DEMOCRACY
DEMOCRACY IS NOT ABOUT CIVICS AND POWER-SHARING AGREEMENTS. IT IS ABOUT BALANCE OF POWER AMONG INSTITUTIONS.
Please click on the programs below for more information.
Helping Hands International
Women's Paths to Political Participation and Decision Making
Recommendations
Introduction
The lack of cultural democracy is the primary reason for the physical and emotional affliction in the world. In countries around the world, movements to establish democratic forms of government increasingly influence international affairs and development strategies.
Organizations and community groups are continuously finding ways to promote “good governance” that support and respect the voices and interests of a range of citizens.
The current situation of humanity is the fruit of compromise and cowardice along with the refusal to serve the truth and the lack of compassion. It is the consequence of an accepted exploitation combined with disputed controversial policies with disastrous and destructive results by callous dictatorial governments.
Helping Hands International mission is to devise innovative ways to deal with new types of problems that armed conflicts in the third world.
The international community will have to provide to poor developing countries an appropriate blend of incentives toward more peaceful interaction and disincentives toward violence.
Conflict management need to become an essential element of structural adjustment and development programs.
In virtually every conflict situation in the third world, especially in Africa today, the credibility of the industrialized's words and deeds is questioned.
Probably the societal distance and ignorance of the situation in one hands and certainly the mind-sets and double standards of editors somehow downgrade Africans' death and suffering in conflict situations.
In order to help alleviate human suffering and dam up a dynamic of personal thirst of Democracy and Justice for all, an intensive teaching campaign has to be done in the Third World where the spirit of self-reliance is needed.
In addition, social efforts that ameliorate economic opportunity, quality of life and social stability in developing countries have to reach an improved level of performance.
Helping Hands International strives to ending the political and social turmoil ravaging most part of the world in the wake of civil unrests and wars.
Helping Hands International makes efforts to popularize and institutionalize the process of peaceful negotiation and to create partnerships between members of government and societies.
The organization leads the way to facilitate the progression towards a stable democracy by promoting the resolution of conflict through non-adversarial processes.
Helping Hands International will improve the Culture of Democracy through:
Research and Information Distribution
Seminars and Forums
Training and Counseling Programs
Guidance for Countries in Crisis
Women's Paths to Political Participation and Decision Making
A democratic political culture function is critical to the advancement of women, primarily because it encourages political consciousness and action. Consequently, as political alliances are formed and information is shared, power relations within society and the political arena shift, allowing previously marginalized groups (such as women) to identify and fight for their goals. When this point is reached, the social capital (i.e., the relationships, institutions, and norms that facilitate cooperation among various groups) of a country is enhanced, and democracy can then gain a stronger foothold.
A vibrant civil society is a prerequisite of democracy. By building constituencies around particular political concerns, civil society ensures that a range of citizens and interests can gain access to political systems. Civil society actors, in particular politically conscious organizations and individuals, also contribute to the development of political skills on the part of constituents, a necessary component if citizen participation is to be firmly established and remain a consistent factor in political life.
The nature of political culture and the role of civil society in a given context is determined in part by government institutions, such as legislatures, ministries, judicial entities, and local agencies.
Such institutions make up a realm in which civil society actors can work to fulfill their political goals and in which policymakers and political leaders can demonstrate their commitment to the democratization process. Importantly, institutions provide a basis for judging government accountability with regard to responsibilities to citizens and the creation of conditions that catalyze and reinforce both political activity and empowerment by groups of citizens.
The Helping Hands International's projects considered in this paper underscore the many channels that are available to women pursuing political involvement. As a democratic political culture expands worldwide, it is increasingly important to examine how women—and often the institutions to which they belong—take on new roles and identities, develop new skills, claim individual and collective rights, participate in public decision making processes, and establish an equal footing with their male counterparts. The Helping Hands International's project generated a deeper understanding of the reasons for women's exclusion from civic life and about how best to foster their participation in democratic process, in particular regarding the tools and strategies that can be applied to promote participatory values, practices, and institutions.
The following recommendations for program planning and implementation are subdivided into three broad categories:
Tools and Strategies to Foster and Strengthen Women's Participation:
Support policy analysis activities
Promote human rights education
Continue skill building and support for women in public office
Use advocacy training as a means to understand and challenge inequitable societal structures
Power of the Collective Voice and Experience:
Facilitate the development of diverse networks for women's groups
Support institutional capacity building
Create forums for women to exchange ideas and reflect on their experiences
Develop a written record for other organizations
Credibility as a Vital Asset:
Create and widely disseminate a credible body of information
Collect gender-disaggregated information as a powerful tool for monitoring and assessing women's progress
The following are lessons that come from collective project experiences:
Sustainable development requires women's active participation in public decisions making
Political consciousness results from critical thinking
Small steps provide the foundation for enduring social change
It is common for citizens (particularly women) in transitional societies or emerging democracies to be resigned to the idea that they cannot change things or improve their circumstances. Even in instances of entrenched attitudes of powerlessness formed over decades of authoritarian rule, however, tools and knowledge are available for individuals and communities to transform their thinking. Encouraging women's engagement in a vibrant civil society is an essential component of democratic development: This process assists women in gaining greater control over the circumstances that affect their lives and their communities—and consequently affords them greater decision making power. Such methods as advocacy training, consciousness raising, network building and political and gender analysis are ways for women to combat the fear and apathy that underpin powerlessness and to generate faith in the possibility of transformation.
Helping Hands International field experiences in the area of governance and civil society demonstrate that the selection and sequencing of methods to promote women's democratic participation vary widely, reflecting the nuances of different cultural, economic, geographic, political, and social contexts. Thus, although objectives and outcomes were often similar, each project made distinct contributions.
As a democratic political culture expands worldwide, it is increasingly important to examine how women—and often the institutions to which they belong—take on new roles and identities, develop new skills, claim individual and collective rights, participate in public decision making processes, and establish an equal footing with their male counterparts.
Hundreds have perished in silence and out of sight, without even a cold announcement, and thousands have gone into detention and have not returned… Then there are the names of those who disappeared, and dissolved like salt between the ocean and the gulf.
