Rising against sexual violence!

As a part of the Wikiprogress on Gender Equality series, this progblog on violence against women is brought to you by Estelle Loiseau, Wikigender Community Manager. 


Previously acclaimed for his race performance on carbon fibre prosthetic blades at the Olympics, Oscar Pistorius is now facing a potential life sentence for murdering his girlfriend following a dispute. This happened on Valentine’s Day. One day later, on Friday 15 February, - which this year was called “Black Friday” in South Africa as people were encouraged to wear black to raise awareness of rape – a 17 year old was gang raped and murdered. These two recent events have concentrated minds on a deep-rooted culture of sexual violence and general violence against women – not to mention the earlier gang rape that took place in India. Our most recent Special Focus on Wikigender is on “Rising against sexual violence” and we will continue to make violence against women a key issue in the coming weeks.

With the 57^th session of the UN Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) coming up with a special focus on the “Elimination and prevention of all forms of violence against women and girls”, Wikigender has organised an online discussion from 4-13 February on “Transforming social norms to prevent violence against women and girls”. The discussion was also co-hosted by Breakthrough, End Violence Against Women (EVAW UK), Partners for Prevention (P4P), Womankind Worldwide and the Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland and brought 70 comments from many different countries, gathering the views from international organisations, policy analysts, gender experts, development practitioners, international and local NGOs and civil society. To tackle violence against women, participants identified three main levers of change: the media should be more gender-sensitive; we need to engage more men and boys; and laws must be enforced and adequate policies put in place. The media, in particular, came out strongly from this discussion. We can see this reality just by reading the media coverage of the recent events mentioned above, as some newspapers have sexually objectified Pistorius’ girlfriend, showing her before her death wearing a bikini – maybe as an attempt to get more readership, but also clearly showing a lack of respect for women and in this case making us forget that she was a victim of violence – and this is what we really should be focusing on.

On 4 March, the OECD Development Centre is co-hosting a side event at the 57^th CSW, together with the Finnish Ministry for Foreign Affairs and the South African Ministry of Women, Children and People with Disabilities (DWCPD). We will present the summary report from the online discussion – which will be posted online on Wikigender too – and discuss how we can transform social norms to prevent violence against women. If you are in New York attending the CSW, make sure to participate in our side event!

Click here for more information and how to register.

Estelle Loiseau

Gender Programme Assistant and Wikigender Community Manager

Spotlight! Gender Equality and Well-being

This Week in Review focuses on our theme of the month, which is Gender Equality and Well-being. Highlights of this review include; the American army’s decision to allow women to fight on the frontline, International Day of Zero Tolerance to Female Genital Mutilation, Wikigender's most recent online discussion, 1 Billion Rising and 10x10, an innovative new feature film about the power of education to change a girl – and the world.

This month, violence against women is at the top of global agendas, and with this in mind, Wikigender ran an online discussion on ‘Transforming social norms to prevent violence against women and girls’. The forum posed the question of what type of social behaviors catalyze violence against women and also looked to find examples of policies and initiatives that have most successfully dealt with the problem. Raymond Brandes, one of many contributors to the discussion, made a particularly relevant point to the notion of gender equality, stipulating that ‘Realizing the economic and social rights of all members of society and reducing inequalities are important elements of addressing violence against women.’ The full results of the forum will be synthesized and published in a report by the Wikigender team in the near future. To access past Wikigender online discussions, click here.

The International Day of Zero Tolerance to Female Genital Mutilation is observed on the 6^th of February each year to raise awareness about this physically and psychologically damaging practice. Female Genital Mutilation is recognized internationally as an extreme violation of human rights and despite efforts from organizations and governments to push for its eradication, FMG still affects around 140 million girls and women every year. In the early stages of 2013, focus groups have made a concerted effort to tackle the concerning trend of health-care providers performing FGM, which has contributed to its legitimization in Africa, Indonesia and the Middle East (areas where the practice is concentrated most heavily). To find out up to date information on FGM, visit Wikigender's page on the subject.  

Yesterday, on V-Day’s 15^th Anniversary, One Billion Rising mobilized thousands of people to call for an end to violence against women. The organization invited one billion women to strike and dance against the reality that one in three women on the planet will be raped or beaten in her lifetime. The movement is hoping to influence the UN Commission on the Status of Women, which is being held in New York next month.

Interestingly, while much of this blog post has centered around global movements to counter violence against women, U.S Defense Secretary Leon Panetta recently declared that the military would be eradicating its long-standing ban on women partaking in frontline combat roles. This significant change in policy not only opens as many as 237,000 new jobs for female soldiers but also allows women to achieve higher leadership positions within the army.  While critics have argued that the decision will alter group dynamics and unit cohesion, it marks a significant step for the women who have been seeking equity in one of America’s most male dominated institutions. The Wikigender team is currently running a quick fire poll to gauge the public’s opinion on the ruling, so be sure to make your voice heard.

Finally, there has been a steadily growing social media buzz over Girl Rising’s feature length film 10x10; which augments the pervasive power of education to change the lives of millions of girls across the world. The movement is attempting to break down the barriers that hinder girls from receiving education while highlighting the significant benefits it will bring to them and the global community. If you haven’t seen the trailer already, look no further!

Look forward to more Gender Equality and Well-being blogs in the coming weeks!

Robbie Lawrence

Wikichild Coordinator

@Wiki_child, @Wikiprogress, @Wikigender

Poor numbers are not sexy…

The issue of statistical capacity building in developing countries is actually becoming a sexy issue. I can’t believe I am saying this. Though, we can ask Hal Varian for his opinion on that here.

As Wikiprogress is a community with several networks looking for better indicators of well-being, I think that we need to recognise something before we go any further.

There is a crisis of official data production

Recent discussions at the OECD with Paris 21 (see snazzy new website here) and around the world here are really bringing this issue to the forefront.  However, in Bill Gates’ 2013 letter he says on page 1:

“In the past year I have been struck again and again by how important measurement is to improving the human condition. You can achieve amazing progress if you set a clear goal and find a measure that will drive progress toward that goal—in a feedback loop”. 

Well, that is proving to be difficult….

I recently read Morten Jerven's new book Poor Numbers which is an analysis of the production and use of African economic development statistics. Jerven’s research shows how the statistical capacities of sub-Saharan African economies have fallen into disarray. He reports that the numbers substantially misstate the actual state of affairs. As a result, scarce resources are misapplied. Development policy does not deliver the benefits expected. Policymakers’ attempts to improve the lives of the citizenry are frustrated. Donors have no accurate sense of the impact of the aid they supply. The book outlines that statistics tell us less about African development then we would like to think. He says that the main problem is a lack of investment in statistics production. Jerven gives the Zambia example where there is one person working in all of national accounts.

That isn’t very sexy.

New demands but where is the supply?

With the rather intense debates around the post-2015 framework, it is hard to believe that producing good numbers isn’t a bigger focus of the chatter. There is more pressure being placed on the NSOs for quality data but there doesn’t seem be a strong push to raise the capacity of these offices. Developing countries faced with the buzz word “evidence based policy” are feeling the squeeze in that policies cannot be made or monitored without good data.

This isn’t a developing country phenomenon. OECD countries are also looking at ways to meet new (and expensive) demands. Data coming from sources like Google and others are beginning to compete with the NSOs because they can produce data that is timelier. In this world of instant this and instant that, people will not wait 5 years for the next survey result. 

Solutions include:

• invest more money in producing high quality statistics (i.e. make it a priority)
• NSOs should work with other producers of statistics in public private partnerships
• international goals such as the post-2015 framework should have a goal for statistical quality.
• involve citizens and local perspectives in the production process

I recommend reading Jergen's book which is chock full of history and recommendations.  Follow the Paris 21 website for more on this topic as well. I also welcome your views on this blog.

Angela Hariche


Image from http://www.freeimages.co.uk/index.htm

Free and Appropriate Public Education

Four years ago on the inauguration of the first African American president of the United States, we titled our Whole Child Newsletter "Someday Happens," reflecting a T-shirt I saw at the ceremonies that day. Today, independent of political views, I'm wondering when someday will happen for the millions of kids promised a "free and appropriate public education." Although that phrase was first introduced in reference to children with disabilities, it applies too often to kids from all walks of life in all parts of the United States.

An education based solely on mastery (however that is defined) of English language arts and mathematics is not appropriate.

An education filled with support and care and mastery of nothing is not appropriate.

An education that must be purchased in lieu of free opportunities nearby fails to serve the common good and fulfill the social compact promised by the American Dream.

When will someday happen for each child, in each school, and in each community? It will happen the day we as a society, the grown-ups, decide to make it so.

We know what it takes. Over the nearly six years of the ASCD Whole Child Initiative, we've defined excellence for each child in increasingly descriptive terms. 

• We started with the five tenets of a whole child education, then described each of those tenets with 10 school-level actions that indicate those tenets are being met. 

• We introduced a sixth set of indicators to ensure that such an education, one that meets the requirements of our tenets to ensure that each child is healthy, safe, engaged, supported, and challenged, is sustainable and not dependent on a single leader, program, funding stream, or flavor-of-the-month goal. 

• And just this summer, we launched the ASCD School Improvement Tool, which cross references those same tenets and indicators to the typical school improvement components of school climate and culture, curriculum and instruction, leadership, assessment, family and community engagement, and staff capacity and professional development to provide both the most thorough definition of a whole child approach to education and an assessment tool that measures progress against such a standard.

In that same time span, 45 states and the District of Columbia adopted a new definition of what the challenged tenet looks like in student learning: the Common Core State Standards. Let us be clear that that'sone tenet out of five, not the whole; not the answer in and of itself. But let us also be clear that the Common Core State Standards do set a new path of excellence in two traditional subject areas. Full, faithful implementation of these standards within a whole child approach has the potential to eliminate birthplace as the most accurate predictor of success.

Full, faithful implementation of the Common Core State Standards within a comprehensive, sustainable whole child approach to education—this is what "someday" looks like. This is what "free and appropriate" looks like. This is what it takes at the school level to prepare each of our young people for postsecondary education, meaningful careers, and active participation in a global society.

By Molly McCloskey

ASCD - The Whole Child is a membership organisation that produces programs products, and services that are essential to the progress of education globally. Education is essential to child development and we at Wikichild work closely with ASCD to enrich our education content, accessible in the Child Articles section on our platform.  

This articles first appeared on the The Whole Child Blog. 

For up to date information on child well-being visit the Wikichild homepage

Visit Wikichild's Twitter for regular updates on Child well-being @Wiki_child

Delivering Global Public Goods: A Snapshot of 3ie in 2012

3ie funds impact evaluations and systematic reviews that generate high quality evidence on what works in development and why. Evidence on development effectiveness can inform policy and improve the lives of poor people. At Wikichild we work closely with 3ie in developing our child well-being content.

Pre-schools in Mozambique boosted children’s social and cognitive development, and increased the likelihood that both they and their siblings will attend primary school. 

Photo sourced by 3ie

Independent audits of industrial plant emissions in Gujarat, India produced more accurate audits and also curtailed pollution.

Burdensome registration requirements and high cost of obtaining agricultural electricity connections in West Bengal, India, had unnecessarily restricted access to water for small farmers. 

A newly designed cookstove in northern Ghana failed to achieve the expected benefits in reduced exposure to smoke and more efficient use of fuel wood. 

Providing social recognition to hairdressers in Lusaka in Zambia proved more effective than cash incentives in encouraging them to sell female condoms, though no mechanism helped in achieving substantial sales.

These are not disparate statements but are lessons learned from 3ie-supported studies released in 2012. 3ie is now making an important contribution to filling the evidence gap of what works in development and why. And it is not that evidence is being produced for evidence’s sake. Pre-schools are being rolled out across Mozambique, independent audits are being adopted in Gujarat and discussed with other states, registration requirements for small farmers in West Bengal have been abolished, and the NGO in northern Ghana has gone back to the drawing board. These are just some of the examples of how evidence from 3ie-funded studies is being used to inform better policies. And better policies can improve lives.

During the course of 2012 3ie clearly started to deliver on its primary purpose of filling the evidence gap in development effectiveness. We have become recognised as an agency with robust, independent and credible review processes. Both governments and development agencies can turn to us for assistance in managing single studies, external peer review of those studies, or a whole programme of studies under our Thematic Windows. 

In 2012 we put together new Thematic Windows on the promotion of medical male circumcision and the use of self-testing kits for HIV/AIDS. We have also been working on an ambitious joint programme of agricultural impact evaluations in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia with AGRA and the International Fund for Agricultural Development, funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the UK Department For International Development. We are also exploring Thematic Windows on climate change and humanitarian assistance. The work done in 2012 will come to fruition in 2013, when all these Thematic Windows will be launched

Another major highlight for us last year was the increasing demand for impact evaluations through 3ie’s Policy Window. This is an innovative window through which implementing agencies can come to us to identify researchers for conducting impact evaluations of flagship programmes. We are currently processing grants for the Philippines Department of Education, NEPAD’s e-education programme in Africa, and the Magic Bus sports for girls programme in India, to name a few.

3ie not only funds studies, it also sets international standards for impact evaluation. For the studies we fund, we do this through our review process. For others, we offer quality assurance services and issue conceptual papers and guidelines. We have also launched a replication programme to test the robustness of study findings, and are preparing a registry of planned impact evaluations in low and middle income countries.

We have continued to set standards and push the frontiers of methods and knowledge with our systematic review programme. We made two further rounds of awards for systematic reviews and helped organize the first ever international event on Systematic Reviews in International Development in Dhaka, Bangladesh. We continued to focus on increasing the policy relevance of our studies and completed our first 3ie-style policy friendly systematic review reports which will be published in early 2013.

All in all, 2012 was a very good year for 3ie. Our committed staff in New Delhi, London and Washington DC plan to make 2013 even better. 

(Howard White is Executive Director, 3ie)

Visit Wikichild's Twitter for regular updates on Child well-being @Wiki_child

January 2013 in Review!

We are already deep into January and a lot has been going on in the world of Progress. This blog will provide you with a selection of headlines and highlights from the month. With the Post 2015 debate on what framework should follow the Millennium Development Goals underway, this blog focuses on Wikiprogress’s new interactive Post 2015 page and Save the Children’s recent report ‘Ending Poverty In Our Generation’. It also includes Wikigender’s synthesis of its online discussion ‘Engaging Men and Boys to Transform Discriminatory Social Norms’, The OECD’s latest issue of ‘Education Indicators in Focus’ and President Obama’s impassioned words on climate chance in his recent inaugural address.

Wikiprogress has created an interactive Post 2015 page for users to access articles, publications, discussion boards and news on upcoming events.  There are new meetings, reports and conferences on the subject occurring every day and this page is intended to bring together all the key information so that Wikiprogress followers can stay up to date on proceedings.  To visit the Post 2015 page, click here

In a bid to make an early footmark in the Post 2015 debate, Save the Children recently released ‘Ending Poverty in Our Generation’, a vision of their new development framework. The report, consisting of ten key goals, aims to support the creation of a world where all people realise their human rights within a generation. To access the ‘Ending Poverty’, visit Wikichild’s Spotlight section.

Following on from the online discussion ‘Engaging Men and Boys in Transforming Discriminatory Social Norms’ that ran from 22nd until 31^st of October, Wikigender released a synthesis of the rich exchange of views, examples and recommendations. The key issues of the discussion included: the power of men to change; rethinking ideas of masculinity; and educating society (both women and men) about gender equality and its benefits. Click here to read the synthesis.

The OECD’s latest issue of Education Indicators in Focus seeks to answer the question of what are the social benefits of education. The link between education and social benefits has long been recognized and research recently revealed that education not only enables individuals to perform better in the labour market, but also helps to improve their overall health, promote active citizenship and contain violence. Read more.

Lastly, a newly invigorated President Obama yesterday addressed the issue of climate change head on in his inaugural address. The topic that was completely overshadowed by the stuttering economy in the lead up to the election was one of the main focal points of Obama’s speech. Watch the clip below.

Stay tuned for more Progress reviews in the coming weeks!

Robbie Lawrence

Wikichild Coordinator

@Wiki_child

@robbielawrence1