Advancing Human Rights and Gender Equality in Somalia: Key Lessons and Recommendations

1. Human Rights and GenderSomalia Joint Needs Assessment • JNA Retreat, November 2005 • Nyaradzai Gumbonzvanda (Mrs) • Regional Programme Director • UNIFEM Eastern & Horn of Africa

2. Outline • Principles • Lessons Learnt • Key Results – Measuring Mainstreaming

3. Principles • Application of a Human Rights Based Approach • Focuses on interpendance of rights • Brings a concreteness on the relationship between rights-holders (in their diversity) and duty bearers (those with responsibility to take action) • Analyses and identifies the capacity needs of duty bearers to act and fulfil their obligation • Emphasizes process and content as mutually critical • Key duties that this approach clarifies • Duty to Protect • Duty to Fulfil • Duty to Respect • Duty to Promote

4. Principles (continued) • Participation • Diversity and inclusion • Non-discrimination/equality (gender, age and disability)

5. LESSONS LEARNTon gender mainstreaming • Gender and women included as cross cutting issue but was not well resourced in the process (national gender expertise) • Women and girls have limited opportunity for participation based on literacy level, space for engagement in public policy formulation & culture and traditions • Insignificant number of women selected as cluster and sub-cluster leaders, and role and involvement mostly limited to community and national workshops • Gender mainstreaming supported and promoted in cluster analysis, BUT not fully translated in the Results Matrix and Costing. • PCNA is a process that links the peace negotiation outcome, with plans for reconstruction; with financing modalities and implementation mechanisms. Gender mainstreaming must permeate the whole process.

6. Therefore……SOMALIA JNA TO BRING NEW APPROACHES THAT INCLUDE: • Strong human rights and gender analysis • Concrete and measurable commitments through the Results Matrix • Costing for human rights and gender to be explicit –-- means of translating commitments to action. • Financing Modalities and Implementation Strategy to integrate elements that sustain implementation of rights and gender commitments. • Somalis citizens through civil society and women’s organisation to participate in the donor dialogues and conference

7. M & E for Human Rights & Gender • Ensure PARTICIPATION of women, young people and civil society in the cluster teams, zonal and special workshops, donors’ conference etc. • Methodology of JNA must be grounded on rights based analysis and results based planning • Visible effort to be through the RESULT MATRIX and the Costing • Periodic progress reports and briefing by team leaders/coordinators; clusters and sub-clusters must contain a specific information on human rights and gender. • Final JNA reports must be rights and gender audited as part of the quality assessment for approval and endorsement

8. Building Blocks – Human Rights and Gender • Existing networks of Somali and international civil society in all the regions • Somali women recommendations and contributions on the technical issues during the peace negotiations • High Level Expert Group Meeting on Women planned by IGAD/UNIFEM in partnership with SIDA • Data and information from the UN Special Rapportuer on Human Rights, and Somali Women’s towards the Beijing + 10 review processes • Existing literature, reports and studies in certain key sectors

9. I THANK YOU