by Patience Zirima – SANF 08 No 59
Approval of the groundbreaking Protocol on Gender and Development by 11 southern African countries after three years of negotiation is set to accelerate the empowerment of women in the region.
The document was signed at the 28th Summit of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) Heads of State and Government held on 16 and 17 August in Johannesburg, South Africa.
Four Member States — Botswana, Mauritius, Madagascar and Malawi — did not sign for various reasons including constitutional implications in some countries that automatically render an international agreement legally binding once the head of state or government have appended their signature to it.
Three years in the making, the Gender Protocol is a commitment that will put gender at the forefront of the SADC plan of action and provide a clear roadmap for the region’s citizens to move towards gender equality.
Regional heads of state had postponed signing the document at the 2007 SADC Summit to allow further consultations at the national level.
With its signing, a number of regional organisations are now hoping that the protocol will be implemented on schedule.
Legal and gender experts who participated in the Southern African Protocol Alliance meeting held parallel to the SADC Summit, described the Protocol “as the most far reaching of any sub-regional instrument for achieving gender equality.”
Participants said it was time for southern Africa to move from being “a region of commitments to one of action.”
The South African President, Thabo Mbeki, who took over the SADC chair at the Summit, said that the signing of the Protocol was one of the most important decisions that the regional organisation took this year.
“This Protocol is important because it consolidates all the important SADC policies and programmes dealing with gender equity. The Protocol will help our region further to advance the process of women’s emancipation through policies, laws, programmes and projects which all Member States have to implement,” Mbeki said.
The signing of the protocol will not only help speed the empowerment of women in the region but will also begin a process that ensures implementation of gender targets set out in the document.
The signing is a culmination of a process that began in 2005 with the progress audit of the SADC Declaration on Gender and Development and its addendum on the Prevention and Eradication of Violence Against Women and Children.
The audit provided the rationale for a protocol on accelerating gender equality in the region.
As a legally binding instrument, the protocol will ensure that commitments are translated into tangible actions. It is also a consolidation of the various regional and international commitments to gender equality and strengthens capacity for effective reporting on progress, as well as providing an opportunity for Member States to address new challenges.
Opening the meeting of the Southern African Protocol Alliance, Essop Pahad, Minister in the South African Presidency, highlighted the importance of having institutional mechanisms such as the protocol in place. He said these “open up opportunities to achieve objectives we set ourselves.”
He also highlighted that regional instruments give possibilities to act in a cohesive, joint manner by the different countries in the region.
Among its provisions, the protocol includes specific time bound goals and targets to ensure accountability in addressing inequalities in constitutional and legal rights; governance, education and training; productive resources and employment; gender-based violence; health and HIV and AIDS; peace building and conflict resolution, and in media information and communication.
Article 34 of the protocol also puts in place institutional arrangements for its implementation, which comprise the Committee of Ministers Responsible for Gender/Women’s Affairs whose duties will include ensuring the implementation of the Protocol and supervising the work of other committees established under the legal instrument.
The Committee of Senior Officials Responsible for Gender/ Women’s Affairs will report to the Committee of Ministers, supervise the work of the Secretariat, and invite the Secretariat to make presentations on gender and development to the Committee of Ministers.
The SADC Secretariat is the third of the institutional mechanisms that will facilitate and monitor reporting by Member States on the implementation of the protocol, coordinate its implementation, identify research needs and priorities in women’s affairs, and provide technical and administrative assistance to the other two committees.
The challenge now is putting in place the structures and strategies within each of the Member States over the next seven years. The SADC Gender Unit, which provides a central point for organisations from the 15 SADC Member States, is developing an action plan to support governments in meeting the targets set for them in the next seven years.
The protocol calls for governments to launch public awareness campaigns and report twice yearly on progress towards achieving the commitments outlined in the protocol.
