An NGO in Special Consultative Status with the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) of the United Nations
About Us
ABANTU for Development is a registered NGO established in 1991 by African women based in Europe. It is an NGO in Special Consultative Status with the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) of the United Nations. The Regional Office for Western Africa (ROWA), based in Accra, Ghana, was registered under the Companies Code in December 1998. The office was officially opened in March 1999. ABANTU-ROWA coordinates all ABANTU programmes in the West African sub-region including programme activities in the Nigeria Country Office (NCO) based in Kaduna, Nigeria. ROWA has gained credibility in the West Africa sub-region as an effective and credible gender and policy advocacy organisation. It is also popularly referred to as the "NGO of NGOs" as a result of its expertise and experience in strengthening the management and service delivery capacities of NGOs and CBOs that work with and for women.
The organisation is currently focusing on the following key areas of develpoment as contained in the 12 Critical Areas of Concern in the Beijing Platform for Action: Governance, Conflict, Poverty and ICTs. The organisation produces an informative quarterly newsletter, called ABANTU News. This publication focuses on the gender implications of policies. Its target audiences include NGOs, Members of Parliament, development agencies, students and other individuals.
In the year 2003, ABANTU-ROWA initiated a research and advocacy programme that led to the creation of a process for developing a document known as The Women's Manifesto for Ghana. This initiative has also led to the formation of a Coalition on the Women's Manifesto for Ghana which is hosted by ABANTU-ROWA.
The rational behind ABANTU's work is that, whereas both women and men face constraints in their participation in policy-making for social and economic development, the specific ways in which women are constrained in their efforts at contributing to policy-making processes is problematic. Women face many structural inequalities including discriminatory practices and lack of sufficient access to and control of resources. At the same time, lack of adequate acess to the needed knowledge and skills also affect the ability of many NGOs working with women to provide an environment that would empower women to articulate their concerns about policies and its implications for their lives. Thus, not only are policy-making processes top-down, they are also undertaken without women's views and concerns. This limits the extent to which measures can be put in place to ensure that women and men are enabled to contribute to and benefit equally from development.
ABANTU's work is therefore aimed at helping to increase women’s participation in decision-making and policy influencing. ABANTU also seeks to strengthen NGOs to be more effective actors in the policy-making processes in their countries. It does this through research about women’s experiences and participation in policy making, training and advice for organisational strengthening and information on mobilising resources. It runs training workshops for NGOs entitled ‘Enhancing Capacities for Engaging with National Policies from a Gender Perspective’.
VISION
ABANTU has a vision of a world in which empowered women and men work together to address gender inequalities and promote transformational leadership and development for a just society.
ABANTU exists to build the capacity of women to participate in decision-making at all levels, to influence policies from a gender perspective and to address inequalities and injustices in social relations. It is a network of people who believe that gender disparity is an injustice, contributes to poverty and is a major hindrance to development. Although ABANTU is an independent network, it forges strategic alliances with others in order to advance its cause.
The organisation therefore seeks to achieve this through, advocacy, training, research, institutional development and networking. ABANTU was established to: