Southern Africa: Alliance calls for strong rights approach post-2015

Johannesburg, 5 June: Following the celebratory SADC Gender Protocol@Work awards last week, the SADC Gender Protocol Alliance is calling for a strong rights-based approach to the post-2015 SADC Gender Protocol agenda and global development framework.

Last week’s regional Summit, which brought together over 400 gender activists, media, government and faith-based organisations from 14 Southern African countries, provided a platform for sharing good practice and acknowledged the work of gender drivers of change. The summit but also held numerous parallel meetings to strategise for continued efforts to achieve gender equality.

Held under the banner “5050 by 2015 and a strong post 2015 agendaÀ the gathering provided a watershed moment to plan for the year ahead, with ten elections in various Southern African Development Community (SADC) countries. The civil society Southern African Gender Protocol Alliance will present the outcomes of the sessions at the SADC Heads of State Summit in August in Zimbabwe.

The 5050 plenary session highlighted the need women’s quotas at all levels, particularly political and economic decision-making. With women’s representation in politics declining following recent elections in some SADC countries such as South Africa, delegates concluded that deliberate measures need to be legislated and implemented.

The 28 targets of the SADC Gender Protocol that provides a sub-regional roadmap for Millennium Development Goal (MDG) 3 (gender equality) are due to be achieved by 2015, also the deadline for the MDG’s. The SADC Gender Protocol Barometer shows that the region is only about two thirds of the way towards achieving these objectives.

Globally, there is a strong movement to strengthen the gender provisions of the post 2015 agenda. The Alliance is leading a campaign for a strong and revitalised SADC Gender Protocol within the context of the global campaign.

At the post-2015 meeting held last week, Alliance members discussed the strengthening of all thematic areas of the post-2015 SADC Gender Protocol, but placed specific emphasis on burning issues across Southern Africa, highlighting the need to recognise that women are not a homogenous group. The Alliance members thus called for a human rights approach to ensure the new framework is aligned to the global developmental agenda for the achievement of voice, choice and control for all women in all sectors of society.

Members of the Alliance stressed specific areas of concern such as women’s empowerment and the crucial link between economic independence in helping curb gender based violence (GBV); greater access to sexual and reproductive health rights; disability and gender and the need to acknowledge that Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) rights are fundamental in achieving gender justice and equality. Alliance chair Emma Kaliya from Malawi called for solidarity amongst country representatives by saying, “If an issue is a priority for one country, it is a priority for the whole region.À

Climate change and gender justice also remained high on the post-2015 strategy for Southern Africa, especially with the recent discovery of oil and gas in Mozambique. Members called for equitable access to and distribution of wealth, but also environmentally sustainable exploration and development.

Alliance members emphasised the importance of grass roots mobilisation in advancing gender equality, as well as the vital role that youth, men’s groups and faith-based organisations play in fighting for human rights and achieving gender justice.

SADC Gender Protocol Alliance members also discussed measures to strengthen and diversify the Alliance in terms of its mandate and also elected a new chairperson- Emma Kaliya, also Chair of the NGO Co-ordination Network in Malawi.

As part of the post-2015 agenda discussion, the Gender, Media and Diversity Centre (GMDC) held a parallel session on gender and media, strategising on how SADC media houses and media training institutions can contribute to the Beijing plus 20 review as well as various initiatives with the newly formed Global Forum on Media and Gender (GAMAG).

This year’s SADC Gender Protocol@Work Summit was especially unique because for the first time it followed 15 district level summits and 13 national summits across Southern Africa. It also introduced emerging entrepreneurs as a new category, which saw survivors of GBV presenting their business plans following training rolled out by Gender Links.

After a bilateral meeting, the Namibian delegation said they wanted to introduce a gender summit modelled on the SADC Gender Protocol Summit, to create incentive to mainstream gender in local government ministries within the country.

For the first time five government ministries presented their work on gender mainstreaming and one government ministry went further in scooping the women’s rights award. Fifty of the participants that attended the regional summit last week were first-time travellers outside their country and 26 applied for passports for the first time.

The regional Summit together with the district and national summits involved 2363 participants, providing a platform for 190 gender-mainstreaming presentations and awarded a total of 24 winners and 18 runners-up, out of the 185 winners (53 men and 132 women) from the district and national summits.

These gender drivers of change received certificates of recognition and shook hands with the Mauritian Minister for Gender, Mireille Martin and Lesotho’s Minister for Gender, Youth, Sports and Recreation, Chief Thesele Maseribane. Representatives from the Department for International Development (DFID) and Norwegian Church Aid congratulated Gender Links, the Alliance and all participants for contributing to the advancement of gender justice and equality in Southern Africa.

Dr. Andrew Nikiindo, Vice Rector at the Polytechnic of Namibia who also spoke at the awards ceremony, urged all participants to continue their fight for gender equality and to carry the baton forward beyond 2015. “Today is an important day for you, these awards show the important role that you have played and are still expected to play in future,” stressed Nikiindo.

For more information contact Katherine Robinson on 27-11-622-287727-11-622-2877 or communications@genderlinks.org.za.