Genet Shume: Fighting for gender equality

My name is Genet Shume and I am the programme director for ActionAid Ethiopia. I am passionate about women’s rights and justice for women. I studied law as my first degree and worked for the Ethiopian Women Lawyers Association, and then the Federal Supreme Court Child Justice Project Office, before joining ActionAid. We provided free legal aid for women, girls, and children deprived of justice.

Since then, I have worked on advocacy and policy around issues affecting women, especially gender-based violence.

There have been improvements in relation to GBV in Ethiopia, with legislation and policies in place, and more women’s rights organisations. But there is a long way to go and the government still has to make critical commitments, including funding women’s rights and ensuring that the needs of GBV survivors are met. This is an area in which I believe we need to advance more.

As well as GBV, women face economic injustice, especially in a relationship or a marriage where women are mostly dependent on the income of their partners. Even when there is violence in a relationship, women stay silent as they need to have their children fed. Social norms can have a negative impact on human rights- girls are told to prepare for marriage and not to engage in employment, limiting their education engagement and progress as well, leading to economic dependency.

Women often work in cities, but are still expected to take care of the household and community commitments of care. They also face GBV or domestic violence even as bread winners.

There is poor accountability for women and girls’ rights violation in general. Perpetrators can be released on bail for their crimes, and the burden of proof is mostly on survivors. Because of this, few cases are reported, and cases that are reported have a low chance of succeeding because the survivor has so much to do to prove guilt. There must be a more survivor-centered and caring system to ensure proper reporting, and a stronger trust in the system from the  community.

There is also growing abuse and harassment of women online and this is harder to prove, prevent and respond to.

ActionAid’s Irish Aid-funded Women’s Rights Programme empowers communities – working with women to change their lives. Women, girls and marginalised community groups learn about their rights and how to use their voices collectively.

This is making a difference. There are many stories of women and girls who are now organised in groups, sharing power, supporting each other and advancing their agenda with local officials and  leaders. We have more women and girls boldly speaking out and challenging systems.

We also have many partners working with us for the same cause, and we collectively address issues. We are engaging local and national governments on gender justice issues including drafting gender policies, and developing economic justice and GBV-related strategies.

Funding from Irish Aid and other donors is making a big difference. It gives us a chance to try new things to challenge existing norms and issues that perpetuates GBV.

Global solidarity and commitments to end gender inequality and injustices are important.  It helps us to work at the national level and address gaps in funding and action.