Results for Change

Name of monitor: Patricia Mahachi Name of Television station: SABC 3 Name of programme: News @ 9 Date of broadcast: 04/12/2018 Genre: News Time: Time of broadcast: 21:00:21:30 GBV focus: […]

Just as this Theory of Change (ToC) makes the case that social change occurs in a series of interlocking circles rather than as a linear progression, GL’s Theory of Change has evolved through various cycles. With its initial slogan, gender equality in and through the media, GL’s work began with a focus on gender and the media.

With approximately 40% women in local government, parliament and cabinet, South Africa is one of the Commonwealth’s best performers with regard to women’s political participation. Women have entered the corridors of power in their numbers, and occupied non-traditional spaces, like the ministries of intelligence, home affairs, and defence. In less than twenty years they have contributed to radical changes in laws, policies and service delivery that have resulted in far greater gender awareness and responsiveness in South Africa’s governance than ever before.

In Mauritius, the proportion of women in local government increased from 6% to 26% in the December 2012 elections following a multi-dimensional campaign led by Gender Links (GL) that resulted in an amendment to the Constitution and the introduction of a quota to the local government election act.

This concept paper concerns the possibility of setting up a learning partnership among DFID grantees based or represented in Southern Africa.

Gender Links is becoming a reference point for scholarship on gender in the SADC region. This is immediately evident through a search on Google Scholar for “Gender Links.”

Gender Links is a Southern Africa NGO founded in 2001 that is committed to a region in which women and men are able to realise their full potential and participate equally in all aspects of public and private life. With its headquaters in Johannesburg, South Africa, and Satellite Offices in Mauritius and Botswana, GL locates its mission within the broader framework of strengthening democracy in the region through ensuring the equal and effective participation of all citizens, especially women whose views and voices have been systematically marginalised.

In 1996, the Fifth Commonwealth Women’s Affairs Ministers Meeting (5WAMM) in Trinidad and Tobago recommended that member countries be `encouraged to achieve a target of no less than 30 per cent of women in decision-making in the political, public and private sectors by 2005.` This target is incorporated in the Commonwealth Plan of Action for Gender Equality 2005-2015 (PoA).

This case study traces the origins, challenges and successes of work by Gender Links (GL) to establish Centres of Excellence (COE’s) for Gender in Local Government in 143 councils across ten Southern African Development Community (SADC) countries.