unchanged at a low level since the 1980s to 1993. Since 1993, there has been an increased tendency to grant
credit to more women. Even so, fewer women than men apply for credit.E/ECA/ACW/RC.V/EXP/CRP.7 Page 90
The situation is better where institutions/cooperative schemes consciously target women. Though women participated in the cooperative lending scheme operated by the national development from 1990 to 1993, their access however continues to be negligible as they fail to meet credit prerequisites of collateral.
In the context of easing access for women within the National Cooperative Development Bank, the Barry Scheme (equivalent of the Grameen Bank) is positively responding to women's problems. In 1993-1994, there was a 95 per cent female participation and access to funds. However, the size of funds available in the lending scheme is only 20 per cent of that available in the cases where collateral is required. Because women access to smaller amounts, their scope for diversification and profit margins is limited.
Rural land: Communal land (chiefdom) ownership of land is the prevailing practice and within this framework women farmers can and do have some measure of usufructuary right to land for subsistence farming by virtue of lineage or marriage. They would, however, have to apply to the chief or male head or husband to gain access. Female holdings are usually small due to the inadequacy of financial resources to hire labour and the rudimentary nature of technology at their disposal, among other things.
Urban property: Women can and do own property in urban areas. Under the statute law, applicable to the western area, women can inherit or purchase land. The constraint to women's access to real estate tenure lies in the restriction imposed by the relatively low average income most women earn in the formal wage or informal sectors.
Information and training: Women's participation in extending information, training and supervisory services to farmers has always been low; it stands at an average of 18 per cent and actually declined from 20 per cent in 1980 to 16 per cent in 1993. Given the cultural restraints, available information and training is usually directed mostly towards male farmers.
Women's legal rights
Although Sierra Leone's one-party Constitution (1978) entitled every person to fundamental and inalienable rights and freedoms, section 17, which provides for protection against discrimination, substantially erodes women's rights as it excludes laws relating to adoption, marriage, divorce, devolution of property and other areas of customary law which adversely affect the lives of women. There are also areas such as the law relating to bail and the acquisition of property under customary law which do not treat women and men equally.
With regard to the law relating to bail, Section 79 of the Criminal Procedure Act of 1965 provides that any person of good standing in the community can act as surety. However, it is unfortunate that in reality only male persons are approved as sureties. Under customary law, women do not own real property as they are regarded as "property" to be owned by men.
Sierra Leone acceded to the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women in 1990.
There is, at the moment, a draft constitution in the country which is being deliberated upon by the National Advisory Council with a view to enacting a fifth constitution. This presents a golden opportunity to women to ensure that their rights are protected and safeguarded by the new constitution.
Legal, judicial and other steps taken to increase awareness of women's rights: As a result of recommendations made to the 1990s Constitution Review Committee by various women's organizations, the office of the Ombudsman was created under the 1991 Constitution. The Ombudsman is responsible for implementing anti-discriminatory legislation; however, this constitutional provision has not been effected.
Further, as a result of a conference held by the Sierra Leone Bar Association as well as several conferences
organized by the International Commission of Jurists, a small group of lawyers have formed a legal aid association serving both urban and rural women. Women's organizations have taken action to inform communities through seminars and public meetings about women's rights and to lobby government administrators and policy makers to spur the government to fully implement the provisions of Convention.
Violence against women: Violence against women is a common occurrence and is increasingly becoming a social concern, particularly in the war-affected areas where women are frequently becoming victims of violent crimes such as rape, abduction, acid-throwing, trafficking for immoral purposes and grievous assault. Domestic violence, including wife-beating, sometimes culminates in a simple black eye, broken limbs or even death, has existed at all levels for generations. It is hardly ever discussed as it is considered private.
With the onset of the rebel war early in 1991, violence escalated in the domestic arena and in cases of rape and sexual harassment against young and female refugees. The deterioration of the economic conditions has led to friction in the home often resulting in serious acts of violence against women. Further, due to poverty, unemployment and financial constraints, many women have fallen victim to illicit trafficking; for example, some unscrupulous persons have indulged in the trafficking of young girls initially employed as maids and taken to parts of the Middle East for trading them for immoral purposes.
Legal position: The laws in the country do not address specifically gender-based violence. There have been no amendments to the laws during the past two decades and there have been no enactment of legal provisions to deal with the issue or to correct the anomalies which exist.
As mentioned above, under the 1991 Constitution, the office of the Ombudsman was established to implement anti-discriminatory legislative, this has unfortunately not been effected.
The police, which is the largest repository of cases of violence, has no special programmes policy on gender issues and though they record 20-30 per cent of cases of gender violence, less than 50 per cent of these ever go to court and the accused are usually discharged due to lack of evidence. Women's participation in the police force is also minimal - 5 per cent in 1985 and 7,5 per cent in 1994. There is an equal absence of women in the judiciary; in 1994, there was only one female judge and three female magistrates.
National machineries for the advancement of women
The Women's Bureau located in the Department of Health and Social Services was established in 1988 by a presidential declaration. It is the Government's machinery for coordinating, monitoring, supervising and evaluating the integration of women in development at grass-roots and national levels. It is assisted by an Advisory Board of leading men and women; it is also represented at related ministries/departments by desk officers and gender focal point personnel. At the national level, however, the idea of gender focal points in sectoral departments has not yet taken off and where these exists, their involvement in policy decisions is minimal or non-existent. Policy guidelines aimed at enhancing the integration of women in all sectors of development, formulated under the Ministry of Social Services and Youth, did not provide strategies for operationalizing the policy. The Bureau is also grossly under-staffed and under-funded and as such, the women's machinery remains a token; sectors and departments thus continue to plan and programme their activities without responding to the needs and concerns of women.
At a national workshop organized by the Government, recommendations were adopted calling for the strengthening of the women's machinery and for the mainstreaming of gender issues in development policies and programmes.
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Administrative structures exist for the implementation of government programmes at all administrative levels; however, women are still underrepresented at decision-making levels in these
structures.
Machineries within the university: The establishment of the Institute of Public Administration and Management (IPAM) and the Gender Research and Documentation Centre (GRADOC) at the University of Sierra Leone created mechanisms intended to promote the achievement of women. The institutions are improving the management performance and confidence of women and enabling them to move to management positions. The women's unit in IPAM runs sensitization meetings while GRADOC provides services and training in support of research and also organizes gender sensitization seminars for teachers and education policy makers.
Non-governmental organizations
Women's organizations have had a long history in Sierra Leone and one of the oldest, the Young Women's Christian Association (YWCA) has made tremendous contribution over the years to the provision and promotion of formal and non-formal education of women and girls.
Other NGOs, such as the Women's Association for National Development (WAND) and the National Organization of Women (NOW) are in women-related activities, including training and sensitization especially for rural women, research studies relating to women's literacy and civic rights and the implementation of child survival projects in collaboration with UNICEF as well as networking with
international organizations. Many NGOs have programmes and projects in areas such as health, education
and income-generation.
In November 1992, the Sierra Leone Women's Development Movement (SILWODMO) was launched by the First Lady and the wives of Secretaries of State. Its major activity is in providing credit and entrepreneurship training for women in the informal sector.
In order to improve coordination among NGOs, the Sierra Leone Association of NGOs (SLANGO)
was established in 1994. SLANGO acts as a coordinating agency for all national and international NGOs
in the country. A women's forum has also been recently formed by various NGOs aimed at strengthening their coordination and collaborating capacity.Sierra Leone is considered a poor country with a per capita of $US 200 and the World Bank together with other statistical data have revealed that two-thirds of the population live below the poverty line.
Because of the absence of a clear definition of poverty, the female-headed household has been considered an indicator in assessing poverty among women in the Sierra Leone context.
As statistics reveal, women who are heads of households are often uneducated, untrained and tend to work on family farms or be engaged in informal sector activities at the subsistence level. They are usually the only source of income for their households. In Sierra Leone, female-headed households are on the increase. In 1980, the national figure was estimated at 21 per cent and in 1990 it stood at 24 per cent.
With the rebel war in the eastern and southern provinces, the proportion of women-headed households is escalating.
Vocational and technical education: In the 72 technical/vocational institutions in the country, female enrolment in the 1987/88 academic year was 58 per cent, in 1989/90 it was 49 per cent, in 1990/91 over half (52 per cent) were females. This increase for females is due to the preference of girls in subjects such
as home economics and typing taught in those institutions. This has serious consequences as they will probably find themselves as petty traders or employed in low-paying jobs such as typists and secretaries.
Day care and pre-school centres for children: If women are to participate actively in the labour force or intensify their activities in the informal sector, more adequate and affordable provisions are needed to take care of their children while at work.
Although about 84 pre-school establishments do exist in the country, they are mainly privately owned and charge fees which many poor women seeking employment outside the home can hardly afford. In addition, the usual tradition of extended family system has broken down in many parts, thus leaving women with no home help for looking after their children. ,
Urban and rural unemployment: Data for 1988-1989 in respect of unemployment shows that more women (54 per cent) than men (46 per cent) are unemployed in the urban areas whereas in the rural areas 69 per cent of men and 41 per cent of women are unemployed.
Thus, women's low educational achievement coupled with family responsibilities keep them in low-paying jobs or engaged in low-income activities making them the majority of the poor in the community.
Government action: Since 1992, the Government has made desperate efforts to combat poverty through various policies including the establishment of the Division of Social Action for Poverty Alleviation (SAPA) within the Department of Development and Economic Planning. The Division works closely with NGOs on programmes of poverty alleviation.
Conflicts and their effects on women
Sierra Leone's involvement in armed conflict started with its membership of ECOMOG which intervened in the Liberian civil war. The fighting spilled over into Sierra Leone resulting in an influx of refugees and Sierra Leonean returnees from Liberia. The composition of the influx was estimated as 10 per cent men, 30 per cent women and 40 per cent children.
By March 1991, a rebel war broke out in Sierra Leone along its border with Liberia increasing the number of refugees and displaced persons. Local populations contributed by allowing some of the refugees and displaced persons to stay with their families. The pressure on them was reflected in the social services particularly food, medicines and housing. The average housewife had reduced options of survival as it became necessary to share the already scarce resources.
Apart from the continuous stress and uncertainty which characterizes the every day life of rural women in the southern and eastern provinces affected by the war, their sense of womanhood, so fundamental to their existence has been seriously challenged. The burden resulting from the deaths of husbands and other male relatives in a patriarchal society sometimes exposes women to roles at variance with decent morality.
Youth, especially young girls who had been economically dependent on boy friends, took to begging or prostitution while others dropped out of school to become premature mothers.
In general, the quality of women's lives has taken a dramatic turn as they are forced to live in camps with dwindling resources to sustain themselves and their families.
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SOMALIA
INTRODUCTION