EMPOWERING WOMEN

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EMPOWERING WOMEN
A partnership building seminar

• France, 13th-18th December 2010

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Life is an opportunity, benefit from it.Life is
beauty, admire it.Life is bliss, taste it.Life
is a dream, realize it.Life is a challenge, meet
it.Life is a duty, complete it.Life is a game,
play it.Life is a promise, fulfill it.Life is
sorrow, overcome it.Life is a song, sing
it.Life is a struggle, accept it.Life is a
tragedy, confront it.Life is an adventure, dare
it.Life is luck, make it.Life is too precious,
do not destroy it.Life is life, fight for it.

• Mother Teresa

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WHAT IS EMPOWERING?

• POWER and LIBERTY
• CAPACITY and KNOWLEDGE
• to decide and to take action
• OPPORTUNITY to fulfill ones aims

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No one can make you feel inferior without your
consent.

• Eleonor Roosvelt

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EMPOWERING , WHERE?

• Economic participation and opportunities
• which is the female involvement in the economic
  production ?
• How is considered the women contribution to the
  family income?
• Which are the real opportunities for women for
  combining their private and professional lifes?
• Considering thus
• The wage equality between men and women in
  similar works
• Ratio of estimated female to male earned income
• Female economic activity rate as percentage of
  male economic activity rate
• Weeks of paid maternity leave allowed per country
• Maternity leave benefits (percentage of wages
  paid in covered period)
• Female professional and technical workers (as
  percentage of total)
• Availability of government provided childcare
• Impact of maternity laws on the hiring of women
• Equality between women and men for private sector
  employment

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We never know how high we areTill we are called
to riseAnd then, if we are true to plan,Our
statures touch the skies.

• Emily Dickinson

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EMPOWERING , WHERE?

• Political empowerment
• Which is the involvement and contribution of
  women in political life?
• Has a women the same opportunities for entering
  the decision amking world?
• Reflecting on
• Number of years of a female president or prime
  minister in the last 50 years
• Women in government at ministerial level (as
  percentage of total),
• Seats in parliament held by women (as percentage
  of total),
• Female legislators, senior officials and managers
  (as percentage of total)

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There are two ways of spreading light ...To be
the candle, or the mirror that reflects it.for
I'm learning to sail my ship.

• Edith Wharton

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EMPOWERING , WHERE?

• In and THROUGH education
• Education is important for everyone, but it is
  especially significant for girls and women. This
  is true not only because education is an entry
  point to other opportunities, but also because
  the educational achievements of women can have
  ripple effects within the family and across
  generations. Investing in girls' education is one
  of the most effective ways to reduce poverty
• Considering thus
• Average years of schooling, females as percentage
  of males,
• Adult literacy, female rate as percentage of male
  rate,
• Equal job opportunities for women and men with
  similar degrees

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I'm not afraid of storms,for I'm learning to
sail my ship. for I'm learning to sail my ship.

• Luisa May Alcott

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EMPOWERING , WHERE?

• Health and well being
• Which are the substantial differences between
  women and men in their access to sufficient
  nutrition, healthcare and reproductive
  facilities?
• Which are the issues of fundamental safety and
  integrity of person?
• Reflecting on
• Adolescent fertility rate
• Maternal mortality ratio
• Infant mortality

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Just don't give up trying to do what you really
want to do. Where there is love and inspiration,
I don't think you can go wrong.

• Ella Fitzgerald

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EMPOWERING , HOW?

• Power Within enabling women to articulate their
  own aspirations and strategies for change
• Power To enabling women to develop the necessary
  skills and access the necessary resources to
  achieve their aspirations
• Power With enabling women to examine and
  articulate their collective interests, to
  organize to achieve them and to link with other
  womens and mens organizations for change
• Power Over changing the underlying inequalities
  in power and resources that constrain womens
  aspirations and their ability to achieve them.
• Source Mayoux, 2000

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Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one's
courage.

• Anais Nin

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So why a seminar on empowering women?

1. For letting participants deepening the topic and
   its corollaries
2. For deepening the analysis of the fields where
   empowering is needed in the Programme countries
   the three regions (MEDA SEE EECA)
3. For getting a direct touch with the external
   environment, with strong connections with the
   thematic
4. For sharing experiences in the field
5. For facilitating the networking process among
   participants and promoting new common projects.

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HOW can we reach our objectives?

1. By giving the floor to a specialist speech by
   experts on the topic of empowering
2. By supporting participants in preparing in groups
   the analysis of empowering in political, economic
   lifes and in and through education and in the
   health and well-being sector
3. By meeting local organisations or authorities
   related to the field
4. Through an open space activity for sharing
   experiences
5. With group activity for future projects planning
   on networking

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Which participants?

• Youth workers, trainers belonging to
  organisations or bodies dealing with the
  thematic.
• Coming from the Programme countries and the three
  regions (MEDA SEE EECA)
• A gender balance would be REALLY appreciated (or
  at least a significant male participation)

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IS It a mans world??

• It's man's man's man's worldThis is a
  man's world, this is a man's worldBut it
  wouldn't be nothing, nothing without a woman or a
  girl You see, man made the cars, to take us
  over the roadMan made the train, to carry the
  heavy loadMan made the electric light, to take
  us out of the darkMan made the boat for the
  water, like Noah made the ark This is a man's,
  man's, man's worldBut it wouldn't be nothing,
  nothing without a woman or a girl Man thinks
  about a little baby girls and a baby boysMan
  makes then happy, 'cause man make them toysAnd
  after man make everything, everything he canYou
  know that man makes money, to buy from other man
  This is a man's worldBut it wouldn't be
  nothing, nothing not one little thingWithout a
  woman or a girl He's lost in the
  wildernessHe's lost in bitternessHe's lost,
  lost somewhere
• James Brown 1966

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references

• Mayoux, L. 2000. Microfinance and the
  empowerment of women A review of the key
  issues. Social Finance Unit Working Paper, 23.
  Geneva ILO
• Mainstreaming gender empowering Information,
  education and communication for Ethiopian youth
  and adolescents A concept and methodology paper
• Womens Empowerment Measuring the Global Gender
  Gap, World Economic Forum
• http//www.unfpa.org/gender/empowerment1.htm
• http//www.sapphyr.net/women/index.htm
• SEAL, soul, 2008