by Patson Phiri – SANF 06 No 16
The Southern African Development Community (SADC) is pressing for affirmative action to speed up progress towards substantive equality between women and men at all levels of decision-making.
The head of the SADC Gender Unit, Magdeline Mathiba-Madibela, said the region had experienced varied progress in implementation of commitments since leaders of the 14-member community adopted the SADC Declaration on Gender and Development in 1997.
On the key target of 30 percent women representation in positions of decision-making by 2005, the progress has been significant, although the majority of member states are still below the mark in structures such as parliament and cabinet.
However, South Africa has surpassed the target for both parliament and cabinet, and Mozambique has more than 30 percent women in the legislature.
Now the stakes are higher since the SADC Summit of heads of state and government summit in Gaborone last year elevated the 30 percent target to 50 percent in line with the African Union.
“To realise full implementation of this decision, member states must endeavour to adopt affirmative action to protect women and enshrine it in national constitutions,” said Mathiba-Madibela who was speaking at a media briefing prior to the Council of Ministers that takes place in Gaborone this week.
Mathiba-Madibela said an analysis of recent trends in the amended constitutions of some member states shows that remarkable achievements have been made toward gender equality although huge gaps still remain.
The challenges faced by governments in the region include domesticating regional and international commitments into national laws.
A regional conference that took place in Botswana from 6-9 December 2005 proposed workable steps to the regional implementation framework on gender and development for the period 2006-2010.
Delegates to that conference called for regional and national consultations on elevation of the gender declaration of 1997 into a protocol to strengthen member states’ commitments as contained in the declaration.
“The motivation behind [the need to elevate the declaration] arises from the reality that in legal terms, a declaration is a statement of intention and commitment, which has more of a moral rather than a binding effect,” Mathiba-Madibela argued.
She said to upgrade the declaration would be a progressive step for SADC as the process would take on board existing commitments, and would also consolidate the commitments and “use the lessons from their implementation to design new strategies to accelerate progress towards gender equality.”
The 2006-2010 implementation plan proposes the strengthening of institutional mechanisms, education, sexual and reproductive health rights, women human rights, and media and information, which are critical in dealing with issues of gender irregularities.
“These are cardinal issues which have cross-cutting effects on women. We thank the heads of state for the efforts they have made so far but much more needs to be done,” said Zambia’s health minister, Sylvia Masebo.
Masebo is one of the female members of parliament from the opposition parties serving in President Levy Mwanawasa’s all-inclusive government.
