National reference group meetings

As agreed at the March Alliance Steering Committee caucus meeting, national focal points are busy organising reference group meetings for in-country alliance networks.

The outcome of the meetings is for civil society to engage on the targets of the SADC Gender Protocol, then deliberate and score their governments on how they are implementing the provisions of the Protocol nationally. Also to identify organisations within the network, based on areas of expertise, that can pick specific Protocol targets to champion and document case studies.

We are expecting to receive at least ten case studies from every country; these will be used substantiate the SADC Gender Protocol 2011 Barometer report, showcasing examples the Protocol@Work.

Participants to reference group are drawn from civil society organisations that work in the thematic areas as informed by the SADC Gender Protocol. Areas include constitutional and legal, governance, education and training, economic justice, GBV, health, HIV and AIDS, gender and peace and the media.

The Mauritius reference group meeting, organised by MWO-GEMSA and Gender Links Francophone office on 5 May 2011, was attended by over 30 participants from civil society organisations, various government ministries, public and private sector organisation. The group was very diverse, including the police force, officials from the central statistics office, environment, legal justice and so forth. This gives credibility to the scoring done by civil society.

Reference group meetings are progressing well, to date national focal points in Botswana, Lesotho, Madagascar, Mauritius, Maputo, Zambia, Zimbabwe have convened successful meetings