Widows Rights - Lessons for Health Strategies and Investments

There is a temptation to reduce health strategies to the simple. Vaccinate them. Feed them. Provide them with a birth attendant. Set up health centers for them. And so on. The further policy and funder people are from where the issues are experienced the simpler are the solutions they seem to propose. Questions of culture, rights and social norms, for example, are "soft" and "too complex". "Hard", "scaleable", "tangible" solutions curry most favour.

This article in the Guardian news paper "Widows in Cameroon: 'They should be free to live their lives' - The death of a husband means stigma, destitution and abuse for many of the world's poorest widows provides a very substantive challenge to that predominant approach to global health issues. It is written by Bim Adewunmi who "visited a pioneering project in Cameroon trying to turn around 500-year-old traditions".

If I was reading this article (and so much other literature) as someone who was a global, national or local health policy maker with control over resources (which I do not!) then the strategies supported would not be simple. Rights, culture, local strategic decision-making and the addressing of the contextual factors that underpin so many health issues would be central to any strategies developed and funds allocated. Media - in all forms - would be major implementing processes.

But we rarely see that in the health strategies of the major government health departments and the big health agencies. Is that right? If yes, why?

Thanks - Warrren

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An interesting post. You

An interesting post. You might like to have a look at similar work in Eastern Africa. For example, the organization Kelin, works in Kenya with traditional structures to find restitution for widows who have been dispossessed. In many cases they find this is preferable and much quicker than going through the formal legal system – although that is sometimes necessary too. You can find details of their work at www.kelinkenya.orghttp://www.kelinkenya.org.

They have produced a couple of videos on their work here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bHs52lORAxE and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tcry_J8Cixs.

Organisations such as Uganet in Uganda do provide more formal legal support for women, often widows who have been pushed off their property after the death of their husbands – see www.uganet.orghttp://www.uganet.org. You can see a video on Uganet’s work here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SP2M6P4Ryp4.

In addition, there is a vibrant network of women lawyers across Africa, who are working to ensure proper property and inheritance rights for women, through legal advocacy as well as litigation. They have made some notable advances. One of the foremost women involved in this is Seodi White of WLSA Malawi – who was recently featured on CNN International for her groundbreaking work. In 2011 WLSA- Malawi helped ensure the passing of a law that for the first time recognized the right of woman to inherit from the marital estate: http://www.opensocietyfoundations.org/voices/victory-women-malawi.

You can see the website of the Women’s Inheritance Network at www.winafrica.orghttp://www.winafrica.org.

Brett

From: Development Networks [mailto:oa-incoming@comminit.com] Sent: Tuesday, July 02, 2013 4:03 PM To: Brett Davidson Subject: [Health, Rights, Media] - Widows Rights - Lessons for Health Strategies and Investments

((( Reply by email to comment on this post ))) Greetings brettdavi,

There is a temptation to reduce health strategies to the simple. Vaccinate them. Feed them. Provide them with a birth attendant. Set up health centers for them. And so on. The further policy and funder people are from where the issues are experienced the simpler are the solutions they seem to propose. Questions of culture, rights and social norms, for example, are "soft" and "too complex". "Hard", "scaleable", "tangible" solutions curry most favour.

This article in the Guardian news paper "Widows in Cameroon: 'They should be free to live their lives' - The death of a husband means stigma, destitution and abuse for many of the world's poorest widowshttp://www.comminit.com/clickthru/41605464cd9c1b7b7df180d18c61732e?node= provides a very substantive challenge to that predominant approach to global health issues. It is written by Bim Adewunmi who "visited a pioneering project in Cameroon trying to turn around 500-year-old traditions".

If I was reading this article (and so much other literature) as someone who was a global, national or local health policy maker with control over resources (which I do not!) then the strategies supported would not be simple. Rights, culture, local strategic decision-making and the addressing of the contextual factors that underpin so many health issues would be central to any strategies developed and funds allocated. Media - in all forms - would be major implementing processes.

But we rarely see that in the health strategies of the major government health departments and the big health agencies. Is that right? If yes, why?

Thanks - Warrren

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Dear Brett, Thank you for

Dear Brett,

Thank you for sharing these great leads.

I am writing to let the group know that I have posted the following summaries of the work you highlighted:

* KELIN: http://www.comminit.com/health_rights_media/content/kelin-kenya-legal-and-ethical-issues-network-hiv-and-aids-0

* Women's Inheritance Network (WIN):
http://www.comminit.com/health_rights_media/content/womens-inheritance-network-win-0

* UGANET: Uganda Network on Law, Ethics & HIV/AIDS
http://www.comminit.com/health_rights_media/content/uganet-uganda-network-law-ethics-hivaids-0

I invite everyone to please visit those postings and comment there - and/or here, within this forum - if you have any thoughts on the communication strategies and activities these organisations have developed. We would also love to hear more about what you are doing in your own contexts to address any and all health, rights, and HIV issues through communication and media - in Africa and beyond.

In addition, I wanted to announce that I will be publishing a special issue of our e-magazine, The Drum Beat, in August that includes these and other summaries from the Health, Rights, Media theme site. If anyone in this group has not yet subscribed to The Drum Beat, please just email me directly (see below), and I will be sure that you receive it in your inbox. Also, I will send through the URL to this forum once it is online. Hope you all will enjoy this collection of work and consider sharing it with your colleagues and through your social networks.

Kind regards,
Kier

Kier Olsen DeVries
Senior Editor, The Communication Initiative
Editor, The Drum Beat
kdevries@comminit.com
http://www.comminit.com

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