User:Rbuell/sandbox

Selecting possible articles
Areas History of HIV/AIDS in Kenya (stub/low) Gender disparities in Kenyan education (stub/low) Prostitution in Nairobi, Kenya

Sector Reproductive health (start) Family Planning

1) I"m choosing HIV/AIDS in Africa. Here I hope to add more information regarding the history of AIDS in countries pertaining to Africa. I will attempt to apply focus to Kenya, as that will be where my PE is located.

2) I am also choosing Sex Education where I hope to expand the different sex education practices in several countries around the world. this will allow me to compare their affects on youth and outcomes. I hope to also contribute information regarding formal and informal education. I could also update the outdated sources here.

3) I have found some interesting information on Female Sex Workers and their relationship to HIV/AIDS. I find this interesting as this is a large part of my demographic with whom I will be addressing in Kenya. Further clarification is needed. i hope to discuss more regarding this topic with my professor.

Sex Education
1) Relevance: there seems to be a little irrelevance for the definition of "sex education." "Definition" can be changed to comprehensive sex education. Plus the citations used are at least 10 years old in some areas.

2) For further learning in my PE experience, I can expand on the different areas of each country in how they approach sex education and at what age.

3) There seems to be a high representation of a view point in this article with worlds that suggest an opinion. Under evidence there are big block quotes without citations. It also uses language that pushes an opinion, even if it is the language of the author/article the editor is citing.

4) The lead seems to be missing what I would consider a key point of relevance relating to formal and informal education. It states the main ways in which sex education is passed on, but fails to mention informal methods such as peers, media, and common types of media. This is only mentioned later on as it states how in the mid-20th century it was obtained informally, but this method of education isn't solely limited to only the 20th century...?

5) I think there could be a section for abstinence only education, such as where it is represented and by whom.

6) There are plenty citations missing. It is missing citations regarding the increase in teen pregnancies of the 1960s and later under the heading "sources" the author writes how parents should be involved (needs a citation). This is just one of many places missing a citation as a lot of this article is direct quotes.

7) structure: it is odd to have who supports what type of education in the lead of this wikipedia article. Public opinion and some countries under "by area" seem un-necessary due to the lack of citation and information. For example Thailand has no citations at all, so why do we have it?

8) some information is a bit outdated reaching as far back as 2002 (thats 16 years old!)

9) there is some discussion of similar comments reflecting my concern in the Talk page. this refers to the lead mentioning only formal education, and many of the things that other contributors took out.

10) It is rated B-class, top importance, but a start-class.

11) wikipedia seems to not really dive deep and engage in the material like GPP does. GPP looks at different reports, studies, peer reviewed articles, theory and concepts while also trying to tie all of them together. I find Wikipedia focuses on condensing, synthesizing while summarizing the material.

HIV/AIDS in Africa
1) Relevance: some sections have a little less relevance than others. This can be seen in the section "Tuberculosis Coinfections."

2) Further areas that I find relevant with my PE could involve researching and expanding the history of AIDS in the other countries in Africa.

3) I felt that the views presented here in this wikipedia article were presented neutrally with little if any bias.

4) I am a little concerned about the structure of the lead section of this article. It implies a lot of block quotes with random facts that all come from the same source.

5) I think that Origins section should be replaced with a short section on what HIV/AIDS is. Or maybe even a hyperlink. As of now, the citation describing HIV/AIDS is 8 years old and seems odd to only have one citation for it.

6) there are plenty of citations missing in many of the sections, this includes "combating HIV fatigue," all the "factor" sections, "Pharmaceutical industry," "measurement," and "west africa."

7) In regards to the structure, I would recommend removing the "tuberculosis co-infection" section as I wonder if it has high relevance overall. I would combine the healthcare delivery and the healthcare industry sections too. There seems to be a prevalence of block quotes with some sections that are entirely only quotes, like the section "combination prevention programs." Other sections seem a little unnecessary, like "public education initiatives." I also fail to recognize how male circumcision influences HIV/AIDS. and if so, what about female circumcision too?

8) some dates could be updated in the history section (if more recent sources can be found).

9) There is some discussion on how the article is unclean and how it seems to be misleading. It is long and the information isn't clear and concise. The Talk page hasn't been touched in the last 8 years, with most of the discussion taking place in 2004-6.

10) it is rated a C class and highly important. With wikipedia projects AIDS and wikipedia projects Africa. It seems to have a lot on information, but needs to be backed up with more scientific articles.

11) wikipedia is providing a lot of general information here on this topic, but fails to narrow down onto relevant content when it discusses specific countries in Africa. This is something that articles we read in GPP 105 do really well to address.

HIV/AIDS in Africa (no longer applicable)
1) The article "Economic empowerment and Aids-related stigma in rural Kenya: a double-edged sword?" argues that the stigma of HIV/AIDS in Kenya's communities coupled with economic empowerment can both increase a women's HIV risk due to under reporting, but enhance social standing in their community. The framework I intend to use is to add information on how the stigma of HIV acts as a barrier for women to report that they have it, as their is a high risk of resulting in domestic abuse and divorce from the husband. Women are likely to be labeled as unfaithful regardless of contracting HIV from their husbands.

2) The article "Family Kinship Patterns and Female Sex Work in the Informal Urban Settlement of Kibera, Nairobi, Kenya" argues that the likelihood of continued female sex workers (FSW) in Kenya is historically determined on kinship and male social economic support. From this I will barrow how economic instability in adolescents exacerbates the FSW population. I will also state how FSWs contribute to HIV/AIDS in Kenya.

3) The article "Effects of Micro-Enterprise Services on HIV Risk Behavior Among Female Sex Workers in Kenya's Urban Slums" argues how microfinance and other micro-enterprise activities can decrease FSW's vulnerability to HIV/AIDS. I will use frameworks that show how providing empowerment to FSW allows for more condom use, safer sex practices, negotiating power, and in some cases ceasing sex work.

Sex Education (no longer applicable)
1) In the article "Smart boys" and "Sweet Girls," the authors argues how Thailand's sex education is considerably ineffective in that it lacks cultural context. This article makes note on what the sex education lacks, while also supporting 5 major changes to it, most of which have to do with doing away with western sex-education material. I would suggest adding ideas such as informal education being the preferred method in Thailand. I will add to the Thailand section describing how cultural context is important to consider, for example, in Thailand teenagers prefer the story based vignette approach.

2) In the article "the evolution o sex education" the author argues that the sex education in Finland has been very comprehensive in the 2000s. I will add from this article the history of sex education for Finland. Some of the material will describe how Finland has curriculum called "Health Education" in which incorporates sex education. Finland also begins sexuality education at grade one. I will also incorporate how they have sexual health campaigns and fertility festivals.

3) in the article "analysis of Public Policies for Sexuality education in Germany and the Netherlands" the author argues that the differences in how the US, Germany, and the Netherlands regards sexuality education accounts for the differences in STI and teen pregnancies between countries. I will be adding some information regarding how Germany requires sexuality education three times between primary and secondary school, while the Netherlands has secondary school programs such as "Long Live Love" and the "week of butterflies." these programs support talking about sexuality, self-esteem, the difference between boys and girls. I will elaborate this in the Wikipedia article.

NGOs in Kenya (no longer applicable)
Explaining the Non-Governmental Organization

Why Do NGOs Go Where They Go

Women Empowerment
1) In the article, Human Development and Gender Empowerment: Methodological and Measurement Issues, the authors argued that the Gender Empowerment Measurement that has been previously used by UNDP is inaccurate. I would add the different critiques of the GEM to the wikipedia article Women Empowerment. These critiques involves how the GEM is insensitive to cultural and social norms, relies on inaccurate reporting of country data, omits important measures to gender empowerment, and doesn't consider the dualistic nature of societies.

2) in the article, Measuring Women's Empowerment: an assessment of the gender related development index and the gender empowerment measurement, the authors argue that the Gender-related Development Index (GDI) and the Gender Empowerment Measure (GEM) hasn't been thoroughly designed to account for Gender Empowerment. Here i would be able to add how the GDI is a measure of the achievements of each gender, but not of gender inequality.

3) Gender equality and women's empowerment: a critical analysis of the third millennium development goal. This article attempts to argue how education, employment, and political participation can contribute to women's empowerment. This is specifically addressed in consideration to the Millennium Development Goal. In this regard, I will try to create a definition of women empowerment since the wikipedia article doesn't. I will put it in the lead section and it will be the first sentence. i will then discuss three notions of women empowerment regarding agency, resources, and achievement.

4) Policy Arena Assessing Women's Empowerment: Towards a Conceptual Framework by Sara Mosedale. This article discusses the different definitions of empowerment and describes a framework in how one can go about women's empowerment. The author describes her definition of power, women's empowerment, and what the appropriate steps might be to go about assessing women's empowerment in different local contexts. I will add this theoretical framework to a section of methods and attempt to describe the processes of assessment.

5) Contextualizing the economic pathways of women's empowerment by Nalia Kabeer argues that there are several methods to best help women's empowerment. The two different pathways are economic empowerment and political empowerment. In main argument of her article recommends that the most important method of empowerment that has the most impact on women's agency are economic empowerment methods. I will try to create three sections on methods that allows for women's empowerment approaches starting with Economic empowerment.

6) In this article titled Microfinance and the Politics of Empowerment: A Critical Cultural Perspective the author argues that microfinance/micro credit doesn't necessarily account for locality and culture. Access to microcredit doesn't necessarily equal empowerment. There are cases where the money still goes to the husband. there are cases where the money earned by women goes to the household/family which equates to less money spent on women's mobility in society. I will use this article to add a conceptual framework to microfinance and how it doesn't necessarily. I will use it to comment in the critique portion of micro-credit already in the article.

7) In the article "Understanding the Impact of a Microfinance-Based Intervention on Women's Empowerment and the Reduction of Intimate Partner Violence in South Africa," the author's main argument is that microfinance is a method to proved economic benefits, but at the same time doesn't necessarily guarantee economic improvement for women in every case. The author also argues how Intimate Partner Violence can be influenced by such microfinance programs. There are also cases where microfinance is combined with gender empowerment programs to try and influence patriarchal culture in the home. I will use this article in combination with "Microfinance and the Politics of Empowerment" to better create a section of microfinance for my article.

8) In the article, "Women Empowerment and Economic Development," Esther Duflo argues that one of the main factors to empowering women is continuous policy commitment to equality. More specifically a combination of economic empowerment is needed in that only emphasizing one area/method of empowering women won't work. I will use his argument to add general policy recommendations for women empowerment and economic empowerment.

9) NON SCHOLARLY: This is a UNDP report in which it mainly aims to discuss the progress of women's empowerment in the globe. In this I will use the statistic of women representation in Parliament around the world. Women's participation in lower and single houses of parliament has increased to 23.6 percent in 2017 as a global average.

Economy of Kenya
1) The Impact of the Structural Adjustment Programs on Kenyan Society. This article argues that structural adjustment programmes of the 1980s-90s increased unemployment and inflation while also decreasing social welfare programs and living standards. I will add a section on structural adjustment int he Economy of Kenya wikipedia article section.

2) Fallacies in Policy and Strategies of Skills Training for the Informal Sector: Evidence from the Jua Kali sector in Kenya. In this article, the author argues that the assumptions about Kenya's informal sector aren't true. The myths involved in this study are that the informal sector only transfers skills between kinship, the informal sector is mostly for school leavers, and the informal sector should be taught (job training) in an institutional formal way by proponents of the formal sector. I will add to the non-farming informal sector of the wikipedia article. I want to talk about who goes into the informal sector ("Jua Kali"). I want to write about the education of the informal instructors and what the informal sector contributes to the economy.

3) Informal Economic Activity in Kenya: benefits and drawbacks. I got a little less useful information from this than I would have liked, but the author argues that the benefits outweighs the drawbacks. The benefits being an income for people with lower socioeconomic status along with some credit opportunities. Some of the draw backs were tax evasion, drug smuggling, and lack of social protection and services that the formal sector has. I will add a statistic about the informal economy and how much of the informal economy makes up Kenya's economy as a whole. I might also add a few benefits and drawbacks from this.

4) The book Gender and Economic Growth in Kenya: Unleashing the Power of Women focuses on how women are positioned in the economy of Kenya. The author discusses their restraints and policy recommendations regarding how to move forward for equal access to labour markets. I would like to use this book to create a smaller section of "women in the informal economy" in the article. I would add some of the restraints that they have that perpetuates gender inequality and influences their entrance into the market. It would specifically address customary law and constitutional law and how both property rights and inheritance interplays.

5) in this book, Women and the Modern Economy in Urban Africa, the author discusses the role of women in the informal economy through a historical approach. She address mobility, migration patterns, and urbanization of women during the 1990's. I will be adding one of the main causes of why women are in the informal economy more than men. I might also add some context to structural adjustment.

Areas: Economy of Kenya
Any bold text has to do with placement in the wikipedia article under consideration.

Economic History (the following addition would be placed between the 3rd and 4th paragraph).
Between the 1980s-90s the introduction of structural adjustment programs (SAPs) sponsored by the IMF and World Bank contributed to the decline in Kenya's economy. Some of the SAP conditions, such as the structural adjustment loans and strict conditions regarding policy, resulted in a decrease in government spending on economic and social services, a decrease in education enrollment, and a increase in unemployment (specifically in the agricultural industry). The loans from the SAPs were also utilized to pay off other service debts that the country had at the time. As a result, the formal economy gave way to the growth of the informal economy, living standards began to decline, and Kenya opened up to the global economy.

Labour: non-farming self employment/"Jua Kali" (I am thinking about creating my own subsection here....maybe)
(I will be adding this to the second sentence in this section). In Kenya, the "Jua Kali" sector is another name for the informal economy, also described as non-farming self employment (add the original author's World Bank citation). Jua Kali is Swahili for "hot sun" and stems from the fact that the workers in the informal economy work under the fierce sun. The informal sector consists of self-employment and wage employment that are neither regulated by the Kenyan government nor recognized for legal protection. As a result, informal sector employment does not contribute to Kenya's Gross Domestic Product (GDP) like that of the formal agriculture industry.

As of 2009, Kenya's informal economy accounts for about 80 percent of the total employment for the country. Kenya's informal sector consists of mostly self-employed individuals with few entrepreneurs whom employ others. Some of the benefits of the informal sector are that it contributes economic activity of what is equal to 35 % of the total GDP in Kenya, provides an informal finance in Kenya known as ROSCAs, and provides an income for those with lower socioeconomic status.

Some drawbacks of the "Jua Kali" are that it promotes smuggling, tax evasion, and lacks social protection. Most members of the informal sector have low education attainment but are responsible for providing all of their own skilled labour through apprenticeships while also training almost all of its skilled workforce. Many choose to join the informal for its lack of fees, shorter training sessions, and practical content that is otherwise absent from formal education. Rising cost of education and no guarantees of future employment have caused many workers to transfer to informal apprenticeships.

The Impact of Customary Law on the Informal Economy
The impact of customary law on informal economy is illustrated in how it influences the participation and opportunities of women in this sector. The 1882 Married Women’s property Act gives married women equal property rights and the Law of Succession Act gives women inheritance rights, but the constitution exempts those who are considered “members of a particular race or tribe” and instead allows for their customary law. The draw backs is that customary law discriminates against women and keeps them from accessing assets, land, and property that might otherwise allow them have collateral for for business finance. This barrier to business finance restrains the amount of credit that women entrepreneurs might otherwise use to enter the both the formal and informal sector. Some examples of discriminatory statutes in the constitution are, the Law of Succession Act, the Divorce Laws, and the Children’s Act 2001. Broad principles of customary law in Kenya are that married women do not inherent from their parents, unmarried women inherit less from their parents than their brothers do, women with sons may only retain their husband’s property for their sons, women with no children or daughters are not likely to inherit from their husbands, in the case of divorce women are expected to leave the matrimonial home, and married women have less control over significant family property than men. Because women are less assets and low education attainment, women are more likely to turn to the informal economy than men.

=
second interpretation of the same section after editor comments and adustments (Shalor and Dianna: the second to last sentence from above ^^ were removed from mainspace. below will be my second attempt) ===== Customary law has some adverse impacts on females in the informal sector. The impact of customary law on informal economy is illustrated in how it influences the participation and opportunities of women in this sector. The 1882 Married Women’s Property Act gives married women equal property rights and the Law of Succession Act gives women inheritance rights, but the constitution exempts those who are considered “members of a particular race or tribe” and instead allows for their customary law to remain in practice. Some of the consequences are that customary law allows for the discrimination against women and keeps them from accessing assets, land, and property that might otherwise allow them have collateral for for business finance. This barrier to business finance restrains the amount of credit that women entrepreneurs might otherwise use to enter both the formal and informal sector. Some examples of discriminatory statutes in the constitution are, the Law of Succession Act, the Divorce Laws, and the Children’s Act 2001. These statutes manifest themselves in very specific practices. For example, unmarried women inherent less than their brothers, married women are not expected to receive any inheritance, and women only have permission to manage their spouse's property as a surrogate for her sons. Furthermore, women without children are still omitted from inheritance that may come from the death of their husband and married women are given a disproportionate control of property as compared to their spouse. Because women have less assets and low education attainment, women are more likely to turn to the informal economy than men.

Lead
Women's empowerment is the process in which women expand and recreate what it is that they can be, do, and accomplish in a circumstance that they previously were denied. Alternatively, it is the process for women to redefine gender roles that allows for them to acquire the ability to choose between known alternatives whom have otherwise been restricted from such an ability. There are several principles defining women's empowerment such as, for one to be empowered, they must come from a position of disempowerment. Furthermore, one must acquire empowerment themselves rather than have it given to them by an external party. Other studies have found that empowerment definitions entail people having the capability to make important decisions in their lives while also being able to act on them. Lastly, empowerment and disempowerment is relative to other people and to themselves at a previous time; therefore, empowerment is a process, not a product.

(thinking about rearrange this whole section into economic empowerment, political empowerment, and perhaps financial empowerment)
Scholars have identified two forms of empowerment, economic empowerment and political empowerment.

Economic Empowerment
Economic empowerment increases women's agency, access to formal government programs, mobility outside the home, economic independence, and purchasing power. Policy makers are suggested to support job training to aid in entrance in the formal markets. One recommendation is to provide more formal education opportunities for women that would allow for higher bargaining power in the home. They would have more access to higher wages outside the home; and as a result, make it easier for women to get a job in the market.

Strengthening women's access to property inheritance and land rights is another method used to economically empower women. This would allow them better means of asset accumulation, capital, and bargaining power needed to address gender inequalities. Often, women in developing and underdeveloped nations are legally restricted from their land on the sole basis of gender. Having a right to their land gives women a sort of bargaining power that they wouldn't normally have; in turn, they gain more opportunities for economic independence and formal financial institutions.

Another popular methodology for women's economic empowerment also includes microcredit. Microfinance institutions aim to empower women in their community by giving them access to loans that have low interest rates without the requirement of collateral. More specifically, they aim to give microcredit to women whom want to be entrepreneurs. The success and efficiency of microcredit and microloans is controversial and constantly debated. Some critiques claim that microcredit alone doesn't guarantee women have control over the way it is used. Microfinance institutions don't address cultural barriers that allow men to still control household finances; as a result, microcredit may simply be transferred to the husband. Microcredit doesn't relieve women of household obligations, and even if women have credit, they don't have the time to be as active in the market as men.

Political Empowerment
Political empowerment supports creating policies that would best support gender equality and agency for women in both the public and private spheres. Popular methods that have been suggested are to create affirmative action policies that have a quota for the number of women in policy making and parliament positions. As of 2017, the global average of women whom hold lower and single house parliament positions is 23.6 percent. Further recommendations have been to to increase women's rights to vote, voice opinions, and the ability to run for office with a fair chance of being elected. Because women are typically associated with child care and domestic responsibilities in the home, they have have less time dedicated to entering the labour market and running their business. Policies that increase their bargaining power in the household would include policies that account for cases of divorce, policies for better welfare for women, and policies that give women control over resources (such as property rights). However, participation is not limited to the realm of politics. It can include participation in the household, in schools, and the ability to make choices for oneself. Some theorists believe that bargaining power and agency in the household must to be achieved before one can move onto broader political participation. When women have the agency to do what they want, a higher equality between men and women is established.

Measurement (this will be added to the end of the already existing section which gives definitions and defines acronyms such as GEM)
Some critiques of GEM is that it is not concerned with factors regarding society, such as gender, religion, cultural context, legal context, and violations of women's rights. Gender empowerment measure attempts to makes a consistent standardized approach to measure women's empowerment; in doing so, it has been critiqued that the GEM doesn't account for variation in historical factors, female autonomy, gender segregation, and women's right to vote.

The Gender-related Development Index (GDI) is a way in which the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) measures the inequality between genders within a country. Some critique of this measurement is that, because GDI calculations rely solely on the achievement distribution between males and females of a population, GDI doesn't measure gender inequality; rather, it measures absolute levels on income, education and health.

A more qualitative form of assessing women's empowerment is to identify constraints to action. This allows for the identification of power relations between genders. Because this is a participatory process, it facilitates conversation on gender discrimination. Comparing constraints on women at a later time also allows for any changes or expansion to be better identified. The evaluation of the development of women's agency allows for an evaluation of actions taken. These assessments must also be based on the action taken by women, and not external groups. External groups can help facilitate women's empowerment, but cannot bestow it on them.