ABANTU
for Development, established in London in 1991 by a group of concerned
African women, is an international non-governmental organisation with
the aim of empowering African people, especially women, to participate
at local, national, regional and international levels in making decisions
that affect their lives and enabling action for change. ABANTU as an organisation,
strives to eradicate the entrenched cultural, legal and political obstacles
to women attaining economic independence and equality before the law.
It aims to ensure the advancement of women's interests that will benefit
men and women as equal partners.
ABANTU's approach
to development is based on a people-centered philosophy, one that is participatory,
African and gender-centered. The focus of ABANTU's work is on:
Training and capacity-building
- In this functional area, ABANTU aims at strengthening and enhancing
capacities of women's organisations and Non-governmental Organisations
(NGOs) that work with and for women.
In this area, activities include:
- Developing and supporting training teams in Africa and the United Kingdom (UK)
- Strengthening the management capacities of NGOs
- Organisational development for NGOs
- Capacity building for NGOs to engage with policies from a gender perspective
- Training for policy-makers
on integrating gender into policies, programming, planning and management
of development
Giving training to women in Africa
Research, Publications and Communications - Is an area intended to promote gender perspective in all aspects of development through timely research, dissemination of information and the production of high quality materials taking into account ABANTU's belief that it is vital and timely that Africans, particularly women, engage in the creation of a cross sectoral, multi-visionary information network. Activities here include:
- Commissioning of research on ABANTU's thematic areas
- Publications
- Internet and Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) policy training workshops
Advocacy,
Public Awareness and Networking- Aims at raising public awareness,
networking and carry on advocacy activities on poverty, conflict, governance
and ICTs.
Advocating for Women's rights
Institutional Development of ABANTU for Development Programme- To be effective in influencing gender policies for the development of African women and men, there is a need to ensure institutional and organisational development of ABANTU.
ABANTU has collaborated with African and International NGOs in various issues concerning gender development. It has had fruitful engagement with the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA), the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) and is the only African NGO which has gained the United Nations Special Consultative Status with the Economic and Social Commission (ECOSOC) allowing it to attend all UN meetings.
©Hamida
Harrison
Date Created May 10, 2002