Thursday, April 21, 2011

Gender Festival 2011 General Announcement

Dear Members, partners and supports of the African Feminist Movement,

Tanzania Gender Networking Programme (TGNP) and Feminist Activist Coalition (FemAct) are pleased to announce the 10th Gender Festival (Tamasha la Jinsia) which will focus on Land, Labour and Livelihoods within the broad theme of Gender, Democracy and Development. The Festival will take place from the 13th – 16th September.

Tanzania Gender Networking Programme (TGNP) is an activist non-governmental organization advocating for feminist social transformation that leads to gender equality and equity, women’s advancement, social justice, and access to and control over resources by women, youth and other marginalised groups. The organisation works to build a transformative feminist social movement that can contribute towards achieving a transformed society with high sensitivity to issues of gender, democracy, human rights and social justice.

The Feminist Activist Coalition (FemAct) is a coalition of over 40 non-governmental organisations that has been working for social change in Tanzania and beyond since 1996. The coalition aims to develop, strategise, and implement a collective activist agenda for progressive and gender-focused transformation of economic, social and political policies, processes, and programmes.

Building on ongoing efforts towards transformative feminist movement building, this year’s Gender Festival will be organised in a more creative way in order to widen ownership and encourage originality. The main theme, plenary themes and workshop themes have come through our interaction and consultations with key partners and activists from grassroots, national, regional and international levels. The Gender Festival will therefore also be space for sharing ongoing struggles for women/ feminist movement building at all levels.

The present theme – ‘Land, Labour and Livelihoods’ – builds on the themes that have guided earlier Festivals, while retaining the broad emphasis on Economic Justice. This year’s Festival focuses on the specific struggles and initiatives of grassroots, marginalised women and their organisations and coalitions around Land, Labour and Livelihoods in the context of neo-liberalism and patriarchy. The transformative feminist movement is in the front line of this struggle, because marginalised women are the most exploited and oppressed, and the most radical in linking private and public struggles into one broad movement for change.

Gender Festival Objectives are to provide space for:

1. Women/feminist and human rights activists to generate, reflect and share knowledge on Land, Labour & Livelihoods;
2. Celebrate the power of our numbers and strengthen alliances towards collective movement for economic justice and women empowerment across social sectors at all levels of society;
3. Enhancing our position as women/feminist activists building on participants’ own experiences and knowledge
4. Documenting and sharing feminist struggles and contributions to the public debate on Land, Labour & Livelihoods; and
5. Networking, sharing information and having fun!
Community activists, women/feminist groups, Community Based Organisations, Non Governmental Organisations and coalitions are highly encouraged to use the Gender Festival space creatively to coordinate a workshop, present/perform during the plenary sessions and exhibit in relation to the themes and subthemes of the Festival. TGNP and FemAct encourage the use of artistic and literal presentations equally.

Why Transformative Feminist Movement Building & Why Now?

Transformative feminism concerns the struggles for liberation of girls/women in both private and public spheres from patriarchy and neo-liberalism, and their efforts to create entirely new forms of gender and class relations in which both women and men live and are able to fulfil themselves in all their potential. Transformative feminism links struggles of women and men against all major forms of exploitation, oppression and discrimination, including male domination, class exploitation, imperial domination, racism, ethnicism, fundamentalism, traditionalism, and discrimination on the basis of disability, HIV, age and gender identity.

Transformative feminists believe that change is possible, and this belief provides them with hope in the midst of despair. Transformative feminism is rooted in the unity between theory and practice, analysis and action. Feminists highlight the power of personal reflections on individual/collective experiences of struggle as well as more systematic analysis and research about structures, systems and struggles. Transformative feminists deliberately adopt cooperative styles of work to challenge the competitive nature of capitalist society. Alternative ways of organising, producing and communicating are developed so as to support one another and to nurture new recruits to transformative feminist theory and practice.

Festival Format
Plenary sessions are held every morning to provide the conceptual framework for the day.
Day One: Opening of Gender Festival 2011 & Conceptualisation and Focus of the Gender Festival: Women Struggles over Employment, Livelihoods and Labour
Day Two: Women Struggles Over Means To (Self) Employment And Livelihoods: Land, Water, Physical Space & Markets
Day Three: Women Struggles Over Wages, Incomes, Working conditions, Social/Economic Security & Wellbeing
Day Four: Strategies for Feminist Organizing and Movement Building for Women’s Access and Control over Land, Labour and Livelihoods

Separate workshops will be organised from day two on the following subthemes:
• Struggles over Natural Resources and their Use in the context of ‘land-grabbing’
• Struggles Over People Centred Constitutions in Africa
• Sex, Sexuality, Bodily Integrity, Politics of Choice and struggles against GBV in the workplace public and private
• Politics of Trade, Aid and Debt at all levels
• Economic Independence of Women: Challenges, Strategies, towards a full employment policy
• Women workers/producers organising for wages and incomes in paid and unpaid work through labour unions, support groups, ‘circles’, grassroots women’s groups and community based activism

During the second and third day afternoon workshops will be organised on relevant skills building for strengthening advocacy, organising and movement building initiatives. These will include workshops on: writing, feminist performance (music, poetry, dance, and drama), media usage, ICT, organising skills, action oriented research skills, fundraising and canvas art.

You and your organization/ group can participate in the Festival through:
• Preparing presentation of different kinds (papers, poetry, video, song, art performance) or organizing a workshop panel or debate relating to the various sub-themes above;
• Coordinating a workshop or skills building session;
• Mobilising and facilitating a large group from your country, region, area, constituency or organization to attend and contribute at the festival;
• Creating an interactive exhibition that may include publications, photographs, appropriate technology materials, handcraft and others;
• Preparing Artistic Performances related to Festival themes;
• Active attendance and contributions during the Festival;
• Financial contribution and fundraising to support specific events; and
• Other forms of contribution to enhance the festival.

Please communicate to us as soon as possible your organization’s proposed contribution to the festival so that we can include you in the plan and the programme. Ideas for additional sub-themes related to the broad theme are also welcome. To present a paper, prepare a case study, or facilitate a workshop, please refer to the guidelines for papers, case studies and workshops which will soon be available online at www.tgnp.org. We also welcome suggestions and innovative ideas for ways to organize, coordinate and conduct this year’s festival.

Participation is open to all interested organizations and individuals, who are encouraged to fundraise for their participation (registration fee and other related costs will be available on TGNP website soon). In order to secure funding, TGNP can provide letters of invitation to support fundraising endeavors. Early registration and notification of envisaged role in the event will be highly appreciated as it will ease registration process for both TGNP and yourself. You can also register online at www.tgnp.org

The official languages of the festival will be Kiswahili and English.

We look forward to your communication with the Gender Festival organizing team, based at the Tanzania Gender Networking Programme (TGNP) through info@tgnp.org (subject: GF 2011) or gf_coordinator@tgnp.org


Sincerely,


Ms. Mary Rusimbi,
Chairperson TGNP

&

Ms. Jesca Mkuchu,
Chairperson FemAct

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