Chief Editor Foreword

Women’s Economic Empowerment is a central project of the Indian Ocean Rim Association (IORA). At least two international conferences on this topic have already been held under IORA’s auspices. At the 2013 IORA Council of Ministers’ Meeting (COMM), women’s economic empowerment was identified as a cross-cutting theme which would be integrated across all 6 of IORA’s priority areas. Building on this, along with the United Nations Development Program, Australia co-hosted the ‘Women’s Economic Empowerment with a Focus on Tourism and Textiles in the IORA Countries’ conference in Kuala Lumpur in August 2014 (IORA, 2014). The conference examined the challenges and opportunities for women’s entrepreneurship, the role of civil society in supporting women’s economic empowerment, and promoting trade reforms. Participants included all member states of IORA, as well as academics and business. In its summary report prepared the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT, 2014), produced six priority messages for supporting women’s economic empowerment in the IOR, as follows:

1. Invest in women’s education, professional development and training

2. Promote national cultural identity – self, product and place – in a way that encompasses the strengths and contribution of women

3. Contribute to broader understanding of the lived reality of women in IORA countries by funding research and analysis to develop the evidence base to inform policy decisions and measure progress to achieve gender equality

4. Implement gender responsive policy frameworks and budgets

5. Develop an IORA for responsible tourism to advance women’s economic empowerment

6. Take a whole-of-community approach to the women’s economic empowerment, acknowledging the complex interaction of gender roles, responsibilities and norms (p. 2)

Following on this, a second event, ‘Mobilizing Markets and Commitments to Gender Equality in the Indian Ocean Region’ was held in August 2015, in the Republic of Seychelles (IORA, 2015). A report on the Status of Women in the Indian Ocean Rim was launched here, and major themes to emerge from this report were the need for improved education and training for women; rights at work; and the need for access to finance and greater financial independence, or financial inclusion. (UN Women, IORA, DFAT and Government of Seychelles, 2015). The final report, entitled ‘Enabling Women’s Contributions to the Indian Ocean Rim Economies’ (UN Women, 2015), features in the discussion in Priya Chacko’s policy paper further in this edition.

We see many of the themes discussed at these IORA events emerge forcefully in this issue of the journal.

We open with Harris-Rimmer, who considers ‘womenomics’ in the Indian Ocean region, with a focus on trade in textiles and tourism. It is crucial to acknowledge the economic importance of women’s participation in informal trade. Harris-Rimmer explores these two sectors and argues that IORA is an important actor in fostering gender equality and in stimulating women’s economic empowerment through trade. Whilst recognizing that there are challenges specific to the Indian Ocean region, she finds that IORA can learn from other governance groupings such as APEC and the G20.

The economic significance of women’s engagement in informal trade is picked up in an African context by Manjoko and Ranga, who study the informal economy in Zimbabwe, and the effect of structural adjustment programs on Zimbabwean women cross border traders. The study provides a useful picture of these women’s circumstances, motivations, and challenges. Despite the contribution of women working in the informal economy to the national economy, the cross border trade is not recognized, and is actively demonised. Important advances can be made to women’s empowerment and to the national economy by implementing some policy reforms. These must include ending the ‘invisibility’ of the cross border trade to policy-makers, the overcoming of a number of minor but influential bureaucratic hurdles, and improving training and education for these women.

Gender bias in policy development is a central theme of Alami and Raharjo’s study of fisherwomen in North Sulawesi. The authors map the gender relationship in the fisheries sector, and find that the significant role of women in the primary and secondary sectors of fisheries has been and continues to be undervalued, as a reflection of gender hierarchies. They point to a clear need for the application of a gender lens in policy development, which at the moment is lacking in a gender specific evidence base. This results in a lack of specific policies for women, which could make a significant difference, such as small credit facilities, improved education and training, and an explicit role for women’s participation in local communities, such as in local cooperatives.

The education theme is picked up again and explored in the case study of the Solar Mamas, by Giulia Mininni. The Solar Mamas is a training program run by an NGO in rural Rajasthan, which builds and installs solar panels. The program applies a localized, Gandhian approach to knowledge and skills transfer, but which is nevertheless scalable and reproducible. This program has been replicated around the world. Mininni argues that the NGO is playing a key role in transformative agency, whilst acknowledging the difficulty of measuring ‘empowerment’ of women, the exploring the uneven nature of that empowerment.

Dewi and Yazid also analyze the importance of education, but from another angle: they examine grassroots activism in defence of Indonesian migrant women workers by means of the case studies of three activists. The authors refuse to see these women as passive actors, and they are studied in all their subjectivity. It is a case study of the micro-level, with all its strengths and challenges. This case study speaks to the political decentralization process in Indonesia, which is opening up greater spaces for civil society organizations and social movements. However, Dewi and Yazid argue that ‘self and community activities are interrelated.’ The authors contend that a central factor in the activists’ success, despite the various challenges, is the fact that the women activists are involved from their own experience in migrant work; their personal efforts to educate themselves are also a central theme.

We finish with a general paper, which nevertheless still follows an implicit underlying theme in this edition; of invisibility; otherness; and challenging oppression. In her anthropological piece, Rose Boswell describes the ‘voicework’ in Sega – a music/dance form with roots in the music of slaves on Indian Ocean islands, and associated with protest against injustice. It is a cultural form inscribed on the UNESCO world heritage list. Examining Sega as practiced in Mauritius and the Seychelles, Boswell finds that Sega gives the islanders voice, and identifies diversity, trangression, and resistance to oppression. Her work encourages scholarship that engages with the senses, and which resists hegemonic othering.

Acknowledgment

This edition of JIOR draws upon the research of a much larger three-year project entitled ‘Building an Indian Ocean Region’ DP 120101066, which is funded by the Australian Research Council (ARC) Discovery Projects Scheme for funding in 2012–2015. In addition, specific funding for this issue has been generously provided by the Australian Government’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade.