by Petronella Mugoni – SANF 08 No 31
Ministers responsible for Gender and Women’s Affairs met recently in the Namibian capital, Windhoek, to discuss their draft Protocol on Gender and Development.
The objective of the meeting was to prepare for presentation of the protocol to the Summit of Heads of State and Government of the 14-member Southern African Development Community (SADC) in August.
Their agenda, with the theme “SADC Accelerating Progress in Achieving Gender Equality”, allowed the gender ministers to reflect on the results of the regional meeting of SADC senior officials held in Livingstone, Zambia, in December 2007 with the objective of fine tuning the contents of the protocol.
Namibian President Hifikepunye Pohamba said at the official opening, in a statement read on his behalf by the former gender minister Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah, who is now Minister of Environment and Tourism, that progress has been made in sensitising citizens on gender issues, but there is still a great need for a legally binding instrument.
Pohamba added that further consultations on the draft document were necessary to ensure wider ownership of the protocol and smooth implementation once it is signed and ratified.
The ministers’ meeting was necessitated by the decision of SADC Heads of State and Government to defer signing of the draft protocol at the 2007 SADC Summit held in Lusaka, Zambia.
Heads of State and Government referred the draft back to SADC Ministers responsible for gender for further national consultations.
Underscoring the importance of reviewing the draft so as to reach a consensus before it is resubmitted to Summit in 2008, the SADC Gender Unit prepared a roadmap towards the signing of the draft protocol and shared it with stakeholders. The roadmap lists time-bound actions to be undertaken before re-submission.
The meeting of SADC ministers in Windhoek represents the third step in the agreed process.
The first step was the meeting of senior officials in December 2007, while the second consisted of national consultations with all stakeholders from January to March.
The ministers meeting on 30 April was preceded by a meeting of senior officials on 28 and 29 April.
After three days of discussions and deliberations during which the draft protocol was re-examined and re-drafted, SADC ministers are confident that the draft document will be ready for adoption at the 2008 SADC Summit.
“We look forward to August 2008 in South Africa when the fruits of our labour will be presented to our Heads of State and Government. We have done all our work well and we shall celebrate our achievement,” said the Chairperson, Zambian Minister of Gender, Patricia Mulasikwanda.
Before the document can be presented at the Summit however, it will be prepared for presentation and discussion at a meeting of justice ministers scheduled for May, which is the fourth step in the roadmap.
The agenda of this meeting will be to seek direction on how best the protocol can be adopted and domesticated by member states.
A protocol is the most binding of SADC legal instruments and shows the full commitment of SADC governments to address challenges faced by women in the region.
The draft incorporates commitments from all existing regional, continental and global instruments on gender and also enhances these by taking account of gaps that have been identified in the existing instruments and in their implementation.
Once adopted, it is anticipated that the gender protocol will accelerate progress towards the achievement of gender equality in the region.
