The emergence of Non-governmental Organisation

1. The Role and Effectiveness of
Women's Organisations
 Women's organisations fall under Non-
governmental Organisations.
 They were formed in order to help in the
liberation of women, that is, to help women
realise their rights and capabilities in society.
 Batswana women have organised themselves
in different organisations to advocate for this
change.

2. Lobbyist organisation - Emang
Basadi
Background
 Emang Basadi is an organisation which was formed in
1986 and has its headquarters in Gaborone.
 It is a lobbyist organisation because it is advocating for
the rights of women in Botswana.
 Lobbyist simply means to try to persuade the government
or someone with political power that a law or a situation
should be changed or amended.
 This organisation is, therefore, persuading the
government of Botswana to change its laws or
constitution to suit or favour both sexes especially
women.

3. Role played by Emang Basadi
 Emang Basadi is one of the first women's organisations in Botswana.
 It has played a major role in assisting women fight for and achieve their rights.
 Batswana women began to voice the disadvantages they faced on account of their
gender in the 1980s.
 Many men leaders and casual observers would ask just what more women wanted
since their men and the state took good care of them.
 In particular, during the run up to the 1995 United Nations Conference on Women,
traditional leaders often expressed shock that women should want equality with men
when custom and tradition dictated otherwise.
 Many would believe women today live much better lives compared to earlier
decades when they seemed to be quite satisfied with their subordinate position and
the inequalities in opportunities that were the issues of the day.
 In the 1980s and 1990s women seemed to be even more dissatisfied with their
position in society and many of these women's organisations were established
around that time.

4. Role played by Emang Basadi
cont.
 This organisation was set up to change the position of
women in society.
 They were not allowed to participate in the
development of the country.
 Women were not appointed ministers, members of
parliament and were not even active in politics.
 Because of all this subordination and inequalities
Emang Basadi was established.
 It started holding seminars and carrying out
enlightening radio broadcasts as well as offering
support in cases that largely discriminated women
because of their gender.

5. Role played by Emang Basadi
cont.
 Unlike in the past, most women can now confidently stand up for
their rights and question any act that may seem to discriminate
against them, a clear sign that Emang Basadi has made an
impact on a lot of people.
 The coming up of this organisation was met by a lot of
challenges including rejection, sabotage and accusations as
many people were complaining that it was confusing married
women and breaking up the cultural rules of the society.
 In most cases women who stood up for their rights and refused
to be discriminated against were nicknamed "Emang Basadi".
 They were also accused of trying to be men or like men.

6. Achievements of Emang
Basadi
 Some of the major achievements of Emang Basadi include the following:
 Identifying women's most urgent problems, increasing public awareness of women's
issues and removing all barriers that hinder the advancement of women.
 That is, it identifies and removing laws that discriminate against women
 In 1994 Emang Basadi launched a Polite Education Project. This was contained in
the women Manifesto. Among other things the women's Manifesto aims at;
 Increasing the number of women in parliament and local government to 25%
 Reinsuring that political party platforms include women‘s commitments, issues and
concerns
 Educating women on the connection between voting and improving their living
conditions and
 Promoting awareness of women's political stand under representation in politics as
well as informing them on the neglect of their needs.

7. Effectiveness of Emang Basadi
 Emang Basadi has managed to hold Voter Education Seminars to bring the issues
outlined in the Manifesto to community level
 Before the 1994 elections, workshops were held to assist women candidates from all
political parties. Women candidates were trained on handling campaigns especially
on public speaking, fundraising and identifying key national and local issues
 Women's issues have been included in the political manifesto of Botswana's political
parties
 Representation of women in parliament has gone up
 We now have women cabinet ministers
 The number of women councillors has increased
 The number of women chiefs at the House of Chiefs is increasing
 Women are increasingly assuming leadership positions in government and Private
sectors, as we have already mentioned the Governor of the Bank of Botswana is a
woman.
 There are women judges; we have women Chiefs, Ministers, Members of Parliament
to mention only a few.

8. Educational Organisation - Young
Women Christian Association
(YWCA)
Background
 YWCA is a Women's educational organisation. You have probably learnt that
this unit that when education was first introduced by the colonialists, women
were not allowed to go to school
 Boys were given priority over girls because it was believed that women after all
got married, therefore, it was not important to educate them
 They believed that when these women were married their husbands would take
care of them
 In other words, the old tradition that said the woman's place is in the home was
the reason they were not sent to school
 When women were finally sent to school, a lot of them left before completing
their studies due to pregnancy
 Some were taken out of school because they had to be married
 This, therefore, is the reason illiteracy rate of women is very high in developing
countries such as Botswana.

9. Role of YWCA
 YWCA was solely formed or set up to give women a second
chance to attain their education and offers a variety of activities
to women coordinated and run from their centre in Gaborone and
other centres in major villages.
 It has a day care centre for children of both sexes and a school
for teen mothers who had left school because of pregnancy.
 It also has a Day Secondary School and Evening Secondary
School for both sexes in Gaborone.
 However, there are more women than men especially in the
evening because some of the women who enrol are those who
had to leave school to get married in the past.
 There is also a Home Economics course and a sewing or
tailoring course offered to women who have just left school and
would like to go into vocational training.

10. Effectiveness or Achievements of
YWCA
 YWCA contributes a lot towards this country's development because
of the fact that women are given a second chance to finish their
studies or education especially since they, as much as men, want to
progress in life.
 Many employees do not give their women promotion or a
opportunities to further their studies because they do not have
required academic qualifications to enable them to do so.
 As such, YWCA helps a lot in that it provides courses such as
BGCSE to enable women to progress in their respective areas.
 The other important thing is that through the Day Secondary School
teenage mothers have a chance to feed their babies and at the
same time finish their education as their babies have facilities to go
to in the same locality.

11. Legal Organisation -
Metlhaetsile Women's
Information Centre
Background
 The Metlhaetsile Women's Information Centre was founded in 1991 by a small group of Mochudi
women.
 There was only one resident attorney in Mochudi at that time who also had a reputation for taking up
women's issues, and was finding herself besieged with a steady stream of women coming to her
home both day and night seeking legal assistance that they could not afford to pay for.
 These Mochudi women saw the need for a legal aid centre based in the village.
 The centre was set up to respond to the pressing need to inform women about their rights, as well as
to provide them with assistance in accessing the law.
 I do hope you are well aware that in Botswana women have very limited rights under the law.
 Traditional society in Botswana is patriarchal and women are legally regarded as minors, and live
under the guardianship of their husbands, fathers or other male relatives.
 Women are often unable to fully take advantage of the few rights they do have under Botswana law
due to their lack of information about their entitlements and access to the necessary legal assistance.

12. Legal Organisation -
Metlhaetsile Women's
Information Centre cont.
 The founders of Metlhaetsile recognised these limitations and
saw the need for a centre to provide both education and legal
assistance to women with the long term goal of improving their
legal status.
 They recognised that the only way real change would come
about would be through the actions of the women themselves
agitating on their own behalf for improvements to the laws.
 Learner, I do hope you have heard about child maintenance for
unmarried mothers.
 There is a significant number of women who have children out of
wedlock.
 The fathers more often decide not to take care of their children
and the mothers are able to sue the fathers for maintenance
through this organisation.

13. Role of Metlhaetsile Women's
Information Centre
 Metlhaetsile Women's Information Centre was formed as a
village based nongovernmental organisation committed to the
promotion of women's human rights through the provision of
legal aid, counselling, education, community mobilisation, and
advocacy and public interest litigation.
 The facility is the only one of its kind in Botswana, and one of
a few women's organisations based in a village.
 Metlhaetsile Women's Information Centre has its offices
located at Mochudi in the Kgatleng District.

14. Objectives of Metlhaetsile
Women's Information Centre
 To provide women with education and training about their rights and
status under Botswana law.
 To provide legal assistance to less privileged women.
 To provide education and training to women about family planning,
HIV/AIDS prevention, sexual abuse and violence issues.
 To help women deal with the aftermath of rape, sexual abuse and other
forms of violence.
 To develop a constituency of women at village level who will work with the
centre to lobby for the necessary legal reforms to improve the status of
women in Botswana.
 To link up with other women's group, both nationally and internationally,
that is committed to improving the status of women for the purposes of
sharing experiences and strategies, and providing support and
information.
 To promote a greater understanding of human rights, a culture of human
rights, this features women’s rights prominently.

15. Effectiveness or achievements of
Metlhaetsile Women's Information
Centre
 It made a breakthrough in issues of failed marriages that had
ultimately led to divorce as well as helping those women who were
denied custody of their children during divorce hearings as children
were traditionally seen as belonging to the man and his family.
 Women who had cases and could not afford attorneys were
provided with the assistance they needed hence justice was done
as both parties were presented whenever there was a need.
 Today, Metlhaetsile is faced with a mammoth task of providing legal
representation to women who are in need of legal aid - yet cannot
afford to pay legal fees.
 This can be in matters relating to divorce or child maintenance as
mentioned earlier on.

16. Welfarist Organisation -
Botswana Family Welfare
Association (BOFWA)
Background
 BOFWA is a welfarist organisation affiliated
with the International Planned Parenthood
Federation (IPPF), the second largest non-
governmental organisation in the world which
provides support to family planning
association’s worldwide.

17. Role of BOFWA
 BOFWA creates awareness and provides education in
family planning for a better understanding of population
importance.
 Initially BOFWA's focus was to help the youth.
 This approach appears necessary based on current
statistics of teenage pregnancies in our country.
 Intensive family life education can only help uplift our
teenage mothers to be productive, healthy adults.
 Its role, however now endeavours to educate not only
women but both sexes about the use of contraceptives
especially in these days of HIV/AIDS where having a child
can lead to high risks of being infected by the disease.

18. Role of BOFWA
 BOFWA believes that knowledge about Family Planning and
access to such services are fundamental human rights.
 It believes that a balance between the population of the world,
its natural resources and productivity is a necessary condition of
human happiness, prosperity and peace.
 We have earlier on mentioned that Botswana society is
patriarchal, therefore, in our traditional societies the men decide
how many children the family should have.
 Even when family planning was introduced it remained very
difficult for women especially those who were not educated to
use it because they feared their husbands.