Addressing the Linkages Between Violence Against Women and Unpaid Care Work: Insights from Ghana Experiences

1. POWER PROJECT WEBINERON LINKAGES BETWEEN VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN AND UNPAID CARE WORKGhana experiences Promoting Opportunities for Women’s Empowerment and Rights (POWER)

2. Introduction Violence against Women (VAW) is one of the most persistent human rights violations that affects women of all ages from every society, yet its impact such as Unpaid Care Work (UCW) remain uncosted on both rural and urban areas and are ignored or woefully understated in most instances. The connection between UCW and VAW is established in this presentation.

3. VAW that perpetuates care work burden on women Examples of VAW: • Bride price/dowry which encourage men to see women as their "property”

4. VAW that perpetuates care work burden on women • Economic violence such as withholding productive resources such as fertile lands from women. • Married men spending scarce resourceson drinks and girlfriends rather than on household needs. (Not providing income for family upkeep) • Child marriage in which the girls consent is not given for marriage, the child ends up without any paid work and is relegated to care work at home without value and recognition

5. Examples of Violence…. • Sexual neglect as a result of tiredness for doing care work • Cultural attitudes that indicate an inferior status for women directing low paid, unpaid, and care work as the domain of women. • Denial of education (or trade) which subsequently leads the woman to rely on men and take instructions. Women ultimately have no control of their time and bodies.

6. How Does Violence Against Women link to Unpaid Care Work? • Societal segregation of roles and framing it as “gender roles”. limiting women to the domain of unpaid work and care work. For instance, in most communities where POWER is being implemented in Tain, Adaklo and Jerapa- water collection is the primary responsibility of women and girls. Absence of water at home can seriously lead to wife battering and refusal to talk to spouse or have sex with spouse. • Denial of access to productive resources in a secured manner. Women do not have access to secured and fertile land for farming and, yet they do most of the farm work. The produce is sold by their spouses without their knowledge.

7. Ping Comm. Women How Does Violence against women link to Unpaid Care Work? • Bride price makes men feel they have ‘bought’ women into their households. In most instances men said “there is no need supporting their wives to do unpaid care work because they have paid for all the services in the form of dowry”. This is also related to sex: where women cannot negotiate for sex and men felt they always have the absolute right for it.

8. Inadequate provision of public resources such as water, health centres, child care centres and energy saving stoves. The absence of these facilities increase the number of hours spent on doing Unpaid Care Wok, which is a violence component at the individual, household and also the state level.

9. Barriers/Challenges • Patriarchy has enabled men to gain and maintain their dominance and control over women. This is tied hugely to norms, customs and traditions. • Resource constraints by local authorities to support agencies such as DOVSU (Domestic Violence and Victims Support Unit), and provision of facilities towards re-distribution of Unpaid Care Work. • Lack of national data that can cost the value of UCW in monetary terms for policy makers to appreciate what is being lost. • Rural women not recognizing that Unpaid Care Work in itself is a form of violence against women and girls. • Inappropriate naming and framing of the concepts leads to wrong understanding of the concept: In most public places the word ‘unpaid’ is denoted as exchange of cash in monetary terms to women.

10. Activity categories Interventions that have worked in addressing UCW and reducing GBV The use of time diaries (to show what the participants’ time is spent on – hour by hour) to use for sensitization and dialogue Use of traditional leaders as champions to support campaigns at the community Dialogue meetings with local government authorities towards provision of care facilities such as bore holes, and support to establish child care centers. Use of Community Based Anti-violence Teams (COMBAT)

11. Time use before and after • Pilot of Child Care Centers • Campaign on access to fertile lands- 2500 women out of 3000 targeted women had access to land through groups and on individual bases • Empowering women to take up leadership positions at the community and district level- 850 women had leadership positions such as water user committees members, PTA, SMC, community women leaders and Church leaders, Assembly representatives and Unit committee members. Water Collection Before After 4 hrs or more two hours Child Care Before After 8 hrs or more 4 hrs Fuel wood Collection Before After 4 hrs Taken over by men and boys

12. How will the POWER Project Address VAW and UCW • Heighten sensitization on women's rights through women’s groups and community anti-violence platforms • Mapping of GBV and use of traditional leaders to champion local campaigns • Provision of water harvesting structures, child care centers, facilitating women access to fertile and secured lands and other farm inputs • Engagements and dialogue with policy makers across all levels. • Support women’s groups with energy saving stoves • Tracking women and men time use using mobile phones and time use cards.

13. Going Forward • Transformative approaches to addressing VAW that seeks to target the structural causes and symptoms as wellreflecting changes in power dynamics and local systems. • Proper naming and framing at all levels targeting different audiences to seek their support. E.g messaging at the international, regional, national and local level • Continue the use of community sensitizations mechanism such as radio discussions, flyers, role-plays and dialogues with stakeholders at the community and district levels • Protection against counterattacks: Any possible counterattack as a result of women’s empowerment programming must be identified and steps should be taken to mitigate any potential risks for women • Concrete national data to support national and international level engagements • Use of community platforms such as COMBAT, school children and strong relationship with media across all levels