invited them to attend the European Instrument for Democracy and Human Rights Forum, which will take place in May in Brussels, to present the project to more than 200 representatives of NGOs working in the field of human rights and development.

During these two intensive days in Brussels, Celina and Romeo successfully advocated for continued financial support from the European Institutions for initiatives bringing closer together non-state actors (NSA) and local authorities (LA) to improve the life of children. Not only did they raise awareness on child labour and the effectiveness of CSO-Local Authority partnership, but they travelled back to El Salvador with the confidence that the EC, the EP and the EEAS recognized the importance of CSO and LA partnerships to fight against child labour. Next steps will be first, meeting with the EU Delegation in El Salvador to advocate for increased support to scale up this project and replicate this successful methodology, and secondly, coming back to Brussels in May to present the positive outcomes of the project to peer NGOs at the EU Human Rights Forum.

Sophie Deraedt, Grants and Policy Officer at Plan EU Office, accompanied Celina and Romea during their stay in Brussels.

FIND OUT MORE

Watch interview with Romeo Barilla Panilla, Mayor of San Juan Opico in El Salvador.

Read more about the project in El Salvador.

(B)right Policies for Children

Childrights Training in the European Parliament

30 people, two hours, one purpose: learning about children’s rights in EU policy making. Plan EU Office together with Eurochild held an informal training for political advisors, MEPs and assistants. Slovakian MEP and Vice-President of the European Youth Forum, Katarína Neveďalová, facilitated this first session in the European Parliament on 10 February. Although on a Friday morning prior to another plenary week in Strasbourg, the training was well attended and every seat was taken. The MEP assistants would not regret having spent some of their precious time at the training.

Step in my shoes.

An induction to better work.

Every participant is somehow involved in policy making. Every participant is interested in child rights. Thus, we presented the three reasons why it is important to consider child rights when you work on a policy:

Firstly, rights-based approached policies are holistic and aim to identify underlying causes. Practice has shown that they lead to fewer corrections in the future. Simply said, child rights produce more sustainable policies.

Secondly, statistics reveal neglected areas – even we were surprised about some of the findings. For instance, poverty is higher amongst children than in the rest of the population. About 20 per cent in Europe and over a third of the world’s population is under 18. Despite such a big proportion, children are seldom consulted in the policy making process and progress happens too slowly.

Thirdly, it is often forgotten, but all EU member states have signed the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC). This means they all are obliged to fulfil these rights and inform and empower people affected by their policies.

Over 7,500 words – simply explained.

The UNCRC counts as the source for child rights. However, even experts, or highly motivated people like us, are not able to remember every word of the entire text. Vital stories, ranging from the patriarchally motivated Kamalari system in Nepal to active engagement in the Finnish children’s parliaments, illustrated the four core principles that should always be remembered: non-discrimination, best interests, participation, and survival and development.

Our colleagues Mieke and Réka from Eurochild subsequently illustrated the importance within the EU context on the basis of two concrete policy examples: the recent Lisbon treaty and the upcoming Multi-annual financial framework.

Overwhelming feedback.

From the received evaluation forms, 100 per cent would recommend the training to colleagues. We were further pleased to hear that the interactive character was welcomed and the provided information has been valued as useful for the parliamentary work. As almost all participants expressed their interest in a follow-up work shop, we will prepare the next opportunity to learn more about child rights in the near future.

“She does not know the meaning of marriage and divorce has ruined her life”

Maryam interviewing girls in her community

Maryam, age 15, from rural Pakistan, shares the bitter realities of early and forced marriage among pre-pubescent girls in her community.

I know of a girl called Praveen* who is 12 years old. She lives in a nearby village.

Praveen’s parents arranged for her to marry a man who is 32 years old. The girl was sent to live with the man’s family as his wife, even though she did not know the meaning of the word ‘marriage’.

Praveen was too young, with a childish mind and thinking. She liked to play with toys in her husband’s house. These were the toys belonging to the grandchildren of her parents-in-law.

Praveen’s mother in law was not very good to her. She got angry when Praveen played and complained to Praveen’s father that she often eats the tomatoes she is meant to be cooking for the family.

After 3 months of marriage, Praveen’s husband decided to divorce. He was angry with her. She was too innocent and unable to adapt to her husband and his family. Even though she was 12 years old, Praveen’s parents blamed her for the divorce. In the community it is the girls’ fault if she divorces, not the man’s.

After the divorce, Praveen was sent back to live with her parents where she weeps and remains sad. At the age of 12, she does not know the meaning of marriage and divorce has ruined her life. Now her parents feel she is a burden and want to marry her away again as soon as possible.

I think that early marriage stops the mental, physical and educational growth of the girls and they are not able to participate in the development and progress of their family life as well as country and community.

I will work in my community to help reduce the rate of girls who are affected by early and forced marriages. I will give them awareness, conduct meetings with them, share experience with them and discuss with them in simple language.

Parents, families and girls may think marriage sounds charming, because they can get new clothes, but they should keep in mind the hard realities of what early and forced marriage brings. The dream will be broken.

Maryam was selected to represent Pakistan as part of the girls’ delegation at the 56^th session of of the Committee on the Status of Women. Maryam is the daughter of a farmer in rural Pakistan and the youngest child of 6 in the family. She is currently in the 10^th class at high school and travels 20 Km and 1 hour each way to get there from her home.

*The name of the girl has been changed.

Meeting Bill Gates

©European Parliament

He spoke for 45 minutes, to Members of the European Parliament and many, many representatives of civil society, representatives like us. The Hemicycle, the venue in the Parliament in Brussels, was pretty full, but far from exploding.  I secured a good place in the middle, in one of the front rows, no more than ten meters away from Bill Gates, icon of the American dream and dedicated philanthropist: The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation wants to “apply new thinking to big problems and find solutions for people with the most urgent needs.”

Based on his aim to take on extreme poverty and poor health in developing countries, Bill Gates gave his speech at a session of the Committee on Development. He complemented the work that the EU has done in development in the past. In fact, he emphasised in a plea to the attentive crowd: European Union, do not to step back from this involvement – the EU must be proud of what it has done and be strong in pushing this forward.

Bill Gates speech was rather motivational than visionary or concrete, yet as many others in Europe, he is closely following the EU’s budget negotiations for the Multi-Financial Framework 2014-2020. Let’s hope that many of the important EU stakeholders listened to this inspiring, and indeed influential, man. I certainly did.

Elisa Baldini, Advocacy and Campaigns Officer at Plan EU Office, partner of the Action for Global Health network.

Monitoring Laos!

As EU Funding Manager, I was able to accompany the EC ROM mission to South-East Asia at the end of November 2011. “Strengthening Local Governance and Participation for the Realisation of Children’s rights to Education” – that is the successful aim of  a European Commission (EC) funded project implemented in the Northern part of Laos, in the Bokeo Province, in partnership with Plan Finland. According to the evaluation of a Results-Oriented Monitoring (ROM) mission, the project is not just well-designed and relevant; its impact prospects are high.

Teachers, members of Village Education Development Committees, the District Education and Sports Bureau and other partners “confirm that the project addresses the discrepancy between national education reform strategies and the failure of local authorities to fulfil the right to primary education of all children in the Bokeo Province,” according to a Monitoring Report of ROM consultants. The ROM methodology is based on the Logical Framework and assesses project performance according to the following five standard criteria:

1) Relevance and quality of project design;

2) Efficiency of implementation to date;

3) Effectiveness to date;

4) Impact prospects; and

5) Potential sustainability. 

ROM missions also consider the project’s approach to cross-cutting issues such as gender, environment and good governance, and pay particular attention to the follow-up pertaining to recommendations made in previous monitoring visits such as Delegation visits, previous ROMs, internal or mid-term reviews. The information the ROM consultants base their assessments on includes a review of project documentation; discussions with EU Delegation Task Managers; discussions with the implementing management team and relevant government/counterpart representatives; and field visits to stakeholders and beneficiaries.

The overall feedback from the ROM consultant towards this project was extremely positive, and the likelihood of achieving the results as per the log frame is high. The integrated approach of child rights into the education sector at all levels of the project, from national level (policy) to provincial, district and village levels, was identified as one of the main strengths; so were the capacity-building approach and awareness raising activities. The youth participation elements, particularly in the radio programme and the drama/puppet shows were also pinpointed as strong aspects of the project. The main challenges lie with the limited capacity of government partners and an effective monitoring system to be put in place.

I was able to collect a few impressions from her visit to Laos. Watch the short film on the ROM visit here.

Khawp jai lai lai to the Plan Laos team for making this visit possible.

Alexander Makaroff is the EU Funding Manager at Plan EU Office.

The Girls’ Advocates

On 22 September 2011, the Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) Roberta ANGELILLI, Edite ESTRELA, Jean LAMBERT, Véronique MATHIEU & Katarina NEVEDALOVÁ launched Written Declaration 39 in support of an International Day of the Girl. We, from Plan EU supported this motion and advocate for its success. After the recent plenary week, we are pleased to say that we are close to accomplishing our mission!

Heading southeast to the European Parliament

The European Parliament operates in Brussels most of the time. However, its official seat is in Strasbourg, France, where the MEPS meet for plenary sessions twelve times a year. Together with our partners from the European Parliamentary Forum we travelled 400km southeast to canvas for the Declaration.  Plan’s national organisations contacted the MEPs from their countries to inform them about the issue upfront. These e-mails raised awareness and pointed out the relevance. Subsequently the co-submitting MEPs constantly reminded their colleagues to sign the declaration during the plenary week. Personalized letters, in particular, made the importance of the Declaration clear. In addition, we distributed fact sheets to all of the MEPs’ offices.

369 MEPs are the majority of the European Parliament – 369 signatories are required to pass a Declaration.

A crucial and hectic period is the time around the vote. Imagine a small corridor with a flock of people aiming to convince the MEPs to sign their Declaration. Every MEP, who walks through to the plenary, is handed flyers from lobbyists and advocates forming a “gauntlet” in the corridor. We secured good positions in the corridor and finally called on the MEPs to sign in front of the chamber.

Knocking on over 700 doors on over ten floors in two buildings, we found MEPs and their assistants being very busy. Nevertheless they acknowledge our issue at hand: many agree that girls face particular challenges and many MEPs were keen to sign. The positive reactions and the steady increase gave us energy in exhausting moments. MEPs from all countries and parties have signed so far. Overall, the intense week was immensely fruitful as the results show.

Finland and Belgium lead the race, Sweden and Luxembourg lack far behind.

At the end of September, 88 MEPs had signed. At the end of October, 207 supported us. Now after Strasbourg we count 295 signatories. In other words, we started with 12 per cent and more than tripled. An incredible 40 per cent of the European Parliament are already in favour of the motion, and we still have about one month left to collect all 365 signatures necessary.

Since the last plenary week we made progress in almost all countries. The biggest advances were made by Finland, Ireland, Cyprus and Belgium. The lowest number of signatories comes from Sweden, the Netherlands and Luxembourg. Regarding the parties, the strongest support comes from the EFA (60.7%), followed by the EPP (46,2%) and the S&D (42,7%). At this point it shall be mentioned that the Chair of the EPP, Vice-Chairs of the S&D, the EUL-NGL, Vice-Presidents of the European Parliament and Chairs and Vice-Chairs from numerous committees joined the list of signatories. Such a broad support is remarkable and demonstrates the importance of an International Day of the Girl.

295 signatories and one month to go!

The upcoming weeks are crucial as the UN vote takes place in mid-December. Strasbourg has been a success. All of us are looking forward to reaching our final goal. The next opportunity will be the mini-plenary session at the end of November. With a little more effort, the chances are good that we can actually manage to pass this motion with joint effort! The countdown is running – 74 signatories to go!

Benjamin Wilhelm is the Communcations and Advocacy Assitant at Plan EU Office. 

From Poverty to Opportunity

Plan UK CEO Marie Staunton shares her impressions on the Policy Dialogue on Health and Education with EU stakeholders in Brussels

Andris Piebalgs, European Commissioner for Development, is enthusiastically promoting an ‘Agenda for Change’ to shape the EU overseas development spends from 2014. But will the ambitious growth it aims for trickle down to the poorest and most marginalised? In last week’s panel discussion with the Commissioner, MEP Charles Goerens of the Committee on Development , Sunita Grote, Programme Manager for Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights at the India HIV/AIDS Alliance and Klaus Rudischauer, Director of Relations with ACP states in the European Commission, I cited Mary Phiri from Chipata, one of Zambia’s poorest regions (see interview with Mary here). At 14 Mary was pregnant and pulled out of school. She and her parents were worried, understandably, because pregnancy related diseases are a leading cause of death for girls in the developing world. With access to a trained health worker she gave birth safely to Mathilde and now wants to go back to school and become a teacher. Would the ‘Agenda for Change’ enable Mary and the 74 million other children out of school to achieve and receive education`? Only if growth is linked to equity!

An equity approach to growth is the right thing to do according to EU values of human rights and poverty reduction. It is also the smartest approach -the modelling done by UNICEF shows that investing in the poorest gives the best return on investment and will get us to the Millennium Development goals faster.

So Commissioners Piebalgs’ commitment to invest at least 20% of spends in health and education will be most effective, if spent on getting girls like Mary back to school. For each year of primary education, she will earn 10 to 20% more and if she gets 7 to 9 years of quality education her family will be smaller and better off. Mary’s family is among the 20% poorest in Zambia, so her baby Mathilde’s chances of surviving to the age of 5 are half those of a child in the richest 20%. Her life chances depend on her family having access to vaccinations and the care of a trained health worker like Happiness here.

The right to universal free health care given by trained workers is vital, if Zambia is to build its human capital, as the government has identified. In 1993, Zambia introduced fees for health care to create a “paying accountable“ health service. In fact the poor could not pay and stopped coming, numbers dropped and the service was cash starved and unaccountable. So the government of Zambia abolished many user fees in 2006: numbers of users doubled and new accountability methods are being tried. This group of young volunteers in Chipata are ensuring that health centres deliver youth friendly services.

The EU policy needs to include not just the supply of health services, but it also needs to support the demand side by working with civil society and local district authorities to hold duty bearers to account. Training young people in social auditing, checking that heath workers are present trained and well equipped – that is a good long term investment for the European Commission.

And one that EU citizens would support. Plan has about 700,000 supporters who live in the EU. They are motivated somewhat by self-interest – a prosperous and healthy South means stronger markets for EU goods and less threat of diseases like dengue arriving in Europe. But mostly they support people they have never met in countries they have never visited, because they realise that the concerns of families far away are the same as their own: to raise a family, to give children a chance in life. Investing in girls like Mary resonates with our common humanity. It is also smart because given a chance Mary can move Mathilde, her children and her children’s children from poverty to opportunity.

A Convincing Case for Girls

Director of the Global BIAAG Campaign, Deepali Sood, reports about her personal experiences during the ‘Because I am a Girl’ Report Launch in Berlin and Brussels.

On the 22nd September the ‘Because I am a Girl’ (BIAAG) campaign launched its 5th report, “So, what about boys?”. I was at the launch events held in Berlin and Brussels. The 22nd September 2011 was a particularly important date for three reasons: it marked the launch of our 2011 addition to our annual “State of the World’s Girls” reports series; Plan is currently leading a global call for International Day of the Girl to be declared on the 22nd of September; and it marked exactly one year until the launch of the global ‘Because I am a Girl’ campaign in 2012.

The German office’s launch event was a fantastic success, capped off by news from German National Office director Maike Röttger that the German Parliament had overwhelmingly voted in favor of supporting a UN Day of the Girl. Germany will now be a major player in a coalition of member states led by Canada, that are currently lobbying the UN General Assembly to vote in favor of a resolution which includes an official declaration for an International Girl’s Day. The German office once again put on a great event, complete with appearances by celebrity campaign ambassadors.

The next day in Brussels, I joined a high-level panel to launch the Girl’s report at the European Parliament (EP) as part of a series of events in the ‘European Week of Action for Girls’ organised by Plan EU Office. These events also included the launch of a cross-Europe ‘Because I am a Girl’ online-card game and competition, and an exhibition of photographs taken by girls from around the world.
The roundtable panel event in the EP was a joint launch of the BIAAG report, and the launch ceremony of the MEP Declaration in support of the International Day of the Girl. Following opening remarks by Edite Estrela, the submitting MEP of the Declaration, in which she highlighted the importance of girls’ rights and gender equality for the European Parliament, and argued for an International Day of the Girl, I was given the opportunity to present the campaign and the report to the large audience of EP representatives and to my fellow panellists.

The EU is a major player for Plan and the BIAAG campaign, as it is the second largest multilateral donor to education after the World Bank, and yet there are some large gaps around its funding and support in the crucial area of adolescent girls’ education. Convincing the EU to increase political support and leadership in education with developing country partners is absolutely key to gaining the necessary multi-sectoral support for girls’ education. Similarly, securing the support of EU institutions for the International Day of the Girl would add significant weight to the call, given the influence the EU wields among its 27 member states and others around the world.
Conscious of the opportunity to directly address my co-panelists from the EU institutions, I made clear the campaign’s calls for increased global focus on the unique issues and challenges facing girls, particularly the barriers to adolescent girls’ education and their lack of visibility in development policy and legislation. I also advanced the call for the Day of the Girl, outlining the most compelling reasons for why a day is necessary and what it will achieve.

A common argument is that an international children’s day and an international women’s day sufficiently address girls’ needs, however this argument speaks to the pervasive attitude towards girls which results in their increased marginalization and invisibility. For example, despite the fact that gender discrimination results in girls suffering disproportionately from violence, abuse and exploitation than women or their male counterparts, in 100 years of the ‘International Women’s Day,’ “girls” have only been explicitly mentioned in the annual themes three times, and never in themes for International Youth Day. Where Girls are mentioned such as “Investing in women and girls” , the challenges faced by women and girls are very different, as are their needs. Additionally, several themes of International Women’s Day exclude girls, such as the 2006 UN theme: “Women in Decision Making”, or the national interpretations of themes such as those focusing on gender equality in the boardroom.

I rounded off my presentation with appeal to the EU to support the BIAAG campaign and its mission to empower girls all around the world to secure their rights and achieve their full potential. I was delighted that fellow panellist Véronique Arnault, Director of Multilateral Relations and Human Rights for the European External Action Service (EEAS), having firstly maintained the official EU position of resistance to the creation of further international days of observance, as well as giving indications that girls rights and empowerment were not a massive priority, had by the end of the panel been soundly convinced of our arguments. She committed to highlighting the issues raised and the Girl’s day call favourably to EU High Representative of the EU for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Baroness Catherine Aston.

We were also fortunate enough to have on the panel Antonio Vigilante, Director of the UNDP Brussels office, who gave a brilliant and engaging address on the report themes, which also included a strong statement of support for the campaign and the call. Given that the theme of the report concerns engaging men on the issue of gender justice and equality, and ensuring their inclusion in the fight for girls rights and empowerment, Signor Vigilante’s perspective was indeed valuable.

Finally, it was an absolute pleasure have Simone, a youth representative from our Dutch office’s youth board, participate on the panel. Simone gave a very poignant address in which she reminded us of the scale and urgency of issues facing girls around the world and the lack of visibility girls have in global decision making processes which affect them too. Simone is also a committed activist for the International day of the Girl and showed a video of her attempt to personally deliver a message to the UN Women Director Michele Bachelet in her office at the UN in New York. Such initiative, as well as the power of the voice of girls at (often youth-unfriendly) events such as these, remind us why it is so crucial to include girls themselves at every level of the global discussions on issues that affect them. For this reason the BIAAG campaign is committed to supporting meaningful girls’ participation, such as Simone’s presentation in Brussels, as much as possible during the campaign’s life time — and hopefully beyond!

It is really exciting for me to see the campaign being taken up so enthusiastically by our offices around the world, and in particular to see the great reception our work received at the EU institutional level. The BIAAG campaign is fortunate to have such great support from the EU Office and I look forward to future areas for collaboration. I wish everyone success with the MEP Declaration, and hopefully this time next year we will be celebrating both the launch of the campaign and the first ever International Day of the Girl.

Taxing Financial Transactions for a Fairer World – here and now

A conference in Paris has heard that the unilateral implementation of a financial transaction tax (FTT) in France is “technically and politically feasible”. The event, organised by Unitaid in collaboration with Oxfam and Stamp out Poverty, among other CSOs, discussed the possibility of taxing the financial sector more than 20 years after the Tobin Tax was first proposed.

Participants including government officials, experts and even bankers themselves agreed that it is time for the financial sector to make a fair contribution to society, following recent bank bailouts made with public money from government.

Discussing the economical feasibility of an FTT, Jean-Pierre Jouyet, president of the European Financial Markets’ Authority stated that the introduction of such a tax “would have no significant negative impact on financial markets”, whether it was implemented “unilaterally, by a small group of countries or in the entire Euro zone”. Arielle de Rothschild, president of CARE France and principal associate of the bank Rothschild & Cie, added that a low rate tax of o.o5% recommended by the Robin Hood Campaign, the major CSO campaign for an FTT, would generate over €12bn per year.

With the idea of an FTT gaining more widespread support in recent weeks and months, much debate has turned away from the question of whether an FTT is appropriate, to what the revenue generated by such a tax should be used for. There are two differing schools of thought, represented in the debate led by Jean-Louis Borloo, of the Radical Party in the French National Assembly, and Carsten Sieling, SPD member of the German Bundestag.

While Borloo endorsed the French position of an FTT for development and climate change, Sieling insisted that at least a proportion of the revenue raised by an FTT must be directed towards national budgets and debt control. “We need to find new funding for development, and an FTT would be a way,” stated Sieling. “But the condition for its concrete implementation will rely on the capacity to mobilise a broad coalition. Deciding to take a part of FTT’s funding for debts could be a way,” he added.

The development community, including Action for Global Health, has been vocal in calling for additional funding to go towards meeting the EU’s development objectives. With only four years to achieve the Millennium Development Goals, the majority of member states are failing to meet their funding commitments. Without additional funding, the targets are unlikely to be achieved.

It appears from the evidence presented during the conference that implementing an FTT is feasible. All conditions are met for this: a favorable environment, a favorable schedule, and technical and legal feasibility. As Carol Nawina Nyirenda, a southern speaker present at the conference, told the audience, “Human life is a value that people will vote for.”

Further links:
http://fttdevelopment.eventbrite.com/
http://www.unitaid.eu/images/NewWeb/documents/Finance/utd_ttf-synthese.pdf

Bruno Rivalan is Advocacy and Campaign Officer at Plan EU Office

So, what about the boys?

Girls around the world still face the double discrimination of being young and being female. They get pulled out of school earlier, they are more prone to be victims of violence, and they suffer from malnutrition more frequently than boys. When we talk about gender equality is often related to women, in rare cases girls also get a mention. So, what about the boys and men in the gender equality equation? Men often feel excluded and even deprived of their rights and powers when the term gender equality comes up. For many men, gender equality is a zero sum game, where they are the losers; the stereotypical ideal of the tough, hard and fighting real man seems threatened. Yet, men cannot do without women, and men who are aware of gender equality are less likely to commit a homicide, to attract a sexually transmitted disease and can more easily express their emotions. Gender is an issue for both sexes; and we need men and boys as agents of power, if we ever want to achieve gender equality.

Violence. Research in Scotland found that 50 per cent of boys and 33 per cent of girls thought that it was okay to hit a woman or to force her to have sex in certain circumstances. This and other downsides of a lack of gender equality affect people throughout the European Union. It is not a problem that can be attributed primarily to EU citizens with a migration background or to developing countries. Society pressures men into ruthless behavior. Over 90 per cent of gun-related homicides occur amongst men. Studies in the US and South Africa have found that young men adhering to traditional views of manhood were more likely to engage in substance abuse, delinquency and unsafe sexual practices. Surveys in the UK reveal that one in four respondents thought a woman were partially or totally responsible for being raped, if she was wearing sexy or revealing clothing. Should that not be more than enough reason to ask and think about the part boys and men play in gender equality?

Fatherhood. Men as children benefit from engaged fathers: boys with concerned dads have happier and more fulfilled lives. In addition, education about gender equality can reduce homophobia and bullying, as well as decreasing transactional sex, early marriage pregnancy and both domestic and public violence. The chances of children – both girls and boys – to live content lives in an economically and emotionally safe environment increase considerably, when mothers are educated. If we truly want to transform the societies in which we live, we all need to understand that gender is about girls and women, boys and men too.

Power. Working against inequality must involve men and boys both as holders of power and as a group that is also suffering the consequences of negative gender stereotypes. In many societies and institutions from the family to the multinationals, it is men who still control the levers of power. Only three of the 27 heads of states of the EU are women. So, without support from those in power we will not achieve equality. History shows us that the legislation that has helped women’s empowerment has in fact been largely put in place my male legislators. Boys and men are an essential part of empowering girls and women. The question, thus, so what about boys and men in gender equality, is not far off. If men and boys believe in justice and fairness, they will be able to see that their mothers, sisters and girlfriends are often not treated the same way as they are; girls and women do not enjoy the same level of respect in their communities and they do not have the same opportunities to make choices about their lives. Boys and men aware of this incongruity can make active changes to false perceptions of the role of women and girls.

So, gender equality is about girls and boys? While, gender equality has often focused on the rights for girls and women, there has been much less corresponding attention on boys and men. A new perspective on gender is needed that is more focused on a productive way of viewing power relationships to the benefit of both sexes. Greater gender equality will help boys to succeed in school, to be comfortable with their own identity, to confidently express their emotions and to build positive relationships of mutual trust and respect, not only with women. While we are promoting gender equality, we must not lose boys and men along the way. We, as a society, need to ask ourselves not only what about girls; we need to give answers to boys, too. To bring about real change, we need to start at the beginning, with the family and the school, with girls and boys. And we need to start at our own doorstep, here in Europe, to set a good example to societies around the world.

Karen Schroh is the Head of the Plan EU Office. Plan recently launched the 2011 ‘Because I am a Girl’ report on the state of the world’s girls.