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04 April 2024
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Story Lunga Luthuli
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Photo SUPPLIED
Dr Juliet Kamwendo champions gender-inclusive climate action in Africa. Her expertise at the recently held AFR100 workshop highlighted vital steps towards sustainable and equitable development.
Dr Juliet Kamwendo, Lecturer and Programme Director for Gender Studies in the Centre for Gender and Africa Studies at the University of the Free State, is spearheading efforts to integrate gender considerations into Africa's climate restoration agenda. Reflecting on her involvement, Dr Kamwendo stated, "This is particularly crucial, as women make up almost 50% of the population in Africa, and the depletion and degradation of land affect them disproportionately."
She recently served as a gender expert at the AUDA-NEPAD AFR100 workshop in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, from 25 to 29 March 2024. This initiative aims to restore forests and degraded land across Africa by 2030, with a focus on gender equality.
The workshop emphasised the integration of gender perspectives into the AFR100 project, acknowledging the disproportionate impact of land degradation on women. Dr Kamwendo's expertise highlighted the need to empower women in climate change interventions, addressing existing gender inequalities exacerbated by environmental degradation.
“Women – who are primarily responsible for household food security and water provision – bear the brunt of environmental degradation, leading to increased workloads, reduced income opportunities, and heightened vulnerability to climate-related disasters. Furthermore, the loss of forest cover and biodiversity further exacerbates the challenges faced by women, particularly in rural areas where they depend heavily on natural resources for their livelihoods,” added Dr Kamwendo.
Her participation highlights academia's crucial role in fostering inclusive and sustainable development, emphasising interdisciplinary collaboration to tackle complex environmental challenges. Through initiatives such as AFR100, stakeholders are working towards a more resilient and gender-responsive future for Africa.
Minister Jeff Radebe commends UFS for measures taken to address racial prejudices
2013-10-21
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| 18 October 2013 |
Mr Jeff Radebe, Minister of Justice and Constitutional Development, last night delivered a lecture in the Prestige series of the Dean: Faculty of Law, at the Bloemfontein Campus of the University of the Free State (UFS).
In a packed hall with, among others, university students, staff and members of the judicial system, Minister Radebe said that many other academic institutions should look to the UFS when they deal with the challenges of racism in its various manifestations in their midst. “I commend the university for taking drastic measures to address the challenges of racial prejudices in its own backyard,” he said.
“Government can and must provide leadership, but it is the collective efforts of all our people that will ensure that we bridge the racial and historical divides that stand in contrast to our noble virtues as entailed in the Constitution,” the Minister said.
On the topic “Access to Justice” the Minister said that the Department of Justice and Constitutional Development has channelled more than 80% of its nearly R16 billion budget to the Access to Justice programme.
Minister Radebe talked about the reintroduction of the Sexual Offences Courts, which attests to the unrelenting resolve to eliminate the scourge of gender-based violence. “Fifty-seven of the department’s Regional Courts are being upgraded to operate as dedicated Sexual Offences courts during the 2013/2014 financial year. We believe that these sexual offences courts will help address the growing challenge of sexual offences in the country, particularly against vulnerable groups.”
The Minister also pleaded with law teachers to avail themselves to preside in the courts in our country to complement the decreasing number of presiding officers that are drawn from the attorneys’ and advocates’ profession. These services are normally rendered by the Commissioners pro bono as part of an endeavour to bring justice to all the people, including the poor.
A challenge that the UFS could help resolve,is the transformation of the legal profession. “We need to increase the number of Law students and in turn increase the number of attorneys and advocates in the pool from which we derive candidate judges,” Mr Radebe said.
The Legal Practice Bill and the transformation of the State Legal Service are the most important initiatives underway by which the Institutions of Higher Learning will make a contribution. “The Bill seeks to establish a single regulatory structure, which will be responsible for setting the norms and standards for all legal practitioners. Members of the public, as primary beneficiaries of the legal profession, will also be represented in this structure. Other important objectives of the Bill are the removal of barriers of entry to the profession for young law graduates who aspire to pursue a legal career, and the introduction of measures aimed at ensuring that fees chargeable for legal services are reasonable and within reach of ordinary citizens,” he said.
The Minister concluded: “Our courts must reflect both the race and gender demographics of our country and so must the university communities in their various capacities as a microcosm of the society we seek to build.”