Source: The Zimbabwean
Fatima Shabodien, Country Director for ActionAid South Africa, believes access and control of land is the best way of empowering ordinary African women. She spoke to The Zimbabwean’s Tarisai Jangara about how BRICS, a group of emerging economic powers, would assist African women.

TJ: Tell us about yourself.

FS: I have served ActionAid South Africa since 2012. I have a rich history as a feminist and political activist dating back to my work within the SA liberation movement in the 1980s.

Through my activism, studies and work experience I have honed my expertise in the areas of rural development, women’s rights and peace building. I have a Bachelor of Arts majoring in Anthropology from the University of the Western Cape, a Masters in International Peace Studies from the University of Notre Dame in the United States, and an MPhil in Development Studies from the Institute for Development Studies at Sussex University.

My work and studies have included living experiences in the USA, UK, Ethiopia and Indonesia across the donor, government and civil society sectors.

TJ: Where does your passion to tackle women’s concerns come from?

FS: My mother was a powerful role model; she was the first woman minibus taxi driver in Cape Town. She taught me about determination and not to be held back by false rules.

My mother never knew the word feminism, but in many ways she modeled feminism out of the necessities of working class life. The women on farms that I worked with in the rural women’s movement have always served as an inspiration to me for women’s creativity, tenacity and resilience despite the harsh living conditions.

Having been an activist all my life, I think I have been able to live the change that I wanted to see, and see some of that change come to pass - though there is still a long road for us to walk in the women’s movement.

TJ: What can be done to empower ordinary African women?

FS: Access to and control of land for sustaining livelihoods and productive work is an empowerment tool for women. Also, the uncounted work women do, which builds and sustains that basic human potential of a nation (the care and raising of children, the sick and the elderly), needs to be factored in and counted as part of our productive economy.

Women need to be involved in and participate in the resource mobilisation of their organisations, schools, local and national government at every level to ensure that when planning and budgeting is done, their specific issues and conditions are taken into account.

TJ: Violence against women remains an issue of concern. How best can this issue be addressed?

FS: The problem is systemic. Violence against women is structural, it is imbedded in a patriarchal world. I believe that it is necessary for women to build a strong movement that takes on the hidden violence of patriarchy and make it visible.

TJ: What is your view of the Millennium Development Goals, particularly goal three on promoting gender equality and empowerment of women?

FS: Our main critique of the MDGs and the now post goals is the failure to place living in poverty at the centre of goal definition and solution formulation.

Our belief is that those who live in poverty have no clear strategies on what is required to lift people out of poverty and that those in “development” adopt an expert-led approach. There are no greater experts on the experience of poverty than those living in it.

TJ: You participated at the just ended BRICS summit, what are the benefits of BRICS for women?

FS: BRICS can potentially provide alternatives to the offerings of International Monetary Fund and World Bank, which have not served our continent. Three of the BRICS countries (India Brazil and South Africa) have a recent history and experience of social protections and a developmental approach to governance with varied results.

The BRICS bank is focusing on much needed infrastructure across the continent. If their approach serves the needs of the citizens, this could contribute to lifting poor people (particularly women in rural and urban areas) out of poverty.

The citizens of BRICS member nations face common challenges: one is the devastation of gender-based violence. These issues, usually defined as the ‘soft issues’, need to have a prominent place on the BRICS agenda if it is going to be a vehicle for an alternative global paradigm.

TJ: How is your organisation going to ensure that commitment made at the BRICS summit improves the lives of ordinary women?

FM: Our programmes actively engage with women in food gardening, care centers, local governance and leadership programmes.

Building a strong and resilient women’s movement is key to this - not just at a national level - we need to build women’s solidarity across the region.

ActionAid believes that women’s rights are human rights and we approach all our work from a Human Rights Based perspective. This means that we work with people on the ground supporting social movements, and/ or mobilising people around claiming their rights and holding duty bearers to account. This is supported by campaigns such as the safe cities campaign and no hunger campaign.

Within the context of BRICS this has meant making visible the livelihood challenges facing the woman.