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| JOHUD's work with women |
| There is an increasing awareness in Jordan that improving the status of women is a rights based issue, and that when a woman is able to enjoy her rights and to claim her entitlements, the whole community benefits. JOHUD works very closely with women to encourage them to play a leading role in daily life. Many of JOHUD's activities directly target women and focus on issues that they identify as being of concern.
Women committees in the CDCs
JOHUD recognizes that women are often prevented from playing a leading role in the organizations, where the men tend to dominate the decision making process. To redress the balance, every JOHUD CDC has a woman's committee. The committees provide a forum in which women can discuss issues they find relevant to their lives and through which to raise awareness of women's rights.
Enhancing the role of women in rural and traditional communities is a long term process. It has taken JOHUD decades to build up a strong network of women's committees headed by skilled and confident women leaders. Today, the Women's Committees have grown into a nationwide network. The women's committees now comprise more than 2000 committee members, 8000 volunteers and about 200 community based partners. They act as a starting point for social action and change within the community.
Women activists are encouraged to take the lead in the public sphere outside the CDC, helping local people claim their entitlements from governments and local authorities, thereby benefiting the whole community. This also creates a body of confident empowered women keen to play an active role in the local democratic process. May women who were proactive in the CDC management have subsequently been elected to municipal councils, have been apppinmted as mayors and have stood as candidates for national elections.
Strategic alliances for women's empowerment
In order to increase the impact of their work with women, JOHUD has formed a strategic alliance with the Jordanian National Commission for Women (JNCW) and coordinates with the work of the members of the Jordanian National Forum for Women (JNFW) at grassroots level. Through such alliances, JOHUD is better able to advocate for the rights of women.
Women's empowerment projects, click here
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The context for our work:
Selected analysis from NHDR 2004 on gender rights
Gender discrimination within the home
Women note that deeply entrenched gender discriminationprevents them
from exercising all their rights and assuming their full role as equal partners
in the development process. Generally, women note that they have little voice
within the home. Males make the strategic decisions concerning employment, family
size, children's marriage, political participation and voting. Some women assert
that poor decision-making by men contributes to increased poverty in the household...
Girls report that they are discriminated against within the home, where
patterns of socialisation restrict them to relatively limited roles. Many girls
want to have more voice in the decisions that will affect their entire lives.
Some girls, for example, are afraid their parents might remove them from
education for economic or social reasons.
Girls perceive the roles of wife and mother as status-giving but they do
not want to be removed from school in order to fulfil these roles. They also
want more involvement in the choice of a husband.
Challenges faced by working women
Among the young women who have taken up employment, there is evidence
that their increased economic independence may be providing opportunities for
them to have more influence in household decisions. However, most women who
enter paid employment report that they are still expected to fulfil their
household duties. Often, the broader community and the immediate family are not
supportive of their working outside the home, but their poverty leaves them no alternative.
Source: NHDR 2004, Chapter 7: Claiming gender rights
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| Johud.org.jo |
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Facts & Figures
2006 / 2007
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Over 4,000 women received training
10,000 women attended awareness raising events
500 loans were provided to women to open up or expand their businesses
36 women were employed as rual leaders in the CDCs
10 CDCs are managed by women
1,500 women were active members of the CDC women's committees
2,000 women volunteers took part in CDC activities
8,000 women were supported through JOHUD projects
16,000 women attending the CDCs received direct services
"Now
things have changed, more women are coming and once you talk local development,
everyone flocks to the center to see what we are doing and what is
happening."
Manal, CDC manager in Kitteh, Jerash. Read more about Manal, click here
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Working with women: 30 years of empowerment
JOHUD (then named the Queen Alia Fund) was established more than thirty years ago, at a time when the concept of
sustainable human development had not yet evolved. In the 1970s, the approach to women and poor communities was of charity
- with the Fund providing handouts and direct aid to people in need. As JOHUD was operating in relative
isolation in many rural areas, its pioneering approach of working with women to
increase their independence and social participation is all the more
remarkable.
Very quickly, JOHUD embodied the realization that in
order to achieve lasting results, women should be involved, not as recipients
of assistance, but as active participants and agents of change in their communities.
In this way, JOHUD was truly at the forefront of sustainable human development
in Jordan,
at a time when such thinking was practically unheard of.
JOHUD's activities in 2007 demonstrated how much has been achieved: JOHUD's
women's empowerment programmes reach across the whole kingdom. More than 5,000
women volunteers dedicate their time and resources to promote the interests of
women. They play leadership roles on the 50 women's committees that provide a
voice for women in their communities so that programmes and activities are
designed to meet their needs and interests. This integrated, bottom-up system
of local management creates a solid foundation for sustainable development that
JOHUD promote, and ensures that activities meet local needs.
The linkages between JOHUD and
the women in the field ensure networks of support and communication which create
a solid foundation that helps women activists understand how to gauge the
moment, when to take risks, when to pull back. As a result, these women activist
have been able to retain the full support of local stakeholders, whether key
opinion leaders such as sheiks and imams, or duty bearers such as
representatives of relevant public organizations. By building consensus and
bringing the whole community along with them, these women have been major
actors in the process of social transformation in Jordan by meeting women's practical
needs through tangible benefits, and by promoting their strategic needs through
facilitating their entry to the public sphere.
Through their leaderships roles, and drawing on knowledge and skills
gained through JOHUD's programmes, these women have helped expand access to
social rights (quality education, health care, cash assistance). Women have
taken the lead in cleaning up the environment, removing hazardous waste, making
waste water safe, improving local transport systems.
These women have become role models in their communities, demonstrating
that in the 21st century, women can, and must claim their right to
equal space in both the private and the public sphere. They are active in local
development processes - lobbying, claiming their rights, and creating demand
for good governance. Some of them have been elected to municipal councils,
becoming the first Jordanian women to win municipal elections. They participate
actively in local elections - questioning candidates about their policies, and
then applying pressure for them to standby the election promises. They are
already the leaders of the present - they create the leaders of the future.
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