Editor’s Note

Welcome to the 24th edition of the Roadmap to Equality! – tracking progress towards the implementation and ratification of the SADC Protocol on Gender and Development.

It is not just SADC but the world over that is abuzz with activities as NGOs, government, development partners and lately the corporate sector commemorate International Women’s Day on 8 March.

Globally participants at the Commission on the Status of Women currently in progresswill be attending an event at the United Nations Headquarters with the participation of Secretary-General Ban Ki Moon and a video message by UN Women Executive Director Michelle Bachelet on 8 March.

In her International Women’s Da

y message released on 5 March, she contends “The time is now” a mantra shared by the Southern Africa Gender Protocol Alliance whose motto is Gender equality in SADC: The time is now!

by Saeanna Chingamuka
The major highlight for the month is International Women’s Day (IWD) that is celebrated annually on the 8th of March. The theme this year is “Connecting Girls, Inspiring Futures.” From April 23 to 25, Gender Links will hold the regional Third Gender Justice and Local Government Summit in Johannesburg, South Africa. The regional summit will be preceded by in-country summits in Mauritius, Zambia, Madagascar, Botswana, Zimbabwe and Namibia.

Regarding media work, the GMDC will host its advisory group meeting on 22 March 2012. The meeting will be convened via a teleconference. Documentation for the meeting will soon go out.

By Saeanna Chingamuka
New year, new beginnings! Welcome to Issue 24 of the Diversity Exchange, the Gender and Media Diversity Centre (GMDC) monthly newsletter.

The New Year all starts with most of us making resolutions for what we want to achieve in the year. As the GMDC, we are starting on an exciting note and there is a lot of energy that we hope will be infectious. February will be busy as we intensify our gender and media work in the region. This work includes the gender and media literacy training, media COEs as well as gender in journalism and media education.

Welcome to the 23nd edition of the Roadmap to Equality! Tracking progress towards the implementation and ratification of the SADC Protocol on Gender and Development.

Seychelles is set to become the first SADC country to develop a national gender policy that will be closely aligned to the SADC Protocol on Gender and Development targets to be achieved by 2015. Drafting of a costed national gender action plan, which will provide a framework for the operationalisation of the gender policy, began in earnest at a gender-mainstreaming workshop held from 20 – 26 January 2012 in Victoria on the Mah’e Island.

Linda Williams, Permanent Secretary for the Ministry of Social Development and Culture who provides oversight to the Gender Secretariat emphasised the importance of the milestone because it is the country’s first national gender policy and action plan.

“The national gender policy and plan of action will act as a road map to guide us on how we are to get to where we want to be (achieving gender equality). Without a detailed and accurate map we cannot hope to strike a true path towards our final destination. It is our hope that this framework, which we have developed together, is well understood and owned by all partners.

Seychelles is the second SADC country to produce a costed gender action plan after Namibia developed their national gender action plan in October in 2011.

Welcome to the 22nd edition of the Roadmap to Equality! Tracking progress towards the implementation and ratification of the SADC Protocol on Gender and Development.

As the curtain comes down on the Seventeen United Nations Conference of the Parties (COP 17) on climate change, while the developed countries may refuse to commit to the second period of the Kyoto Protocol beyond 2012, there is some reason to celebrate. Gender featured much higher on the agenda of the negotiations than in previous COPs according to reports from those closely associated with the process. Several sections of the text in the outcomes document have references to gender.

This could be attributed to the fact that there were high-powered women at the top – a testimony that women do bringtransformation when they occupy high levels of decision-making positions.

As South African Minister of International Relations and Cooperation as incumbent President of COP 17, Maite Nkoane Mashabane put it “sometimes it is not the numbers of women in the high positions that are needed (though numbers are important), it is the quality.”

By Saeanna Chingamuka
Welcome to Issue 23 of the Diversity Exchange, the last for the year 2011!
The buzz- word during November and parts of December has been COP 17. The global climate change conference ran from 28 November to 9 December. Researchers, activists, ministers youth, faith based organisations and journalists among other groups attended this conference which was marred by controversy as well as disagreements. Gender Links (GL) in partnership with the African Woman and Child Feature Service (AWCFS) produced a daily e-newsletter which featured gender reporting on climate change.

Join the daily cyber dialogues at 12.30 South African time each day from 28 November to 9 December. Click here to find out more! Sign our petition for an addendum on gender and climate change.

A number of Southern African organisations will this year focus the Sixteen Days of Activism against Gender Violence campaign on the theme: From peace in the home to peace in the world; end gender violence by 2015! This is in line with the key provisions of the SADC Protocol on Gender and Development that includes an overarching target of reducing by half current levels of gender based violence by 2015.

With South Africa hosting the 17th Conference of the Parties (COP17) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) during year’s sixteen days period activists will pay some attention to gender and climate justice issues under the slogan: Peace begins@home: climate and gender justice. The conference is providing much needed impetus to the campaign to the addendum to the Protocol on Gender and Climate Justice.

The Sixteen Days Campaign is the period between 25 November and 10 December when all stakeholders from the international to local community levels use the period to raise awareness against gender violence.

by Saeanna Chingamuka

Sex, politics and power seem to be at the centre of news in both the West as well as in the South. Dominique Strauss-Kahn is at the centre of a series of sex scandals that have allegedly thwarted his political aspirations to become the next president in France. As much as he is unpopular in his home country now, the French generally draw a distinct line between the personal and the political. So we could be in for a surprise in the next elections in France.

In South Africa, recent revelations that Sports Minister Filike Mbalula had sex with Joyce Molamu, during a separation from his wife, have prompted public debate about how public the private lives of politicians should be.

by Saeanna Chingamuka

We have just come back from the Pan African Conference on Access to Information and Highway Africa Conference that took place from 17 to 19 September 2011 in Cape Town. All those who attended the conferences can attest to the robust discussions as well as ‘serious’ networking among participants. It is also important to mention the range of outcomes at personal level (gaining of knowledge) and at regional level (the adoption of the African Platform on Access to Information).

Welcome to the 20th edition of the Roadmap to Equality! Tracking progress towards the implementation and ratification of the SADC Protocol on Gender and Development.

A major highlight this period is thaton 31 August South Africa became the ninth country to ratify the SADC Protocol on Gender and Development. This meansthe instrument will now go into full force because nine out of the 13 signatories (two thirds)have now ratified the Protocol.

But the 20 September 2 011 Zambia elections which saw only 17 women out of 150 who contested seats(11.3%) getting into parliament proved a huge disappointment. This places the country at number 12 down from number 11 out of 15 SADC countries with regard to women representation in parliament – based on the lower or single houses only. Newly elected Zambian President Michael Sataalso dismally also failed the 50/50 test when he appointed only two women to his 19 member cabinet (10.5%) on 29 September 2011. Zambia has missed the mark as it is the last election before 2015 This demonstrates the urgent need for special measures to attain the 50% target for women in political office in countries that are having elections before the 2015 deadline.

by Saeanna Chingamuka

This month’s edition has come out at a time when media practitioners including journalists, media educators and media activists are in Cape Town to attend the first Pan African Conference on Access to Information. The GMDC seminars have sought to give a voice to citizens on the draft Declaration on Access to Information. In August, we convened three seminars in Namibia, and South Africa (with the Media Institute of Southern Africa) and in Tanzania on the topic “what has gender got to do with media freedom and access to information?” The seminar in South Africa coincided with the meeting of experts drafting the Declaration. Suggestions made included several references to unequal access to information; language; audience preferences; media literacy and other areas pertinent to gender.

Welcome to the 19th edition of Roadmap to Equality! tracking progress towards the implementation and ratification of the SADC Protocol on Gender and Development.

August, which coincides with women’s month in South Africa,and the SADC Heads of State Summit for the region, was a busy month for gender activists.

The Southern Africa Gender Protocol Alliance launched the SADC Gender Protocol 2011 Barometer, on 11 August 2011 in Johannesburg following the annual meeting of the Alliance that took several resolutions to strengthen the coalition.The Barometer is a cutting edge monitoring and evaluation tool that tracks SADC Member States progress towards implementing the 28 targets of the SADC Gender Protocol to be achieved bt 2015. The third edition of the annual series started in 2009 introduces a Southern Africa Gender Development Index (SGDI) which is a first in the sub-region and is the most comprehensive index on gender in the African region.