Just Associates Southern Africa: Programme Manager
Deadline: 25 November 2011

JASS (Just Associates) is an international community of activists, scholars, and popular educators that works to strengthen and leverage the voice, visibility, and collective organising power of women to create a just world.

JASS Southern Africa seeks to appoint a Programme Manager, based in Cape Town. There is, however, an option for candidates to be based in Zimbabwe, Malawi or Zambia where the bulk of its work is located.

This is a great opportunity for an African professional who is deeply committed to strengthening grassroots activist leadership and organising and who brings passion, demonstrated leadership, interpersonal and organisational skills. S/he will offer relevant strategic and programmatic experience as well as some experience with participatory training and grassroots organising.

In Southern Africa (SNA), JASS’ strategy is to strengthen and mobilise women’s activist leadership to retool and rebuild women’s movements to address practical needs and change norms, institutions and policies that perpetuate inequality and violence. The programme involves training, organising, social media, documentation and strategic action in Zambia, Zimbabwe and Malawi. Now in its fourth year, the programme is driven by a regional team and a unique regional alliance of LGBT activists, progressive religious leaders living with HIV/AIDS, youth organisers and ICT feminist activists to maximise their reach and impact on women’s rights and lives.

While decision-making relating to the overall JASS SNA strategy, planning and organisational development lies with the Regional Coordinator, the Programme Manager will work closely with the Regional Coordinator and part-time organisers and consultants to facilitate country processes and communications, ensuring that relationships, programmes and the regional partnerships are on track and in line with JASS SNA’s mission and strategy.

Responsibilities:
Provide leadership, mentoring and support to the broader JASS SNA community of women activists across the region virtually and in person;
Coordinate and backstop country-level processes in Zambia, Malawi and Zimbabwe, including overseeing the planning, design, facilitation and documentation of activities and events;
Establish/coordinate consultative processes for designing, planning and implementing JASS SNA strategies and programmes in line with JASS’ overall mission and strategic priorities;
Refine and adjust plans as needed in accordance with opportunities and funding;
Develop/consolidate regional systems for documentation, reporting and monitoring in close coordination with the regional team and global JASS;
Maintain regular communication with the regional team and partnership to ensure programmes, relationships and deliverables are on track including regular check-ins with regional staff and partners to ensure continued ownership;
Identify and pursue strategic opportunities to deepen and broaden the impact of the JASS SNA movement-building process;
At times, represent JASS SNA and involve other regional team members and JASS SNA community in representing JASS in the region at important events and among a wide variety of people and organisations who are potential allies and donors.

Requirements:
Minimum of 8-10 years of demonstrated experience with managing programmes and people and administering projects related political activism and/or advocacy on women’s rights, HIV/AIDS young women leadership, social movements and related issues;
Minimum of 8-10 years of demonstrated programme management experience related to political activism, women’s rights and HIV/AIDS in Southern Africa;
Experience writing about women’s organisation and social justice issues strongly preferred;
Knowledge on policy issues related to the core themes;
Commitment to facilitative leadership and democratic management principles;
Experience in promoting teamwork and working collaboratively in a multigenerational, multicultural context;
Ability to think critically and politically, and problem-solve with minimal resources;
Ability to operate in a virtual, global organisation where e-mail and phone communication is paramount;
Written and oral communication skills;
Ability to write for a variety of audiences and purposes;
Experience working effectively with limited budgets and a corresponding ability to draft and implement budgets for regional projects and initiatives;
Ability to think through staffing needs and priorities;
Comfortable building and developing organisational processes for a young organisation with a unique and flexible structure that is continually evolving in careful and well thought-out strategic stages;
Excitement about, and commitment to, bringing diverse interests together across boundaries of race, class, gender, sexuality and nationality in collaborative and creative ways;
Sensitivity/awareness of difference, power and privilege as they shape interaction and of multigenerational processes;
Comfortable dealing with and navigating the complex politics between traditional NGOs and women’s rights groups;
Ability to plan on the move and to respond and adjust to shifting constantly priorities;
Experience organising and facilitating events.

To apply, submit a CV and motivation letter to Maggie Mapondera at maggie [at] justassociates [dot] org or fax to: +1 202 232 4715.
NGO Pulse Portal.

No phone calls will be accepted.

JASS is an equal opportunity employer. Applicants with diverse backgrounds and members of the queer/transgender community are strongly encouraged to apply.

For more about the Just Associates, refer to www.justassociates.org

Sour: NGO Pulse Portal

With only two days to go until the beginning of the 16 days of Activism Against Violence Against Women, the U.S. Embassy’s Public Affairs Section played host to a presentation on the campaign, led by young Zimbabwean women’s rights activist, Cleopatra Ndlovu. She defined gender-based violence (GBV) as an umbrella term encompassing “any harm that is perpetrated against a person’s will, because of their sex – this violence has a negative impact on the physical, the psychological health, the development and the identity of the person”.

The theme for this year’s campaign is: From Peace in the Home to Peace in the World: Let’s Challenge Militarism and End Violence Against Women! Ndlovu said that the focus on militarism last year and this year, is due to the rise in conflicts and political unrest all over the world. In Zimbabwe, election-time has become synonymous with violence (especially rape), and many of our women shudder to think what will happen to them before and during next year’s polls.

“We live in a country that is not concerned about the issues of GBV,” said Ndlovu as she highlighted the lack of progress or significant change in the situation of women, despite the many protocols, treaties and declarations signed by the nations with regards to discrimination against women and the increase of increase of women in decision-making positions – Zimbabwe has failed to reach the 30% by 2005 goal, as female representation in Parliament to date, falls short of this target.

But the situation is not completely dismal, according to Ndlovu, as women have made huge strides already:

- Establishment of Ministry of Women’s Affairs, Gender and Community Development
- National Gender Policy
- Domestic Violence Act
- Victim friendly units

Despite this progress Ndlovu says women still have a long way to go. Another problem she highlighted was the fact that the people who are at the forefront of the fight against GBV are mainly women, through the many organisations who are a part of the women’s movement. The involvement and participation can make it much less of a struggle.

In conclusion, Ndlovu said that the media also had huge role to play in accurately informing the nation on the plight of women in reporting on gender-based violence.

In an analysis titled Debating Zimbabwean-ness in Diasporic Internet forums, researchers Wendy Williams and Winston Mano explore the way in which national identity and citizenship were debated in an online discussion forum on the tabloid news site NewZimbabwe. The analysis focuses on an online discussion of Makosi Musambasi, who participated in Big Brother UK 2005, providing an interesting insight into how we as Zimbabweans construct our collective identity.

Like many Zimbabweans of my generation and more in the succeeding ones, all I wanted to do after high school was leave the country. Yet it was when I left and had experienced otherness in another country I wanted nothing more than to come back.  There is nothing that makes you feel more Zimbabwean than leaving Zimbabwe. In my time away, I spent hours on the Internet looking for anything and everything I could find that might possibly bring home to me. Including other Zimbabweans and time and time again I was disappointed. The group that was supposed to create a soft landing for fellow émigrés was mired in infighting and political struggles. Other Zimbabweans would get in touch only when they needed something.  I remember one African Union like gathering that was so overwhelmed by Nigerians that there was nowhere for them to sit. And even though there were several thousand Zimbabweans living in that city, our table for ten could hardly find three people. This is not to imply that that we are an exception among nationalities, but it is peculiar that even Zimbabweans themselves have observed that we are the least united of all the nationalities. There is not a single person living in or who has returned from the Diaspora who cannot recount at least one story of Zimbabweans being taken advantage of, excluded and sometimes even oppressed by fellow countrymen. An example is the news story of the man who was accused of selling the names of undocumented Zimbabweans to the Home Office in the UK.

The report observes that the Internet has provided a means for Zimbabweans both in and out of the country to set up a vibrant media culture, therefore a space for a more robust and inclusive debate regarding Zimbabwean-ness. It also notes that ‘[t]he discussion has shown how diasporic Zimbabwean media culture incorporated and subverted mainstream representations on the British media. The intensity and scope of the debates around the participation of a Zimbabwean nurse, Makosi Musambasi…are a good example of the mobilising aspect of national identity on the Internet.’

Disappointingly, those posting comments on the forum reject Makosi’s authenticity as a Zimbabwean because her parents were not born in the country.  Reflecting on this, Williams and Mano write:

Although Makosi had lived her whole life in Zimbabwe, forum participants excluded her from the nation in similar ways as the Zimbabwean Government sought to disenfranchise Zimbabweans of Malawian, Zambian and Mozambican descent from their citizenship. In this way highly exclusionary notions of the nation were thus reproduced on the New Zimbabwe forum.

I can see why the state chooses to broadcast propaganda, it works. And ironically it has worked on the very people who by virtue of their location outside Zimbabwe are economically if not politically opposed to the party’s authoritarian grip on everything Zimbabwean, including identity. But regardless of where they live, their political affiliation and even skin colour, for many people being Zimbabwean is no longer defined in terms of what country you were born and grew up in or common experiences. As Zimbabweans we define our Zimbabwean-ness in terms of what it is not, rather than in terms of what it is. We are just as guilty as ZANU-PF of perpetuating a nationalistic misconstruction of our common identity. Individually, we divide and create an ‘other’ based on what is perceived as mis-culture or acculturaltion. This becomes personally unacceptable, and instead of uniting and embracing the diversity within our culture we reject each other for petty small-minded reasons. It’s no wonder then that there are people in Matebeleland who believe in creating a separate Ndebele state, or that Zimbabweans of European descent are first white then Zimbabwean. In fact depending on where and how we grew up, we are all Zimbabwean second.

I am disappointed by Zimbabweans. Even as we create conversations and actions about rebuilding Zimbabwe, the same breath is used to exclude other equally capable Zimbabweans, be they ZANU-PF or MDC-x members, Diasporans, white farmers, or Angolan/Malawian/Mozambican/Zambian-Zimbabweans. Surely this is a process that will require every Zimbabwean, regardless of location, language preference, political affiliation and most especially ethnic origin.

All manner of artists gathered in commemorating International Day of Tolerance (16th of November) at the Zimbabwe-United States of America Alumni Association facilitated discussion, under the theme: Promoting Tolerance through the arts, chaired by human rights activist and poet, Michael Mabwe. The aim of the talk was to interrogate the role that the arts can play in the promotion of tolerance, at whatever level and discuss how artists can better engage with the current reality in Zimbabwe as they try to promote tolerance.

Speakers included Mbizvo Chirasha – performing poet, writer and founder of Girl Child Creativity, Blessing Hungwe – author, producer, co-director, actor in the production Burn Mukwerekwere, Burn; a play based on the 2008 xenophobic violence in South Africa; and Tafadzwa Muzondo – theatre director, actor, taking arts to the grassroots through the Edzainesu Community Project.

Chirasha traced the history of intolerance in Zimbabwe, giving a few examples of tribalism, colonialism, independence struggle, the various women’s rights struggles, various student rebellions, the emergence of multiparty political system and consequent violence of 2007 elections and the 2008 xenophobic attacks in S.A. Hungwe said that the arts can be an invaluable tool in addressing intolerance by provoking thought, tackling divisive issues, breaking down barriers, bridging gaps, opening people’s minds and encouraging people to take a step back and investigate the prejudices and intolerance they hold at an individual level.

Since late October this year, 211 cases of typhoid have been reported in Harare. Reported cases of typhoid within Harare have opened a Pandora’s Box.

Though no deaths have been recorded so far, questions have been asked as to how a primitive disease such as typhoid can cause havoc in a country that has proper infrastructure in place for the supply of clean water.

Bigger questions are centred on how a country that has attained so much progress in health continues to experience typhoid cases.

Last year, Harare’s Mabvuku suburb was hit by a typhoid outbreak and hundreds of residents feared for their lives as the disease spread like a veld fire across the suburbs.

Then Harare City Council authorities claimed that they had contained the outbreak. Now a year later, the disease has resurfaced in Dzivarasekwa suburbs, making it clear that that only a temporary solution had been found.

More than 200 cases of the disease have so far been reported.

The underlying factor behind the outbreak of typhoid is the shortage of water.

Mabvuku is one place where residents struggle to get access to clean water. The residents have dug wells while boreholes have been sunk as alternative sources of clean water.

While for years Harare residents had thought that water problems are for those living in Eastern suburbs, which are furthest from Motorn Jeffrey Waterworks, the problems have come close next door. Suburbs such as Dzivarasekwa, Budiriro, Highfield, Glen Norah and Glen View also have serious water problems. Pessimists say the situation will become even worse while prophets of doom say the whole capital will end up being supplied by boreholes and wells.

But the million-dollar question is, has Harare really come to such a stage whereby residents have to accept that the city fathers cannot provide water?

Harare Residents’ Trust Coordinator, Mr Precious Shumba sees the typhoid outbreak as a sign of a gloomy future unless drastic measures are urgently taken.

For local government expert, Mr Percy Toriro, the typhoid outbreak in Harare is a clear sign of a failed system.
For years, the Harare City Council has been talking about alternative water sources but no action has really taken place on the ground. The peg that was planted at the proposed site of Kunzvi Dam ages ago has now gathered rust and has probably disappeared by now. Kunzvi Dam is a long-term solution.

Yet, the painful fact about Harare is that the council is simply failing to harness water from dams, purify it and supply residents who pay exorbitant charges every month.

While we huff and puff trying to find solutions, it is sad to realise that the capital’s authorities are clueless. The authorities have no solution to the capital’s water woes and are not treating the matter with the urgency it deserves.

For the ordinary person in Mabvuku, who has not accessed tap water for years, the question is: Can such a council continue to be entrusted with such a vital service delivery? Does the council still have a right to collect water rates? Or is it a matter of wrong people being given such an important mandate?

I remember the days when water in the taps sometimes used to come out cloudy and with a strong smell of the purification chemicals the City Council would use on the water. When this would happen some of us would complain that they were using too many of these purification chemicals and that they made the water taste ‘funny’. Indeed, others amongst us even wondered if these chemicals might be poisonous or harmful to our health. Ah, the good old days!

The water that comes out of our taps today is now harmful, and with its signature tinge of yellow-brown, is now a far cry from the cloudy, overly clean waters of old.

Many of Harare’s resident’s don’t even get to see this dirty water gushing out of their taps, as they no longer get City Council water. As a result, many are using and reusing dirty water from anywhere and everywhere. The water in Harare is no longer safe. In its latest assault on the City of Harare, the deadly water has hospitalised 211 (and counting) people. With the memory of the cholera outbreak of 2008 still fresh in our minds, I am perplexed that the council is doing absolutely nothing, when they know only too well how bad the situation can become.

Another holiday treat was getting to see Invictus, the movie. I then got a copy of it, and a copy of Nelson Mandela’s ‘Long Walk’ biography.

In the movie, Mr Mandela tells the captain of the South African Rugby team, that during his many years in prison, the poem inspired him to, “stand when all he wanted to do was lie down.” However, the biography makes no mention of this poem so maybe it was just some ‘licence’. (I was about to say poetic licence, but that was just too corny.) Maybe Mandela did not feel that way.

However, what really interested me was the contrast – this poem and it’s line “I am the captain of my soul”, vs. that defining Zimbabwean phrase, “handidi”. (I am not the one). Yes, there is a contrast there (even I am not that stupid), but what does it mean? What are the ramifications? What does it mean for Zimbabwe?

There is the first comparison between Mandela – being in charge. Of himself, first. Of his destiny, his environment, his achievements, his family (45 million I think he said). On the other hand, typical Zimbabwean, with the hand out. Begging. Begging for food. Begging for money. Begging for someone to change his government. Begging for a ride. Begging for dignity.

How often have I been asked, “why doesn’t the UN do something?” To which, the response rings loud and clear in my head, “why don’t YOU do something?”

How many times have I been told I must buy something from the vendor. “I’ve got to get bus fare to get home.” Again, my response, “Then you need to sell something that is worth buying, something I want.”

How often have we been told, ‘it is the result of illegal sanctions.” So often that even the MDC now seem to believe they exist (and it is most definitely a lie, there are no sanctions against Zimbabwe).

I have always wanted to believe it was my fault. Why am I not married? Doing something wrong. Why am I unemployed? Did not qualify myself? Why does no one like me? Because I am an asshole. Partly, because I am egotistical. I want to believe (and I want others to believe) I am the most important thing in the world. Partly because (in a practical sense), because I am he only one I can control. So if it someone else’s fault, I am out of control. If it is my fault, I can fix it (or not, in the case of the opposite sex!). So Mandela’s (possible) inspirational poem, rings to me. I want to believe I am the captain of my soul.

Invictus

Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.

In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.

Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds and shall find me unafraid.

It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.