Trump's Request for Global Gender Equity Program Details Leaves Many Fearing for their Future
Trump’s Request for Global Gender Equity Program Details Leaves Many Fearing for their Future
This week the Trump transition team requested documents from the State Department outlining the details of their programs aimed at promoting gender equality, sending shock-waves through the Department and advocacy communities over fears that the programs might be cut. The one-page memo requested information on the positions that work on these issues and how much money is spent on them. The memo is similar to the one sent to the Department of Energy recently requesting the names of people who have worked or attended conferences on climate change issues. The programs in question work to end gender-based violence and promote women’s entrepreneurial, political, and educational participation.
“The women’s equality programs at the State Department have reached millions of women and girls, helping to elevate their status in many developing countries worldwide,” said Eleanor Smeal, president of the Feminist Majority Foundation. “Women’s equality programs at the State Department help to create stability in nations and release the potential of half the population, which leads to the economic growth and well-being of everyone.
“For example, in Afghanistan the USAID PROMOTE programs have reduced maternal and infant mortality, allowed girls the opportunity to go to school, and helped train women for entrepreneurial, civic and public service leadership. Today in Afghanistan millions of girls are going to school, some 20 percent of the college students are women, there are over 200 female judges, and there are now women’s civic programs in all 34 provinces.”
While progress has been made, gains for Afghan women and girls are fragile, as Taliban terrorist attacks remain a persistent threat.
http://feminist.org/blog/index.php/2016/12/22/trumps-request-for-global-gender-equity-program-details-leaves-many-fearing-for-their-future/
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Imagine……
If every town and village in the world could call on its own trusted ‘agents of transformation’ – respected people who had learned since childhood how to embrace the energy of conflict and provide a strong enough ‘container’ for conflicted parties to listen to each other ‘for as long as it takes’. It would become normal for every country to install an Infrastructure for Peace.
Pioneered by Mandela in South Africa, this is a network of skilled councils who would be immediately involved if a dispute arose, and who would set in motion their preferred cultural methods of transforming that dispute. These councils operate at national regional and local levels, where those who are respected and loved in the community are put in charge of developing a safety strategy for the area they are responsible for. This safety strategy is known by everybody and put into action as soon as there is a sign of conflict.
Imagine a world in which we made heroes out of those who put their lives on the line so that others don’t get killed. They intervene to stop killing, mediate between warlords, rescue child soldiers, persuade young people not to become suicide bombers, negotiate cease-fires, free hostages and build bridges between people who hate each other. These are some of the most courageous and determined people on earth – just imagine if they became our heroes and heroines, their stories told on the front pages.
Imagine a world in which we systematically trained peace-builders in every part of the planet in the skills of Gandhi, Mandela and Aung San Suu Kyi, developing the kind of courses that combine the practical skills of peace building and non violence with the development of inner intelligence or self knowledge that can bridge the gap between ‘us’ and ‘them’.
more: http://risingwomenrisingworld.com/portfolio-items/safety-security-peace/
