Core problem: The imbalanced power relations that prevent women from leading fulfilling lives operate at many levels of society both personal and public. This is manifested in acceptably low numbers of women occupying leadership positions in communities, political parties, government (local and central), legislative bodies, and regional and international organizations. This defeats the goals of equality, development and peace as nations are denied the vast wealth of knowledge and talent available in women while women are themselves denied their right to participate equally with men in leadership. The problem is contributed to by myriad factors including culture, religion, historical legacy, politics and law. These are maintained by lack of commitment by governments and other institutions to systematically formulate and implement policies for gender equality. Achieving the goal of equal participation of women and men in decision-making will provide a balance that more accurately reflects the composition of society and is needed in order to strengthen democracy and promote its proper functioning. At the moment, women’s participation in decision making in regional bodies is till marginal. This is true even where the organisation has put in place gender friendly policies, (such as IGAD) but has not implemented this at the operational level. EASSI will advocate for gender friendly policies to be adopted by all the regional bodies within its country areas of operation and advocate for a 50-50 parity in line with the example and decision of the African union that has already begun to put this system into place. In this it will call upon support from its partners so that the crical mass of effort has better impact. Some organisations complain that there are not enough qualified women who they can appoint. In this regard EASSI intends to establish a data base of qualified women that can be supplied regularly to governments and regional bodies and other interested organisations for possible consideration in decision making positions. EASSI hopes to work with many of its partners in this initiative, including AMWA that has established a data base of its alumni that is available at the touch of a button. Rwanda has implemented this at the affirmative action level where it has 48.8 percent of its MPs being women and will be used as a best practice. EASSI would also like to find out the gender based impact of this large number of women MPs and will conduct a study in 2006 in Rwanda. There is also the question of leadership and building capacities of young women while at the same time offering a platform for sabbaticals for the older women, to reflect and document their own and other women’s experiences on issues relevant to the work of EASSI. In the just concluded African Regional Women’s Conference on Women (Beijing +10) held in Addis Ababa Ethiopia, from 6-14 October, the issue of Sabbatical fora for the older woman came up as an important item. It was recognized that there is lack of systematic documentation of women’s achievements in the continent and women, especially this that have retired with immense knowledge and experiences needed to be encouraged and assisted to document these experiences. For the young women the Young Women’s Internship Programme will continue with renewed vigor. EASSI interns expected to spend some time in partner organizations in other countries as part of their leadership training. EASSI will also host for short periods of about one to two months, interns from its partners and other organisations. Further EASSI would like to strengthen the capacities of women Chief Executive Officers in the region as well as share best management practices in the region. This should lead to more focused coalition building with such organisations with an aim of achieving maximum impact for programmes implementation in the region.

Activities under Women's Poverty, Insufficient Food Security and Lack of Economic Empowerment

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