However, work still needs to be done in Sierra Leone to achieve gender equality. The Ministry of Social Welfare, Gender and Children's Affairs (MSWGCA) is one of the constituent Ministries of the Government of the Republic of Sierra Leone (GoSL) that is charged with the responsibility of responding to the social needs pertaining to Gender inequalities, social depravity of groups like the disabled, women rights, child rights, Religious rights among others in Sierra Leone. He reads about societies where the people are able to express their own thoughts and feelings. They have failed using their manipulation over the entire society and had rebellion. In particular, it highlights women's increasing agency in acquiring knowledge, diffusing power, engaging in grassroots politics, and compelling the government to adopt . This refers to the unequal treatment and lack of equal opportunities for individuals based on their gender, with women and girls often facing discrimination and disadvantage. Presenting the Bill to MPs, the Minister It proves a permanent truth that the more civilized the people are, the less inequality would be promoted. The root causes of conflict: evidence and policy implications. Equality, after struggling and fighting for his freedom, finally knows why he lives and what has been missing in his life. In the modern century, for most countries around world it seemed that gender inequality is cruel and unreasonable, but countries in mid-Asia are exceptions. Women enjoy limited access to decision-making power, and access to and control over resources. In recent years the government and its partners, including USAID have been focusing on providing women with access to financial services as it has the potential to act as a catalyst for enhancing womens economic, social and political empowerment. Women hold 12.3% of seats in Sierra Leone's Parliament. Gender inequality coupled with staunchly held, restrictive gender norms manifest itself in high levels of gender-based violence (GBV), which due to the weakened social structures . In third world countries, girls are fighting their families, communities, and countries in order to go to school. The Sierra Leone Telegraph: 26 September 2013. Under analysis by the Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers (World Bank 2005) it was found that 70% of Sierra Leoneans live in poverty. . As of February 2021, only 12.3% of seats in parliament were held by women. On average, a girl can expect to receive only six years of schooling (Kargbo). In Equalitys new world he will have complete freedom and no rules holding people back from learning and growing. Poverty is a complex term that includes social, economic and political elements (Sabates, R. 2008). As a result the poorest rural communities reliant upon agriculture have been forced to forage for bush yam, which is usually regarded as a famine food, prior to the harvest of July, as early as April which is planting time, this is an example of the dire poverty continuing year on year. Celebrate women leaders on the frontlines of the COVID-19 response and beyond, I am Generation Equality: Working together to achieve a gender-equal world, UNFPA Executive Director on International Womens Day. Addressing gender inequalities and promoting women's and girls' empowerment to build an equal future for all children COVID-19: a crisis for women and girls . How do we provide more awareness to forms of silent and normalized oppression? Nevertheless, gender inequality and denial of womens rights are still prevalent at all levels in Sierra Leonean society even though the women for, Current activities also supported by UNFPA include community mobilisation/sensitisation and demand creation activities for family planning, reproductive health and fistula services. Though Sierra Leone global gender gap index fluctuated substantially in recent years, it tended to increase through 2018 - 2022 period ending at 0.67 index in 2022. Photo:UN Women/ Cecil Nelson. She further stated that the transformation of the Act into reality is important owing to the fact that 87 percent of women in the country are more active in the workforce compared to the 75 percent men. Ghana, Liberia and Sierra Leone pledged free access to health care. There have been multiple attempts to create a more equal society and reduce the overwhelming amount of poverty in Sierra Leone, these have been sourced from institutions such as the World Bank, however it is debatable how true their impact has really been with their strong neoliberal bias. Colonization in the country really left the beliefs on gender equality the same, and they have really remained the same since. The experiences of being a woman in Haitian culture often conflicts with that in of American culture. Equality is able to experience a free society through the characters he is reading about. Their voice, visibility, participation and representation in elective and appointment positions remain very low compared to men. The .gov means its official. A combination of cultural prejudices and harsh economic realities join hands, in making life particularly difficult for our ladies. An official website of the United States government. This essay will explore aspects of poverty and inequality within Sierra Leone and the most important cultural and contemporary reasons that mean such large disparities and suffering still exist today. This cycle of life has been around since ancient times and because of different factors, things have not changed in some countries or some part of the world. Copyright 2003 - 2023 - UKEssays is a trading name of Business Bliss Consultants FZE, a company registered in United Arab Emirates. In Sierra Leone, progress has been made in expanding opportunities for women and girls to promote gender equality and empowerment of women. Photo:UN Women/ Cecil Nelson. Legalizing Gender Inequality persuasively refutes this strong-form market-based defense. Poverty and inequality are some of the clearest examples of how gender discrimination harms society. The estimated levels of inequality for Sierra Leone in 1831 seem consistently lower than for all contemporary settler coloniesincluding Brazil and all estimates of wealth inequality from the United States of the early nineteenth century. Paper prepared for UNU/ WEIDER-Queen Elizabeth House Conference on War, Hunger and Displacement: The economics and politics of the prevention of humanitarian emergencies, Stockholm, June 1516. Area 1: overarching legal frameworks and public life, Proportion of seats held by women in national parliaments (% of total number of seats), Proportion of elected seats held by women in deliberative bodies of local government, Proportion of women in managerial positions, Proportion of women in senior and middle management positions, We now have more gender-related SDG data than ever, but is it enough?. Click here to access a PDF version of this article. The first of such lessons is that nothing in life is equal or fair. Some of the inequalities that women face are as follows; shortened life expectancy, little education, assault, domestic violence, lack of healthcare, and low pay for . However, work still needs to be done in Sierra Leone to achieve gender equality. Health promoters, many of them women, work with lead mothers to promote pro-nutrition actions among pregnant and lactating mothers for their own and their childrens benefit and to encourage mothers to attend prenatal and postnatal care. When it comes to early marriages, South Asia leads the world. Father Ferree wrote the social justice and talked about the most vulnerable and how everyone has a duty to help those in need. The implementation of such neoliberal policies is a reason for the continuing existence of poverty and inequality, these generalised policies failed to adapt to the uniqueness of each nations economy and the dictation of an outside nation can be simply considered as a modern practice of colonialism. I have seen Latina maids and European nannies, but I never thought about how those women could have been mistreated. Also, after schooling the number of women in the workforce has gone from 51.3 percent to 53 percent from 1996 to 2004 (MDGs Sierra Leone). For this score, we use the 72 gender-specific SDG indicators in the Women Count Data Hubs SDG Dashboard for the 193 UN Member States. Too many girls and women are still dying in childhood and in the reproductive ages. There have been many problems with the SAPS including devaluation, where the value of local currency has been reduced in attempt to make exported goods more affordable but the knock on effect is that the prices of non-traded items are increased. Because of all these discriminations and inequalities meted on them, pressure . The current Ebola virus disease outbreak in West Africa has infected 27,237 peoplealmost exclusively in Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leoneof whom 11,158 died. An economic perspective. Africa Office Corporate author : United Nations Children's Fund ISBN : 978-92-803-1444-1 Collation : 272 pages Language : English The body of 21-year-old . This created the root of the overwhelming and still existing problem of corruption in Sierra Leone whereby individuals of power failed to act in the best interests of the majority, which of course is the rural population. Equality is such an important thing in our everyday lives. Oxfam started operations in Sierra Leone in 1998, with relief work focused on emergency water, sanitation and hygiene provision in the context of the civil war that was ongoing at the time. In M. Berdal & D. Malone (Eds. Sierra Leone has sustained low literacy rates, in 2013 this was still extremely low at 32.4% (World Bank). Across the world, so many women and girls still do not have . Gender inequality is a pervasive problem in many parts of the world, including Africa. Go to the current USAID.gov website for up-to-date information, Archive - U.S. Agency for International Development, The Journey to Self-Reliance: Sierra Leone Roadmap, USAID Administrator Mark Green's Meeting with the Honourable Mohamed Juldeh Jalloh, Ph.D., Vice President of the Republic of Sierra Leone, USAID Administrator Green Announces PMI Launch and Expansion in West and Central Africa. What intrigued me the most was how females werent seen as priority enough to receive even the basic education level and were taught to be housewives from a very young age. Despite the significant strides made, many women continue to suffer marginalisation and discrimination, particularly in the areas of education, employment, political participation, and social justice. Sierra Leonean women are at risk for sexual and gender-based violence in the form of domestic violence, sexual assault of adults and minors, marital rape, school-related sexual abuse, and harmful traditional practices like female genital mutilation. The reader takes a while to figure this out. This colonial originated urban bias where urban centres were favoured as centres of control and economic growth meant the rural peripheries were only further left behind in their development, increasing inequalities and sustaining poverty. School-related gender-based violence is part of a complex, multi-faceted social issue. The Women Count Data Hub is made possible by the partners of the Women Count programme, which include the Governments of Australia, Ireland, France, Mexico, Sweden, the United States and the United Kingdom and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation,Alibaba Foundation and Elizabeth Arden. UN Women Representative to Ethiopia, African Union and Economic Commission for Africa, Letty Chiwara making a statement at the HeForShe Launch. Women and men are not treated the same way in education and arent equal in the literacy rate. One of the largest reasons all of these efforts are being made is because of the Millennium Development Goals, or MDGs. Property and titles are inherited by male lineage, and men dominate in political leadership. (Photo: Market women protesters in Freetown). The country's government, with assistance from the Global Partnership for Education (GPE), made efforts to improve education in Sierra Leone since then. Equality breaks these rules and escapes his suffocating home to create his own society of independent people. The slavery issue in the West and the gender inequality in the East both brought unimaginable damage for not only the groups of people who were mistreated, but also the society which is supposed to be peaceful, fair and justice. Sierra Leone, saw her small income vanish overnight during the COVID-19 outbreak. 140 years ago, imagine being in bondage, oppressed, maybe even tortured; to have to go about your life constantly under the watch of someone else; to be bruised and beaten and brokenall because of the color of your skin. If you are looking for current information, visit www.usaid.gov. In Sierra Leone, roles, responsibilities and opportunities are apportioned on the basis that an individual is a male or female. On this International Womens Day, we celebrate all women, and particularly those leading the charge for equality. Many countries, including Sierra Leone, face a crisis in providing quality . Equality among people justifies the development of human civilization. I was never aware of the terrible conditions that migrant workers faced. Only boys can do that, that isnt very lady like, those are for boys. There is a clear preference for boys' education, it is mostly because people think that investing in girls' education is just a waste of money, since there will not be the one that support a family financially. After the Ebola outbreak was settled down, students returned to school and so did all the problems people face when sending their children to school; especially if they were girls. You are entering the 2017-2020 Archive for the United States Agency for International Development web site. Freetown, Sierra Leone, and Rockville, Maryland, USA: Stats SL and ICF. The country will also be forming gender forums and support groups for women in abusive relationships and to encouraging women to speak out (Kandeh). It helps mobilize their productive capacity to alleviate poverty and to maximize economic output. The $40 million estimated tax lost to Sierra Leone from 2009-2016 with Sierra Rutile company is enough to cover the health care of over 67,000 Sierra Leonean women and children for one year under the country's Free Health Care Initiative. Giving birth to a child should not drastically change the status of females. Economic development, inequality, war, and state violence. As of February 2021, only 12.3% of seats in parliament were held by women. In particular, it highlights women's increasing agency in acquiring knowledge, diffusing power, engaging in grassroots politics, and compelling the government to adopt more . Addressing harmful practices are also covered by raising awareness on both the potential short and longer-term health consequences, human rights violations of FGM, and the negative impact. When it comes to education, everyone should be given the same opportunity no matter their race, gender or color. We promote gender equality and women's empowerment across sectors by focusing on improving women's health, increasing their participation in governance at all levels through increasing the political, social and economic rights of women . For these reasons the gender wage gap is an important issue because disabling womens future disables the future of the children in this, Because of stereotypes, females have been considered as inferior to males, which is a bias assumption that society formed. The history witnesses how people mistreated the others and how other people fought for freedom. Imagine being someone who was free, but oppressed in other ways; to be unable to work the same way that a man was no matter how smart you were, to be forced into doing what ladies do; to be stepped over and disregardedall because of the gender you were born as. He initially thought that if women were economically empowered and in leadership positions, they would abandon their responsibilities as wives and disrespect their husbands. Around one-third of households are headed by women - these are families where the male household head is absent due to, divorce, death, or long-distance migration. Because of these early marriages and lack of education, South Asia, Education for females is very crucial in developing countries all over the world. For each indicator, we calculate the 33rd and 66th percentiles of the distribution and, based on those two values, countries are classified as belonging to high performance, medium performance and low performance categories. Sierra Leone is the first African nation to fully transition from a paper-based reporting system to an electronic system for weekly aggregate disease reporting at the health facility level. Women account for 52 per cent of the total population in Sierra Leone yet occupy less than 20 percent of elected positions. The lack of related curriculum also explains why the highest drop out rates and therefore highest illiteracy rates are in the rural areas, which is actually where the majority of the population live. 2020. "Sierra Leone war crimes: Women speak out, Kargbo, Fatmata. Despite the recent debate over pay equality, the question simply boils down to: do women deserve to make significantly less than men do? In the rural labor force, women provide more than 60% of farm labor for food production, but this forms part of a larger power dynamic problem as men still possessed greater access to ownership and control of the production, reducing women to a marginal position. Education is very important in order to explore the potentials that will drive every person to their future pathways of success. Most times culturally, family supports you to be the best you can be and reach the highest amount of education, whereas here it wasnt the same case. This story takes place in Sierra Leone. 602 Words3 Pages. This again makes goods unaffordable for rural communities and forces them further into poverty and widens the gap in inequality between urban and rural areas. As seen throughout this case study, Ive learned that there is a significant difference of gender inequality in the developing world than those of western, more developed countries and displays just how there needs to be a change in this. However, justice is giving opportunity to those who are not privileged reach up to those who are privileged. Although the colonial legacy had profound social, economic and political effects illustrated in this essay which still exist today, other historical reasons since independence such as the civil war from 1991 to 2002 along with a multitude of disease, including the Ebola Outbreak of 2014 have added to the difficulty to break the cycle of poverty and inequality. All of the groups fighting in the civil war that happened between 1991 and 2002 were charged with human rights violations (Ben-Ari & Harsch). The curriculum focused on learning English (Fyle 1986) rather than skill based learning which would benefit rural children more practically gaining employability opportunities, generate income and alleviate their families from poverty. In most countries women represent the majority of the poor. Later the essay will explore to what extent contemporary policy attempts, specifically Structural Adjustment Plans, have succeeded in breaking the poverty cycle and reducing inequality. The Essay Writing ExpertsUK Essay Experts. Looking for a flexible role? There is also a very large amount of domestic violence towards women. For example, if a man who was lazy and did somewhat of a decent job then he would most likely to be promoted, however if this was a woman then she would most likely not be promoted. Current activities also supported by UNFPA include community mobilisation/sensitisation and demand creation activities for family planning, reproductive health and fistula services. The state, violence and development: the political economy of war in Mozambique 19751992. Oxfam in Sierra Leone. Gender inequity in Sierra Leone is still a huge problem but many efforts are happening and its status is improving. . A very ridiculous law has gone in effect in April to ban girls who are pregnant from school even if it was a, It is the 21st century and although politics and the world is never perfect, inequality should not be an issue we as a world should talk about. Their leaders are the Council of Vocations enforced those rules, and the people that over-rule them are the World Council. Awareness raising on relevant legislation involving gender based violence, support to access free legal counselling/representation, and access to medical care for the victims and survivors of gender-based violence are among the key activities. Women are key targets for hygiene education in communities, which is helping to reduce the incidence of waterborne diseases. Economic agendas in civil wars. Almost 58% of girls get married before they turn 18 years old. I think that, as a privileged woman, I need to help these women, but not by treating them like a child., Once this problem is out of the way, we must address Payals second point, which is that, education systems have a tendency toward stability rather than change, and tend to reproduce social hierarchy and inequality. There are multiple solutions to this problem. . Women are neglected the right to an education due to discriminatory laws and the norms of society that go against the human rights of women. The flexibility parents had in work was denied in childfree workers., Without the gender pay gap closed the United States citizens suffer many consequences. The goal of the project is to empower women and girls to pursue their potential, free from violence and inequality, focusing on increasing their economic resources, train them on how to voice their priorities and participate in decisions that affect themselves and their homes and strengthen gender-based violence (GBV) response, coordination and referral pathways. "MediaGlobal: Bold womens rights legislation in Sierra Leone, "Sierra Leone: Fighting Gender Bias Ahead of Elections. However, justice is giving opportunity to those who are not privileged reach up to those who are privileged. All of these issues have not just started today, but have been going on for a while. 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